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ELTON JOHN – CARIBOU ricordi international 1974 LP IT

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PREMESSA: LA SUPERIORITA’ DELLA MUSICA SU VINILE E’ ANCOR OGGI SANCITA, NOTORIA ED EVIDENTE. NON TANTO DA UN PUNTO DI VISTA DI RESA, QUALITA’ E PULIZIA DEL SUONO, TANTOMENO DA QUELLO DEL RIMPIANTO RETROSPETTIVO E NOSTALGICO , MA SOPRATTUTTO DA QUELLO PIU’ PALPABILE ED INOPPUGNABILE DELL’ ESSENZA, DELL’ ANIMA E DELLA SUBLIMAZIONE CREATIVA. IL DISCO IN VINILE HA PULSAZIONE ARTISTICA, PASSIONE ARMONICA E SPLENDORE GRAFICO , E’ PIACEVOLE DA OSSERVARE E DA TENERE IN MANO, RISPLENDE, PROFUMA E VIBRA DI VITA, DI EMOZIONE E  DI SENSIBILITA’. E’ TUTTO QUELLO CHE NON E’ E NON POTRA’ MAI ESSERE IL CD, CHE AL CONTRARIO E’ SOLO UN OGGETTO MERAMENTE COMMERCIALE, POVERO, ARIDO, CINICO, STERILE ED ORWELLIANO,  UNA DEGENERAZIONE INDUSTRIALE SCHIZOFRENICA E NECROFILA, LA DESOLANTE SOLUZIONE FINALE DELL’ AVIDITA’ DEL MERCATO E DELL’ ARROGANZA DEI DISCOGRAFICI .

ELTON JOHN
caribou


Disco LP 33 giri , 1974, DJM – Dick James Music Co. Limited / Ricordi international, SNIR 25053 ,  Italia, first pressing

ECCELLENTI CONDIZIONI, vinyl ex++/NM , cover ex++/NM,  sealed although open

                                                                   

Caribou è il decimo album dell’artista britannico Elton John, pubblicato nel gennaio 1974 dalla MCA Records (negli USA e in Canada) e dalla Dick James Music Records.

L’LP fu registrato ai Caribou Studios (donde il titolo) di James Guercio, in Colorado, subito dopo la pubblicazione del doppio Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973). La compagnia di Elton, abituata agli Strawberry Studios dello Chateau d’Hérouville, ebbe non pochi problemi tecnici per adattarsi alle strumentazioni e ai metodi di lavoro dell’ambiente. Sono presenti i Tower of Power ai fiati, mentre Dusty Springfield e i Beach Boys partecipano ai cori (soprattutto, rispettivamente, in The Bitch Is Back e in Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,
i due unici singoli estratti dall’album). In definitiva, si tratta di
un album ad alti livelli, anche se posto cronologicamente tra due
pietre miliari della storia della musica (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road e Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, spesso e volentieri annoverati fra i migliori album di tutti i tempi). I pezzi degni di menzione risultano essere Ticking, capolavoro per piano e voce considerata dalla critica tra i pezzi migliori dell’intera produzione di Elton, Solar Prestige A Gammon (un pezzo davvero inusuale, dal testo nonsense) e la movimentata You’re So Static.

Caribou ebbe un successo planetario: nel Regno Unito
raggiunse il primo posto in classifica, mentre negli U.S.A rimase in
prima posizione per ben quattro settimane (in Italia l’album raggiunse
l’ottavo posto). I due singoli estratti The Bitch Is Back e Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
diventeranno dei classici di Elton (la prima raggiungerà il
quindicesimo posto nel Regno Unito e il quarto negli Stati Uniti,
mentre la seconda si posizionerà rispettivamente al sedicesimo e al
secondo posto).

