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Caribou
Category: Music |
List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $8.97 |
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As of: November 22nd, 2008 05:44:07 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Elton John - Ticking........
After the resounding artistic success of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" it was going to be nearly impossible for Elton to come up with something it's equal. "Caribou" would be his next effort and although not as consistently good as "Yellow Brick Road" it is another fine disc. The album featured two huge hits, the rocking "Bitch Is Back", a concert staple which has become one of Elton's theme songs and the gorgeous "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" which remains an all time classic. My favorite song on the album is the closing track "Ticking", a 7 minute plus mini opus that tells the story of a gunman who takes hostages ending up killing some of them. The song also weaves in the back-story of his life. "Ticking" covers a lot of ground in short period of time and to me is one of Elton and Bernie's greatest achievements of their career. The rest of the album features some standout tracks like the underrated love song "Pinky", the rockers "Grimsby" and "Stinker", and the sci fi tale "I've Seen The Saucers". There are a few clunkers on this one too that keep it from being a 5 star album, but even these songs are at least listenable. "Caribou" was a bit of a rush job as the whole thing was recorded in about a weeks time. It is quite amazing that Elton and Bernie were able to put out this album and the previous one in less than a year's, and that it came out as good as it did.
An Overlooked Gem
Elton John - Caribou (1974) (*** ½ ) 14 tracks (64:15)
I was recently on the Amazon site reading reviews and stumbled on a forum thread about sad songs. Someone listed "Ticking" by Elton John. That's when I thought to myself, "I don't remember that song." So when I got home I started looking thru my EJ cd's until I found the song. Humm... Caribou. Now it made sense. Caribou is one of those albums I hardly ever listened to and am not very familiar with all the songs. That got me thinking. I needed to listen to this thing again, a little closer this time, to see what other songs I might have missed. This is what started me reviewing all of Elton John's classic era 1970's albums.
Caribou, named after the recording studio "Caribou Ranch" where the album was made, is a mediocre album. Not Elton's worst, but certainly not his best. Besides the two "hits", The Bitch is Back and Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Ticking is actually the best song on the album. Most of the rest are just basic EJ songs. The Island re-master has four bonus tracks that actually help this album out over-all. Pinball Wizard, the cover of the famous Who song, is the best, but Sick City and Cold Highway are both really good songs. Better than most of the material on Caribou.
I'm giving Caribou four stars, but really it's about a 3 ½ star album.
 The string of hits continues
More pop than Elton's early seventies albums and more consistent than just about anything in his catalog apart from the classic "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Although Elton had veered into some serious confection territory since "Crocodile Rock", "I've Seen The Saucers" is a solid FM rock type song that would be on my shortlist of Elton favorites. Does it even need saying that "Caribou" includes the studio version of Elton's #2 hit, "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me"? Pity that the box set substitutes a vastly inferior live version. This is the one to own.
Other tasty album cuts include the warm "Pinky" and the rocking "Grimsby" which was a highlight of Elton's 1974 tour in support of this album. A couple of the songs haven't worn as well, "You're So Static" and the playful "Solar Prestige A Gammon", but given the strength of this collection that's a minor foible. I used to be an ardent fan in the mid-seventies, owning the complete Elton John from 1969 through about 1975 but of those albums, this is one of only three or four that I've replaced with a CD copy. Recommended even if you already own an Elton John "best of" compilation.
Two words: Worth Having!
I'm not going to pick this album to death, it is not the greatest EJ album for sure, but I have always liked it and only a couple of songs on it that miss the mark. For the most part it rocks, and its certainly worth having!!
An album with much to commend it
Although Caribou suffered to some extent from being the follow-up to Goodbye yellow brick road (how could he follow that?), it's long been an album that I liked and this re-issue strengthens it with the addition of four bonus tracks, two of which were originally released as the A-sides of singles.
Bernie Taupin has admitted that he sometimes writes lyrics that don't necessarily make sense but otherwise sound good, so if you occasionally don't understand them, perhaps you're not meant to. Somnetimes the lyrics read as if they ought to make sense and it's just a case of figuring out what they mean. Whatever, Elton almost invariably manages to set great music to Bernie's lyrics, whether they make sense or not, and so it proves with this album and its bonus tracks.
Altogether, there are four of Elton's classics here beginning with The bitch is back. It was never one of my favorite Elton songs partly because I've never quite understood the lyrics, but the music is great and Dusty Springfield is one of the four backing singers, so it's a great track with which to open the album. To my ears, the outstanding track here is Don't let the sun go down on me, a song in which both the lyrics and the music are brilliant. Here, Toni Tennille and two members of the Beach BNoys were among the four backing singers. Pinball wizard (originally by the Who) was featured in the rock opera Tommy and was originally offered to Rod Stewart (perhaps in part because he had a history bof hits with cover versions) but Rod turned down the chance and eventually the chance came Elton's way. Unlike Rod, Elton rarely records cover versions (if you exclude those that he recorded before he became famous) but he made a superb job of Pinball wizard. The fourth Elton classic here is his Christmas song, Step into Christmas. Generally, I prefer Christmas songs to be kept separate from other music but I don't mind this one being added here, especially as they made it the final track. It is therefore easy to stop the CD early to avoid hearing it at the wrong time of year. Of course, anybody who is interested in Christmas music can find the song easily on a Christmas compilation.
Apart from those four famous songs, there are ten other songs here. Of these, Solar prestige a gammon contains lyrics that definitely do not make sense; I think Bernie may have written them deliberately to see what response the critics would give. There are much better songs here, most notably Grimsby (which paints a rosier picture of the town than you're likely to find elsewhere outside of a tourist guide) and Dixie Lady (a country-flavored song about a riverboat). Indeed, there are plenty of good songs on this album.
While this is not regarded by most people as one of Elton's essential original albums, it remains one of my favorites. Those four bonus tracks furher enhance it.
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