STACK NZ Summer #70

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By Graham Reid

ELTON JOHN

Bruce Springsteen The Ties That Bind

While Springsteen was recording what would become his 80s double album The River , he presented his record company with 10-song album The Ties That Bind which included some River songs in different versions (a much better You Can Look among them) and other songs. But

His new album Wonderful Crazy Night is his 32nd – so where to start?

then he withdrew it and went back to record more. The River included radio-friendly songs ( Hungry Heart, Sherry Darling, Cadillac Ranch ) alongside deeper material (the title track, Independence Day ) and while fans loved it, critics found it uneven. This big box includes The River and The Ties That Bind remastered, and another disc of unreleased material from those sessions. Some songs are slight (the Buddy Holly- referencing Cindy ), repeat ideas heard better elsewhere ( Be True, Loose Ends ), and nod to heroes (Chuck Berry on From Small Things , Roy Orbison on The Time That Never Was ) but a few are excellent (the pop drama of Whitetown , the white-knuckle anger of Roulette , the taut Night Fire where Springsteen has never sounded wound so tight). In the box are also a book and DVD/Blu-Ray discs which include a doco and live footage. It’s expensive and like the earlier Tracks collection one for hardcore Boss followers.

Tumbleweed Connection (1970) Elton's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin was just 20 and infatuated by the American West and The Band when he wrote the words which Elton took straight into country-rock, punctuated by ballads and closing with the furious Burn Down the Mission . His first fully satisfying (almost concept) album. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) One of the few essential double albums from the decade which seemed to be spawning them on a weekly basis. The emotional and musical breadth of the 17 tracks ran from flat-tack rock'n'roll ( Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting ) to poignant ballads ( Candle in the Wind ), angry stories ( Danny Bailey ) and the honky-funk of Bennie and the Jets . If you are impressed – and you should be – then move on to Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) and it's belated sequel The Captain and the Kid (2006). Songs From the West Coast (2001) After plenty of indifferent albums in the 80s and 90s, this blend of country, rock and stories sounded like classic Elton again, even if by this time hit singles eluded him. The Diving Board (2013) In his almost 50 year career, Elton had enjoyed a number of “return to form” albums and this was one. Serious, adult and less rocking than some, but his piano playing had rarely been as accomplished. And as with all these above, another with lyricist Taupin. Which might tell you “how to buy”?

MUSIC

Sonic Youth Washing Machine

Various Artists Jon Savage’s 1966, The Year a Decade Exploded The double CD soundtrack to his book of the same name, this should close the case by including key Beatles and Dylan tracks (but obviously couldn’t). Yet it makes its case in garageband singles (The Seeds, ? And the Mysterians, Count Five), hits (Lovin’ Spoonful’s Summer in the City , Wilson Pickett’s Land of 1000 Dances , the Who’s Substitute ), near hits (Dusty Springfield’s Little By Little , Lee Dorsey’s Working in a Coal Mine ), early psychedelia (Electric Prunes, 13 th Floor Elevators, Yardbirds’ Happening Ten Years Time Ago ) and crucial songs by James Brown, Love and the Velvet Underground among others.

The current vinyl reissue of Sonic Youth includes the essential Dirty and Goo , but also this often overlooked double from 1995 which was fluid and free-flowing. Guitarist Thurston Moore said Goo and Dirty had been stiff, but now they’d found a way to play more naturalistically . . . which explains why Diamond Sea was 20 minutes long (edited to five as a single), the title track 10 and the instrumental Untitled was actually the coda to the nearly five-minute opening track Becuz . Should have been their breakthrough but sold only half of its predecessor Experimental Jet Set . Deserved much better.

Further Listening He was a boozing brother-in-arms for the late John Martyn's harrowing separation album Grace and Danger (1980) which was shelved for a year because it was thought too dark and depressing.

For more from Graham Reid visit www.elsewhere.co.nz

SUMMER EDITION 2016

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