Elton John Goes Hip Hop?

[The Dean]

i had to double check to make sure it wasn't the Onion I was reading:

 

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=2358134

[IDBillzFan]

Haven't heard anything that messed up since Donna Summers went country.

 

Seriously.

[ajzepp]

I think Elton John is a bit of an a-hole, but I can't help but really like a lot of his music. Ironically, my favorite song of his is almost entirely absent from any of his compilations/greatest hits albums. I love the song "Empty Garden"....I think it's just beautiful, but it doesn't seem that a lot of other people feel that way about it.

[The Dean]

I think Elton John is a bit of an a-hole, but I can't help but really like a lot of his music. Ironically, my favorite song of his is almost entirely absent from any of his compilations/greatest hits albums. I love the song "Empty Garden"....I think it's just beautiful, but it doesn't seem that a lot of other people feel that way about it.

756585[/snapback]

 

 

Don't recall the song. But Elton had some great songs and albums. Elton John and Madman Across the Water are both excellent and Tumbleweed Connection is brilliant, IMO. Honkey Chatau has some good moments and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road would have been a good single album...but, it was all downhill after that.

[erynthered]

I can see the HEADline now:

 

"Homo goes Hip Hop."

 

 

 

 

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[GoodBye]

I think Elton John is a bit of an a-hole, but I can't help but really like a lot of his music. Ironically, my favorite song of his is almost entirely absent from any of his compilations/greatest hits albums. I love the song "Empty Garden"....I think it's just beautiful, but it doesn't seem that a lot of other people feel that way about it.

756585[/snapback]

Here you go.

 

Link

[ajzepp]

Here you go.   

 

Link

756598[/snapback]

 

Glad to see it's around on one of his albums....I really think that's one of his best.

[The Dean]

Glad to see it's around on one of his albums....I really think that's one of his best.

756609[/snapback]

 

Here's the review of Empty Garden from allmusic.com (a great site):

 

Song Review by Lindsay Planer

 

This mournful ballad is a peon to John Lennon from his friends Elton John (piano/vocals) and Bernie Taupin (lyrics). “Empty Garden (Hey, Hey Johnny)”, initially issued on Jump Up (1982), is their reaction to the senseless murder of Lennon in December of 1980. The track was among the handful to have reunited Taupin and John who had effectively gone their respective ways in 1976.

 

The mutual admiration between Lennon and John began in earnest after the pair had collaborated on the chart-topping “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” -- featured on Lennon’s Walls And Bridges (1975) album. As a direct result of the single becoming a #1 hit, Lennon joined the Elton John band onstage at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving in 1975. This brief performance would be Lennon’s final concert appearance. The former Beatle also credited Elton with reuniting he and Yoko Ono backstage at the MSG show. This would ultimately result in the birth of Elton’s Godson -- and the couple’s only child Sean Ono Lennon -- on the senior Lennon’s 35th birthday, October 9th, 1975.

 

“Empty Garden (Hey, Hey Johnny)” is a heartfelt tribute that recalls some of the more introspective and inspired compositions from the John/ Taupin team -- such as “Candle In The Wind” and “Come Down In Time”. Taupin’s analogy of Lennon as a gardener throughout the song is both apt and poignant. Couplets such as “But now it all looks strange/It’s funny how one insect can damage so much grain” or the chorus “Who lived here/He must have been a gardener who cared a lot/Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop” perfectly capture the overwhelming sense of incomprehensible loss that generations of Lennon’s enthusiasts felt.

 

The track became a Top 20 hit during the spring of 1982, although Elton abandoned performing it live until the mid ‘90s because -- as the artist explained to interviewer David Frost in 1994 -- it was “simply to painful to play.” However, he did begin adding it to his repertoire later in the decade.

[ajzepp]

Here's the review of Empty Garden  from allmusic.com (a great site):

 

Song Review by Lindsay Planer

 

This mournful ballad is a peon to John Lennon from his friends Elton John (piano/vocals) and Bernie Taupin (lyrics). “Empty Garden (Hey, Hey Johnny)”, initially issued on Jump Up (1982), is their reaction to the senseless murder of Lennon in December of 1980. The track was among the handful to have reunited Taupin and John who had effectively gone their respective ways in 1976.

 

The mutual admiration between Lennon and John began in earnest after the pair had collaborated on the chart-topping “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” -- featured on Lennon’s Walls And Bridges (1975) album. As a direct result of the single becoming a #1 hit, Lennon joined the Elton John band onstage at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving in 1975. This brief performance would be Lennon’s final concert appearance. The former Beatle also credited Elton with reuniting he and Yoko Ono backstage at the MSG show. This would ultimately result in the birth of Elton’s Godson -- and the couple’s only child Sean Ono Lennon -- on the senior Lennon’s 35th birthday, October 9th, 1975.

 

“Empty Garden (Hey, Hey Johnny)” is a heartfelt tribute that recalls some of the more introspective and inspired compositions from the John/ Taupin team -- such as “Candle In The Wind” and “Come Down In Time”. Taupin’s analogy of Lennon as a gardener throughout the song is both apt and poignant. Couplets such as “But now it all looks strange/It’s funny how one insect can damage so much grain” or the chorus “Who lived here/He must have been a gardener who cared a lot/Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop” perfectly capture the overwhelming sense of incomprehensible loss that generations of Lennon’s enthusiasts felt.

 

The track became a Top 20 hit during the spring of 1982, although Elton abandoned performing it live until the mid ‘90s because -- as the artist explained to interviewer David Frost in 1994 -- it was “simply to painful to play.” However, he did begin adding it to his repertoire later in the decade.

756685[/snapback]

 

 

Wow, I always thought it was an emotional song, but I didn't know the inspiration behind it....I like it even more now The whole thing is beautiful....the lyrics, the arrangement, his vocals....just a beautiful song.

[EC-Bills]

Here you go.   

 

Link

756598[/snapback]

 

You're such a suck-up