  • Etichetta:  DJM RECORDS / Dischi Ricordi
  • Catalogo: SNIR 25053
  • Data di pubblicazione: 1974
  • Matrici : SNIR – 25053 – 1 / SNIR – 25053 – 2
  • Data Matrici : 4/6/74

  • Supporto:vinile 33 giri
  • Tipo audio: stereo
  • Dimensioni: 30 cm.
  • Facciate: 2
  • Black label,  original picture & lyrics inner sleeve

In June Elton John signed what was reported to be
the most lucrative contract ever negotiated by a recording artist. MCA,
the record company involved, commemorated the event with full page ads
in both The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
The latter paper followed up with a story headlining Elton as “The $8
Million Man,” eight million being the sum thought to be guaranteed John
as royalties on his next half-dozen albums.

The magnitude of the deal was obviously inspired by the great
success of Elton’s previous albums. Virtually all have sold one million
units, an achievement which would enable him, if he wished, to coast
laxly through the next few years; but there is nothing to indicate that
anyone expects him to be resting on his laurels. On the contrary,
everything about the contract’s announcement suggests that both parties
are looking forward to even greater things from Elton John: the
flowering of his art, as it were.

In effect he and his writing partner, Bernie Taupin, have been given
their heads to follow whatever direction they choose. It is a luxurious
imprimatur on top of the one already accorded by giant sales, and it
must seem to them an ultimate declaration that what they have been
doing has been “right,” that by following their instincts they can do
no wrong.

What John and Taupin have excelled at is the assembling of
commercial sounds. Their recorded creations have been carefully
constructed pop artifacts, the end product of controlled experiments in
which element is added to element, a process more akin to making
objects than to making music. Whatever’s trendy is sure to catch their
attention and find its way into their mix. They take pride in being on
top of things, in writing the first astronaut single, in fashioning the
definitive nostalgia hook, in marketing the timely eulogy to Marilyn.
Elton John makes records in the same manner as he puts together his
wardrobe and choreographs his concerts. Often what he mistakes for
style is simply next month’s bad taste, but discrimination does not
really concern him. It needn’t matter if something’s grotesque; what’s
important is that it’s new. Elton is an impresario of stance, a maestro
who has presented a series of attractive aural surfaces. The trouble
with surface is that it wears thin.

Caribou is not wearying in the same way as would be an album whose makers were bored with their work. Caribou
is dispiriting because it “logically” extends Elton’s weak strengths
and strong weaknesses, the superficial powers that have taken him so
far. The thin roots that kept him in touch with an organically
nourishing topsoil have been sundered and at last he’s on his own,
fulfilling his weird hybrid nature in a self-designed hothouse where
nothing but lurid display is valued.

Nearly every song on Caribou suffers from a blithe lack of
focus, an almost arrogant disregard of the need to establish context or
purpose. It’s as if Elton and his band are so convinced of their own
inherent inspiration they no longer feel the need to establish coherent
moods. Shifting from sentimental to heavy to mocking, they not only
fail to touch all bases but undercut what credence they might possibly
have achieved.

From the first track the album displays a strange overkill which
simultaneously introduces many production elements and then buries them
under one another. The opener, “The Bitch Is Back,” is the slickest and
strongest cut on Caribou, but it lacks real punch. The combined
forces of Clydie & Sherlie & Jessie & Dusty and the Tower
Of Power horn section fail to get this putdown-celebration of a certain
sort of social pariah-piranha off the ground. And from there, it’s all
downhill.

“Pinky” is a love song set to a jerky syncopated melody, an ungainly tune that easily wins its battle against the words.

“Grimsby,” with tripping tempo and ricky-tik riffs, may or may not be a comic song, but the overall feel is flaccid.

“Dixie Lily,” a tribute to a riverboat sung by a citizen of the
swamps, achieves a level of cultural assimilation comparable to that
reached by “Bobbies on bicycles two by two.”

“Solar Prestige a Gammon,” an Italianate nonsense song, demonstrates the stiffness which plagues Elton even in his humor.

“You’re So Static,” a sort of revamped “Honky Tonk Women,” wanders between facetiousness and heavy metal.

“I’ve Seen the Saucers,” someone’s wistful wish to be taken away from mundanity deus ex machina, is made irrelevant by last-minute, out-of-context science fiction sounds meant to be taken seriously.

The overlong “Stinker” convincingly proves Elton John is not a soul singer.

