Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I had the rather odd experience of being halfway through an EJ bio, which mentioned, every so often, that after each big tour Dee would go somewhere and sunbathe. So, I was reading this book and had the radio on one day and the news came on that Dee had just died of skin cancer. I didn't even know that he was ill. Anyway, yeah, the EJB was a great band. Much like I have no use for Elvis Costello without the Attractions, regardless of how good the songwriting is. It's the band that's money or not, turns in the great performance, has the chem, and when they all can sing, that goes triple. EJ firing those two was like Macca and Lennon firing George and Ringo and expecting to get the same quality from two hired guns. As Wings proved time and time again, if you're lucky enough to find guys like that once in life, you've beaten impossible odds. You won't do it again, no matter who you are. I was lucky enough to meet and talk with EJ for about a half hour in 1980, but never broached the firing subject. They had all just reunited at that point, and he was talking about working with Lennon, this was in Oct. of that year. I'm a big Band fan, too. Have all the CDs and on vinyl. My brother had the new box set, though I'm a little wary of box sets. And isn't this the second Band box set anyway?

By the way, GYBR DVD is outstanding. My only rub with it is a tiny one. They go into detail about previous EJB releases, how his career developed, band formed, and led to the making of GYBR. But, funny, for some reason the only LP they left out is Don't Shoot Me, which of course is by far the closest LP to GRBR, not unlike Revolver implied much of what was coming next. So, that is kinda funny, and Don't Shoot Me might be my fav pop LP from those guys, GYBR included.

Dont Shoot Me... was the first LP I ever bought.

What a great record.

My uncle had it on 8 track. I thought it was phenomenal as a 5 year old. Now it's even better.

8-track? I found a copy of it on cassette in a thrift shop last year and have been kicking myself because I didn't buy it and since then I'm picked up GYBR, Honkey C, Madman and Tumbleweed on cassette. Yeah, I never have collected anything (even Rickenbackers...though that will soon change) but now I'm collecting cassettes. Don't ask

When I was in high school the first car I ever owned was a '68 Mustang fastback, had an 8-track deck.

I grew up with all of that early Elton John . . . Yellow Brick Road, Don't Shoot Me . . ., Honky Chateau, Tumbleweed Connection; that music was freaking amazing.

I'm particularly fond of Tumbleweed Connection . . . that album is just incredible. "Burn down the mission, if we're gonna stay alive!"

I think that's my favorite period for Elton John music as well. I've always considered "Captain Fantastic" to be the end of that era of his and Taupin's songwriting.

On the firing of Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson, I dimly recall that the explanation, at the time, was that Elton was looking for a change in his sound and he believed, or had been told, that the fastest way to accomplish that was to change out rhythm sections. I thought then, and still do, that it was the most ridiculous logic that I'd ever encountered.

To me, Tumbleweed was always the best pre-pop rock Elton (credit due in large part to being influenced by the Band as in Robbie Robertson, as Elton said when it was released), and Don't Shoot Me the best pop and completely formed EJ Band album, GBYBR notwithstanding (Honkey C. being the hybrid between the two.) In one of the bios it is explained that despite their success, Elton never really felt he had a good band, so he fired half of it (perfectionist syndrome I guess, not unlike Lennon saying their was no Beatles track he didn't want to re-record later.) I think the Madman album is very hit and miss and never got into it for that reason, and agree that Captn' was the last gasp of the best quality. They never got it back when they reunited, though of course 80s production didn't help. Far's I can tell, Blue Moves has the songwriting intact, but I don't want to listen to it because the band ain't there. Rock of the Westies was pure rubbish played by LA hacks, though the EJB did the same on Caribou (too many albums in not enough time with too much touring in between.) Still, it's amazing the sound they were capable of. In many respects, the dynamics they had plus the ability to make a very complex sound look easy, coupled with, for a few years there at least, proficiancy and quality on par with some of the early Beatles pop years, it'sstill mind blowing. And as the Making of GBYBR shows, that band worked out all their backing vocals and the like without Elton even being in the building. EJ would have been much better off had it been a democracy, thus his own personal misery (EJ not liking touring, yet spending millions every week, ensuring more touring) wouldn't have destroyed a band which was far more responsible for its success than most think. Bad management, too. Whoever let him pull that ****, I think it was his partner at the time, which explains a lot, was just nuts. Otherwise, their only shortcoming was not using RIcs! After all the mellotron work on GBYBR, you'd think one track would have had one. I guess it was 70s Les Paul Marshalls overload.

EJ's "Songs From The West Coast" from a few years ago is very good. No real rocking songs but at least it has his whole band.

But not THE whole band. Dee Murray is the reason I play bass and not drums, my original plan as a teen.

I wonder where Davey stood when EJ canned Dee and Nigel. I mean, I don't know how he felt or feels about them and not sure it was ever explained. But if they were mates, he must have had some feelings about it for sure. I need to pick up Songs from the West Coast.

The GYBR DVD just left me wanting more, I was always a fan of the EJ Band and to actually hear those guys talk, about the music and the times, and to see that old studio footage, was real cool. Too bad Dee and Gus are gone.

At one point Elton talks about how they could never work that way again, meaning Bernie writing lyrics in one room while Elton was writing music in another and the band was finishing off a track in a third. But you wonder why, with the results they got, they don't try. It certainly coudn't hurt. But that's when you put music first. I read an interview with Pete Townshend once where he was talking about how, when Kenny Jones first joined the Who, Pete was his biggest supporter. But when they went to record, Kenny had to keep leaving the room to talk with his wife on the phone. Finally Pete got fed up and eventually, no more Kenny. Kinda like South Park. I guess that's what art needs, isolated artists concentrating on the product.