Product Description

Elton John's 8th album was originally released as a double LP set, but is now available on one CD. Containing 18 new songs at the time of release; 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' acted as a microcosm of John's career up to that point. Mellow ballads are included alongside heavy rockers.

Track Listing

1. Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding
2. Candle In The Wind
3. Bennie And The Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. This Song Has No Title
6. Grey Seal
7. Jamaica Jerk-Off
8. I've Seen That Movie Too
9. Sweet Painted Lady
10. The Ballad Of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)
11. Dirty Little Girl
12. All The Girls Love Alice
13. Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock'n Roll)
14. Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)
15. Roy Rogers
16. Social Disease
17. Harmony

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1163 in Music
• Released on: 1995-05-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Running time: 76 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Even those who customarily dismiss Elton John as a somewhat bland and sentimental balladeer would find much to admire in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the best album he has ever made. The track listing reads like an early Greatest Hits collection; it contains not only the original version of "Candle In The Wind" but such raucous and gleeful songs as "Bennie And The Jets", "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" and "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n' Roll)". From the impassioned opening medley of "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" to the gentle closer, "Harmony", there are few duff moments among these 17 tracks. "All The Young Girls Love Alice" is a savage but wry tale of lesbian exploitation, and the title song is just short of lovely. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is both a joy for fans and a genuine surprise for the uninitiated. --David Bennun

Customer Reviews

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Hello Awfulness
GYBR is usually referred to as a classic album and routinely appears on "Greatest Albums Of All Time" lists. The truth is, it is a terrible album that happens to contain a few classic `70s Pop tunes - namely, the title track, "Candle In The Wind", "Harmony" and "Roy Rogers". There are a couple of half-decent album fillers - the melodic "Sweet Painted Lady" and the rather overblown "I've Seen That Movie Too" - but the rest of the album is abysmal: the falsetto caterwauling of "Bennie And The Jets", the annoying lilt of "Danny Bailey", the horrid `50s pastiche of "Your Sister Can't Twist". Some of the other tracks are actually rather unpleasant and leave a bad taste in the mouth. What is more, the album is very poorly produced. A case in point is "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" on which the volume levels of various instruments appear to vary significantly throughout the mix. In fact, the overall volume levels jump about right through the album, giving it a patchy and rather shoddy feel. One might have thought that this kind of thing would have been fixed during the so-called "Re-mastering" process. But apparently not.

Elton's tour de force
Released in 1973, it was somewhat unsual for artists, even ones who were breaking massive, such as Elton John, to release bloated double albums. Firstly, much of the record-buying public simply didn't have the necessary £2.25 back in the "winter of discontent" and so on. However, Elton John got away with it. The singles from his previous album, "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piasno Plyer" - "Daniel" and "Crocodile Rock" - had lauinched him into the music stratosphere. Right then, he could have sold anything. Not that that was needed though. This album was a classic from start to finish, from the eleven minutes or so of "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" (apparently Jim Steinman's inspiration for "Bat Out Of Hell") through the great singles of "Candle In The Wind" and "Goodbye Yelow Brick Road", with its evocative lyrics of rural Lincolnshire, to my own personal favourite, the beautiful, moving "Sweet Painted Lady" the quality is relentless. "Danny Bailey", "All The Girls Love Alice", the jaunty regggae-tinged "Jamaica Jerk Off" keep the standard up and then we get a great rocking end to the collection with the tub-thumping "Saturday Night's Alright" and "Your Sister Can't Twist". There's also the mysterious "Grey Seal" and the balladry of "Harmony". It goes on and on. Many, many albums later, through many more memories, tunes and lyrics, Elton and Bernie never got it as right as they did with this one.

A jewel in the crown of the "real Queen of England"
Definitely one of the best albums that Elton and Bernie have ever done. This was the first really cohesive album, though it covered a fantastic range of styles so well that most other artists couldn't even come close to the breadth of this album. From the out and out prog rock of "Funeral For A Friend" to the absolutely beautiful closing ballad "Harmony", you feel as if you are going on a journey with Elton, Bernie and the band. And this line up was without doubt the best band that Elton has ever had behind him. The rhythm section of Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson was truly magical, and suited Elton's music so well. Not to mention Davey Johnstone who is still an Elton John fixture.

Basically, there are so many truly classic songs on here, that to single out one or two would be just plain wrong. Yes, the album has it's weaker tracks (All The Young Girls Love Alice being a good example),but the quality of the other songs more than makes up. Even though this album is now more than 30 years old, it puts a lot of others made in the meantime to shame - in such ways as lyrics, songwriting craft, and musicianship.

To my way of thinking, this album was only bettered by Elton et al once - on the absolutely sublime masterpice that is Captain Fantastic.