Breaking down barriers,is a very strong song,same as heart in the right place ,very strong opening,carla etude is just simply beautiful,best on the album by far.,7/10
It's a little strange that you'd give Legal Boys an 8 but only give Facist Faces a 2. I say strange because, in many ways, those two songs are somewhat similar.
Did you find this album very mixed John? I thought Carla Etude and Chloe and Nobody Wins were very strong on an otherwise lackluster album? The tracks I mention would be great live IMHO
@@eltonmusicfan Thanks for your thoughts John. I think at this stage I was clinging on to a hope to the return of the golden year period and so tended to have a bias towards the deeper tracks so I didn’t really warm to the tracks you mention. SWTP marked his return to form for me
Many different styles of songs on one album, but it works somehow. It's a really good album. Ratings: 1. Breaking Down Barriers - fun and energetic song. Exciting piano riff, very good melody. I like this one. 8/10 2. Heart in the Right Place - I like that Elton gets weird sometimes, so he doesn't always sound like himself. I wouldn't say this is an especially good song, but it sounds quite dark and it's interesting to listen to. Some great guitar playing in this one throughout the whole song and that's something we don't hear often. Melody is decent. 6.5/10 3. Just Like Belgium - I agree that this is a brilliant pop song - classic Elton! Almost on the level of 'I Guess...Blues'. 9/10 4. Nobody Wins - I love this one... Elton sings it so passionately. Some people say it's a bad song, probably because it's synth based pop, but I love it. It's better than the French original. Melody slightly reminds me of the song 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor, but I don't care. It's really brilliant plus one of the greatest vocals by Elton ever. 10/10. 5. Fascist Faces - yes, another strange song. To me it's on the almost same level as 'Heart in the right place'. Interesting lyrics, big chorus that fits, but the more I listen to that song, the less I'm interested in it. 6/10. 6. Carla-Etude - Beautiful orchestral work. Not quite as impressive to me as what he has done for the 'Tonight' song, but still very good. 8/10 7. Fanfare - I like it. Quite short and melodically actually similar to 'Chloe'. I don't even see it as a song. It's more like an interesting touch. Since the whole album is so disjointed with sound and styles, it even fits to hear something like this after an orchestral piece. 5/10 8. Chloe - I think that this is one of the best arranged and produced songs I heard. Here we have keyboards, guitars, orchestra plus some other things and sound effects, yet it all sounds so subtle and it fits together. I agree that the verse is melodically really nice. Chorus is quite pompous, but it still somehow fits. I quite like this one... it's almost like an ambiental track. Nice. 8/10 9. Heels of the Wind - I agree that this is a really fun song just like the opening track, but maybe even more fun and light and catchy. Chorus is especially great and fun to listen to. 8/10 10. Elton's Song - the lyrics are really emotional here and I like them, but I agree that his vocals shouldn't have been altered like this. I really like the melody in the verse here, but the chorus seems somehow strange. Even though it's a nice song, it's not one of my favorites from the album. 6.5/10 11. The Fox - I really didn't care much about this song at first, but started to like it a little more with time. It's still not that interesting. 6/10
An excellent summary and I agree with almost all of your comments here though I am not so keen on Heart in the Right Place. Carla/Etude and Tonight are comparable, both with beautiful lush arrangements and somehow warmer than the orchestra on the Elton John Album. I am glad to have found another fan of Just Like Belgium and Nobody Wins - both favourites of mine, but no-one ever seems to mention them.
@@eltonmusicfan Yes, both singles seem like the best songs on the album and best choices for singles. It's strange that 'Just Like Belgium' didn't make it to the charts since it's obviously quality song. I think that 'Elton John' album is his darkest, but it's somehow best at representing who Elton John is. Paul Buckmaster is also responsible for the darker and even eerie sound of album.