The centerpiece fiasco, however, is the melodramatic
seven-and-a-half-minute finale, “Ticking,” which fails not through
musical ambiguity but from an appalling combination of
simplemindedness, over-reaching and opportunism in the material itself.
All alone at the piano (with a synthesizer adding tension), Elton
“simply” unfolds this maudlin tale of a young man from a repressive
background who goes berserk in a New York bar and shoots 14 people.
Victim of society and a Catholic upbringing, he is a reluctant
psychopath (“Promising to hurt no one, providing they were still”) and
when at last the fellow snaps and starts shooting, it is “with
tear-filled eyes.” The killings are dispensed with in half a phrase,
their only apparent significance to set into motion the vindictive
forces which for some reason are determined to exterminate this
peculiar hero. In the presence of “the media machine” the understood
murderer is cut down while surrendering, and he poetically expires in
one-stanza slow-motion “on the vengeance of the law.” Only in America.
Queens, no less.

This selection ends, as do nearly half of the album’s ten tracks, in
an extended and pretentious synthesized drone. Each use of this device
underscores not the intended emotion but, instead, the aridity of what
has been, for one reason or another, a startlingly empty experience.

                                                                

Tracce

All songs by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, except where noted.

Side One

  1. The Bitch is Back” – 3:44
  2. “Pinky” – 3:54
  3. “Grimsby” – 3:47
  4. “Dixie Lily” – 2:54
  5. “Solar Prestige a Gammon” – 2:52
  6. “You’re So Static” – 4:52

Side Two

  1. “I’ve Seen the Saucers” – 4:48
  2. “Stinker” – 5:20
  3. Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” – 5:36
  4. “Ticking” – 7:28

Personnel

                                                                          

                                                                      

Biography

In
terms of sales and lasting popularity, Elton John was the biggest pop
superstar of the early ’70s. Initially marketed as a singer/songwriter,
John soon revealed he could craft Beatlesque
pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb. He could dip into soul,
disco, and country, as well as classic pop balladry and even
progressive rock. His versatility, combined with his effortless melodic
skills, dynamic charisma, and flamboyant stage shows, made him the most
popular recording artist of the ’70s. Unlike many pop stars, John was
able to sustain his popularity, charting a Top 40 single every single
year from 1970 to 1996. During that time, he had temporary slumps in
creativity and sales, as he fell out of favor with critics, had fights
with his lyricist, Bernie Taupin,
and battled various addictions and public scandals. But through it all,
John remained a remarkably popular artist, and many of his songs —
including “Your Song,” “Rocket Man,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” and
“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” — became contemporary pop standards.

The son of a former Royal Air Force trumpeter, John was born Reginald
Kenneth Dwight in 1947. Dwight began playing piano at the age of four,
and when he was 11, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music.
After studying for six years, he left school with the intention of
breaking into the music business. In 1961, he joined his first band, Bluesology,
and divided his time between playing with the group, giving solo
concerts at a local hotel, and running errands for a London publishing
house. By 1965, Bluesology was backing touring American soul and R&B musicians like Major Lance, Doris Troy, and the Bluebells. In 1966, Bluesology became Long John Baldry‘s supporting band and began touring cabarets throughout England. Dwight became frustrated with Baldry‘s control of the band and began searching for other groups to join. He failed his lead vocalist auditions for both King Crimson and Gentle Giant
before responding to an advertisement by Liberty Records. Though he
failed his Liberty audition, he was given a stack of lyrics left with
the label courtesy of Bernie Taupin, who had also replied to the ad. Dwight wrote music for Taupin‘s
lyrics and began corresponding with him through mail. By the time the
two met six months later, Dwight had changed his name to Elton John,
taking his first name from Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and his last from John Baldry.

John and Taupin were hired by Dick James to become staff songwriters at his fledgling DJM in 1968. The pair collaborated at a rapid rate, with Taupin
submitting batches of lyrics — he often wrote a song an hour — every
few weeks. John would then write music without changing the words,
sometimes completing the songs in under a half-hour. Over the next two
years, the duo wrote songs for pop singers like Roger Cook and Lulu.
In the meantime, John recorded cover versions of current hits for
budget labels to be sold in supermarkets. By the summer of 1968, he had
begun recording singles for release under his own name. Usually, these
songs were more rock- and radio-oriented than the tunes he and Taupin
were giving to other vocalists, yet neither of his early singles for
Phillips, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” and “Lady Samantha,” sold
well. In June of 1969, he released his debut album for DJM, Empty Sky, which received fair reviews, but no sales.

