My copy of "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy" got lost in a divorce.\u00c2\u00a0 My SISTER’S divorce.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it wasn’t really mine to begin with.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I lived with Jill in the summer of ’75, I made her buy it.\u00c2\u00a0 Along with "Blood On The Tracks", "One Of These Nights", Wendy Waldman’s third…give me a few minutes and I’ll remember more!<\/p>\n
Wendy Waldman’s third never came out on CD.\u00c2\u00a0 A few tracks ultimately showed up on her compilation CD, released in 1996, but some of the cuts from that 1975 album I haven’t heard SINCE then.\u00c2\u00a0 A few I got via Napster.\u00c2\u00a0 You know what it’s like to hear songs you know by heart but haven’t heard in EONS?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s EERIE!!<\/p>\n
But "Captain Fantastic" came out on CD.\u00c2\u00a0 I bought it.<\/p>\n
Then there was a remastered CD, with bonus tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 I bought that one too.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what you do when you’re a fan.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, what we USED to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Until we got the impression that the record companies weren’t SERVICING US, but generating more revenue.<\/p>\n
But now comes one more "Captain Fantastic".\u00c2\u00a0 The DELUXE Edition.\u00c2\u00a0 To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original record.\u00c2\u00a0 With a BONUS CD!\u00c2\u00a0 Of a live concert from that era, wherein Elton played the whole album.<\/p>\n
There used to be this radio program.\u00c2\u00a0 The King Biscuit Flower Hour.\u00c2\u00a0 You young ‘uns might find this hard to believe, but we’d make appointments with our radios.\u00c2\u00a0 To hear live shows.\u00c2\u00a0 Which you couldn’t buy.\u00c2\u00a0 At any price.<\/p>\n
Oh, they eventually sold some of the King Biscuit shows on CD…TWENTY FIVE YEARS LATER!\u00c2\u00a0 But, if only they’d been available then, when they were originally broadcast, we’d have treasured them.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, that’s what built the bootleg business, we wanted to get CLOSER!\u00c2\u00a0 We wanted MORE!<\/p>\n
I don’t understand the paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels don’t want us to have what they possess in the vaults.\u00c2\u00a0 They want us to focus on the authorized release.\u00c2\u00a0 BUT, we bought the authorized release the day it came out.\u00c2\u00a0 While they’re trying to corral the casual buyer to kick the tires and lay down some bread, we’re chomping at the bit for MORE!<\/p>\n
That’s the story today.\u00c2\u00a0 Sell MORE to your existing customer base.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s almost TOO HARD to get new customers.\u00c2\u00a0 Keep your base happy, and THEY’LL spread the word…FOR FREE!<\/p>\n
And, back then, it was the album, not the single.<\/p>\n
"Captain Fantastic" was not made to be cherry-picked.\u00c2\u00a0 You were supposed to play it from beginning to end, like reading a novel.<\/p>\n
There WAS a story, but really, it was more about the sound.\u00c2\u00a0 The way the music PLAYED like a story.\u00c2\u00a0 Started off soft, built to peaks and then faded at the end.\u00c2\u00a0 You dropped the needle on the title track, and you were hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like reading "Great Expectations".<\/p>\n
Elton had lost his way.\u00c2\u00a0 His prior album was just a light-hearted collection of tunes.\u00c2\u00a0 Although "Caribou" contained "The Bitch Is Back", it didn’t hang together.\u00c2\u00a0 Elton and Bernie wanted to deliver MORE, and they DID!<\/p>\n
Most albums you have to listen to a few times to get.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially those you’ve heard none of.\u00c2\u00a0 But, from the very first note of "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy", I was hooked.\u00c2\u00a0 I can picture it.\u00c2\u00a0 In my sister’s second floor apartment in Brentwood, the stereo against the wall, standing by the sliding glass door, looking over the tops of buildings, through palm trees, to the ocean.\u00c2\u00a0 The track starts off with an acoustic guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 Elton seems to glide in from the wings, and starts to sing…<\/p>\n
