Elton John’s “selfish” choice for his favourite album
After establishing himself as one of the most popular singers in the world, Elton John could have done anything he wanted in 1975. With four number one singles in the previous two years, plus an assist getting John Lennon to number one of ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’, John was at the absolute peak of his powers. So what did he decide to do? Create an autobiographical concept album along with lyricist Bernie Taupin entitled Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
Telling the story of John and Taupin’s lives as up-and-coming figures in the music industry, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy was the most direct and personal album that the pair had made together. As the final 1970s album featuring the classic lineup of the Elton John Band, Captain Fantastic was, in many ways, the closing of a chapter for John. With a string of successes to his name, John felt that Captain Fantastic was a culmination of sorts.
“I’ve always had a lot of confidence in this album,” John told Melody Maker in 1975. “I can’t understand the critics who say that Bernie and I must be egomaniacs. The album wasn’t meant to say, ‘Here we are, we’re wonderful!’ The reviews did make me feel that maybe we’d been a bit self-indulgent. But for me it’s a completely honest album. I’ve laid myself on the line. It’s the truth, and I don’t see why people should criticize me for being autobiographical.”
From the real-life struggles that underscored the lyrics on ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ to the mutual love shared between John and Taupin on ‘We All Fall in Love Sometimes’, Captain Fantastic was as true to life as John and Taupin ever allowed themselves to be. As such, it became a favourite for John in the immediate aftermath of the album’s release.
“Before, I just used to write melodies to Bernie’s experiences and fantasies,” he added in the Melody Maker interview. “I identify with this album so much more than anything else I’ve done. For me it will always be my favourite album. But that’s from a purely selfish point of view. Whether it will stand the test of time, who knows? You can only tell in retrospect.”
More than 30 years later, John was still an admirer of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. He and Taupin had crafted a follow-up, The Captain and The Kid, in 2006 when John sat down with Cameron Crowe to look back at the album. Even though it had been three decades, John was still extremely fond of Captain Fantastic.
“I’ve always thought that Captain Fantastic was probably my finest album because it wasn’t commercial in any way,” John explained. “We did have songs such as ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight,’ which is one of the best songs that Bernie and I have ever written together, but whether a song like that could be a single these days, since it’s [more than] six minutes long, is questionable. Captain Fantastic was written from start to finish in running order, as a kind of story about coming to terms with failure—or trying desperately not to be one. We lived that story.”
Check out ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ down below.
