Tumbleweed Connection

Tumbleweed Connection
Studio album by Elton John
Publication (s)	October 30, 1970
admission	March 1970
Label (s)	Uni Records (US / Canada) DJM Records (UK)
Genre (s)	skirt
running time	46:56
production	Gus Dudgeon
Studio (s)	Trident Studios, London
chronology Elton John (1970) Tumbleweed Connection Friends (1971)

Tumbleweed Connection (German steppe runner connection ) is the third studio album by the British singer and composer Elton John .

The nostalgic sepia cover image of the concept album "Tumbleweed Connection" apparently shows a sleepy train station in the sun-drenched southern USA, matching Bernie Taupin's Americanized poetry on the album about country life, soldiers and gunslingers.

The photographer David Larkham (according to other information: Ian Digby-Ovens ) took the photo of John (sitting on the right) and Taupin (standing on the left) in 1970, however, just under fifty kilometers south of London. The Bluebell Railway Station is located in Horsted Keynes .

background

The release of Tumbleweed Connection did nothing to change the fact that John was still able to move undetected in public in England, although the album there reached a successful number 2 in the album charts. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, however, it was hardly noticed.

For the USA, however, before the release, John undertook a promotional tour that began on a hot day and after an eight-hour flight in economy class, not as he hoped in an air-conditioned limousine, but in a red, English double-decker bus with the Lettering "Elton John has arrived" (Ger. Elton John has arrived).

The three-week tour began in Los Angeles, California, USA at the Troubadour Club on Santa Monica Boulevard. Publicity consultant Norm Winter made sure that enough opinion-forming artists and media representatives were present. John also performed songs from the not yet released album Tumbleweed Connection and after five songs he was annoyed by the lack of interest of the audience, who continued to talk during the concert. With the words "If you won't listen, perhaps you'll bloody well listen to this!" (Eng. If you're not listening, maybe you're fucking listening to that!) He kicked his piano chair away and played the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis (the live album 17-11-70 gives a very good impression of his stage presence at the time). The enthusiasm that then emerged was also reflected in a newspaper article in the Los Angeles Times on August 27, 1970, entitled "Elton John New Rock Talent", and became the cornerstone of his success in the US and the soon-to-be-released album Tumbleweed Connection .

review

With the lyrics for Tumbleweed Connection , Taupin celebrated his childhood love for the American West. Almost every song picked up this feeling for cowboys and the Mexican border. The lyrics were teeming with terms such as railroad, riverboat, hellfire preachers, and rocking chairs. Taupin mixed this atmosphere with his own experiences from Lincolnshire in England, about cowsheds, grain fields, squirrels and night swallows, where the tree with the angel also stood ("you tell me there's an angel in your tree" - Burn down the Mission) that he daydreamed. The mood was popular and down-to-earth throughout, garnished with yodelling and rebel screams. Only two songs were not written in Buffalo Bill's spirit: Amoreena , an impressionistic idyll à la Renoir , and Lesley Duncan's Love Song , which John recorded again for his album.

Track list

Elton John composed the music for all titles , and Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics unless otherwise indicated.

LP and CD

page 1

1. Ballad of a Well-Known Gun - 4:59
2. Come Down in Time - 3:25
3. Country Comfort - 5:06
4. Son of Your Father - 3:48
5. My Father's Gun - 6:20

Page 2

6. Where to Now St. Peter - 4:11
7. Love Song (Lesley Duncan) - 3:41
8. Amoreena - 5:00
9. Talking Old Soldiers - 4:06
10. Burn Down the Mission - 6:22

Bonus titles on re-releases (1995 Rocket and 2001 Mercury)

11. Into the Old Man's Shoes - 4:02
12. Madman Across the Water (original version) - 8:51

Bonus Title on Republication (2008 Deluxe Edition)

1. There Goes a Well Known Gun - 3:27
   • Alternative shot of the Ballad of a Well-Known Gun
2. Come Down in Time (piano demo recording) - 3:21
3. Country Comfort (piano demo recording) - 4:12
4. Son of Your Father (piano demo recording) - 4:13
5. Talking Old Soldiers (piano demo recording) - 4:13
6. Into the Old Man's Shoes (piano demo recording) - 3:40
7. Sisters of the Cross - 4:38
   • Demo recording from 1970, only available on this release
8. Madman Across the Water (original version with Mick Ronson on guitar) - 8:52
9. Into the Old Man's Shoes - 4:06
10. My Father's Gun (BBC recording) - 3:43
11. Ballad of a Well-Known Gun (BBC recording) - 4:36
12. Burn Down the Mission (BBC recording) - 6:52
13. Amoreena (BBC recording) - 5:12

occupation

• Elton John - vocals, piano, keyboards
• Caleb Quaye - guitars
• Lesley Duncan - acoustic guitar, vocals, backing vocals
• Gordon Huntley - Steel Guitar
• Dee Murray - bass guitar
• Dave Glover - bass guitar, backing vocals
• Herbie Flowers - bass guitar
• Jason Barnhart - bass guitar, backing vocals
• Nigel Olsson - drums, backing vocals
• Roger Pope - drums
• Barry Morgan - drums
• Brian Dee - organ
• Ian Duck - Harmonica
• Mike Egan - acoustic guitar
• Kay Garner - backing vocals
• Tammi Hunt - backing vocals
• Tony Burrows - backing vocals
• Dusty Springfield - backing vocals
• Madeline Bell - backing vocals

production

• Gus Dudgeon - producer
• Robin Geoffrey Cable - sound engineer
• Gus Skinas - Editing
• Ricky Graham - Digital Transfer
• Greg Penny - Surround Sound
• Paul Buckmaster - orchestration
• David Larkham - Artistic Creation, Album Cover Photo
• Barry Wentzel - photographs
• John Tobler - album cover text

Charts

album

year	Chart	position
1971	British music charts	2
1971	US Billboard 200	5

single

Despite excellent reviews and consistently good sales of the album, there was no single release.

Awards

organization	status	date
RIAA - USA	gold	March 1971
RIAA - USA	platinum	August 1998

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://albumlinernotes.com/Tumbleweed_Connection.html
2. ^ Horsted Keynes Rail Station . On This Very Spot. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
3. ^ Philip Norman: Elton John. Harmony Books, New York 1992, ISBN 0-517-58762-9 , p. 132
4. ^ Philip Norman: Elton John. 1991, p. 135
5. ^ Philip Norman: Elton John. 1991, p. 144
6. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.com/Artist/21478/ELTON-JOHN
7. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/tumbleweed-connection-mw0000650322/awards
8. ↑ http://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/