Elton John

Tumbleweed Connection is a loose concept album about the Old West, and as hokey as that sounds, the album is actually quite good, thanks mostly to the pointed lyrics of Bernie Taupin and Elton's acute sense of expression. In fact, these songs rely on Elton's emotive voice rather than the pop melodies and showmanship for which he'd later become known.

The only criticism heard with any frequency of Elton John's first American album, Elton
John, was that the production was too grandiose. The melodies were superb, and lyrics
frequently very good, and the performances flawless. However, Elton did inevitably get
lost on many of the tracks and like many of his admirers, I am glad he toned things down a
bit on Tumbleweed Connection. In fact, my main reservation about the new albu... More >

Between the cardboard leatherette jacket and the cold-type rotogravure souvenir booklet is a piece of plastic with good melodies and bad Westerns on it. Why do people believe that these latter qualify as songpoems? Must be that magic word "connection," so redolent of trains, illegal substances, and I-and-thou. Did somebody say Grand Funk Railroad was a hype? What about this puling phony? (Grade - B-)