For his second album, John and Taupin hired producer Gus Dudgeon and arranger Paul Buckmaster, who contributed grandiose string charts to Elton John. Released in the summer of 1970, Elton John
began to make inroads in America, where it appeared on MCA’s Uni
subsidiary. In August, he gave his first American concert at the
Troubadour in Los Angeles, which received enthusiastic reviews, as well
as praise from Quincy Jones and Leon Russell. Throughout the fall, Elton John
continued to climb the charts on the strength of the Top Ten single
“Your Song.” John followed it quickly in February 1971 with the concept
album Tumbleweed Connection, which received heavy airplay on album-oriented radio in the U.S., helping it climb into the Top Ten. The rapid release of Tumbleweed Connection established a pattern of frequent releases that John maintained throughout his career. In 1971, he released the live 11-17-70 and the Friends soundtrack, before releasing Madman Across the Water late in the year. Madman Across the Water was successful, but John achieved stardom with the follow-up, 1972’s Honky Chateau. Recorded with his touring band — bassist Dee Murray, drummer Nigel Olsson, and guitarist Davey Johnstone — and featuring the hit singles “Rocket Man” and “Honky Cat,” Honky Chateau became his first American number one album, spending five weeks at the top of the charts.

Between 1972 and 1976, John and Taupin‘s
hit-making machine was virtually unstoppable. “Rocket Man” began a
four-year streak of 16 Top 20 hits in a row; out of those 16 —
including “Crocodile Rock,” “Daniel,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “The Bitch
Is Back,” and “Philadelphia Freedom” — only one, the FM hit “Saturday
Night’s Alright for Fighting,” failed to reach the Top Ten. Honky Chateau began a streak of seven consecutive number one albums — Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), Caribou (1974), Greatest Hits (1974), Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975), Rock of the Westies
(1975) — that all went platinum. John founded Rocket, a record label
distributed by MCA, in 1973 in order to sign and produce acts like Neil Sedaka and Kiki Dee.
John didn’t become a Rocket recording artist himself, choosing to stay
with MCA for a record-breaking eight-million-dollar contract in 1974.
Later in 1974, he played and sang on John Lennon‘s number one comeback single “Whatever Gets You Through the Night,” and he persuaded Lennon to join him on-stage at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving Day 1974; it would prove to be Lennon‘s last live performance. The following year, Captain Fantastic became his first album to enter the American charts at number one. After its release, he revamped his band, which now featured Johnstone, Quaye, Roger Pope, Ray Cooper, and bassist Kenny Passarelli; Rock of the Westies was the first album to feature this lineup.

Throughout the mid-’70s, John’s concerts were enormously popular, as
were his singles and albums, and he continued to record and perform at
a rapid pace until 1976. That year, he revealed in an interview in
Rolling Stone that he was bisexual; he would later admit that the
confession was a compromise, since he was afraid to reveal that he was
homosexual. Many fans reacted negatively to John’s bisexuality, and his
audience began to shrink somewhat in the late ’70s. The decline in his
record sales was also due to his exhaustion. After 1976, John cut his
performance schedule drastically, announcing that he was retiring from
live performances in 1977 and started recording only one album a year.
His relationship with Taupin became strained following the release of 1976’s double album Blue Moves, and the lyricist began working with other musicians. John returned in 1978 with A Single Man, which was written with Gary Osborne;
the record produced no Top 20 singles. That year, he returned to live
performances, first by jamming at the Live Stiffs package tour, then by
launching a comeback tour in 1979 accompanied only by percussionist Ray Cooper. “Mama Can’t Buy You Love,” a song he recorded with Philly soul producer Thom Bell in 1977, returned him to the Top Ten in 1979, but that year’s Victim of Love was a commercial disappointment.