I like The Fox so much i made 2 albums based on it a tape based on my name and the fox (a cassette kinda a fix of music and experimental sounds) which was near end of cassettes . The albulm im finishing now w same name written w audacity and on a audio player. this one im finishing in a bit of comedy and NO original music. it originally was going have me singing all the songs from the Fox, i didnt like the idea so i put me singing in the 2nd half , almost like the beatles yellow submarine 2nd half. a sound track per se . I also split pt 1 45 mins in w carla /etude/fanfare and 2nd track chloe then 45 in 2nd half. the way i told u this piece makes a good intermission
actually carla/etude/fanfare is usually 1 piece and chloe separate and sometimes all 3 are connected into 10 minutes making 10 tracks on some cds and 11 on others MY The Fox is 10 songs
"Breaking Down Barriers" is a killer track that could easily have been a big hit had it been released as a single and been given proper promotion. I personally feel "Nobody Wins" was the wrong choice for a single release. It's a fine song, but it's too Continental Europe for the British and American markets. "Elton's Song" meant a lot to me as a teenager. Even in the late '90s, there weren't a lot of songs that spoke to my experience as a young gay person. It's a shame Elton didn't speak to this experience more in his songs, but given the time period in which he was making hits, it makes sense that he wouldn't. Interestingly, Elton also recorded "Je Veux d'la Tendresse", the original French version of "Nobody Wins", using the same backing track as the English version. The French version replaced "Nobody Wins" on The Fox in France and Quebec, and it was a big hit in the French charts. Elton also had a #1 French single with "Les Aveux", a duet he recorded with French singer France Gall, that same year. All three of Elton's French-language songs (the aforementioned two plus the B-Side of "Les Aveux", "Donner Pour Donner") were included on Jewel Box, Elton's 2020 box set of rarities, album tracks, and B-Sides. This album is vastly underrated. Unfortunately, Elton's US record label, Geffen Records, was dealing with a legal dispute with MCA, Elton's former label, over the rights to the album, so Geffen didn't promote the record in hopes that MCA would drop the suit when the album didn't do well. The Fox is one of Elton's most adventurous albums, recorded and released during a time when he was doing a lot of experimentation in the studio. It's a pity Elton doesn't perform the songs from it live more, though I expect this would be a "bathroom break" song for the vast majority of concert-goers. At least "Carla/Etude" gets some airing during solo and orchestra shows.
Hi John Ooh, The Fox! Heart In the Right Place! Let's go! 1 Breaking Down Barriers. Agree with everything you said on this one, catchy, great piano, not terribly memorable but a rocking start to the album, like Chasing the Crown on 21 at 33, or Dear John on Jump Up. I’d give it a 6. 2 Heart In The Right Place. Hmm, I’ve always had a certain fondness for this song. I love the - is vocoder the right word - and that part where he sings ‘I’m gonna destroy you/And your reputation/Don’t count for nothin’ with me’ always gives me the chills. And his voice sounds fine in the mix to me. Sorry, just listened to it again, and I really like it, 8. 3 Just like Belgium. Oh, just love this song, so well written. For years and years I thought the lyric was ‘See us spaced out on the floor of another cheap barroom’. Apparently it’s ‘ . . . face down on the floor . . . ‘ Sorry Bernie, I like my version better. Agree, 8. 4 Nobody Wins. I agree, this is powerful and well-sung. So much emotion in the voice. Another 8. 5 Fascist Faces. Hmm. Sorry again, I really like this song. He has the same emotional tone in his voice as on Nobody Wins, angry and sad. I like the voice that comes in: ‘I KNOW I’ve had enough’. Great piano, guitar and drums, and choir of course. I do wonder who the boy with the red shoes is. Score: 8. I’ve only ever had a cassette or CD of this so ‘sides’ aren’t relevant (or remembered, the cassette was a long time ago!) but that’s a really strong segment of CD! 6 Carla/Etude/Fanfare/Chloe. I’ve always viewed these as one track, so I’m scoring it that way*. Just beautiful: That wonderful piano makes you wish he’d written some more ‘classical’ stuff; the orchestra comes in and it all winds down slowly towards the moment . . . that the Fanfare starts, different instruments but it all still works. (No, I’m not musical in the slightest.) Then we have Chloe, an achingly beautiful song about unconditional love. I have a cold heart of stone but this makes me tear up. Going to give this a 9, only because there are only a couple of songs that are a definite 10. But on another day . . . * It is one track on the CD. 7 Heels of the Wind. As you say, a good pop song. 8. 8 Elton’s Song. From unconditional to unrequited. What a beautiful song. And my room is just dusty, and I have a cold coming on, no tears here. I had never seen that video before and while it’s a bit literal in places it is beautifully made. I’ve never thought of his voice as distorted, it’s just got some echo on it. A strong 9. 9 The Fox. For a long time this was the track I wasn’t that keen on, and it’s still the weakest but I do like parts of it and I would give it a 6. So that’s 70 out of 90, 7.8 per track. I have always loved this album and listening to it again just reinforces that. To me it’s like Rock of the Westies, not a bad track on there. (This may be the case on others, but I’ve never gone into this much detail before.) Justin on JustJP reacted to ‘Tiny Dancer’ the other day. It was the first Elton song he’d ever heard, he knew nothing about the man or the music. (He liked it, not blown away, but he liked it. I feel the same way about Tiny Dancer, to be honest.) The comments section is full of people saying, ‘Oh stick to the early stuff’, ‘Stay with the 70s’ and all that nonsense. My comment said, don’t do that, he did some of this best work in the 80s - and some of his worst; you need to get an overview of the whole career. So I submitted a list of 10 tracks that covered from Your Song all the way up to The Diving Board, closing with This Train from 2000 and Home Again from 2013. It was a bit sad that I couldn’t include anything from The Fox. But to listen to these other people, he stopped recording in about 1976; what actually happened is that these people stopped listening. But when I said he did some of his best work in the 80s, The Fox was one album I had in mind.
