Elton John Diamonds (SDE Blu-Ray #31) Dec. 27th, 2024

[key_wiz]

My copy arrived today. I listened to about a third of it and my first impressions are all positive. Very nice surround mix. What a deal, 3+ hours of music on a stand alone BR. My Elton fandom has always revolved around the music from the first third of his career. I was surprised how much I liked a lot of the later songs. I can't wait to give it a full attention listen.

Elton's hits have always remained solid throughout his career. Where he falls off after the 70s is that the albums aren't as strong.

@key_wiz "Rock Of The Westies" has (unfairly, imho) long had a fairly raw deal from critics etc. i remember nearly spitting out my sandwich when i first read John Tobler's shall we say less than glowing/back-handed complimentary tone liner notes in the back of the CD remaster of Westies when it first came out in the mid-90's

on balance, it was a Number 1 album with a Number 1 single ("Island Girl") so it's hardly a dud and i personally know several Elton fans for whom it is one of their favourite EJ albums.

yes it's a slightly harder edged record with a different sound and a larger quite different band lineup than his previous few LPs but without damning it with Tobler's kind of faint praise it's far from EJ's worst album of the 70's!

it has to be said though, Bernie's songwriting had clearly taken a dip after "Captain Fantastic" (the lyrics to tracks like Tower Of Babel, Tell Me When The Whistle Blows, Bitter Fingers, Better Off Dead, We All Fall In Love Sometimes, Someone Saved My Life Tonight etc are sheer poetry) and every tune on that album is a toe-tapper (even the ballads are catchy!) mainly because Elton had to unfathomably memorize all the melodies as he wrote the entire album while on holiday on the SS France with no tape recorder to capture any of the writing!

in a case of "follow that!" (a crime he'd already committed following "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" up with the "Caribou" album) Westies had no chance to be seen as a great album coming after "Captain Fantastic" in all fairness but i'd still adore an Atmos/5.1 release of it because the best tracks on it are still stonkers!!! (i said stonker not Stinker! )

"Take the wheel, i hear the timbers creaking,
Take the wheel, i think this ship is sinking..
Jamaica seems so far and i've been thinking,
old Billy Bones has gone to sea
and quit his dockside drinking!"

CHECK IT OUT!!

I'm as big an Elton fan as anyone, having been a kid who adored him and bought all his albums as soon as I could upon release during his height of fame in the 70s. And I own everything he's ever released.

Rock of The Westies is NOT one of my favorites of his and one of the weakest from his 'classic' period. IMO. It has its moments, but I agree with most of the criticisms. And yes, I agree with you that Bernie's weak lyrics are what drags it down. (The three songs making up the opening "Medley" are all weak and cramming them together into one piece didn't help them.) And while I appreciate the new direction he tried to take with the new band? In retrospect, the classic lineup was better. (Not to mention that his replacing Dee Murray with Kenny Passerelli led to Bernie's divorce which gave us "Blue Moves" and... iy yi yi!)

But saying it's not one of my favorites? It's still a 3 1/2 out of 5 stars album for me.

And don't get me started on John Tobler. How the hell did HE get chosen to write the liner notes for all those reissues? I'm not even sure he was ever actually all that familiar with the music. Or music at all. One of my "favorite" (sarcastic) moments of his is on the notes for "Honky Chateau" where he credits the "synth sweeps" on "Rocket Man". Hey, blockhead. The "sweeps" you speak of are slide guitar. The synth plays a counter-melody line in the second verse.

 

[texeast]

Got mine yesterday. The only disappoint is the fact that my favorite Elton song: Madman Across the Water is not on here. Frankly, I don’t understand why as bumping one of those Kiki De duets to add Madman would have pleased me just fine. LOL!

 

[key_wiz]

Got mine yesterday. The only disappoint is the fact that my favorite Elton song: Madman Across the Water is not on here. Frankly, I don’t understand why as bumping one of those Kiki De duets to add Madman would have pleased me just fine. LOL!

At least we've got that excellent 5.1 mix of the Madman album.

If I could have requested any 'changes' to the tracklist, it would have been more cuts from "Don't Shoot Me', "Caribou", "Westies" and "Blue Moves".

 

[Michael Marshall]

Arrived in California Jan 6.

I got mine yesterday (Tuesday, January 7th). My mail has been consistently 1 to 2 days later than those living in the Bay Area and Southern California (I live in a town outside of Sacramento). Regardless, very nice Atmos mix and great value for the money. Looking forward to receiving my Bryan Ferry and Who SDE releases in the next few weeks...Cheers!

 

[Michael Marshall]

At least we've got that excellent 5.1 mix of the Madman album.

If I could have requested any 'changes' to the tracklist, it would have been more cuts from "Don't Shoot Me', "Caribou", "Westies" and "Blue Moves".

Blue Moves has been "criminally" overlooked since the date of it's original release in 1976 so I am never surprised that it doesn't have more than one (1) song on any "best of" compilation. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy along with Blue Moves are two (2) of Elton's best sounding (sonically) records and I would think would sound fantastic in Atmos/5.1/hi-rez immersive/surround audio. Side one(1) of Blue Moves is absolutely PHENOMENAL and a shame that it's never talked about, played, etc. I was lucky enough to see him on the tour that ended up producing the "Live in Australia" album (1986) at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, CA where he basically played, from start to finish, the first album side of Blue Moves. I was in a state of NIRVANA!!!

 

[bamamusicfan]

Got mine yesterday. The only disappoint is the fact that my favorite Elton song: Madman Across the Water is not on here. Frankly, I don’t understand why as bumping one of those Kiki De duets to add Madman would have pleased me just fine. LOL!

Give me Madman Across The Water, Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, Tower Of Babel and many others over some of these later cuts on Diamonds.
But ... maybe they are coming in Atmos down the line.

 

[rjpinca]

I got mine yesterday (Tuesday, January 7th). My mail has been consistently 1 to 2 days later than those living in the Bay Area and Southern California (I live in a town outside of Sacramento).

Hmmm... mine arrived on Monday, Jan 6th.

 

[Bill B]

Given Elton's body of work and longevity, I am sure we all have songs that we'd like to see on this bluray in place of songs we don't care for however, it looks like they wanted to make it career spanning collection.
I think that if you crossed off all the songs you don't care for, there would still be enough left that you would have still bought it. Consider those songs bonus songs.