The Elton John memorial tour, part 1 - Empty Sky

Credit where it’s due, he started as he meant to go on. This is definitely an Elton John album, if a little stripped back and not as ‘out there’ as later efforts. It’s all there, the Bernie Taupin lyrics that sound really profound and may indeed be if I could make any sense of them. “For the cat from next door /Was found later at four / In surgical dissection” has just left the speakers and I can’t decide whether I should study it or complain that it doesn’t scan properly. The title track is an eight & a half minute intro that  seems like a trap for a while, and he does seem to be pretending to be American on occasion. Something that all singers except The Proclaimers are guilty of at some point.

I’m not sold on the appearence of jazz-funk bongos but the harpsicord throughout Valhalla is almost a signature, and we’re on very safe but forgettable ground for a while until Skyline Pigeon, the stand out track of the album. Harpsicord again, and a song we can all torture our families with by singing with gusto. I’m sure the version that gets radio time features piano though. And what’s with the jazz pastiche half way through Gulliver / Hay Chewed / Reprise? Play the last two & a half minutes of this and Skyline Pigeon and you’re there.

The 1990 reissue included four bonus tracks which I won’t mention out of general principle – I’ll save that particular rant for another post.

So, late sixties prog rock leanings and a taste of things to come. Can we ask more of a 1969 debut album?