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Tumbleweed (Deluxe)
Elton John
Tumbleweed Connection (Deluxe Edition)
Mercury Records
B0010839-02
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DISC ONE
1. Ballad of a Well-known Gun (4:59)
Acoustic and Lead Guitars CALEB QUAYE
Piano ELTON JOHN
Drums and Percussion ROGER POPE
Bass Guitar DAVE GLOVER
Backing Vocals DUSTY SPRINGFIELD (Courtesy of Phillips Records)
MADELEINE BELL (Courtesy of Phillips Records)
KAY GARNER, LESLEY DUNCAN (Courtesy of CBS Records)
TONY HAZZARD, TONY BURROWS (Courtesy of Bell Records)
2. Come Down in Time (3:26)
Drums BARRY MORGAN
Bass Guitar HERBIE FLOWERS
Acoustic Bass CHRIS LAURENCE
Acoustic Guitar LES THATCHER
Harp SKAILA KANGA
Oboe KARL JENKINS
3. Country Comfort (5:06)
Piano ELTON JOHN
Acoustic Guitar CALEB QUAYE
Acoustic 12-String Guitar LES THATCHER
Steel Guitar GORDON HUNTLEY
Violin JOHNNY VAN DEREK
Bass Guitar HERBIE FLOWERS
Drums BARRY MORGAN
Harmonica IAN DUCK
Backing Vocals DEE MURRAY and NIGEL OLSSON
4. Son of Your Father (3:49)
Lead Guitar CALEB QUAYE
Harmonica IAN DUCK
Bass Guitar DAVE GLOVER
Drums ROGER POPE
Piano ELTON JOHN
Backing Vocals SUE and SUNNY
KAY GARNER, LESLEY DUNCAN (Courtesy of CBS Records)
MADELEINE BELL (Courtesy of Phillips Records)
TAMMI HUNT
5. My Father’s Gun (6:21)
Drums ROGER POPE
Bass Guitar DAVE GLOVER
Piano ELTON JOHN
Electric & Acoustic Guitar CALEB QUAYE
Backing Vocals DUSTY SPRINGFIELD (Courtesy of Phillips Records)
MADELEINE BELL (Courtesy of Phillips Records)
KAY GARNER, LESLEY DUNCAN (Courtesy of CBS Records)
TONY HAZZARD, TONY BURROWS (Courtesy of Bell Records)
6. Where To Now St. Peter? (4:11)
Piano ELTON JOHN
Lead & Acoustic Guitars CALEB QUAYE
Drums ROGER POPE
Bass Guitar DAVE GLOVER
Backing Vocals DEE MURRAY and NIGEL OLSSON
7. Love Song (3:42)
Composed by LESLEY DUNCAN for Sunshine Music Ltd.
Acoustic Guitar and Backing Vocals LESLEY DUNCAN
8. Amoreena (5:00)
Piano and Organ ELTON JOHN
Lead Guitar CALEB QUAYE
Bass Guitar DEE MURRAY
Drums NIGEL OLSSON
9. Talking Old Soldiers (4:07)
Piano ELTON JOHN
(With love to David)
10. Burn Down the Mission (6:22)
Piano ELTON JOHN
Drums BARRY MORGAN
Bass Guitar HERBIE FLOWERS
Acoustic Bass CHRIS LAURENCE
Congas and Tambourine ROBIN JONES
Acoustic Guitar MIKE EGAN and LES THATCHER
Organ BRIAN DEE
Backing Vocals ELTON JOHN
All songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and published by Dick James Music Limited / Universal Music Publishing Limited except "Love Song" written by Lesley Duncan and published by Sunshine Music Limited. All recordings 1970 This Record Company Limited
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DISC TWO
1. There Goes A Well-Known Gun (3:28)
Previously Unreleased
2. Come Down In Time (3:27)
Piano Demo. Previously Unreleased
3. Country Comfort (4:12)
Piano Demo. Previously Unreleased
4. Son Of Your Father (4:13)
Previously Unreleased
5. Talking Old Soldiers (4:13)
Piano Demo. Previously Unreleased
6. Into The Old Man's Shoes (3:41)
Piano Demo. Previously Unreleased
7. Sisters Of The Cross (4:39)
Piano Demo. Previously Unreleased
8. Madman Across The Water (8:52)
Elton John, Mick Ronson - Original Version
9. Into The Old Man's Shoes (4:03)
10. My Father's Gun (4:36)
BBC Session - BBC Radio / DLT Session (TX 12-04-70)
Released on 21 Years of Alternative Radio I (Oct 88)
11. Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun (4:36)
BBC Session, Previously Unreleased
BBC Radio / DLT Session (TX 02-07-70)
12. Burn Down The Mission (6:53)
BBC Session. Previously Unreleased
Sounds of the Seventies (TX 02-07-70)
13. Amoreena (5:13)
BBC Session. Previously Unreleased
Sounds of the Seventies (TX 02-07-70)
All songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and published by Dick James Music Limited / Universal Music Publishing Limited. Recordings 1 - 7 (P) 2008 This Record Company Limited. Recording 8 (P) 1992 This Record Company Limited. Recording 9 (P) 1971 This Record Company Limited. Recording 10 (P) 1998 BBC under license to Mercury Records Limited. Recording 11 - 13 (P) 2008 BBC under license to Mercury Records Limited.
