Customer Reviews

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Rm)

5 star:		(120)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road has to be the most quintessential Elton John album. It's the one mentioned and talked about the most. It should be. It is the best double album. Although, in today's world, this 17 song collection probably wouldn't be considered a double album. It starts off with one of the greatest album openers ever, "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding". A classic all the way. This album has a number of Elton's most recognized hits - "Bennie And The Jets", The great "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting", and the original, and still best, version of "Candle In The Wind". There are more great tracks here that are just as good. You get "Sweet Painted Lady", which is about prostitutes. Then you have the storysong "The Ballad Of Danny Bailey", which you wish Elton would play in concert. You get a number of great rockers like "Dirty Little Girl", "All The Young Girls Love Alice", and "Your Sister Can't Twist(But She Can Rock And Roll)", among others. But, the crowning jewel, is the highly underrated and horribly overlooked gem, "Harmony". It's the closing track and, without a doubt, the greatest Elton John song that was never a single. That's a crime if ever there was one. It's a great piece of music. The album also includes the rousing up tempo number "Grey Seal". The silliest track is a song called "Jamaica Jerk Off". It's fun and catchy, but silly. There you have it. The perfect Elton John album. The perfect rock album. This is Elton's Sgt. Pepper. A classic in every sense of the word.

If you ever wondered why Elton is such a big star this album answers the question. This double album is almost a greatest hits. EJ's famous songs like Saturday's Alright For Fighting, Bennie and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Candle in the Wind are all included. There are some lesser known gems that are some of my personal favorites like, This Song Has No Title, Harmony, Roy Rogers, Danny Bailey etc.

This has to be one of Elton's greatest recordings thoroughly enjoyed it I had the album when it first came out years ago and it disappered over the years now i have it back...

Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is a classic album from the 70's and one of the peaks of his musical output along with Madman Across the Water. The SACD version of this recording is sonicaly superb. It is one of the best sounding cds I own.
For my rating system a 5 star mark is almost impossible as that would represent a perfect recording. 4 stars means a must have.

This listing is misleading. This is NOT the Speakers Corner label vinyl release of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It's the recent Universal Records Back In Black series release with Mercury Records labels. I know because I ordered it thinking I'd get the Speakers Corner version, which is highly rated, and they sent me the Mercury version instead.

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is, for many people, the best Elton John album ever released. A double album gave his fans plenty of tracks to listen to, and he and Bernie Taupin were at the peak of their collaborative efforts. Even now when looking back at Elton's entire career up to now, this album stands out as one of the high-points, if not the high point of his long and tremendous career.

The album has a tremendous start as "Funeral for a Friend" is a great opening for the album, building to a magnificent crescendo and then transforming into "Love Lies Bleeding" which is the other part of the first track. "Candle in the Wind" is a piece which seems to get more and more popular as time goes on, and of course Elton reworked it when Princess Diana passed away in a tribute to her. Though I was never a huge fan of "Bennie and the Jets", one can appreciate the diversity it brings to the album as well as its reaching number one on the charts. Oddly enough Elton didn't want it on side one of the album, nor did he want it released as a single. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is of course the title track and was the opening track on side two of the double album and is one of Elton John's best songs of all time. "This Song has No Title" is the next piece, and not surprisingly it is a step down in quality from the first four tracks, though still very pleasant as is "Grey Seal" which follows. "Jamaica Jerk-Off" is an enjoyable light piece leading into the more somber "I've Seen That Movie Too", which is a strong finish to the first half of the double album.

"Sweet Painted Lady" is a fairly weak start to the second half of the album, as it is one of my least favorite tracks on the album. It is not horrible, but fairly average in my view. "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34)" is a step back in the right direction, though still not as good as a lot of the other tracks, and "Dirty Little Girl" is a bit better, but the quality really goes up again with "All the Girls Love Alice" which closes out side three of the original release. "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock & Roll) is another of the weak tracks, but it is worth sitting through to get to "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting". "Roy Rogers" and "Social Disease" are both quirky but enjoyable, and then the album closes fairly strong with "Harmony".

Elton John plays a variety of keyboards and sings on all the tracks and is joined by his band which consists of: Dee Murray (bass, backing vocals); Davey Johnstone (guitars, backing vocals, banjo); Nigel Olsson (drums, percussion, backing vocals). There are also some guests on the album including: David Hentschel (synthesizer on "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" and "All the Girls Love Alice"); Prince Rhino (interjection vocals on "Jamaica Jerk-Off"; Ray Cooper (tambourine on "All the Girls Love Alice"); Kiki Dee (backing vocals on "All the Girls Love Alice"); and Leroy Gomez (saxophone on "Social Disease").

A wonderful album which captures Elton John at his best. Over 76 minutes of wonderful music and lyrics from one of the great song-writing duos, and performed by a legend at his peak. Definitely worth picking up unless you just don't like Elton John.

-not much of a music expert, here. However, I know what I like. And, keep coming back to this recording from time to time and it still amazes me (the talent of diversity). Must have owned at least a dozen copies from LP to cassette to CD. This may sound cliche..., but great pop music keeps sounding good year after year. First heard it when I was a mere 9 years old & still enjoy it, today. This CD is definately worth your time & money. It's pretty much got something for everyone.

It's amazing to think that this Classic Album was produced back in 1973, I Was majorly impressed with the release of the Digitally Remastered CD & then the SACD 5 Channel Release was very impressive, But there has never been a Better sounding Version of this Album than This DVD-Audio. I personally believe that DVD-Audio has a cleaner sound than a corresponding SACD release.

AS a Music Guru ( Molly )here in Australia would say "DO Yourself a Favor" and Even If your not a complete Elton Fan like myself GO and buy this release and see what A true CLASSIC Album sounds like now in 2004 in Awesome 5 Channel DVD-Audio sound.

When I searched for Vinyl looking for a great gift to buy and I found this item I thought what a great gift. It is definitely not a vinyl and it should be removed from a search that includes "Vinyl Records" as this is clearly not. I will be returning the product as it is not what I wanted.

This is a great classic CD. Every Elton fan should have this one!
He is one of America's best ever pop stars. He is strongest when he teams with Bernie Taupin. Some of his best songs of all time are on this record made 30-some years ago.