[1970-1974 Best Songs]
Billboard Top 100, 1972, #40
Let's face it, most Pop music from the early 70s - well, sucks. (You had to know by this point I wasn't going to be putting The Carpenters, Captain & Tenille or Helen Reddy on your beloved iPod, right?)
And that's what makes the songs of Elton John, especially Rocket Man, so extraordinary. He uses the same piano, strings, a little guitar, and drums, to make a dynamic sound where everyone else could only succeed in creating "Easy Listening" (I still can't figure out that name, it's a struggle for me to listen to...)
This too applies to Bernie Taupin, with lyrics just a little more nuanced than you'll ever get from, say, Tony Orlando.
Which is why, when it comes on the radio, you're singing along to Rocket Man instead of changing the station ...or inducing vomiting.
Billboard Top 100, 1972, #40
Let's face it, most Pop music from the early 70s - well, sucks. (You had to know by this point I wasn't going to be putting The Carpenters, Captain & Tenille or Helen Reddy on your beloved iPod, right?)
And that's what makes the songs of Elton John, especially Rocket Man, so extraordinary. He uses the same piano, strings, a little guitar, and drums, to make a dynamic sound where everyone else could only succeed in creating "Easy Listening" (I still can't figure out that name, it's a struggle for me to listen to...)
This too applies to Bernie Taupin, with lyrics just a little more nuanced than you'll ever get from, say, Tony Orlando.
Which is why, when it comes on the radio, you're singing along to Rocket Man instead of changing the station ...or inducing vomiting.
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