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Produced by Gus Dudgeon
Recorded at Trident Studios
Co-ordination by Steve Brown
Researched and compiled by Colin Smith.
Remastered by Giovanni Scatola and Tony Cousins at Metropolis Mastering, London.
Tape Sourcing at Universal Archive - Zoe Roberts
Management: Twenty First Artists Limited
Cover photograph by Ian Digby-Ovens
Original art direction and sleeve design by David Larkham
Inner sleeve photography by Ian Digby-Ovens, Barrie Wentzell and David Larkham
Deluxe Edition redesign by David Costa and Nadine Levy for Wherefore Art?
Production Note: We have endeavoured to use original masters where possible - due to the age and condition of some of these original source tapes, the sound quality may vary in some places.
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Tumbleweed Connection
If 1970’s ‘Elton John’ album had put him on the map, his follow-up LP, ‘Tumbleweed Connection’, more than consolidated Elton’s position, although its lack of a big hit single prevented it from becoming a major step forward in the U.S. However, like its eponymous predecessor, it was certified gold for sales of over half a million units, although it has undoubtedly sold well over a million copies in the almost four decades since it first charted in 1971. Because platinum certification was not introduced until 1976, nor multi-platinum certification until 1984, this album’s precise status appears never to have been officially established, although it is almost certainly at least double platinum.
This Deluxe Edition of the album, released during the celebrations of Elton's 40th year of recording has been greatly expanded, increasing it's length from the original 47 minutes to a double CD lasting more than twice as long at 108 minutes. This has been achieved by a search through the dusty tape vaults to unearth a number of the demo recordings made before the album was completed. Demos of five of the ten songs on the album (one of which has a slightly different title from the released track - the demo title was 'There Goes A Well-Known Gun', but this was amended on the album to 'Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun') are included on the second CD, along with demos of 'Into The Old Man's Shoes', a song which appeared on the flip side of the hit version of the 'Your Song' single and of 'Sisters Of The Cross', a song which was considered but was eventually not included on the album. In addition, the completed version of 'Into The Old Man's Shoes' is included, as is the lengthy original version of what would become the title track of Elton's next studio album, 'Madman Across The Water'. This original version features Mick Ronson playing the part of a guitar hero, which he became soon afterwards as a member of The Spiders From Mars. David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' band, but this version was ultimately replaced on the next album by a somewhat shorter version featuring Chris Spedding on lead guitar. Also included are four songs from BBC Sessions by Elton which he recorded in 1970, the earlier two, 'Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun', and 'My Father's Gun', for the Dave Lee Travis Show, and the latter two 'Amoreena' and 'Burn Down The Mission', for 'Sounds Of The Seventies'; that he was in demand for both the daytime pop and more serious evening rock shows indicates the breadth of Elton's appeal.
‘Tumbleweed Connection’ marked the point where Elton was making inroads in Britain as a serious rock artist, chiefly an album act. Released in October, 1970, it was his first UK Top 10 LP, remaining in the chart for five months (several weeks longer than the ‘Elton John’ album). If this rock (as opposed to pop) image and direction was indeed the intention, it had been somewhat diluted by the release in early 1971 of ‘Your Song’ (from that previous LP) as a single, which became his first UK chart 45, although confusingly it was not included on this, his latest and current album, nor was it's B-Side, 'Into The Old Man's Shoes', although, as already mentioned, the latter track is included here.
Nearly all the songs on the new LP, which was again recorded at Trident Studio and produced by Gus Dudgeon, seemed to reflect Bernie Taupin’s preoccupation and fascination with the American West, outlaws, sheriffs, the great outdoors, etc. Two of the ten songs on the album included the word ‘gun’ in their title, and the sepia colour which dominated the lavish sleeve, a gatefold with a 12-page book containing lyrics, musician credits and drawings (of a train, a river boat, soldiers, etc.) and rich brown photographs, reinforced the impression created by such song titles as ‘Country Comfort’, ‘Burn Down The Mission’, and ‘Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun’.
