Honky Chateau [Remaster] - John, Elton (CD 1996)

First A Side Note

I was rooting for the DVD-Audio format, and I guess I still am, but the titles are not as forthcoming as they are in the SACD format. Having said that, I must add that the SACD titles are being released a lot more scarcely. It seems that the record labels are opting more in favor of the Enhanced or DualDisc formats these days. From their point of view I suppose it makes sense, the DualDisc is more accessible to a bigger audience. Almost everybody has a DVD player these days, and that's pretty much all you need to play the DualDiscs. The DVD-Audio/SACDs also must be played in a DVD player for the multi-channel mixes, but you need a DVD player that is either DVD-Audio or SACD ready or both. Not only that, but in addition to a SACD ready player you have to know how to hook up the audio. You can't connect the usual stereo cables and hear it; you cannot connect the fiber optic cable and hear it. No, you need the six RCA cables starting from the DVD player and ending up in your receiver. But in addition to the SACD ready DVD player and the correct hook ups, you now have to know to press to press the correct commands on your receiver. If it is like mine, the receiver is set to receive the audio signal from the fiber optic cable. I have to press six-channel audio button on my receiver remote control so that it knows to receive the audio from the six RCA cables. Actually, in my case (I'm not sure if this is for everybody), but my DVD player's default set up is to play the SACD 2 channel signal. In order for me to hear the six-channel signal, I have to change the default from stereo to multi-channel.
Once you get it set up, it's all worth it because it sounds great. Then again, sometimes the dual disc sounds great as well. This is unfortunately a dying breed of multi-channel music. I hope I'm wrong, but they make a pretty good argument. Thank you for your patience and for allowing my rants.
By the way, when I brought up my argument to my brother, he corrected me and said that all that set up is unnecessary if you have an all in one DVD player/receiver that can handle a SACD disc.
I stand corrected, but if you are like most people who buy the components separately like me, my argument stands.

The Music

I don't think that this album as a whole is one of Elton John's more famous, but the song content is classic. I suppose that it's due in part to the immense success of his first greatest hits album. The first track, Honky Cat was one of the songs on his Greatest Hits album. It's not one of Elton's more colorful tunes, but it has its moments. The electric piano and brass arrangement tend to date the track to its time, and although you may tap your toe to this old time R&B song, you'll probably tire of it pretty quickly. As a side note, it has a rare appearance of guitarist Davey Johnstone on the banjo.

Mellow is very reminiscent of Jim Croce's sound. I suppose that this genre tends to date the track as well. The electric violin solo performed by Jean-Luc Ponty seems to sound like a hybrid of flute and organ, a wasted effect in my opinion. If you have a violinist performing, why not have it sound like a violin. The only reason I know it's a violin is because I read the notes on the CD. It would have been just as easy to reproduce the same solo with a flute and an organ. I like the song despite my peeves, it has a nice groove to it, and the lyrics seem to be about having mellow sex.

I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself doesn't seem too special on first listen but it surprisingly remains singing in your head for hours. It's an upbeat bluesy number that takes a lighthearted approach to suicide, there's even tap-dancing. There's nothing really clever about the lyrics or anything:
Think I'm gonna kill myself
cause a little suicide.
Stick around for a couple of days,
what a scandal if I died.

Chronologically, the best song so far is Susie (DRAMAS). It rocks a bit harder than the first three songs, and the melody is much more infectious.
Arguably, Elton's greatest song is Rocket Man. The song has great lyrics, a melody that leaves you in goose bumps, and the way the song builds, drops and rebuilds itself is classic. It's sort of like two songs in one, where in the verses you have a very prominent piano and a synthesizer accenting the lyrics wonderfully. Then the chorus Davey Johnstone's guitar sounds like it's taking off and you have a nice big acoustic guitar out front. During the long fade out of I think it's going to be a long long time the two parts come together in harmony.

The lyrics to Salvation don't really go anywhere or have any meaning as a body unfortunately, just a couple of ideas thrown together. The song is catchy despite the lyrics. The chorus sounds like contemporary Christian music did in the mid 90s.

Slave is crap. Elton tries to tackle the country and western genre here and it fails miserably. Despite the pedal steel guitar and banjo throughout the song, the song lacks authenticity. That s not usually the case for Elton, his Tumbleweed Connection album proves that. The chorus has an uninspiring melody, despite Bernie Taupin's well-written lyrics.

Two songs on one album named after females, what is this amateur hour? Just kidding. In Amy, Jean-Luc's violin sounds like a violin, but it's played like a saxophone solo. Amy is actually a great tune. It rocks and it's catchy. The addition of jazz musician, Jean-Luc was certainly an idea, but I'm not sure of the thought behind it. These two songs could have done without the additional instrument, and they probably would have benefited without it.

