Honky Chateau
Island - Island
Elton John
Release date: 1996-05-14
Audio CD
Album Rock, England, Piano, Pop, Pop/Rock, Pop/Rock Music, Popular Music, Rock, Rock & Roll, Rock/Pop, Singer/Songwriter, Soft Rock
1. Honky Cat
2. Mellow
3. I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself
4. Susie (Dramas)
5. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)
6. Salvation
7. Slave
8. Amy
9. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
10. Hercules
11. Slave
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Honky Chateau
Date undefinedi look at these reviews and i wonder about people who can rate this anything below five stars. this is a classic recording, right up there with american beauty, brothers and sisters, second helping. it does not get any better than this....sheesh.
Honky Chateau
Date undefinedBy the time Elton release "Honky Chateau" in 1972 he and co songwriter Bernie Taupin had several albums under their belts and had become a cohesive team. This album would go straight to the top of the charts with its huge hit singles "Honkey Cat", "Rocket Man", and the AOR favorite "Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters". Elton tried a little bit of everything on this album and for the most part it all worked. This would also be the first album to feature the backing band of Olsen, Murray, and Johnstone who would stay with Elton off and on through the rest of his career. Violist Jon Luc Ponty also is on hand prior to the launching of his own instrumental solo career. This album is somewhat inconsistent and leaned towards a generally more commercial sound. Songs like "Mellow", "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself", and "Slave" only half work, but overall this is a good Elton John record and his first of many to go to number one on the charts.
Honky Chateau
Date undefinedAs one reviewer wrote of Elton's next album, "Don't Shoot Me...," at that point in his career the brooding singer-songwriter Elton had "left the building," but the fresh, new talented pop star Elton had taken his place, and the change would prove more than equitable going forward from there. Well, a few months earlier, with "Honky Chateau," singer-songwriter Elton opened the door to that building and put his first foot through it on his way out, saying hello to his pop star alter ego making his entrance.
Gone were the darker, somber songs and arrangements, as well as the assembly of studio musicians. Elton put his creative foot down and insisted his road band play on the album, thus beginning the amazing run of the original Elton John Band that would garner so much praise and fandom during the next few years.
Elton and Bernie wrote their most funky stuff to date, and even if it wasn't all perfect, it was damn close. Rockers strutted and stolled, ballads such as "Rocket Man" (the first to get backing vocals by Davey, Dee and Nigel) were beautiful and more electric than previous works. Only "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" bore any resemblance to "Madman..." and earlier recordings, but even that was a departure for John & Taupin. Songs like "Amy" were completely out of the norm to that point; that tune and "Honky Cat," "Hercules" and "Mellow" helped at last launch Elton as a recording "rock star," to equal his already established concert reputation as a rocker.