Despite the obvious expense and care, not one song on this clearly superb LP has ever been a hit single, even for Elton himself, although ‘Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun’, which in the version here features Caleb Quaye’s guitar punctuation and backing vocals by a six-strong choir including Dusty Springfield, Lesley Duncan, Madeleine Bell and Tony Burrows, was covered by James Taylor’s younger sister, Kate, and included on her only US chart LP. Kate Taylor (who clearly didn’t share her big brother’s self-confidence as a songwriter) also covered ‘Country Comfort’ on the same LP, and the latter song was also covered by a genuine country artist, Juice Newton, who included her version on her first hit album in 1981. However, it is probably best known as a cover version because Rod Stewart included it on his second LP, ‘Gasoline Alley’. Elton’s original version, which sounds somewhat like bluegrass or country/rock, features fiddle (by veteran jazzman Johnny Van Derek), pedal steel guitar (Gordon Huntley of Matthews Southern Comfort) and harmonica from Ian Duck, the vocalist and front man of Hookfoot, Elton’s DJM label-mates, who all – guitarist Caleb Quaye, drummer Roger Pope, bassman Dave Glover and Ian Duck – appear on the album.
The final track here, ‘Burn Down The Mission’, which became a stand-out of Elton’s live shows at the time, was covered by Phil Collins on 'Two Rooms', the 1991 tribute album of Elton and Bernie's songs. On the same all-star collection, Sting covered 'Come Down In Time', which was one of the apparent exceptions to the Western concept of the album, a modern romantic song which, in Elton's original version, uses harp (as in Harpo Marx) played by the unforgettably named Skaila Kanga, and oboe. The song was also recorded by both Judy Collins and Al Kooper, two notable American artists of the 1970s who were critical favourites.
Two of the songs on ‘Tumbleweed’ dwell on slightly morbid subjects, but the compositional quality in both cases is inspired. ‘Where To Now, St. Peter?’ addresses the agnostic dilemma of whether the final destination at the end of a life is heaven or hell, and is one of Bernie Taupin’s most astute early lyrics, and the more resigned ‘Talking Old Soldiers’ could have been written by Randy Newman. The latter song has a dedication to ‘David’, who is generally believed to be David Ackles, the late American singer/songwriter whose third LP, ‘American Gothic’, would be produced by Bernie Taupin. David Ackles was the opening act for Elton’s first live appearances in the US at the famous Troubadour club in Los Angeles in August, 1970, which was where America began its continuing admiration and love for Elton and his work.
While Ackles was never a commercial success, he was adored by many music critics, and this guaranteed that Elton's debut American performance would be seen and heard by an influential audience.
Elton has said of ‘Tumbleweed Connection’: “Lyrically and melodically, that’s probably one of our most perfect albums. I don’t think there’s any song on there that doesn’t melodically fit the lyric”. Bernie Taupin recalled: “Everybody thinks that I was influenced by Americana and by seeing America first hand, but we wrote and recorded the album before we’d even been to the States. It was totally influenced by The Band’s album, ‘Music From Big Pink’, and Robbie Robertson’s songs. I’ve always loved Americana, and I loved American Westerns. I’ve always said that ‘El Paso’ was the song that made me want to write songs, it was the perfect meshing of melody and storyline, and I thought that here was something that married rhythms and the written word perfectly”.
'El Paso', for the uninitiated, was a US chart-topping single in the first two weeks of 1960 for Marty Robbins, a country singer-songwriter and guitarist from Arizona, who accumulated over 90 US country chart hits between 1952 and his death in 1982, and was one of the first country stars, along with Johnny Cash and Jim Reeves, to regularly release singles which crossed over to the US pop chart.
‘Amoreena’, a regretful love song on which Elton was backed for the first time on record by Dee Murray (bass) and Nigel Olsson (drums), who remained his longtime rhythm section, is also the name of Elton’s God-daughter, and ‘Love Story’ is an “outside” song, written by Lesley Duncan, who plays acoustic guitar and sings with Elton. Both the song and the completed track were exceptional (even if the song wasn’t a John/Taupin original), which illustrates the way that Elton has often supported the efforts of talented friends. ‘Son Of Your Father’ is a highly cinematic black tale of two brothers, one of whom is blind and has a hook instead of a hand, and like several tracks here, is sufficiently vivid to perhaps one day form the basis of a movie script. This almost conceptual album may have attracted the attention of The Eagles, who treated similar subject matter totally conceptually a year or two later on their ‘Desperado’ album.
'Tumbleweed Connection' seems to have been unfairly overlooked in Elton John's huge catalogue of albums, but this expanded version with it's baker's dozen additional tracks will hopefully convince many who have clearly regarded it in the past as less than essential that it is well worthy of investigation, and includes a number of truly excellent songs.
John Tobler, 2008
