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Classic Album Reviews
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
But did we know why the dogs of society were howling?
“The roses in the window box have tilted to one side
Everything about this house was born to grow and die…”
And with that we get to the middle of track one, side one of Elton John’s greatest LP, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Elton is a treasure, an international star, and back when I first heard him in 1970 with his first hit, “Your Song,” I never thought I would have written those words. Not that I didn’t love the song, but what separated this guy from those who had hits all around him like Cat Stevens (“Wild World”) or Dave Edmonds (“I Hear You Knocking”)? And yeah, I adored those songs, too.
Still, I didn’t pay that much attention to Elton, even after his subsequent hits, “Friends,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Levon,” “Honky Cat,” “Rocket Man,” “Daniel,” and “Crocodile Rock.” Now I’m feeling stupid and wrong. Of all these, “Levon” killed me, and to this day I don’t know exactly why. Maybe it was the yearning and the unexplained heartache for something extraterrestrial or interplanetary.
Love and music do funny things to a person, and “love lies bleeding” for reasons we don’t often understand. But in 1973, When “Goodbye” was released, I was a high school senior, about to embark on a…