On this week's episode, we discuss Elton John's third, 1970's Tumbleweed Connection. Elton John's second LP was a lushly orchestrated affair that launched Elton John's career into the stratosphere, largely due to the single "Your Song", which was a top ten single all over the world. Not wanting to be pigeonholed, Elton John, chose to make an album that was more stripped down. There are elements of gospel, folk country, and even funk. Long time Elton John collaborator Paul Buckmaster's string arrangment are present, but they are more subdued and rawer. The sound of Tumbleweed Connection couldn't be more different than the album before it.
However, the thing that makes this album truly unique is the subject matter. The lyrics, by Elton John's songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, were influenced by both the westerns Taupin watched as a child, and the music of the Band. The songs center mostly on an idealized and romanticized version of post-Civil War America and the American West, one inhabited by cowboys, civil war vets, and gunslingers, but also one that focused on the simpler things in life. Tumbleweed Connection gives us a version of America filtered through the eyes of two young Englishmen that is at once charming, beautiful, and poignant.
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