Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Studio album by Elton John
Publication (s)	19 May 1975 US 23 May 1975 UK
admission	August 1974
Label (s)	MCA (US / Canada) DJM Records
Format (s)	LP, 8-track, cassette, CD, SACD
Genre (s)	Rock, pop
Title (number)	10
running time	46:54
production	Gus Dudgeon
Studio (s)	Caribou Ranch , Nederland, Colorado, USA
chronology Elton John's Greatest Hits (1974) Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy Rock of the Westies (1975)
Single release June 23, 1975 Someone Saved My Life Tonight

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (Eng. " Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy ") is the ninth studio album by the British singer and composer Elton John .

In chronological order and with an autobiographical intention, the ten original songs of the original album, beginning with Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy , describe the initial difficulties of composer John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin at the beginning of their joint careers.

In the mid-1970s, John was exceptionally popular in the United States. Since his LP Honky Château , his albums have regularly reached number 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Because of the many pre-orders, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy started in first place. It was the first album ever to do this and was able to stay there for a period of seven weeks.

background

The lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin for Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy following a chronological sequence. It is a concept album that gives an autobiographical insight into the efforts of John (Captain Fantastic) and Taupin (the Brown Dirt Cowboy) in the early years of their musical careers in London from 1967 to 1969 had. The original vinyl album was accompanied by a text book and a photo booklet, which picked up on the zeitgeist of the time and complemented Taupin's lyrics.

Someone Saved My Life Tonight , the album's only single, is a semi-autobiographical story of John's unhappy engagement to Linda Woodrow and his suicide attempt in 1969. The "Someone" refers to Long John Baldry who convinced him to commit before John ruined his music career because of this marriage. The editor of the music magazine Rolling Stone , Jon Landau , calls this track the best on the album. “As long as Elton John is able to get tracks like 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' on his albums, the chances are he'll become more than just the great entertainer he already is and a lasting contribution to rock music will perform. "

In a 2006 interview with Cameron Crowe , John said, “I always thought that Captain Fantastic might be my finest album because it wasn't commercial in any way. We had songs like Someone Saved My Life Tonight , which is one of the best songs Bernie and I have ever written. But whether a song like this could be a single these days because it's more than six minutes long is questionable. Captain Fantastic was written in order from start to finish, like some sort of story that comes to the incidents of failure - or is desperate to avoid it. We lived this story. "

John, Taupin and the band worked harder and longer on this album than perhaps on any other previous recording they had made up to this point. In contrast to the fairly quick, almost factory-like process of writing and recording an album in just a few days or a few weeks at most (such as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ), the team spent the greater part of the month at Caribou Ranch studios, working on the Recordings. The producer Gus Dudgeon was visibly impressed and very satisfied with the results. The record producer was mentioned in Elizabeth Rosenthal's book "His Song" as a person who meticulously and closely followed all of John's recording work. He said that in his opinion Captain Fantastic was the best the band and Elton had ever played. He praised John and Taupin's language work and songwriting skills. "There's not a title on it that's less than incredible," said Dudgeon.

The album cover was created by pop artist Alan Aldridge.

In 1976 Bally Manufacturing developed a pinball machine for Penny Arcade and named it “Capt. Fantastic ”. In the artistic arrangement by Dave Christensen, John was portrayed on the glass of the headpiece in his role as the film's pinball wizard and rock opera Tommy .

In 1977 Bally Manufacturing brought the pinball machine “Capt. Fantastic ”as a new edition for home use on the market. The artistic processing was carried out by Alan Aldridge.

John was known for his very well designed albums. The equipment of Captain Fantastic was able to put all previously published long-playing records in the shade. The original LP included a booklet with the lyrics of the songs, called "Lyrics", which surprisingly begins with Dogs in the Kitchen . However, this title was never completed and is therefore not among the recordings. Another booklet was called "Scraps", which contained a collection of excerpts such as handwritten lyrics, diary entries and other personal memories of John and Taupin from the years of the album chronicle. A poster of the album cover was also attached to the LP. The 2005 Deluxe Edition on CD had scaled down copies. A limited edition was pressed on brown vinyl.

This was the last album until Too Low for Zero that the original Elton John Band recorded together.

The 2006 album The Captain & the Kid is the continuation of the autobiography and picks up where Captain Fantastic left off .

review

The album is described as John's masterpiece and the highlight of his musical career. In 2003 Rolling Stone magazine published a list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The 271 artists surveyed put “Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy” at 158th place.

Track list

All titles were composed and written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin , unless otherwise indicated.

