"...Out Of The Blue..."
When I worked as
a Rock buyer at Reckless Records in Islington and then the ultra-busy Soho
branch in Berwick Street (the shop that’s featured on the cover of the Oasis
album "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?") - Elton John's October
1976 double-album splurge "Blue Moves" was a yawn record - the kind
of unsellable dog that would sit in the racks alongside so many other copies of
the same – us hoping against hope that we might get (maybe) three or four quid
for it. In fact, as I recall, we were still turning down copies as non-shifters
as late as the early Nineties.
Cut to April 2020
- closing in on 44 years after the album's autumn 1976 release and my how
things have changed. Reappraisals take place all the time we know, but
"Blue Moves" has been getting one these last four decades with
lovelorn fans biting their chapped lips and declaring that its time to shoulder
that pistol-whipping holster. We flogged in then Mr. Dwight but we want it back
now. Sorry (does indeed) seem to be the hardest word when it comes to this
Reg-fest. Some digital history first…
First issued on
Rocket Records 822 818-2 in June 1988 as a single CD, that variant had dropped
"Shoulder Holster" from Side 2 and "The Wide-Eyed And
Laughing" from Side 3 in order to get the double-album to fit onto one CD.
That truncated issue was replaced by this - June 1996's 2-Disc Remaster –
transferred and worked beautifully by original album Producer GUS DUDGEON as
part of The Elton John Remasters Series. There has been other issues since,
especially in Japan, namely the 2 x SHM-CD reissue in Mini LP Repro packaging
from last year (2019) with a new 'dry' remaster that has left many fans running
back to this (sometimes the latest isn't always the best). Let's get to the
Boogie Pilgrims...
UK released 3
June 1996 - "Blue Moves" by ELTON JOHN on Mercury 532 467-2 (Barcode 731453246720) is a 2CD
Reissue and Remaster of the full 1976 double-album and plays out as follows:
CD1 (41:05
minutes):
1. Your Starter
For... [Side 1]
2. Tonight
3. One Horse Town
4. Chameleon
5. Boogie Pilgrim
[Side 2]
6. Cage The
Songbird (For Edith Piaf)
7. Crazy Water
8. Shoulder
Holster
CD2 (43:46
minutes):
1. Sorry Seems To
Be The Hardest Word [Side 3]
2. Out Of The
Blue
3. Between
Seventeen And Twenty
4. The Wide-Eyed
And Laughing
5. Someone's
Final Song
6. Where's The
Shoorah? [Side 4]
7. If There's A
God In Heaven (What's He Waiting For?)
8. Idol
9. Theme For A
Non-Existent TV Series
10. Bite Your Lip
(Get Up And Dance!)
"Blue
Moves" was released as a double-album 22 October 1976 in the UK on Rocket
Records ROSP 1 and in the USA on MCA/The Rocket Record Company 2-11004.
Produced by GUS DUDGEON - it peaked at No. 3 in the UK and also No. 3 in the
USA.
The 20-page
booklet reproduces the lyrics that came with the original inner sleeves (though
not the photos) and new JOHN TOBLER liner notes illuminate the album's place in
Elton's huge career. Rockets Records had been launched in 1973 with two albums
for Kiki Dee – both with Elton John and Bernie Taupin contributions (some
exclusive cuts too, I've reviewed both "Loving And Free" and "I've
Got The Music In Me"). GUS DUDGEON puts in a note about the master-tapes
and his 20-bit resolution transfers and there is no doubt about the Audio
fidelity here – it's superb – real clean and ballsy. For sure "Crazy
Water" still feels that tad under-produced in the oomph department - but I
suspect it was originally recorded and mastered that way. avng said that, those
almost Genesis-sounding acoustic guitars in "The Wide Eyed And
Laughing", the Community Choir filling your speakers in the Gospel-tinged "Where's
The Shoorah?" and the James Newton-Howard string arrangements in the
beautiful but crushing "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" all sound
hugely improved – every track now up for audio grabs.
The album
produced three instrumentals - the Caleb Quaye filler that is "Your
Starter For..." that opens Side 1 and the Side 4 ditty "Theme For A
Non-Existent TV Series" - both clocking in at just under one minute and
twenty seconds. I mention this because my poison has always been instrumental
door number three - the fantastic band boogie of "Out Of The Blue".
Between this and the Brecker Brothers/David Sanborn brass funk of "Boogie
Pilgrim" – both have been the reasons why I loved the album. In fact when
I made up 'Funky Funky' CD compilations for Shop Play shuffles in Reckless, I'd
include both tracks and without fail punters would arrive at the counter while
they played demanding to know who the instrumental was by - and then be duly
stunned when told it was 'Elton John'. You'd get that look - "I didn't know
Elton John was funky!" But alongside the sadder tunes on here like
"Tonight" (recorded with The London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road)
or "Between Seventeen And Twenty" - old feather-festooned Reg was
definitely a serious funky chicken. The single "Crazy Water" had that
Stevie Wonder clavinet boogie to it and the third and final 45 off the album,
"Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance!)" was clearly aimed at the emerging
dance floor Disco that was sweeping NYC and the world at the end of 1976 (it
was also on a 12" as I recall for DJs).
Finding
"Tonight" overdone and just a bit boring (Elton and an Orchestra), I
must admit that I start the double with the upbeat "One Horse Town"
which features The Martyn Ford Orchestra arranged and conducted by one of
Rock's great background heroes – Paul Buckmaster. "Chameleon",
"Crazy Water" and "Someone’s Final Song" are all supported
by a host of top backing singers including Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys,
Curt Becher (aka Curt Boettcher) of The Millennium, Toni Tennille of The
Captain and Tennille and a few more into the bargain. The ultra-harmonising duo
of David Crosby and Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The
Hollies) show up on two – the Edith Piaf tribute song "Cage The
Songbird" and "The Wide Eyed And Laughing" - while Marvin Gaye
and Aretha Franklin fans of 1971's "What's Going On" and 1972's
"Amazing Grace" will know the name of Rev. James Cleveland who
conducts and adds The California Community Choir to "Boogie Pilgrim",
"Where's The Shoorah?" and the album's final bopper "Bite Your
Lip (Get Up And Dance!)".
For sure
"Blue Moves" is not a masterpiece and you'd be hard-pressed I suspect
to get any EJ fan to say it equals "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" from
three years back in 1973.
But I like a bruiser and the good moments on here are
great. And old stock or not - this 1996 twofer Mercury CD Remaster is the one to get...
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