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Elton John: 17-11-70

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: DJM Records
Released: 1971.04.09
Time:
 48:25
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Gus Dudgeon
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.eltonjohn.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Bad Side of the Moon (E.John/B.Taupin) - 4:57
[2] Amoreena (E.John/B.Taupin) - 4:54
[3] Take Me to the Pilot (E.John/B.Taupin) - 5:55
[4] Sixty Years On (E.John/B.Taupin) - 7:22
[5] Honky Tonk Women (M.Jagger/K.Richards) - 4:07
[6] Can I Put You On (E.John/B.Taupin) - 6:10
[7] Medley - 18:27
    Burn Down the Mission (E.John/B.Taupin)
    My Baby Left Me (A.Crudup)
    Get Back (J.Lennon/P.McCartney)

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Elton John - Piano, Vocals
Dee Murray - Bass, Backing Vocals
Nigel Olsson - Drums, Backing Vocals

Gus Dudgeon - Producer, Liner Notes
David Hentschel - Engineer
Phil Ramone - Engineer
Steve Brown - Coordination
Joe Disabato - Coordination
David Larkham - Design, Photography
John Tobler - Liner Notes
Dave Herman - Emcee

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded at A&R Recording Studios, New York, NY, on 17 November 1970 for a live radio broadcast on WABC-FM (later WPLJ)




Jim Morrison used to toy with this idea of starting an album with the sounds of a guy driving around with the rain pouring down. Finally the guy turns the radio on and lo and behold it's the new Doors album. Naturally Paul Rothchild nixed the idea so it never got done. So we've got to settle for an Elton John radio album instead. I mean who else could ever do it in a million years but the master of preciousness? Like he couldn't have done it on AM, it had to be FM. At least it wasn't a live concert on WNEW-FM, that might have been unbearable unless Zacherle MCed it. No, it was on WABC-FM (now WPLJ) on the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution (November 17, 1917?) or something like that. The cover of the album documenting it's in black and white (there's no such thing as color radio) and of course so's his reputation as the new Jagger.

Well some people call him Jagger but not me: he's just Jose Feliciano with a twist of Johnny Mathis. That ain't bad when it's free over the airwaves every once in a while. But if you have to turn back the hands of time and pay for the trip then you might as well just sit there feeling bad that you missed the original show. Well at least the album does one thing, it removes any specialness the event might have had as a forgotten fragment of ephemeral hokum. "Honky Tonk Women" is on it but is there one town in the US of A that doesn't have a band with "Honky Tonk Women" in its repertoire? And "Take Me to the Pilot" but you can hear that elsewhere, too. So even ephemera are filled with little more than the tried and true anyway.

Movie soundtracks are something else again. They're not free but they sure cost less than an album and you get a picture along with it at no extra cost. Most of the sales from albums thereof are reputed to be of the souvenir variety, y'know because the movie was so super. But then rock guys started doing soundtracks for pictures they weren't in and for pictures nobody'd ordinarily bother seeing anyway. So a situation arose where maybe people would catch the movie for just the soundtrack by a big name otherwise irrelevant to the film, take a chance with it, that sort of thing. Like go see The Family Way because McCartney did some of the music, or Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush because of Traffic and Spencer Davis. But once you've been burned a couple times like that you're not even gonna bother with even just the album. Particularly when the stuff packaged on the album is unavailable anywhere else. Which is the case with Friends.

I mean I didn't even wanna listen to this album at first, even though it was free. (I don't know about you but I got it free.) But even a tubercular owl deserves a chance so I put it on. And here's what I discovered: "Variations on Michelle's Song" and "I Meant to Do My Work Today" both contain introductions composed by Paul Buckmaster! That's right, Paul Buckmaster. Yes that's the same Paul Buckmaster who made Sticky Fingers palatable with his nifty string wizardry. Yeah, Paul Buck-master, the one and only. But I don't wanna neglect Elton so here's the word on him: why'd they have to mess up an otherwise innocuous soundtrack with words and singing, huh?

A guess as to what kind of movie Friends is: probably a lot like Melody (music by the Bee Gees and CSNY), which I happened to see on the TWA flight I took to get to this typewriter. In any event, there must be at least 30 people who have already seen Friends two or more times just to listen to Elton backed up by all the plushy visuals. Here's what I have to say to all 30 of you: hi, I hope you're enjoying yourselves!

Robert Meltzer - July 8, 1971
RollingStone.com



The great thing about this early live record is its obscurity - not just that this isn't one of his better-known records, but that the set list is a fanboy's dream, heavy on album tracks, covers, and the kinds of song that make Elton John's early work so individual. It's not just that there are no hits here, but it's that these six (seven, on the CD reissue) songs emphasize the spare, hard-rocking bluesy singer/songwriter that may not have written his own words, but always sang them with conviction and melodies that made them seem like his own. This may be a minor effort in his catalog, but that's part of its pleasure - it's certainly a record from the time before Elton the superstar, as he tears through Tumbleweed Connection tracks prior to the record's release, does a phenomenal reworking of "Honky Tonk Women," hauls out B-sides like "Bad Side of the Moon," and gives a fierce, infectious performance. It's not essential for anyone but obsessives, but if you want any indication of what Elton sounded like prior to his big break, this is an excellent, even intoxicating, summary.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



17-11-70 (US title 11-17-70) is the first live album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1971. The recording was taken from a live radio broadcast on 17 November 1970, hence the album's title. The recording was originally popular among bootleggers which, according to Gus Dudgeon, eventually prompted the record label to release it as an album. It has been said that the release by an eastern bootlegger of the whole 60-minute aircast rather than the 48 minutes selected by Dick James Music significantly cut into the US sales of the live album. However, the entire concert was an 80-minute affair, and double-LPs containing the entire concert were more common than those containing only 60 minutes. Another contributing factor to the original album's soft sales could have been the glut of Elton John product on the market at the time. John also had in release 2 full studio albums (Elton John and Tumbleweed Connection) and a movie soundtrack (Friends) when the live LP was issued. Nonetheless, it become the fourth of John's records to simultaneously land in the Top 100, making him the first act to do so since The Beatles.

According to longtime NYC radio DJ Dave Herman (who can be heard at the beginning and end of the album), Elton John cut his hand at some point during the performance, and by the end of the show, the piano keys were covered with blood. John and his band performed 13 songs during the radio broadcast. The original album included only six of the songs; a seventh, "Amoreena," appeared as a bonus track on the album's 1996 CD reissue. The other six performances remain officially unreleased: "I Need You to Turn To," "Your Song," "Country Comfort," "Border Song," "Indian Sunset," and "My Father's Gun." John has stated in several interviews that he believes that this recording is his best live performance. He has also cited the album as a great showcase for the musicianship of drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray. It is also the only officially released example of what John's live band sounded like prior to the arrival of guitarist Davey Johnstone, who wouldn't be a member for another year or so.

Wikipedia.org
 

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