It wasn’t Elton John’s concept to create a “sequel” to Captain Improbable 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 after they put their thoughts to creating a document based mostly on their ensuing world adventures, what got here out was certainly one of their finest items of labor since that album, The Captain And The Child, launched on September 18, 2006.
‘It’s not one thing I might have thought of doing’
Elton’s twenty eighth album, The Captain And The Child was recorded in certainly one of his adopted properties, Atlanta, within the spring of that 12 months, with devoted studio and stage sidemen Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson within the fold, as standard. Man Babylon, on keyboards, and Bob Birch, on bass, made return appearances after enjoying on the album’s predecessor, 2004’s Peachtree Street.
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 certainly one of solely two different names to look within the tight-knit group that made The Captain And The Child, together with percussionist John Mahon (that’s when you don’t rely Elton’s canine Arthur, who made a cameo look barking on the finish of “Simply Like Noah’s Ark”).
As ever, the brand new album was solely certainly one of a number of initiatives on Elton’s plate that 12 months. 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 recent 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 bought in 2005 to the Sanctuary Group. By now, Blunt had was one of many bestselling artists on this planet.
‘Inform tales which can be accessible to folks’
However when it got here to the idea of an autobiographical follow-up to Captain Improbable And The Brown Dust Cowboy – famously, the primary album ever to debut on the Billboard chart at No.1 – Taupin was pleased to present 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 thought of 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 may’t get tremendously detailed. The second factor that got here to thoughts was that we’re residing in a way more cynical age now, and the way are folks going to view it?
“I believed, when you’re going to inform tales, inform tales which can be accessible to folks. It’s bought to be about love, life, dying, extra, and people are issues that everybody is open to, whether or not 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. “Clearly the kick-off needed to be our arrival in Los Angeles within the fall of 1970,” mentioned Bernie. “The very first thing that bought me enthusiastic about it was I got here up with the road ‘We heard Richard Nixon say, “Welcome to the USA.”’
“I believed, That’s good, as a result of it offers folks a way of historical past, a time interval. From then, I simply took the problems that had been bigger than life to us, songs that handled the folks we misplaced and proceed to lose, our private relationships and the pressures.”
‘His defiance continues to be arresting’
Elton noticed the album as “finishing the cycle,” to make use of his phrase within the album booklet. The unique bundle 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 images 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 had been delighted with the album. Billboard wrote: “Due to natural, piano-driven manufacturing, stellar storytelling and Sir’s rededication to his vocal craft, it is a triumph.”
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Paul Flynn in The Observer was equally taken with the album’s candour and authenticity. “Bernie Taupin and Elton have a uncommon telepathy,” he wrote, “and if Captain Improbable handled their failure to deal with failure, the brand new one is about fighting success: ‘You couldn’t inform me I used to be flawed/You couldn’t inform me something,’ sings Elton on ‘I Should Have Misplaced It On The Wind.’ His defiance continues to be arresting.”
As The Captain And The Child reached its conclusion with the title monitor, one explicit lyric captured the essence of a singular relationship. As Bernie wrote, and as Elton sang: “However we caught round for the battle, ready for a plan to show you into the Brown Dust Cowboy and me right into a Rocket Man.”
Purchase or stream The Captain And The Child.