I recall reading that Elton was working with James Newton Howard on a lot of instrumentals, and he wanted to produce an all instrumental album, but the record label, David Geffen, would not hear of it. So Carla/Etude and Fanfare made the album. They were probably going to include Basque, another instrumental, but it didn't make it. Basque was recorded by James Galway, the flute player, years later, and he won a Grammy for it.
Basque is new to me. I'll have to check that out. Somehow I prefer the Newton Howard arrangements to the Buckmaster. More lush perhaps? That instrumentals album would have been interesting. I would like to see a compilation of Elton's instrumentals issued at some time. I will be doing a video rundown of all his instrumentals when I have finished the studio albums.
Elton's song is a masterpiece. This album means a lot to me as I was 17 when it cames out.
Yes, I agree. It's a beautiful song and I wish we heard it more often.
Breaking down barriers,is a very strong song,same as heart in the right place ,very strong opening,carla etude is just simply beautiful,best on the album by far.,7/10
i dont like Heart in right place its terrible for the fun of the album
I LOVE THIS CD!! not so much heart in right place too slow
I agree about that song.
It's a little strange that you'd give Legal Boys an 8 but only give Facist Faces a 2. I say strange because, in many ways, those two songs are somewhat similar.
Did you find this album very mixed John? I thought Carla Etude and Chloe and Nobody Wins were very strong on an otherwise lackluster album? The tracks I mention would be great live IMHO
Those are the standouts but I also like Just like Belgium and Heels of the Wind. Not so keen on the title track. What do you make of it?
@@eltonmusicfan Thanks for your thoughts John. I think at this stage I was clinging on to a hope to the return of the golden year period and so tended to have a bias towards the deeper tracks so I didn’t really warm to the tracks you mention. SWTP marked his return to form for me
Many different styles of songs on one album, but it works somehow. It's a really good album.
Ratings:
1. Breaking Down Barriers - fun and energetic song. Exciting piano riff, very good melody. I like this one. 8/10
2. Heart in the Right Place - I like that Elton gets weird sometimes, so he doesn't always sound like himself. I wouldn't say this is an especially good song, but it sounds quite dark and it's interesting to listen to. Some great guitar playing in this one throughout the whole song and that's something we don't hear often. Melody is decent. 6.5/10
3. Just Like Belgium - I agree that this is a brilliant pop song - classic Elton! Almost on the level of 'I Guess...Blues'. 9/10
4. Nobody Wins - I love this one... Elton sings it so passionately. Some people say it's a bad song, probably because it's synth based pop, but I love it. It's better than the French original. Melody slightly reminds me of the song 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor, but I don't care. It's really brilliant plus one of the greatest vocals by Elton ever. 10/10.
5. Fascist Faces - yes, another strange song. To me it's on the almost same level as 'Heart in the right place'. Interesting lyrics, big chorus that fits, but the more I listen to that song, the less I'm interested in it. 6/10.
6. Carla-Etude - Beautiful orchestral work. Not quite as impressive to me as what he has done for the 'Tonight' song, but still very good. 8/10
7. Fanfare - I like it. Quite short and melodically actually similar to 'Chloe'. I don't even see it as a song. It's more like an interesting touch. Since the whole album is so disjointed with sound and styles, it even fits to hear something like this after an orchestral piece. 5/10
8. Chloe - I think that this is one of the best arranged and produced songs I heard. Here we have keyboards, guitars, orchestra plus some other things and sound effects, yet it all sounds so subtle and it fits together. I agree that the verse is melodically really nice. Chorus is quite pompous, but it still somehow fits. I quite like this one... it's almost like an ambiental track. Nice. 8/10
9. Heels of the Wind - I agree that this is a really fun song just like the opening track, but maybe even more fun and light and catchy. Chorus is especially great and fun to listen to. 8/10
10. Elton's Song - the lyrics are really emotional here and I like them, but I agree that his vocals shouldn't have been altered like this. I really like the melody in the verse here, but the chorus seems somehow strange. Even though it's a nice song, it's not one of my favorites from the album. 6.5/10
11. The Fox - I really didn't care much about this song at first, but started to like it a little more with time. It's still not that interesting. 6/10
An excellent summary and I agree with almost all of your comments here though I am not so keen on Heart in the Right Place. Carla/Etude and Tonight are comparable, both with beautiful lush arrangements and somehow warmer than the orchestra on the Elton John Album. I am glad to have found another fan of Just Like Belgium and Nobody Wins - both favourites of mine, but no-one ever seems to mention them.
