Latest news with #BrownDirtCowboy
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Legendary '70s Singer, 78, Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Iconic Album That 'Made History'
is celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of his most iconic albums. Fifty years ago, on May 23, 1975, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, was released. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 In an Instagram post to celebrate the album's anniversary, Elton shared some information about the history of the record, named after the nicknames for himself and his longtime collaborator, lyricist . 'An autobiographical album telling the story of how Bernie and I met and strived for success in the late 60s,' Elton shared. 'It made history as the first album ever to debut at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart and stayed there for seven weeks, featuring 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' and the iconic Alan Aldridge artwork - it's one of the albums I'm proudest of.' The caption accompanied some professionally shot photos of Elton from that era along with the album's iconic cover and some news clippings, including a shot of the Billboard album chart with Captain Fantastic entering at No. album ended up topping the Billboard 200 for seven non-consecutive weeks. It was produced by Elton's longtime collaborator producer , who said that he used the lyrical concept for a guideline to the actual recording of the album at the Caribou Ranch in Colorado. 'We recorded the songs in running order,' Dudgeon said in an interview for The Billboard Book of Number One Albums. 'In most cases, I did the overdubs in running order, and I mixed them in running order. All the time we were doing it, we knew exactly what was going to occur in the running order, so we knew how to make everything adjust to what came before and what came after.' Fans, and some music industry insiders, on Instagram shared their love of the album in the comments. 'One the absolute best albums of all time! 'We All Fall in Love Sometimes' will forever be my favorite song and Elton John one of the best vocalists and performers to ever live 🙌🏼🎼🎤🎹👏🏼,' wrote one fan. 'My absolute fave. The first real album I ever owned. ❤️,' added another. 'Top 10 greatest albums of all time ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️,' write noted music executive Merck Mercuriadis. Chris Difford of Squeeze added, 'It lit my lyrical flame ❤️✍️.' Legendary '70s Singer, 78, Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Iconic Album That 'Made History' first appeared on Parade on May 24, 2025
The Independent
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Elton John and Brandi Carlile deliver out-sized, old-school fun on Who Believes in Angels?
'I've been in a band with Elton John since I was 13, but he only just found out,' Brandi Carlile joked in an interview with CBS last month. As a Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) superfan, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter from Washington (whose solo work has spanned everything from indie-folk to country-rock) has the British icon's style embedded in her bones. So on Who Believes in Angels? she leans comfortably into the paternal bombast of his bluesy-boppy AOR, her rich, clear (and higher) vocals adding melodic boosters to the Rocket Man' s deep, earnest rumble. You'll probably have heard their wholesome, interlocking power balladry in action on the radio-friendly single 'Never Too Late', hymning the carpe diem joys of 'a slow dance on a carousel/ A walk in the snow.' The pair have been friends for two decades – taking family holidays together with their spouses and kids – and last collaborated on John's 2021 duets album, Lockdown Sessions. Previous sessions, however, saw them writing and recording separately. For Who Believes in Angels?, they holed up together in a studio for 20 days with John's brother-in-arms lyricist Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt (who was behind the desk for 'Hold Me Closer', John's 2021 hit with Britney Spears). Carlile got to see John's famous temper as he smashed up an iPad and tore up some of her lyrics in frustration: 'Predictable! Cliche! F*** off, Brandi!'. It's all on camera, the first time John has allowed an album's entire recording process to be filmed. Taupin, inured to such outbursts, apparently had to take Carlile out for whiskey sours to destress the woman John believes has brought him back to musical life. John admits he hasn't watched all of the footage, but it will likely serve as a helpful reminder for fans of the creative distress behind many of his songs. Otherwise, it's easy to forget, given the infectious ease with which he plays and sings. Many of the tracks on this album feel as though they've been swilling around the Radio 2 drivetime playlist for decades. That's part of the intention – to recreate the playfulness and sense of fun heard on some of John's Seventies gems. Watt borrowed the drum kit used on 1973's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (bought by Hollywood actor Ben Stiller at auction), while Carlile pinned up posters of vintage John tours on the studio walls. You can hear the feedback loop of John in his platform-kicking pomp in the blast of the title track. The record opens with 'The Rose of Laura Nyro', a tribute to one of John's idols, the late California singer-songwriter who died in 1997, aged 49. It's a track that hovers in an electric fog of proggy retro synths and big, gurning guitar noodling before John's piano weighs anchor. When Carlile's voice sweetens the scene – direct in the foreground, hazy in the backing vocals – there are echoes of The Carpenters. John brings a little glam stomp to his old pub piano on 'Little Richard's Bible'. Meanwhile, 'Swing for the Fences' is an uptempo LGBT+ album with a rather chugging melody, fortunately elevated by the passionately unified force of the singers' voices. There are echoes of 'Tiny Dancer' in the reflective rolls of the piano runs between verses of 'Never Too Late' as the septuagenarian star defies mortality in Taupin's words: 'F*** off, heaven's gate!' The pair embrace roadhouse jukebox Americana on several tracks; on others it's country gospel with 'A Little Light' and twangier country rock on 'The River Man' and 'Someone To Belong To'. Solo moments sparkle. Carlile's tenderly fingerpicked song for the eldest of her two daughters, Evangeline (11) looks forward to a time when she will 'find your own records, choose what you believe' while reassuring her: 'I would know you anywhere/ I found myself in you.' It's such a lightly, deftly delivered tune, and so generous of spirit, that it made me cry. John also moistens the eyeballs on the solo piano closer, 'When This Old World Is Done With Me'. Over gentle washes of ivory, he reminds us that 'none of this came easy/ The shadows, the curtains, or the lights…' You can hear his voice crack as he hits the chorus, asking that, 'When I close my eyes, release me like an ocean wave, return me to the tide.' The album's direct confrontation with aging and death serves to intensify these artists' joyful, companionable celebration of life. Outsized, old-school, dad-rockin' fun.