John reunited with Taupin for 1980’s 21 at 33,
which featured the Top Ten single “Little Jeannie.” Over the next three
years, John remained a popular concert artist, but his singles failed
to break the Top Ten, even if they reached the Top 40. In 1981, he
signed with Geffen Records and his second album, Jump Up!, became a gold album on the strength of “Blue Eyes” and “Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny),” his tribute to John Lennon. But it was 1983’s Too Low for Zero
that began his last great streak of hit singles, with the MTV hit “I’m
Still Standing” and the Top Ten single “I Guess That’s Why They Call It
the Blues.” Throughout the rest of the ’80s, John’s albums would
consistently go gold, and they always generated at least one Top 40
single; frequently, they featured Top Ten singles like “Sad Songs (Say
So Much)” (1984), “Nikita” (1986), “Candle in the Wind” (1987), and “I
Don’t Want to Go on with You Like That” (1988). While his career
continued to be successful, his personal life was in turmoil. Since the
mid-’70s, he had been addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and the
situation only worsened during the ’80s. In a surprise move, he married
engineer Renate Blauel
in 1984; the couple stayed married for four years, although John later
admitted he realized he was homosexual before his marriage. In 1986, he
underwent throat surgery while on tour, but even after he successfully
recovered, he continued to abuse cocaine and alcohol.

Following a record-breaking five-date stint at Madison Square Garden in
1988, John auctioned off all of his theatrical costumes, thousands of
pieces of memorabilia, and his extensive record collection through
Sotheby’s. The auction was a symbolic turning point. Over the next two
years, John battled both his drug addiction and bulimia, undergoing
hair replacement surgery at the same time. By 1991, he was sober, and
the following year, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation; he
also announced that he would donate all royalties from his single sales
to AIDS research.

In 1992, John returned to active recording with The One. Peaking at number eight on the U.S. charts and going double platinum, the album became his most successful record since Blue Moves and sparked a career renaissance for John. He and Taupin
signed a record-breaking publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music in
1992 for an estimated 39 million dollars. In 1994, John collaborated
with lyricist Tim Rice on songs for Disney’s animated feature The Lion King.
One of their collaborations, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” won the
Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as the Grammy for Best
Male Pop Vocal Performance. John’s 1995 album Made in England
continued his comeback, peaking at number three on the U.K. charts and
number 13 in the U.S.; in America, the album went platinum. The 1997
follow-up, The Big Picture,
delivered more of the same well-crafted pop, made the Top Ten, and
produced a hit in “Something About the Way You Look Tonight.” However,
its success was overshadowed by John’s response to the tragic death of
Princess Diana — he re-recorded “Candle in the Wind” (originally a
eulogy for Marilyn Monroe) as a tribute to his slain friend, with Taupin adapting the lyrics for what was planned as the B-side of “Something About the Way You Look Tonight.”

With the profits earmarked for Diana’s favorite charities, and with a
debut performance at Diana’s funeral, “Candle in the Wind 1997” became
the fastest-selling hit of all time in both Britain and the U.S. upon
the single’s release, easily debuting at number one on both sides of
the Atlantic; with first-week sales of over three million copies in the
U.S. alone and 14 weeks in the top spot, it was John’s biggest hit
ever. For his next project, John reunited with Lion King collaborator Tim Rice
to write songs for Disney’s Broadway musical adaptation of the story of
Aida; an album of their efforts featuring a who’s who of contemporary
pop musicians was released in early 1999, going gold by the end of the
year. In late 2000, John landed a TV special with CBS, performing a
selection of his greatest hits at Madison Square Garden; a companion
album drawn from those performances, One Night Only, was issued shortly before the special aired. 2001’s Songs from the West Coast
was a return to form for John, who found critical success for the first
time since the ’80s. However, it wasn’t until 2004’s popular Peachtree Road album that he managed to match that success commercially. In 2006, John and Taupin released The Captain & the Kid, a sequel to 1975’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

Informazioni aggiuntive

Genere Rock internazionale

Nuovo/Usato

Sottogenere

Genere

Velocità

Dimensione

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