It wasn’t Elton John’s concept to create a “sequel” to Captain Unbelievable And The Brown Dust Cowboy, the chart-busting 1975 album impressed by his early days with songwriting associate Bernie Taupin. It wasn’t Bernie’s, both.
However once they put their thoughts to creating a report primarily based on their ensuing world adventures, what got here out was one in all their greatest items of labor since that album, The Captain And The Child, launched on September 18, 2006.
‘It’s not one thing I might have considered doing’
Elton’s twenty eighth album, The Captain And The Child was recorded in one in all his adopted houses, Atlanta, within the spring of that yr, with trustworthy studio and stage sidemen Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson within the fold, as traditional. Man Babylon, on keyboards, and Bob Birch, on bass, made return appearances after enjoying on the album’s predecessor, 2004’s Peachtree Highway.
Fifty-nine on the time of the album’s launch, John co-produced it himself with the Atlanta-based Matt Nonetheless, who had engineered and combined the earlier set. He was one in all solely two different names to look within the tight-knit staff that made The Captain And The Child, together with percussionist John Mahon (that’s when you don’t depend Elton’s canine Arthur, who made a cameo look barking on the finish of “Just Like Noah’s Ark”).
As ever, the brand new album was solely one in all a number of initiatives on Elton’s plate that yr. He and Bernie wrote what the celebrity pianist described as their most complicated songs ever, for the Lestat musical, which opened on the Palace Theatre on Broadway in April 2006. Based mostly on Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles books, Lestat constituted John’s third time on Broadway as a composer, following The Lion King and Aida (Billy Elliot: The Musical would switch to Broadway in 2008).
Weeks later, in late Might, there was the opening of a brand new UK and Irish tour at The Level in Dublin. The schedule was intermingled with different European exhibits and included concert events at English cricket grounds, in such areas as Canterbury, Worcester, Taunton and Hove. In a recurring function of the itineraries of a religious soccer fan, the tour additionally had connections with that sport, with a June 4 London live performance at Charlton Athletic’s stadium.
Then there was his ever-enthusiastic championing of latest acts, notably together with English singer-songwriter James Blunt. He had been signed to Twenty First Artists, co-owned by John earlier than it was offered in 2005 to the Sanctuary Group. By now, Blunt had changed into one of many bestselling artists on the earth.
‘Tell stories that are accessible to people’
However when it got here to the idea of an autobiographical follow-up to Captain Unbelievable And The Brown Dust Cowboy – famously, the primary album ever to debut on the Billboard chart at No.1 – Taupin was completely happy to provide credit score the place it was due. In an interview with this author on the lyricist’s ranch residence in California, he revealed: “It’s not one thing I might have considered doing. I’d by no means even addressed the thought of doing a sequel. That credit score has to go to Elton’s supervisor [of the time], Merck Mercuriadis, he was the one which got here up with the thought.
“My preliminary response was not tremendously enthusiastic, since you’re coping with a [huge] arc of time, so you possibly can’t get tremendously detailed. The second factor that got here to thoughts was that we’re dwelling in a way more cynical age now, and the way are individuals going to view it?
“I thought, if you’re going to tell stories, tell stories that are accessible to people. It’s got to be about love, life, death, excess, and those are things that everyone is open to, whether they’re a politician or a plumber.”
As soon as dedicated to the thought, the onus was on Taupin to create the narrative, and he knew it needed to start with the pair’s momentous first transatlantic crossing, which led to Elton’s well-known American debut at The Troubadour. “Obviously the kick-off had to be our arrival in Los Angeles in the fall of 1970,” stated Bernie. “The first thing that got me excited about it was I came up with the line ‘We heard Richard Nixon say, “Welcome to the USA.”’
“I thought, That’s good, because it gives people a sense of history, a time period. From then, I just took the issues that were larger than life to us, songs that dealt with the people we lost and continue to lose, our personal relationships and the pressures.”
‘His defiance is still arresting’
Elton noticed the album as “completing the cycle,” to make use of his phrase within the album booklet. The unique package deal additionally contained a DVD that includes an interview with him and Taupin and a track-by-track commentary, plus a second booklet of “Scraps” that includes many unseen pictures from their total artistic span.
The Captain And The Child reached No.6 within the UK and No.18 within the US, and critics and followers alike have been delighted with the album. Billboard wrote: “Thanks to organic, piano-driven production, stellar storytelling and Sir’s rededication to his vocal craft, this is a triumph.”
Paul Flynn in The Observer was equally taken with the album’s candour and authenticity. “Bernie Taupin and Elton have a rare telepathy,” he wrote, “and if Captain Fantastic dealt with their failure to cope with failure, the new one is about struggling with success: ‘You couldn’t tell me I was wrong/You couldn’t tell me anything,’ sings Elton on ‘I Must Have Lost It On The Wind.’ His defiance is still arresting.”
As The Captain And The Child reached its conclusion with the title monitor, one specific lyric captured the essence of a singular relationship. As Bernie wrote, and as Elton sang: “But we stuck around for the battle, waiting for a plan to turn you into the Brown Dirt Cowboy and me into a Rocket Man.”
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