{"id":2335,"date":"2009-10-21T15:53:02","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T23:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2335"},"modified":"2009-10-21T15:53:02","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T23:53:02","slug":"live-at-palais-des-congres-paris-10-2-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/21\/live-at-palais-des-congres-paris-10-2-09\/","title":{"rendered":"Live at Palais des Congres, Paris 10-2-09"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best track on "Tumbleweed Connection" is "Come Down In Time".<\/p>\n

It’s not my favorite.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s "Where To Now St. Peter?"\u00c2\u00a0 But "Come Down In Time", following the opener, "Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun", is like walking into your dark house after a party.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s suddenly quiet, you’re alone with your thoughts.\u00c2\u00a0 Every time I hear it I go back to my dorm room at Middlebury College, after a long day at Mad River Glen, listening alone in the dark, on headphones, trying to gain the gumption to get off the bed, take a long hot shower and go to dinner.<\/p>\n

The version from this show, two and a half weeks ago, is just as intimate, it’s got that same vibe.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s creepy.\u00c2\u00a0 It brings tears to my eyes.<\/p>\n

You’ll probably feel the same way about "Funeral For A Friend".\u00c2\u00a0 Absent the sheen from "Yellow Brick Road", it’s an intimate performance, it’s still got the pomp, but somehow it’s more three-dimensional.<\/p>\n

And the long intro to "Take Me To The Pilot"…\u00c2\u00a0 It takes minutes to figure out what Elton’s playing.<\/p>\n

And I can’t stop playing this live concert album.\u00c2\u00a0 Buyable at the gig and thereafter from Concert Live.\u00c2\u00a0 Check out the gigs here:<\/p>\n

\n
Concert Live<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Elton’s voice may not have the rich high register of yore, but the piano playing is exquisite.\u00c2\u00a0 Being at this show reminds one of an eighteenth century concert, sans amplification, just the music, rich in its acoustic warmth.<\/p>\n

I cannot stop listening.<\/p>\n

The revelation is "The Ballad Of The Boy In The Red Shoes".<\/p>\n

From the completely forgotten, almost ignored "Songs From The West Coast", this illustrates Elton’s still got it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the changes, this track was recorded after Elton’s voice had changed.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a maturity that resonates.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re all getting older, we’re all closer to death than birth.<\/p>\n

Elton John fans that is.<\/p>\n

No one buys the new music of classic rock acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Therefore, the performers deliver turgid shows, giving the public what they think it wants.\u00c2\u00a0 But we don’t want a calcified Stones show, we want something alive, something like old wine that acknowledges we’ve both aged, performer and audience.\u00c2\u00a0 And we want a keepsake, a memento of the occasion.<\/p>\n

If every act was as good as Elton, if every act was live as opposed to being on hard drive, the uptake on concert CDs would be incredible.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve heard so many of these instant live productions, they usually don’t work, because the acts just aren’t good enough.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, you had to be there.<\/p>\n

Listening to this Palais show I wish I WAS THERE!<\/p>\n

(It’s just Elton and percussionist Ray Cooper.\u00c2\u00a0 Elton says he’s going to do more of these shows next year.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t wait!)<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The best track on "Tumbleweed Connection" is "Come Down In Time". It’s not my favorite.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s "Where To Now St. Peter?"\u00c2\u00a0 But "Come Down In Time", following the opener, "Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun", is like walking into your dark house after a party.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s suddenly quiet, you’re alone with your thoughts.\u00c2\u00a0 Every time I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-BF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2336,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions\/2336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}