Tumbleweed Connection [Remaster] - John, Elton (CD 1996)

In 1970, Elton John was coming off his first minor hit, Your Song from the self-titled album (not his first, which was Empty Sky , and which sank without a trace). It was occasionally tuneful if thin album and showed a good deal of promise. At the same time, he was garnering a reputation as an electric and outrageous live act. So, the question was, what was to be the follow-up?

What was released is not what one would have expected from an English rocker: a reflective and respectful album about, of all things, the American South. This was Tumbleweed Connection , which when originally released had a sixteen-page booklet done in sepia with the lyrics and assorted pictures. Tumbleweed is a beautiful album that, lacking any hit singles like the subsequent and not as good Madman Across the Water , simply has not gotten the airing that it deserves.

Note: this is not at all like the not-so-tongue-in-cheek satire of "Texan Love Song". As I said, it's very respectful.

It opens with the almost quiet rocker Ballad of a Well-Known Gun , about an outlaw who has finally been tracked down. While this could have been a ballad of woe, Elton does it as a wistful party song, kind of Aw, shucks, they finally got me kind of like Springsteen s Working on a Chain Gang from Born in the USA , which could have been a real downer but was done in the same vein.

Next is the extraordinary Come Down in Time , not even three minutes long sublime from beginning to end. It s about some poor guy who is getting dumped, a common tale, but raised from being another piece of maudlin trash by some very tasteful work on harp, oboe, and upright bass with some beautiful strings arranged by Paul Buckmaster (an Elton collaborator in the early years). Why Levon gets airplay and this song doesn t is beyond me.

Country Comfort is the third song on side one, later covered by Rod Stewart. This is another rocker about the technological changes facing the agrarian South. It s fun with some nice fiddle work to spruce it up.

Son of Your Father is an average rocker, not much about anything and no more than passable ear candy.

The touching My Father s Gun closes out the side. A young man takes up his father s gun after he is killed fighting for the South and goes off to join the Cause. In this age of gangsta rap and endless songs about pimps, sex, and cop killing, it s a real comment on our times that this song simply could not now be released: imagine, suggesting that the bells of freedom might ring in the South. It s a great tune, with gospel singers in the back, and the strings and horns slowly building to a climax.

Side two first brings us Where to Now, St. Peter? I ve never really figured out what it s about. The acoustic guitar work is very nice, then the distorted electric comes in.

The weak filler Love Song is next, written and co-sung with some woman I never heard of before or since, and I don t mean Kiki Don t Go Breaking My Neck Dee. It s a vinyl-filling acoustic bit that never should have seen the light of day.

Amoreena is another one of Elton s rocking love songs that reminds me a bit of Amy from Honky Chateau . This one has an organ-tinged background with a barroom piano in the foreground as Elton sings about his cattle-town girlfriend.

The piano ballad Talking Old Soldiers is the penultimate tune on side two. An old, alcoholic soldier reminisces about his youth and all of his buddies that are dead and gone. It s nothing extraordinary, but touching.

The concert rave-up Burn Down the Mission finishes off the album. There s a live version on the 11/17/70 live album, and I think it s been recorded on a later live album or two. It probably got more air time than any other song on this album, and I m not sure why because it s inferior to almost everything on side one. Anyway, somebody wants to burn down the local mission I m not sure why, apparently because the rich folk live there, but generally these missions were pretty poor affairs so I don t really get it--but that s the refrain that is repeated umpteen times, so you d better get used to it.

As I wrote earlier, this album hasn t received much attention. It isn t fabulous, but there are some real moments here and it s superior to virtually everything he released after 1976, so give it a listen.