Captain Fantastic I don’t think kids today can understand the way we bonded with albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, maybe they feel the same way about Led Zeppelin IV.\u00c2\u00a0 But we LIVED for the album.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t CARE about the singles artist.\u00c2\u00a0 If you couldn’t pour your heart out over forty minutes, tell your life story, YOUR story, you had to write it, then we weren’t interested.<\/p>\n People talked about albums the way they talk about video games today.\u00c2\u00a0 Albums were more important than sports.\u00c2\u00a0 Music was a secret society that anybody could join.\u00c2\u00a0 As long as they drove up to the record store and laid down their $3.99.\u00c2\u00a0 No one told you to do so on TV.\u00c2\u00a0 There were no giant advertising campaigns.\u00c2\u00a0 No kickoff concert tie-ins with the NFL.\u00c2\u00a0 No, you just needed to read "Rolling Stone" and listen to the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 That kept you clued in.<\/p>\n Although I love the title track, I’m more partial to two songs that came thereafter.<\/p>\n First, right after "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy", came "Tower Of Babel".\u00c2\u00a0 Elton can’t sing this way anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 But, the rich voice that begins this track.\u00c2\u00a0 It’ll make you feel good no matter what happened in your life that day.<\/p>\n But my absolute favorite is "Tell Me When The Whistle Blows".\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, there are strings.\u00c2\u00a0 A stinging guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 And then, with all the attitude he possesses, and anybody who ever listened to "Take Me To The Pilot" knows Elton possesses attitude, Elton sings…<\/p>\n There’s a dusty old gutter he’s lying in now It’s the juxtaposition of the old and the young.\u00c2\u00a0 The weathered and the inexperienced.\u00c2\u00a0 And the "apron string" imagery RESONATES!\u00c2\u00a0 Exudes IMMATURITY!<\/p>\n But, what comes after, is SPECTACULAR!<\/p>\n For there’s taxi cabs hooting After the first line, there’s this brass accent that cuts to your heart, like on a great Motown record.\u00c2\u00a0 And, after the second, the guitar wails.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, the strings CONTINUE to swirl!<\/p>\n It’s kind of like Mickey Mouse in "Fantasia".\u00c2\u00a0 There’s SO MUCH going on that he can’t mop it all up.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s WAY TOO MUCH on the record, but somehow it all works.\u00c2\u00a0 As if Detroit threw chrome on every side of the car and loaded it up with navigation and polished it off with a two-tone paint job.\u00c2\u00a0 The result SHOULD be garish, but in this case it just WORKS!<\/p>\n There’s not a single clunker on "Captain Fantastic".<\/p>\n And only one hit.\u00c2\u00a0 "Someone Saved My Life Tonight".<\/p>\n But, despite not having a string of hits, "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy" was a GIGANTIC album.\u00c2\u00a0 There are MILLIONS of baby boomers who know every note.<\/p>\n My understanding is Elton is going to play the complete record at concert dates this month.\u00c2\u00a0 THOSE would be shows to attend.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s gonna be like the old days.\u00c2\u00a0 When you savored every note.<\/p>\n Why don’t the old farts follow Elton’s lead.\u00c2\u00a0 Why don’t they do what Cheap Trick has done.\u00c2\u00a0 Why don’t they go on the road and play our favorite ALBUMS!\u00c2\u00a0 From START TO FINISH!<\/p>\n Sting, you tour incessantly.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you sell pretty well.\u00c2\u00a0 But, could you GIVE SOMETHING BACK?\u00c2\u00a0 Could you play the entire "Ten Summoner’s Tales", or "…Nothing Like The Sun"?<\/p>\n And we should be able to buy the performances we attend.\u00c2\u00a0 And we want what’s left in the vault too.\u00c2\u00a0 We want EVERYTHING!\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe not MILLIONS of us, but enough of us to generate the revenue the big companies are looking for.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My copy of "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy" got lost in a divorce.\u00c2\u00a0 My SISTER’S divorce.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it wasn’t really mine to begin with.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I lived with Jill in the summer of ’75, I made her buy it.\u00c2\u00a0 Along with "Blood On The Tracks", "One Of These Nights", Wendy Waldman’s third…give 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Raised and regimented
Hardly a hero
Just someone his mother might know<\/em><\/p>\n
He’s blind and he’s old
And there’s a bottle that rolls down the road
Me I’m young and I’m so wild
And I still feel the need
Of your apron strings once in a while<\/em><\/p>\n
But I can’t be foot-loose forever<\/em><\/p>\n