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.

 

[Rstaylor]

This is an outstanding release in every way. I was initially disappointed that there wasn't a dedicated 5.1 mix, but this is by far the best-sounding fold-down Atmos mix in my collection. I would never know it's not a dedicated 5.1 mix. It easily rates a 10 for quantity and quality.

Not understanding several calls I've seen lamenting the exclusion of Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. This is a greatest-hits collection, and that track wasn't a single or a hit, nor was it included on the many previous releases of Diamonds. So why would it be included on this Blu-ray Audio version?

I know this wasn't on the cd version either, but the studio version of Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me is the only missing track that I wish were on Diamonds!

 

[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!!!

 

[esimms86]

The fact that it sold out so quickly gives good hope for further EJ releases, I hope.
A Hi-rez stereo, 5.1, Atmos combi for his 1970-1976 run (and maybe some more atmos releases of his later albums) would have my wallet crying especially if they keep up this quality of mixes.

…crying with joy.

 

[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.

 

[Quadmon]

We listened to Diamonds last night in 5.1. IMO it is very well done. I think overall it is tastefully done. Some songs are bare bones surround and others are very active creating a nice balance. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It is cool to hear how his voice changed as time passed. There were many that I hadn’t heard and I was surprised how much I liked them. A ten from me.

 

[artwwweb]

Just as a point of interest, "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" was released as a single in the UK. I have a copy. https://www.discogs.com/release/1418508-Elton-John-Funeral-For-A-Friend-Love-Lies-Bleeding
I suspect it was never expected to be a hit, but as the 12" was becoming popular in the late 70s a number of earlier tracks were (re-)released on 12", I imagine hoping to pick up some sales for novelty value. (Hawkwind's Silver Machine was also re-issued in 1978 on 12", for example.)

 

[barfle]

Got an email that my copy is in the US.

 

[Deanmad]

I want to start by saying the new atmos diamond recordings are superb. I have countless 5.1 dvd scad disc and Elton’s were far superior to them all in the quality of the recording. The same with his concert 5.1 dvds with the single exception of red piano one of the worst audio recordings I have heard With that in mind I would like to talk about auro3d. I have listened to diamonds in this format and it takes it to another level of Elton’s music. Let me explain I am in no way a professional sound engineer but I think I have a good ear for music. I listen to music and concerts at least 4 hours a day in between my golf days. I have 3 home theaters set for atmos audio not auro3d. Two are 7.1.4 the other one 5.1.4. I do not have a vog speaker in my system. All three systems have a marantz sr8015 running the auro3d mode. Elton sounds great in atmos but even better to me in auro3d. I will tell you I placed my ceiling speaker where I thought they should go I disagreed with all the professionals idea of where they should go. Of course your room dimensions can limit some places you can place your speakers. My auro3d movies and concerts sound great without the vog speaker installed in system. They are more realistic sound than atmos. The above is just my opinion but of course your equipment speaker placement room dimensions all play a part on your overall sound you will get from your system. I have one of my rooms that have two different sound systems in them because I wanted to keep my original 5.1 system so I can still enjoy all of my 5.1 material dvdaudio sacd etc.

 

[key_wiz]

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!!!

"Blue Moves" sits slightly below "Westies" for me. 3 out of 5 stars. Great effort, but falls short in several areas. Like with "Westies", the band is stellar but almost TOO good. Slick and polished almost to a fault and all that extra musicianship doesn't cover for weak songwriting. Bernie's lyrics here are stronger overall, but "Boogie Pilgrim" anyone? Some rather obvious b-sides are better left as such. But even to the degree his lyrics are better, the overall maudlin tone gets a bit wearisome by the time we finally get to the upbeat "Bite Your Lip" at the end of side 4.

I agree Side 1 is pretty stellar. There are, at most, 3 sides of strong material here. Double albums are notoriously difficult to make strong all the through. Very few have succeeded at this, and Elton already produced one of those rare feats. Being a double LP, it was invariable that Blue Moves would be compared to GYBR, and it's nowhere even close to that album.

Is there a better single album that could have been had here? I dunno. Probably, but I generally don't really like playing that game of imaginary track lists as albums are what they are. MCA originally released the album on CD with 4 tracks missing in order to fit it on a single disc. Unfortunately, one of the tracks they omitted was "Cage The Songbird" which is probably my favorite cut on the entire album. Its simplistic, acoustic guitar driven arrangement with the focus on the great harmonies provided by David Crosby and Graham Nash harkens back to the days of "Love Song" on Tumbleweed Connection. If there has ever been an overlooked gem of an Elton track, this one gets my vote.

I do agree this would be a great album in surround. There's a lot of overdubs and layering and production that would sound great in surround and I agree this is, along with CF, his best sounding album. Sometimes new surround mixes give me new appreciation for albums I was always somewhat 'meh' about in the past. Hopefully this would be one of them.

ALL of the above is just in my humble opinion, BTW.

 

[Michael Marshall]

"Blue Moves" sits slightly below "Westies" for me. 3 out of 5 stars. Great effort, but falls short in several areas. Like with "Westies", the band is stellar but almost TOO good. Slick and polished almost to a fault and all that extra musicianship doesn't cover for weak songwriting. Bernie's lyrics here are stronger overall, but "Boogie Pilgrim" anyone? Some rather obvious b-sides are better left as such. But even to the degree his lyrics are better, the overall maudlin tone gets a bit wearisome by the time we finally get to the upbeat "Bite Your Lip" at the end of side 4.