Mona Lisas and Madhatters is again a wonderful song. I'm surprised this wasn't chosen as a single, it's just as good as Honky Cat, maybe even better. The lyrics are good, and Elton's melodies do them justice. It's a quiet piano ballad in the same way as the verses of Rocket Man.

Is Hercules the only song where we can hear Elton John sing the lyrics:
Well I like women
and I like wine
and I've always liked it that way...
I'm not sure but it sure sounds like Elton doesn't it? He just got married recently didn't he? I think it's his second marriage. Seriously though, the song is about a cat named Hercules. I thought that Freddie Mercury was the first to sing a song about his cat (Delilah from Innuendo), but I guess Elton beat him to that 20 years earlier. The song has a honky tonk beat to it, and yet it's not that good.


Bonus Track

There is only one bonus track included here, and it's an alternate version of his crappy song Slave. I must say that this sped up version is a lot better than the one he included on the album. It's sped up so fast that it knocks a minute and a half off the time. I prefer this brand of 70s Elton rock to the lousy C&W attempt made on the official version.


The SACD Mix

The SACD mix is such an improvement over the stereo version even for this album. The usual set up is Elton's lead vocal from the center channel, the echo from his vocal in the front speakers along with his keyboards, drums, bass and guitars. In the rear speakers you'll have backing vocals, any horn accents, and Elton's lead vocals again. In my opinion one whole channel dedicated to the lead vocal track(s) is enough. When you spread the same instruments over all of the speakers it ruins the ambient illusion. Yet I hear some people complain of too much separation in these multi-channel mixes. Perhaps this particular album of songs wasn't the best candidate for the SACD multi-channel mix, but they did the best they could. Some of the songs seem to have gotten more attention than the others as well. For instance, when Rocket Man comes on, it sounds like a totally different album because the production is much more polished than most of the others.


Layout

This comes with a real nice SACD booklet. It is around 20 pages, and it includes all of the original album art, including lyrics to all of the songs, also credits and a story about the making of the album, the history of the album and how it stands today compared to his body of work in a retrospective analogy. Too bad there was nothing theif-worthy for me to take for this review.


This is Elton's first number one album in the US, and it is all because of the master stroke of a song in Rocket Man. The stereo is cleaned up and it sounds the best I've heard it. It seems that on the lower quality songs the sound production went down in quality too. Elton's albums usually have a nice rich sound, the sparsity of sound is also too tinny and annoying.


Songs

Honky Cat
Mellow
I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself
Susie (DRAMAS)
Rocket Man (I Think it's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)
Salvation
Slave
Amy
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Hercules
Slave (Alternate Version)


Musicians

Elton John - Piano, Lead Vocals, organ, electric piano
Dee Murray - Bass, backing vocals
Davey Johnstone - Guitars, Mandolins, Banjo and backing vocals
Nigel Olsson - Drums, Congas, Tambourine, backing vocals
Jean-Luc Ponty - Electric Violin
Jacques Bolognesi - Trombone
Ivan Julien - Trumpet
Jean-Louis Chautemps - Saxophone
Alain Hatot - Saxopohone
David Henschel - A.R.P. Synthesizer
Ray Cooper - Congas
Madeline Bell - additional backing vocals
Liza Strike - additional backing vocals
Larry Steel - additional backing vocals
Tony Hazzard - additional backing vocals


Music - 3 stars
Stereo - 3 stars
SACD mix - 4 stars




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~For More Elton Reviews~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elton John - SACD
Tumbleweed Connection - SACD
Madman Across the Water - SACD
Honky Chateau - SACD
Don t Shoot Me I m Only the Piano Player
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - SACD
Greatest Hits Volume 2





The Legend
SACD - Super Audio Compact Disc - usually a multi-channel (as opposed to stereo, two-channel) mix of the music. Your DVD player must have SACD capabilities in order to hear it properly.
DualDisc - This is somewhat newer a format. DualDisc is when the music you buy is a CD on one side, and on the other a DVD. A DualDisc is much more accessible a format as if you have a DVD player you will be able to watch the videos included and hear the enhanced stereo music. I have not come across a multi-channel DualDisc, but maybe they're out there.
DVD-Audio is much like the SACD, except here with this format, there are video aspects included, videos perhaps or onscreen lyrics, some pictures of the artist, etc...
Enhanced CDs is probably the rarest of all these formats in my opinion. I don't come across these much at all anymore in my purchases. This format is just a regular CD, but with some video content that can be accessed from your home computer.