YOUR SONG - Elton's voice is so lovely back in his 2nd album. It receives a gorgeous focus on the center channel. The guitars and harps are so clear that you can hear that they weren't perfectly in tune with each other. :-) The strings are in the rear channels and are very clear, and sound GREAT in the last note. Bass and percussion sound very lifelike.

I NEED YOU TO TURN TO - Harpsichord is isolated in the left channel, Elton in the center. The small string orchestra in mainly from the rear channels. The winding violin figures are clearer than ever.

TAKE ME TO THE PILOT - The bassline will vibrate your living room, and show you how progressive and soulful his writing always was. The various piano riffs move around in position. The guitar solo is clearer than ever.

NO SHOE STRINGS ON LOUISE - the funny background vocals are very clear, and you can finally hear that they are trying to "ham it up". Acoustic guitars are really clear, and come from the rear channels. The enhanced sound really captures the mood of the song much better than before.

FIRST EPISODE AT HIENTON - This song receives a great emotional boost from the clarity of the harp and guitar and the synthesizer being separated in the soundstage.

SIXTY YEARS ON - The harp solo is so clear! The string orchestra is very, very well isolated. The subtley of the instruments around the solo voice is the perfect balance.

BORDER SONG - HOLY MOSES, this sounds great. :-)

THE GREATEST DISCOVERY - The strings sound so gorgeous here, and it's recorded very close to the instruments. Elton's voice here highlights his great storytelling vocals. The bass drum is more prominent than before and changes the mood of the song a little. I wish the final calls from the brass were more prominent as they were in RBCD.

THE CAGE - Guitar solos and brass?? I didn't even notice them before! The synthesizer solo with rock your house.

THE KING MUST DIE - The percussion entrance is amazingly lifelike! The song builds to an exciting climax with layer upon layer of instrumentation adding up to make a stunning ending to the original content of this album.

The bonus tracks are great, and they have never ever sounded better. The original version of Grey Seal is SO different, and I have always liked this version better.

Like the others in this set of six Elton John SACDs that were released 11/9/04, the standard is very high. If you love the songs on this album, you must have this SACD.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Elton John's second album (released in 1970) finally established him in the pantheon of up-and-comers to watch. With Gus Dudgeon's gorgeous production and Paul Buckmaster's string arrangements, EJ now had a team worthy of his music. "Your Song" remains the haunting love song of the ages. "Border Song" is a lush string-and-piano paean to tolerance. "Sixty Years On" is a stirring narrative with frightening, sometimes unfathomable lyrics by Bernie Taupin. "First Episode on Hienton" is the only track that harkens back to EJ's first album, "Empty Sky." It is noteworthy for the eerie mellotron playing, and contains some of Bernie's most ambitious lyrics up to that time. Elton pulls some new tricks out of his hat with "No Shoe Strings on Louise", surprising listeners with an attempt at honky-tonk that only partially gels. "The King Must Die" is a comment on a monarch who is slowly but surely losing control of his reign, and frantically looks for a way to save his skin from those who are about to overthrow him. "Take Me to the Pilot" and "The Cage" are decent songs left very much to interpretation; however, they sound rather dated, particularly the latter track. Still, it is a very enjoyable listen; the re-released CD sounds much better than the original MCA releases, which were sonically inferior by a heck of a lot. Finally, the music sounds the way it was supposed to: The sonics are full and Buckmaster's strings never sounded better. Full liner notes and lyrics from the original LP are available in this package, making this a must-have for any Elton fan.

As I began the task of reviewing the Elton albums that matter most to me, I had to ask myself, "What is it you want most from an Elton album?" The answer will likely be different for everyone, but my list reveals why I like this album so much, and consider it the second-best Elton album, behind Tumbelweed Connection.

#1. Piano--lots and lots o' piano.

#2. The serious, romantic, vulnerable Elton; leave the goofy side for someone else.

#3. A real band sound, or arrangements that sound like real instruments are being played (more acoustic ones than electronic). Sgt. Pepper doesn't have a mellotron, afterall!

#4. An album that features ballads, Elton's supreme contribution to music.

O.K.. If you agree with most of this list, my reviews of Elton are for you. This is Elton's second-best album because it satifies most of the above points on my list. The standouts (ballads, of course) are the great quartet of songs, "The Greatest Discovery", "Your Song", "First Episode at Hienton" and "I Need You To Turn To" in that order. I wonder if Paul McCartney has ever commented on "Greatest Discovery", as it evokes his song, "She's Leaving Home", and, I humbly submit, is just as lovely and masterful a song. I can only imagine that Paul wished he had written this song. Stylistically, Elton is not his own person yet, this being only his second album. It's a hodgepodge, but, interestingly, his ballads here will never sound the same on later albums, because he wrote them in an English folk manner, not in the later, Gospel-inflected tone of nearly all his future ballads. Likewise, his singing is also borrowed, if you will, from English folk--I hear the sound of Sandy Denny's voice being imitated here. Nevertheless, "Discovery" and "Hienton" are uncommonly beautiful fruits of innocence, uncommon even for Elton, the greatest balladeer after (or since) Sir Paul.

