Tumbleweed Connection

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Tumbleweed Connection
Tumbleweed Connection cover
Studio album by Elton John
Released October 1970
Recorded July 1970
Genre Rock
Length 46:38
Label DJM
Producer(s) Gus Dudgeon
Professional reviews
Elton John chronology
Elton John
(1970)		 Tumbleweed Connection
(1970)		 11-17-70
(1971)


Tumbleweed Connection is the third album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1970 (see 1970 in music). In 2003, the album was ranked number 463 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All songs by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, except where noted.

  1. "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" – 4:59
  2. "Come Down in Time" – 3:26
  3. "Country Comfort" – 5:07
  4. "Son of Your Father" – 3:48
  5. "My Father's Gun" – 6:20
  6. "Where to Now St. Peter?" – 4:12
  7. "Love Song" (Lesley Duncan) – 3:41
  8. "Amoreena" – 4:59
  9. "Talking Old Soldiers" – 4:08
  10. "Burn Down the Mission" – 6:37

[edit] Bonus tracks (1996 CD reissue)

  1. "Into the Old Man's Shoes" – 4:04
  2. "Madman Across the Water" [original version] – 8:56

[edit] Background

In Spring 1970, Elton convened at Trident Studios to record a follow-up to Elton John. Tumbleweed Connection was culled from the same stockpile of songs from which the prior album had sprung, and named after lyrics for which Elton never got around to writing music.

[edit] Music

Tumbleweed reflects Bernie's fascination with the old American West and South, and the tragedies and social strife brought on by the American Civil War.

The opening number, "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun," is a mid-tempo rocker build atop Elton' syncopated piano. The lyrics portray a fugitive whose jig is up. Elton's vocals convey resentment. He is backed by member of the band Hookfoot; backing vocals are provided by, among others, Lesley Duncan and Dusty Springfield.

The next song, "Come Down in Time," is a haunting number with a sparse Paul Buckmaster arrangement. It is about the missed opportunity of potential lovers. In the end, one of the two is left "counting the stars in the night." Elton sings accompanied only by harp and oboe.

"Country Comfort," which attracted some covers, including one by Rod Stewart, follows. Bernie's lyrics include several vignettes of sweet, imagined nineteenth-century country life that hint at impending economic strife. "Grandma" was "really going fine for eighty-four," but needed some one to "fix her barn." There was old-fashioned Clay who, observing the plight of the employees at a well, disapproved of the "new machine" their employers favored that would "cut manpower by fifteen."

Elton's music is reminiscent of the imagined idyllic peacefulness of rural life. The song begins with gentle piano, and is joined by Elton's country-esque voice, then the swelling sounds of steel guitar, violin, and harmonica. The two new touring band members, Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray, provide backing vocals as they would elsewhere on the record.

In later years, Elton would express little affection for this recording of "Country Comfort," saying that it was "sugary." Another reason to look askance at it is that Elton's piano work doesn't come from the live session, but was overdubbed later. Elton was away in Holland for a promotional television appearance when Gus Dudgeon scheduled the recording session. A session pianist stood in for him, Elton overdubbing the playing with his own when he returned. Many listeners consider Rod Stewart's version, which actually appeared on his album Gasoline Alley a few weeks before Tumbleweed came out and which is done in his classic early period style, as a superior treatment of the song.

"Son of Your Father" is next, the tale of a mean-spirited freeloader who takes advantage of "blind" Joseph on an "east Virginia" farm. A gun battle follows. leaving both men dead. The music is rough and dirty as the fight. Elton sings in the manner of a tough farmhand; his piano is mean as the song's tow characters. The recording is a full-blown effort by Hookfoot – with harmonica by Ian Duck – and was drawn from Elton's live work with the group.

In "My Father's Gun," which follows, the setting is the Civil War and the perspective is the South's. A young man whose father has been killed by the Yankees determines to avenge the death by joining the fighting in New Orleans. the song starts quietly, with tentatively delivered gospel-style piano chords and Caleb's muted acoustic and lead guitar. Elton's voice begins quietly, too, but before long increasing in volume, representing the anger of the young man. Backing vocals are provided by Duncan and Springfield. The song ends with an extended interplay, in the style of New Orleans music, between Elton's voiced and those of the backing singers, laced with horns and honky-tonk piano. The song was later featured in the Cameron Crowe movie Elizabethtown.

Side two begins with the eerie "Where to Now, St. Peter?," a look at passing to the "other side." A soldier has been killed in action. The sensations are odd ("I floated like a leaf/dazzling, dancing/half enchanted/in my Merlin sleep")/ Then his fate sinks in ("I understand I'm on the road/where all that was is gone"). The opening piano note invoke the soldier floating "like a leaf," a sound that runs throughout the song, even as it reaches rock tempo. Nigel and Dee provide backing vocals.

The next track, "Love Song," written by Elton's friend Lesley Duncan, is another that features him singing without piano. Duncan provides harmony and acoustic guitar accompaniment. The track provided an interlude after all the shooting and dying in the previous songs.

Elton had clamored to get his new band on Tumbleweed and succeeded with "Amoreena," the next song. This provides the only clue of what it was like to hear the group like then. (Caleb puts in an appearance on lead guitar.) The lyrics are a fictional remembrance of a past love affair with a young energetic woman of the countryside called Amoreena (a "lusty flower" with a "bronze body"). The song is an entry into funk, with percussive, syncopated piano pulsating about the lyrics. He also plays organ on the song, and sings the lyrics in a lower voice than elsewhere on the album. He would later attribute this to Van Morrison's influence.

"Talking Old Soldiers," comes next. As the title implies, the song is a dialogue between two old soldiers. "Old Mad Joe" tells of the terrible things he has seen, hinting that these terrors took his only friends from him, though no one understands or cares ("Well do they know what it's like/to have a graveyard as a friend/'cos that's where they are boy, all of them")

The last song on the album, "Burn Down the Mission," is one of the Elton's best known songs, and a concert staple. The song includes some of Bernie's most striking imagery; The have-nots ("restless folks") are "getting desperate" and must do more than covet the "fat stock" of the wealthy, proclaiming, "It's time we put the flame torch to their keep." A mob descends on on the "mission." After torching it, they hoard what they can ("Take all you need to live inside").

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Production

  • Producer: Gus Dudgeon
  • Engineer: Robin Geoffrey Cable
  • Editing: Gus Skinas
  • Digital transfers: Ricky Graham
  • Surround mix: Greg Penny
  • Lyricist: Bernie Taupin
  • Arranger: Paul Buckmaster
  • Art direction: David Larkham
  • Design: David Larkham
  • Cover design: David Larkham
  • Artwork: David Larkham
  • Photography: David Larkham, Barry Wentzell
  • Liner notes: John Tobler

[edit] Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1971 Pop Albums 5
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