Do not shoot, I'm only the piano player ...

Rock music was really young in 1973, no longer, but many still remembered like the time of Presley, Haley and Holly. And they remembered Pat Boone and his hit "Speedy Gonzales" from the year 1962. After all, "Crocodile Rock", Elton John's first US No.1 hit and the first single from "Do not shoot me, I'm only The Piano Player ", was nothing but a cover version of this song. The only new text was Bernie Taupins, a tribute to the time before the British Invasion. resented him but obviously no one, because the single reached in England the Top 5 and the album climbed both on this side and across the Atlantic, the top of the charts. While in my view it does not have the quality of its predecessor, "Honky Chateau" nor that of the monumental double album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", which is still in the same Year appeared, but it hit the right note at the right time: On the one hand fast songs as just "Crocodile Rock", whose B-side "Elderberry Wine", "Midnight Creeper" and the orchestra Firecracker "Have Mercy on the Criminal "on the other ballads like the second single" Daniel "(UK Top 5 / Top US 2), the bittersweet" Blues for my baby and me "and the romantic" High Flying Bird ". Nevertheless, somehow the special something that makes Johns largest litters missing the whole album. Of course you also get here everything you expect from his mid seventies albums: piano a lot, sometimes sentimental, sometimes almost nonsensical lyrics that usual high-class backing vocals his band and great orchestral and brass arrangements by Paul Buckmaster and producer Gus Dudgeon. But maybe it's just this sterile perfection that too often prevents even the last spark still skips. But even if this sixth studio album of the flamboyant British is not quite flawless, you can have lots of fun while listening. And "Crocodile Rock" has lost to me until today none of its relevance, even if I was to be born until years after its publication. In the Classic Years edition can be found in addition to the 10 songs from the original edition have 4 bonus tracks, one of which three do not really belong here, "Screw you (Young Man's Blues)", "Jackrabbit" and "Whenever You're Ready (We'll go steady again)" were all B-sides of singles from the following album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ".. To the yellow from the egg they are not only the last track, the" Piano Version "of" Skyline Pigeon "actually is related to" Do not shoot me, I'm only the piano player ": The Song, who comes from Johns debut album "Empty Sky" was the B-side to "Daniel". And although the piano better herpasst here as the harpsichord in the original, not includes this song among the best of "Rocket Man." Four stars for a good, though not brilliant album. Who the Elton John and / or Music of the 70 interested, it should have easy!