The magical period of 1970-1978 now known as Elton John's "Classic Years" yielded many wonderful albums in a short frame of time. Many people seem to single out "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" as his best. This may be because of the fact that Sir Elton was at his most popular by that time.

In my opinion, "Madman Across the Water" is his best. Recorded in 1971, it contains some of the most soulful songs Elton John and Bernie Taupin ever created.

Yes, it contains the commercial hits "Tiny Dancer" and "Levon" but unlike some of Elton's late 70s albums, this one goes a bit deeper than that. The title track is a haunting epic that evokes frightening images while leaving a melody in your head that urges to sing along. "All the Nasties" and "Goodbye" also stand out as favorites, but as a whole this album works better than any other EJ recording.

One major reason is the overall sound. On many of the songs, orchestration is used to intensify the emotional anthems to higher levels than a piano will allow. Also, the album gives some room to breathe between the more serious songs like "Indian Sunset" with transitions to more fun songs like "Razorface" and "Rotten Peaches", which are all great tunes in their own right.

This was the album that really got me rolling on my Elton John collection. I would also highly reccommend "Tumbleweed Connection", "Honky Chateau", and "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy". But start here. You won't stop.

A revelation. For newcomers and fans of Elton John's music, this album and the self-titled are MUST HAVES. The 5.1 mix is so amazing that it reveals and clears up lots of sections and instrumentations. The performances are still the great landmark performances that I've loved since 1973 when my brother came back from Korea with a cassette of this album. The only piece that has changed, for me, due to the remix, is INDIAN SUNSET (just before "I take only what is mine, Lord"), because there is a part where the celli and bass sound louder than the piano, whereas they were barely audible in older mixes. It changes the song at that moment for me.

The sound, the sound, the sound.... I never thought I would hear the strings this clearly. In some songs, I could clearly tell that it is maybe two or four violins, 2 cellos, 2 violas, and 2 bass. And the old sound, would have me believe it were an entire orchestra --- "reverb" can be a wonderfully useful effect. As you may expect, Elton and his piano are anchored in the center channel, and they are both very crisp and clear. The backing vocals are often in the rear channels, as are the orchestra. The guitars, acoustic and electric, are so clear and isolated, that I am finally getting a great appreciation of the size of his band. Percussion like bongo drums, and tambourines, and synthesizer effects are clearer than ever and very realistic. The duelling banjos in HOLIDAY INN have NEVER sounded so good. I could keep going on with superlatives, but I will simply say that the sound is better than most modern rock SACDs (the Bon Jovi ones, for instance, and also 3 Doors Down). There is NO harsh tape hiss to be heard, it's just the music. The subwoofer channel is very tastefully subtle, and you will barely notice it's supportive effects (unless you turn it up!).

I've always considered this album on of Elton's first truly great albums, and this SACD has me listening to it over and over in the past week. I must have heard it 20 times already, and still counting. Someone at UNIVERSAL loves me, because with all 6 of these Elton SACDs, I will be listening and writing reviews for a while. :-) (BTW, can you just imagine what they might be able to do with The Beatles?????)

Do I have to say it? HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- my first desert island SACD

Back in the early 70's there were a dozen or so LP's that were found in every serious collection, and "Madman" was one of them. The piano, the voice, the arrangements, the lyrics told us a new major talent was emerging from his chrysalis. The texture of the entire LP was serious and professional. All the FM stations were playing "Tiny Dancer" (you could find her in every town from the east coast to the west coast in the early 70's), "Levon" (one of Elton's most significant social statements), and "Madman Across The Water" (hauntingly and poignantly beautiful). I especially like "Razor Face" and "All The Nasties" (strange title for such a beautiful song). "Goodbye" is too short for such a lovely song. Like many of his early fans I too wish he had not turned into such a stageman. He had so much talent and so much to say with his music. "Bennie and the Jets" might be a fun concert song but I can't nor could I ever play this on my stereo. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" would have been his masterpiece had he held it to one LP with just the serious songs (which were plentiful at this point). With that said, very few come close to the talent, music and humanity of his thirty years in the public arena.

When I was going through my 1000+ CDs to look for ideas for the Music unit of the Popular Culture class I teach, I have come to the conclusion that "Madman Across the Water" was a seminal album in my life. I seriously started listening to FM radio in the early Seventies because that was the only place to hear "Levon," which was my favorite song for about half a year (I believe it was replaced by "Knife's Edge" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer). Consequently, the shift in my musical appreciation from Top Forty to more sophisticated musical forms can be traced to this particular song Elton John song and this special album.

Of course, once I had enough loose change I bought the album and promptly proceeded to play the first side about five times as often as I flipped it over and played side two; having the CD means I tend to listen to the whole thing all the way through. I would argue that "Tiny Dancer," "Levon," "Razor Face," and "Madman Across the Water" equals the best side of any Elton John record. I also used the title track as part of a poetry unit for English class (ah, those liberal days of yore). The movie "Almost Famous" has made "Tiny Dancer" popular again, but anybody who listens to this CD is going to find out there are some other great songs too. In addition to John's music and Bernie Taupin's lyrics, I think credit has to be given to Paul Buckmaster, whose sweeping string arrangements never worked better in giving John's songs color and depth. "Madman Acros the Water" is Elton John's darkest album, although it is more a sense of brooding and forboding rather than anger.

"Madman Across the Water" made it to #8 on the Billboard album chart. Since most of the songs were five minutes or longer, this was really the last Elton John album before he started turning out a string of Top 40 hits. But the best albums on any Elton John album were almost always the songs you never heard on AM radio. Ironically, given its place in my musical history, "Levon" made its way onto the third volume of Elton John's greatest hits collection even though it only made it to #24 on the single charts in 1972 ("Tiny Dancer" made it to only #41). Just another example of the cherished memories of our youth turning out to be phantasms when seen in the harsh light of day (or commercial music industry interests).

I have been going through my 1000+ CDs for the Popular Culture class I teach and I have come to the conclusion that "Madman Across the Water" was a seminal album in my life. I seriously started listening to FM radio in the early Seventies because that was the only place to hear "Levon," which was my favorite song for about half a year (I believe it was replaced by "Knife's Edge" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer). Consequently, the shift in my musical appreciation from Top Forty to more sophisticated musical forms can be traced to this particular song and this special album.

Of course, once I had enough loose change I bought the album and promptly proceeded to play the first side about five times as often as I flipped it over and played side two; having the CD means I tend to listen to the whole thing all the way through. I would argue that "Tiny Dancer," "Levon," "Razor Face," and "Madman Across the Water" equals the best side of any Elton John record. I also used the title track as part of a poetry unit for English class (ah, those liberal days of yore). The movie "Almost Famous" has made "Tiny Dancer" popular again, but anybody who listens to this CD is going to find out there are some other great songs too.

Ironically, "Levon" made its way onto the third volume of Elton John's greatest hits collection. Just another example of the cherished memories of our youth exploited by the commercial interests of some soulless giant company.