@@eltonmusicfan Yes, both singles seem like the best songs on the album and best choices for singles. It's strange that 'Just Like Belgium' didn't make it to the charts since it's obviously quality song.
I think that 'Elton John' album is his darkest, but it's somehow best at representing who Elton John is. Paul Buckmaster is also responsible for the darker and even eerie sound of album.
I like The Fox so much i made 2 albums based on it a tape based on my name and the fox (a cassette kinda a fix of music and experimental sounds) which was near end of cassettes . The albulm im finishing now w same name written w audacity and on a audio player. this one im finishing in a bit of comedy and NO original music. it originally was going have me singing all the songs from the Fox, i didnt like the idea so i put me singing in the 2nd half , almost like the beatles yellow submarine 2nd half. a sound track per se . I also split pt 1 45 mins in w carla /etude/fanfare and 2nd track chloe then 45 in 2nd half. the way i told u this piece makes a good intermission
Always loved Nobody wins. Powerful singing and great song, unfortunately completely forgotten. For me The Fox is his best album in the eighties.
Thanks for this. I agree it's a fine song and should have featured more in a live setting.
actually carla/etude/fanfare is usually 1 piece and chloe separate and sometimes all 3 are connected into 10 minutes making 10 tracks on some cds and 11 on others MY The Fox is 10 songs
Carla is the name of Clive Franks wife.
i used think cat fights was campfires
Do you like Just Like Belgium? Not many do.
@@eltonmusicfan i love it
I rate this album seven out of ten…
When I became an Elton John fan I was blown away when I found out he had an album called The Fox because my name is Jordi Fox 😂😂😂
Perhaps you like the group called Fox as well.
I like Heart in the Right Place because it is very different and has a sassy fun feel.
Fair enough!We can't all like the same things.
The Fox along with Made in England are to me Eltons most underrared albums. Not sure why the fox did not do a little better on the charts.
The cheesy full-length video didn't do it any favours!
@@eltonmusicfan I have never seen the whole video but what I have seen on you tube didn't look good.
"Breaking Down Barriers" is a killer track that could easily have been a big hit had it been released as a single and been given proper promotion. I personally feel "Nobody Wins" was the wrong choice for a single release. It's a fine song, but it's too Continental Europe for the British and American markets.
"Elton's Song" meant a lot to me as a teenager. Even in the late '90s, there weren't a lot of songs that spoke to my experience as a young gay person. It's a shame Elton didn't speak to this experience more in his songs, but given the time period in which he was making hits, it makes sense that he wouldn't.
Interestingly, Elton also recorded "Je Veux d'la Tendresse", the original French version of "Nobody Wins", using the same backing track as the English version. The French version replaced "Nobody Wins" on The Fox in France and Quebec, and it was a big hit in the French charts. Elton also had a #1 French single with "Les Aveux", a duet he recorded with French singer France Gall, that same year. All three of Elton's French-language songs (the aforementioned two plus the B-Side of "Les Aveux", "Donner Pour Donner") were included on Jewel Box, Elton's 2020 box set of rarities, album tracks, and B-Sides.
This album is vastly underrated. Unfortunately, Elton's US record label, Geffen Records, was dealing with a legal dispute with MCA, Elton's former label, over the rights to the album, so Geffen didn't promote the record in hopes that MCA would drop the suit when the album didn't do well. The Fox is one of Elton's most adventurous albums, recorded and released during a time when he was doing a lot of experimentation in the studio. It's a pity Elton doesn't perform the songs from it live more, though I expect this would be a "bathroom break" song for the vast majority of concert-goers. At least "Carla/Etude" gets some airing during solo and orchestra shows.
Good point. I enjoy both songs. I think Nobody Wins is one of Elton's few songs when synth backing actually works. All the best.
carla/etude fanfare great its like a break between sides
Yes, that works very well, doesn't it?
I ABSULUTLY LOVE this album - Hearts in the right place i dont care for the blues piece
Hi John
Ooh, The Fox! Heart In the Right Place! Let's go!
