“A very musical moment”: the song Elton John called his best studio performance
Across the length of Elton John’s seismic career of half a century and longer, it would be difficult to pick just one highlight from an outsider’s perspective. His storming farewell set at Glastonbury two summers ago spoke to that fact – over two hours’ worth of mega hits released over decades, adored by young and old alike. He really is a global icon. But for the man himself, ironically, one of the most special moments came in a much less assuming form.
If you were to try and reel off a list of John’s greatest hits, you would not be blamed for perhaps overlooking his album The Diving Board, released in 2013 and marking his 29th studio record. It’s not exactly Goodbye Yellow Brick Road levels of acclaimed – although it was positively received – but nevertheless, it has a bit of a soft spot in the legend’s heart, and in fact, was the catalyst for what he considers to be one of his best studio performances.
‘My Quicksand’, the sixth track on the album, is an uncharacteristically vulnerable effort from John. It’s none of the epic production value of ‘Tiny Dancer’ or ‘Rocketman’, but it really shows his bread-and-butter raw talent at its finest – just his voice and a piano. It’s for this reason that John realised in the recording process of the song, “I thought, ‘That’s the best track I’ve ever recorded, right there.’”
Lyrically, the song depicts someone losing their sense of identity and self to the perilous proclivities of luxury and fame – a set of circumstances that John is notoriously well-accustomed to. In this sense, however, he is frank when he admits that “It’s the most honest record I’ve ever made,” reflecting back on moments of indulgence and overexuberance where maybe things became too rich to taste. Really, ‘My Quicksand’ was John letting go of his heart and soul over the course of a just under five-minute track.
“Piano-wise, vocal-wise, everything about it [was different],” he explained. “I’ve never played the piano like that on a record before – the solo was improvised. It’s just a very musical moment that I was very proud of on this record.” The piano solo he makes mention of is, indeed, impressive – three minutes in, you’re hit with the tone of a French jazz club, perhaps an ode to the chorus where he laments: “I went to Paris once/ I thought I had a plan/ I woke up with an accent/ I wound up in quicksand.” Musically, it truly shows John’s technicality in a light perhaps taken too much for granted, but for him, it also symbolised something more in the passing of time.
“I knew that I’d moved forward – this is the kind of song that I never thought I’d be singing when I started out,” he added. “My days of making pop records like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, they were when I was younger. I’m not that guy anymore. I’m this guy,” he triumphantly proclaimed, marking the start of yet another chapter for the musical titan and comeback king.
Elton John has, of course, been subject to his fair share of tribulations over the years. To give him his dues, he has never shied away from that fact and seems to embrace that struggle can be par for the course in the price of fame. ‘My Quicksand’ goes a long way in exposing that paradox, and it’s probably why he feels most proud of it – because, for once, it’s not the superstar singing, it’s the boy from Pinner.