But, make no mistake, there's plenty of the gospel-tinged Elton here. "Border Song" is better than nearly any gospel-tinged song he wrote. Taupin pulled off a simple yet direct message this time. Musically, the detail of the piano part is astonishing, not a note was left to chance--this is the musicians' musician; all over this album fine touches abound.

The "band", such as it is for a pick-up group, is mostly good, just below that of Tumbelweed, which had Elton's best band. The arrangement/orchestration is mostly very tasteful--except that ridiculous intro to "Sixty Years On". Bernie Taupin's lyrics, which I've covered ad nauseum in other reviews, are, like Tumbleweed, mostly inoffensive here; he captures a mood of innocence that is almost beyond criticism. Yes, he overreaches with highfalutin poetry, but I think it's out of a real fervor for the subject matter. He would never again write so unself-consciously (rare for a green lyricist).

Footnote: Everyone knows Elton can rock; it's just that I don't see those songs as the supreme gifts Elton leaves to pop music. But Elton makes one of his best country-rock songs here with "No Shoe Strings On Louise", not just a dead-on Stones tribute, but one of his loosest, least self-conscious rockers ever!

Unfortunately, what he left behind is to be found on this album and three or four more from a time when he was "only" a powerful songwriter (this album, "Tumbleweed Connection", "Madman Across the Water", "Honky Chateau" and "Don't Shoot Me"). Even allowing for AM tracks like "Your Song" being thought of as earpaper, what about "Sixty Years On", from a time when hardly anyone of his generation (myself included) could care less about senior citizens. Today most of us are AARP members. Go figure. "No Shoestrings On Louise" is a fun track in the style of the countrified side of the Rolling Stones. The bouncy "Take Me To the Pilot", which really shines in the version appearing on the live "11-17-70" in pared-down trio form (oops, forgot that album). If this arc of Elton's discography was presented to somone who had never heard him, they'd wonder why he later became became the Liberace of rock'n'roll. Know what? So do I.

As I began the task of reviewing the Elton albums that matter most to me, I had to ask myself, "What is it you want most from an Elton album?" The answer will likely be different for everyone, but my list reveals why I like this album so much, and consider it the second-best Elton album, behind Tumbelweed Connection.

#1. Piano--lots and lots o' piano.

#2. The serious, romantic, vulnerable Elton; leave the goofy side for someone else.

#3. A real band sound, or arrangements that sound like real instruments are being played (more acoustic ones than electronic). Sgt. Pepper doesn't have a mellotron, afterall!

#4. An album that features ballads, Elton's supreme contribution to music.

O.K.. If you agree with most of this list, my reviews of Elton are for you. This is Elton's second-best album because it satifies most of the above points on my list. The standouts (ballads, of course) are the great quartet of songs, "The Greatest Discovery", "Your Song", "First Episode at Hienton" and "I Need You To Turn To" in that order. I wonder if Paul McCartney has ever commented on "Greatest Discovery", as it evokes his song, "She's Leaving Home", and, I humbly submit, is just as lovely and masterful a song. I can only imagine that Paul wished he had written this song. Stylistically, Elton is not his own person yet, this being only his second album. It's a hodgepodge, but, interestingly, his ballads here will never sound the same on later albums, because he wrote them in an English folk manner, not in the later, Gospel-inflected tone of nearly all his future ballads. Likewise, his singing is also borrowed, if you will, from English folk--I hear the sound of Sandy Denny's voice being imitated here. Nevertheless, "Discovery" and "Hienton" are uncommonly beautiful fruits of innocence, uncommon even for Elton, the greatest balladeer after (or since) Sir Paul.

But, make no mistake, there's plenty of the gospel-tinged Elton here. "Border Song" is better than nearly any gospel-tinged song he wrote. Taupin pulled off a simple yet direct message this time. Musically, the detail of the piano part is astonishing, not a note was left to chance--this is the musicians' musician; all over this album fine touches abound.

The "band", such as it is for a pick-up group, is mostly good, just below that of Tumbelweed, which had Elton's best band. The arrangement/orchestration is mostly very tasteful--except that ridiculous intro to "Sixty Years On". Bernie Taupin's lyrics, which I've covered ad nauseum in other reviews, are, like Tumbleweed, mostly inoffensive here; he captures a mood of innocence that is almost beyond criticism. Yes, he overreaches with highfalutin poetry, but I think it's out of a real fervor for the subject matter. He would never again write so unself-consciously (rare for a green lyricist).

Footnote: Everyone knows Elton can rock; it's just that I don't see those songs as the supreme gifts Elton leaves to pop music. But Elton makes one of his best country-rock songs here with "No Shoe Strings On Louise", not just a dead-on Stones tribute, but one of his loosest, least self-conscious rockers ever!