1 Breaking Down Barriers. Agree with everything you said on this one, catchy, great piano, not terribly memorable but a rocking start to the album, like Chasing the Crown on 21 at 33, or Dear John on Jump Up. I’d give it a 6.
2 Heart In The Right Place. Hmm, I’ve always had a certain fondness for this song. I love the - is vocoder the right word - and that part where he sings ‘I’m gonna destroy you/And your reputation/Don’t count for nothin’ with me’ always gives me the chills. And his voice sounds fine in the mix to me. Sorry, just listened to it again, and I really like it, 8.
3 Just like Belgium. Oh, just love this song, so well written. For years and years I thought the lyric was ‘See us spaced out on the floor of another cheap barroom’. Apparently it’s ‘ . . . face down on the floor . . . ‘ Sorry Bernie, I like my version better. Agree, 8.
4 Nobody Wins. I agree, this is powerful and well-sung. So much emotion in the voice. Another 8.
5 Fascist Faces. Hmm. Sorry again, I really like this song. He has the same emotional tone in his voice as on Nobody Wins, angry and sad. I like the voice that comes in: ‘I KNOW I’ve had enough’. Great piano, guitar and drums, and choir of course. I do wonder who the boy with the red shoes is. Score: 8. I’ve only ever had a cassette or CD of this so ‘sides’ aren’t relevant (or remembered, the cassette was a long time ago!) but that’s a really strong segment of CD!
6 Carla/Etude/Fanfare/Chloe. I’ve always viewed these as one track, so I’m scoring it that way*. Just beautiful: That wonderful piano makes you wish he’d written some more ‘classical’ stuff; the orchestra comes in and it all winds down slowly towards the moment . . . that the Fanfare starts, different instruments but it all still works. (No, I’m not musical in the slightest.) Then we have Chloe, an achingly beautiful song about unconditional love. I have a cold heart of stone but this makes me tear up. Going to give this a 9, only because there are only a couple of songs that are a definite 10. But on another day . . . * It is one track on the CD.
7 Heels of the Wind. As you say, a good pop song. 8.
8 Elton’s Song. From unconditional to unrequited. What a beautiful song. And my room is just dusty, and I have a cold coming on, no tears here. I had never seen that video before and while it’s a bit literal in places it is beautifully made. I’ve never thought of his voice as distorted, it’s just got some echo on it. A strong 9.
9 The Fox. For a long time this was the track I wasn’t that keen on, and it’s still the weakest but I do like parts of it and I would give it a 6.
So that’s 70 out of 90, 7.8 per track. I have always loved this album and listening to it again just reinforces that. To me it’s like Rock of the Westies, not a bad track on there. (This may be the case on others, but I’ve never gone into this much detail before.)
Justin on JustJP reacted to ‘Tiny Dancer’ the other day. It was the first Elton song he’d ever heard, he knew nothing about the man or the music. (He liked it, not blown away, but he liked it. I feel the same way about Tiny Dancer, to be honest.) The comments section is full of people saying, ‘Oh stick to the early stuff’, ‘Stay with the 70s’ and all that nonsense. My comment said, don’t do that, he did some of this best work in the 80s - and some of his worst; you need to get an overview of the whole career. So I submitted a list of 10 tracks that covered from Your Song all the way up to The Diving Board, closing with This Train from 2000 and Home Again from 2013. It was a bit sad that I couldn’t include anything from The Fox. But to listen to these other people, he stopped recording in about 1976; what actually happened is that these people stopped listening. But when I said he did some of his best work in the 80s, The Fox was one album I had in mind.
Thanks for the tip for JustJP. I hadn't encountered him before and have now subscribed. Apart from Heart in the Right Place, I like your ratings!
I recall reading that Elton was working with James Newton Howard on a lot of instrumentals, and he wanted to produce an all instrumental album, but the record label, David Geffen, would not hear of it. So Carla/Etude and Fanfare made the album. They were probably going to include Basque, another instrumental, but it didn't make it. Basque was recorded by James Galway, the flute player, years later, and he won a Grammy for it.
Basque is new to me. I'll have to check that out. Somehow I prefer the Newton Howard arrangements to the Buckmaster. More lush perhaps? That instrumentals album would have been interesting. I would like to see a compilation of Elton's instrumentals issued at some time. I will be doing a video rundown of all his instrumentals when I have finished the studio albums.
You are his brother?
Separated at birth!
Only the note of 1 for the track Heart in the right place are you joking? it's a great song. All the songs from The Fox album are great.
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate we all have different tastes. Some great tracks on The Fox, especially Just like Belgium and Elton's Song.