I agree Side 1 is pretty stellar. There are, at most, 3 sides of strong material here. Double albums are notoriously difficult to make strong all the through. Very few have succeeded at this, and Elton already produced one of those rare feats. Being a double LP, it was invariable that Blue Moves would be compared to GYBR, and it's nowhere even close to that album.

Is there a better single album that could have been had here? I dunno. Probably, but I generally don't really like playing that game of imaginary track lists as albums are what they are. MCA originally released the album on CD with 4 tracks missing in order to fit it on a single disc. Unfortunately, one of the tracks they omitted was "Cage The Songbird" which is probably my favorite cut on the entire album. Its simplistic arrangement with the focus on the great harmonies provided by David Crosby and Graham Nash harkens back to the days of "Love Song" on Tumbleweed Connection. If there has ever been an overlooked gem of an Elton track, this one gets my vote.

I do agree this would be a great album in surround. There's a lot of overdubs and layering and production that would sound great in surround and I agree this is, along with CF, his best sounding album. Sometimes new surround mixes give me new appreciation for albums I was always somewhat 'meh' about in the past. Hopefully this would be one of them.

ALL of the above is just in my humble opinion, BTW.

I could NOT have said it any better so I won't! The production and orchestration is exceptional and James Newton Howard was a welcome surprise to add to this album as the great Paul Buckmaster is such a hard act to follow. What we also have to consider with this release and actually every one of Elton's releases after his 1st Greatest Hits album in 1974, was that he released several singles that were NOT released on his albums. Many were chart topping starting with "Philadelphia Freedom", "Pinball Wizard",."Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the Blue Moves era "Don't Go Breaking my Heart" duet with Ki Ki Dee. "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" was a good single but it certainly didn't pop like "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" did on the AM radio.

 

[key_wiz]

I could NOT have said it any better so I won't! The production and orchestration is exceptional and James Newton Howard was a welcome surprise to add to this album as the great Paul Buckmaster is such a hard act to follow. What we also have to consider with this release and actually every one of Elton's releases after his 1st Greatest Hits album in 1974, was that he released several singles that were NOT released on his albums. Many were chart topping starting with "Philadelphia Freedom", "Pinball Wizard",."Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the Blue Moves era "Don't Go Breaking my Heart" duet with Ki Ki Dee. "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" was a good single but it certainly didn't pop like "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" did on the AM radio.

For accuracy sake, I'll point out that James Newton Howard was also part of the band on "Westies". He was just a studio sideman at the time and being in Elton's band was considered his 'big break'. Who knew he'd go on to become such a musical entity in his own right?

And don't forget the great work Del Newman and Gene Page did for Elton arranging strings on the albums in between Buckmaster and Howard!

You are correct about the great singles he was also cranking out at the time (although, technically, Pinball Wizard was never a single, at least not in the US. ) We can nitpick about the weaker tracks and albums during his peak period of 1970-1976, but the sheer volume of excellent work he cranked out during that 2-album-per-year record deal he had to fulfill was surpassed only by The Beatles. And they had 3 excellent songwriters to rely upon.

Just bring on the rest of those albums in surround already!

 

[Michael Marshall]

For accuracy sake, I'll point out that James Newton Howard was also part of the band on "Westies". He was just a studio sideman at the time and being in Elton's band was considered his 'big break'. Who knew he'd go on to become such a musical entity in his own right?

And don't forget the great work Del Newman and Gene Page did for Elton arranging strings on the albums in between Buckmaster and Howard!

You are correct about the great singles he was also cranking out at the time (although, technically, Pinball Wizard was never a single, at least not in the US. ) We can nitpick about the weaker tracks and albums during his peak period of 1970-1976, but the sheer volume of excellent work he cranked out during that 2-album-per-year record deal he had to fulfill was surpassed only by The Beatles. And they had 3 excellent songwriters to rely upon.

Just bring on the rest of those albums in surround already!

AGREED! I remember that I had to buy his "Greatest Hits Vol 2" just for Pinball Wizard...

 

[Michael Marshall]

This is an outstanding release in every way. I was initially disappointed that there wasn't a dedicated 5.1 mix, but this is by far the best-sounding fold-down Atmos mix in my collection. I would never know it's not a dedicated 5.1 mix. It easily rates a 10 for quantity and quality.

Not understanding several calls I've seen lamenting the exclusion of Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. This is a greatest-hits collection, and that track wasn't a single or a hit, nor was it included on the many previous releases of Diamonds. So why would it be included on this Blu-ray Audio version?

I promise, I am NOT trying to be difficult (maybe a bit contarian, though!) but the release is titled "Diamonds" and NOT "Greatest Hits" so...

 

[key_wiz]

AGREED! I remember that I had to buy his "Greatest Hits Vol 2" just for Pinball Wizard...

I couldn't wait that long. I bought the entire 2-disc "Tommy" soundtrack just for that one track!

Although I did end up really enjoying the entire thing very much.