LP and CD

page 1

1. " Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy " - 5:46
2. " Tower of Babel " - 4:28
3. " Bitter Fingers " - 4:35
4. " Tell Me When the Whistle Blows " - 4:20
5. " Someone Saved My Life Tonight " - 6:45

Page 2

6. " (Gotta Get a) Meal Ticket " - 4:01
7. " Better Off Dead " - 2:37
8. " Writing " - 3:40
9. " We All Fall in Love Sometimes " - 4:15
10. " Curtains " - 6:15

Bonus titles on re-releases

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Philadelphia Freedom were originally released as singles without being released on an album. Years later, both tracks, along with the B-side of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds , One Day at a Time writtenby John Lennon , were added as bonustracks to Captain Fantastic's re-mastered CD re-release.

The “30th Anniversary Edition CD”, released as a deluxe version in September 2005, contained the complete album and all previous bonus tracks. In addition, the song House of Cards was added, the original B-side of the 7 "single from Someone Saved My Life Tonight , which until then could only be found on the 1992 Rare Masters CD . The second CD contained a concert recording from Wembley Stadium in 1975.

In September 2005, John and his band played the entire album with the exception of Tower of Babel and Writing in a series of sold-out concerts in Boston, New York City, and finally in October 2005 in Atlanta. These Captain Fantastic Concerts were part of the Peachtree Road Tour and the longest concerts in John's career, many lasting at least three and a half hours.

Bonus Title (1995 Mercury and 1996 Rocket re-releases)

11. " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds " ( John Lennon , Paul McCartney ) - 6:18
12. "One Day at a Time" (Lennon) - 3:49
13. " Philadelphia Freedom " - 5:23

Bonus Title (2005 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Disc one (order according to original album)

11. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (Lennon, McCartney) - 6:18
12. "One Day (At a Time)" (Lennon) - 3:49
13. "Philadelphia Freedom" - 5:23
14. "House of Cards" - 3:12

Disk two ("Midsummer Music" concert at Wembley Stadium on June 21, 1975)

1. "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" - 7:02
2. "Tower of Babel" - 4:38
3. "Bitter Fingers" - 5:06
4. "Tell Me When the Whistle Blows" - 4:39
5. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" - 7:17 am
6. "(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket" - 7:19
7. "Better Off Dead" - 3:01
8. “Writing” - 5:30
9. "We All Fall in Love Sometimes" - 3:57
10. "Curtains" - 8:48
11. " Pinball Wizard " ( Pete Townshend ) - 6:31
12. "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" - 7:40 am

Bonus Title (1995 Mercury Re-release)

10. " Don't Go Breaking My Heart " (with Kiki Dee) (Ann Orson / Carte Blanche) - 4:28

Bonus Title (1996 Rocket Re-release)

10. "Planes" - 4:31
11. "Sugar on the Floor" ( Kiki Dee ) - 4:31

B sides

title	A side
"House of Cards"	"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" 7 "(US / UK)

occupation

• Elton John - vocals, piano
• Davey Johnstone - acoustic guitar , electric guitar, accompaniment voice, piano on "Writing"
• Dee Murray - bass guitar, backing voice
• Nigel Olsson - drums, accompanying part
• Ray Cooper - percussion

Other musicians:

• David Hentschel - ARP synthesizer on tracks 9 and 10
• Gene Page - orchestration for track 4

production

• Producer: Gus Dudgeon
• Sound engineer: Jeff Guercio
• Assistant to the sound engineer: Mark Guercio
• Remixing: Gus Dudgeon, Phil Dunne
• Remastering: Tony Cousins
• Digital transfer: Ricky Graham
• Orchestration : Gene Page
• Art Direction: David Larkham, Bernie Taupin
• Graphic conception: David Larkham, Bernie Taupin
• Cover design: Alan Aldridge
• Overall design: David Larkham
• Illustrations: Alan Aldridge
• Album Cover Text: John Tobler, Paul Gambaccini (Deluxe Edition)

Charts

album

year	Chart	placement
1975	Germany	22nd
1975	Austria	7th
1975	Great Britain	2
1975	United States	1

single

Year	single	Chart	placement
1975	Someone Saved My Life Tonight	Great Britain	25th
1975	Someone Saved My Life Tonight	United States	4th

Sales figures and awards

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
United States (RIAA)	3 × platinum	3,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	Gold (original) + silver (re-issue)	160,000
All in all	1 × silver 1 × gold 3 × platinum	3,160,000

Main article: Elton John / Music Sales Awards

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from August 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Elton-John-Captain-Fantastic-And-The-Brown-Dirt-Cowboy/master/30569
3. ↑ http://www.blick.ch/people-tv/elton-john-wollte-sich-umhaben-id140020.html
4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from October 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ http://www.eltonjohnitaly.com/crowe-interview2006.html
6. ↑ Elizabeth J. Rosenthal: His song: the musical journey of Elton John , 1st publ. Edition, Billboard Books, New York 2001, ISBN 978-0-8230-8893-5 .
7. ↑ Michael Pilz: Elton John & Co: What is gay pop? In: welt.de . September 14, 2006, accessed October 7, 2018 . 
8. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531
9. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: Germany - Austria - Great Britain - USA