LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-JUNE 28, 2019…WHEN ELTON JOHN RECORDED THE ALBUM ‘CARIBOU’ HE WAS SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS MOST PRODUCTIVE AND CREATIVELY FERTILE PART OF HIS CAREER. THIS ALBUM WAS SANDWICHED IN BETWEEN TWO INDISPUTABLE MASTERPIECES, ‘GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD’ AND ‘CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY’
EVEN MORE AMAZING, ELTON RECORDED THE ALBUM ‘CARIBOU’ IN ONLY 9 DAYS ! TWO OF THE SONGS FROM ‘CARIBOU’ HAVE GONE ON TO BE SIGNATURE SONGS FOR ELTON. ‘THE BITCH IS BACK’ WAS THE OPENING TRACK OF THE ALBUM HAS BECOME A STAPLE OF HIS LIVE SHOWS. THE SONG FEATURES THE BAY AREA’S TOWER OF POWER HORN SECTION AND THEY KILL.
‘DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME’ IS THE OTHER QUINTESSENTIAL ELTON JOHN SONG FROM THE RECORD THAT ALMOST DIDN’T EVEN MAKE THE ALBUM. ACCORDING TO PHILIP NORMAN’S “SIR ELTON:THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY”
THE SINGER WASN’T SATISFIED WITH HIS VOCALS ON THE SONG, AND AFTER LISTENING TO A PLAYBACK, REMARKED:
“That’s a load of crap. You can send it to Engelbert Humperdinck, and if he doesn’t like it, you can give it to Lulu as a demo.”
‘CARIBOU’ QUICKLY SHOT TO # 1 IN BOTH THE U.S. AND IN THE U.K.
HERE’S ELTON JOHN WITH A LIVE VERSION OF ‘DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME’ FROM 1976
