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

[LuvMyQuad]

I always thought Nikita was a song about Elton's love of his camera!

I'm really enjoying Diamonds and am still regularly playing it. It prompted me to watch the Rocketman biopic film over the weekend. Excellent, no idea why I'd never watched that before. Possibly because the previous biopic film that I had watched was the Queen film, which had major historical inaccuracies that ruined it. No idea of the historical accuracy of Rocketman though. *** paging fredblue !!!

I know the Queen pic was chronologically wrong with respect to timing and song order, was there a lot more?

I just saw the Dylan biopic yesterday. It supposedly had Dylans blessing with respect to accuracy, but he insisted on changing his girlfriends name in the movie.

 

[JFHiggins]

I always thought Nikita was a song about Elton's love of his camera!

I'm really enjoying Diamonds and am still regularly playing it. It prompted me to watch the Rocketman biopic film over the weekend. Excellent, no idea why I'd never watched that before. Possibly because the previous biopic film that I had watched was the Queen film, which had major historical inaccuracies that ruined it. No idea of the historical accuracy of Rocketman though. *** paging fredblue !!!

My brief on Rocketman is: “Everything in the film happened…just not that way.”

 

[privateuniverse]

So @fredblue ..... I assume you've seen the new Never Too Late documentary. I watched it last week and loved it. The thing that I was most blown away by was seeing concert footage of the early Elton/Dee/Nigel trio. I love that era. (For my money 11/17/70 is one of the greatest live records ever). But this footage was all new to me. Has this footage circulated before? Is there more out there? I'd love to see more.

 

[colsky]

I know the Queen pic was chronologically wrong with respect to timing and song order, was there a lot more?

I just saw the Dylan biopic yesterday. It supposedly had Dylans blessing with respect to accuracy, but he insisted on changing his girlfriends name in the movie.

With the Queen pic yes its basically timing and song order (including Freddie's moustache appearing too early!), but the timing issues definitely ruin it for me. e.g. in the film Freddie announces he is HIV positive before Live Aid and uses this to convince the band to play Live Aid - totally wrong and really twists the narrative. Also in the film Queen hadn't played live for a long time before Live Aid, so making it look like they were really professional in getting their act together for that, when really they had been on tour already for ages before Live Aid. I don't know why the band allowed the HIV chronology error to happen!

 

[Muppet69]

Kicking myself for not getting this. Keeping an eye on the SDEShop just in case one pops up.

 

[fredblue]

So @fredblue ..... I assume you've seen the new Never Too Late documentary. I watched it last week and loved it. The thing that I was most blown away by was seeing concert footage of the early Elton/Dee/Nigel trio. I love that era. (For my money 11/17/70 is one of the greatest live records ever). But this footage was all new to me. Has this footage circulated before? Is there more out there? I'd love to see more.

there's been the odd clip from when Elton, Dee & Nigel were a trio, including a fuzzier shorter version of the same clip of "Sixty Years On" that's in the "Never Too Late" film which was in 1991's "Two Rooms" documentary.

there's also an Aquarius ITV/LWT TV documentary film from 1971 as a bonus on the DVD of "Two Rooms" with concert footage (it includes the clip we've all seen where Elton's just casually at the piano writing "Tiny Dancer" on camera!!) and BBC TV's 'Sounds For Saturday' concert that's in the "Madman Across The Water" Anniversary set is also excellent.

 

[Rhinojack]

i haven't seen that video clip in 30 years!

Ken Russell at his most restrained..

Talk about an earworm! Hasn't left my head since I listened to it this morning watching this video. Like many, haven't heard this since the days of MTV.

 

[JFHiggins]

So @fredblue ..... I assume you've seen the new Never Too Late documentary. I watched it last week and loved it. The thing that I was most blown away by was seeing concert footage of the early Elton/Dee/Nigel trio. I love that era. (For my money 11/17/70 is one of the greatest live records ever). But this footage was all new to me. Has this footage circulated before? Is there more out there? I'd love to see more.

Hijacking this topic a bit. I worked on the archival side of the documentary and was thrilled they were able to include so much never-seen-before footage. Some of the early concert clips are from the pieces @fredblue mentioned. The pieces that you would not have seen before are from two main sources: "home movies" that members of the early tours crew shot on Super 8 and Elton's concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 11/15/70 (note the date!). This is the purple-tights-and-jersey bit...which is just astounding. "Your Song" from that concert was broadcast on a Henry Mancini TV special, marking Elton's first appearance on US TV, but this is the first time we've seen the clip that is in the documentary!

 

[Juggsnelson]

"Nikita" is my favourite of the new mixes of 80's material as well, a stunning Surround showcase with layers galore and so many lovely things happening all round the room to engage the senses

that said, "Little Jeannie" also sounds totally beautiful to me on the Blu-ray and wrapped up in a better Surround mix than i could have ever hoped for

it's January now but everyday is like stepping into Christmas when i play this set i even enjoyed "Empty Garden" last night and got through it without dissolving into a wet heap of blubbing because i was so busy picking out all the delightful details -- and that fabulously gutsy drumming of Jeff Porcaro never sounded better than it does now!

I could have written this...not so eloquently lol....because your thoughts mirrored mine exactly on all 3 of these songs. 3 of my favorite 80's Elton tunes taken several notches above where I already rated them.

 

[Juggsnelson]

Nikita is one of my favorite EJ songs in his entire output. I always liked the music video to:



Tidbit: The fellow in the music video who plays the male border guard was a henchman in the Bond film The Living Daylights.

Mine too! So happy it now sounds better than ever.

 

[key_wiz]

there's maybe the odd instance of a minor anachronism in Rocketman, the main one people bring up is "Crocodile Rock" (1973) in The Troubadour (1970) but i've also heard some criticism about "I Want Love" being used when Elton's a little kid and "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" when Elton's a teenager.

i never had a problem with any of that tbh, it's artistic licence in a musical after all and using the music to develop the narrative rather than stick slavishly to a timeline or whatever.

it was also suggested he was possibly 'somewhat off his tits' in rehab in the telling of the movie, which might account for any haziness in Reg's recollections!

“Rocketman” was never intended to be a documentary accounting of his life and music. They used songs when and where they served the story.

I always question it when people feel such “inaccuracies” ruin a movie for them. If you already know all the minute details so well that irrelevant-to-the-story facts such as whether he played Crocodile Rock at a particular concert or not will ruin the entire movie for you?

I will just say —

keep well, keep well old friend and have another drink on me

Just ignore all the others, you've got your memories

You've got your memories

 

[privateuniverse]

Hijacking this topic a bit. I worked on the archival side of the documentary and was thrilled they were able to include so much never-seen-before footage. Some of the early concert clips are from the pieces @fredblue mentioned. The pieces that you would not have seen before are from two main sources: "home movies" that members of the early tours crew shot on Super 8 and Elton's concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 11/15/70 (note the date!). This is the purple-tights-and-jersey bit...which is just astounding. "Your Song" from that concert was broadcast on a Henry Mancini TV special, marking Elton's first appearance on US TV, but this is the first time we've seen the clip that is in the documentary!

Oh wow! Thank you for the info on this! If you're allowed to say..... How much of the Santa Monica concert exists on film? Do they have footage of the entire concert? What I wouldn't give to see that!!!