Tumbleweed Connection

Elton John 2008 digitally remastered deluxe two CD edition of Elton's self titled album featuring an additional eight bonus tracks on the first disc plus a second CD containing 12 additional bonus tracks. Originally released in 1970, Elton John was his second album which spawned the classic...	Mudcrutch great album	Tapestry-Legacy Edition (2-CD) Carole King is a legendary songwriter who has crafted a myriad of hit songs for other artists but by writing and performing her own material she charted new ground with Tapestry. Now you can experience Carole's vision in its original "unplugged" brilliance. This deluxe 2 CD Lega...	Live at Royal Albert Hall 1971 From their earliest days as 12-string-wielding folk-rockers, to the thrilling psychedelic excursions of their raga-rock period to their 1968 birthing of country-rock, the Byrds were always accorded a hero's welcome in England. What better place to record founding Byrds member/gui...	Pacific Ocean Blue - Legacy Edition Apart from the non-release of Smile, the biggest lament of hardcore Beach Boys fans is that Bruce Johnston aside, none of the non-Brian Wilson solo albums are available on CD. But now, for fans of late drummer Dennis Wilson, there's reason to celebrate as his only-released solo a...
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Not quite Deluxe enough
"Tumbleweed Connection" is a fantastic re-imagining of the American West by a couple of brilliant young British songwriters who had never been there. Other reviewers here have described the album, and if you think you are interested in Elton's breakthrough years, you need to have this. The songs are inventive, poetic, and rockin', and Elton's vocals and piano playing are superb. It's beautifully arranged and recorded, but more of a piano-based rock album than the self-titled album that preceded it. There isn't a bad song on it, and it may be Elton's most thematically unified work. In addition, since it never had a hit single, it is not as well known as most of his early works, so it is easy to listen to it with a fresh appreciation. (The least known is his first album, "Empty Sky", which is so easily forgotten that the sticker on this new edition mistakenly says that "Tumbleweed" is his second studio album...which means his own CD company completely forgot about "Empty Sky" which preceded both "Tumbleweed" and the self-titled one!) The 2008 Deluxe Edition has some nice extras, but falls short of being an essential upgrade. Disc One consists solely of the original running order of the album, and the mastering sounds identical to every CD version released since 1995 (including the Japanese imports). But that's fine...it sounds great and that may be the best mastering they can get out of the original masters. (Or maybe they can't find the original two-track masters...that happens more often than you want to know.) Disc Two has some nice piano/vocal demos for the album, but there are several other demos from the album that have circulated in good sound quality on a bootleg called "Tumbleweed Collection", so it is too bad that Universal didn't track those down as well, to make it a more complete picture. The piano demos included here are fun to hear, played and sung extremely well by Elton (he would have had to have done them live, probably in his publisher Dick James' studio), but they don't have the spark that their final album versions have once they got input from the producer and fellow musicians. There are demos for a couple of songs which were later dropped from the lineup, but even though they are lovely, I think the album was stronger by not including them. Also on Disc Two are some alternate versions of songs. The most surprising is a country rock version of "There Goes A Well-Known Gun". It sounds more like standard country rock of the early `70's, but ultimately Elton slowed it down a bit, gave it more of a Rolling Stones-type roughness with an aggressive piano-based rhythm section, and bluesier vocals. Elton's instincts could occasionally go awry in the studio, but in live performance in the `70's he was electrifying. The last four tracks on Disc Two are BBC radio performances, three of which haven't been released before, and they're wonderful. Elton already knew how to lead a rock band with his pounding piano, but the band and vocalist always served the songs, and the songs are very, very good. The style and content are similar to Elton's first live album, "11-17-70", but with no audience present. These are tracks you are likely to listen to more than once or twice, unlike the rest of Disc Two. The Deluxe Edition packaging is very nice, with original artwork, lyrics, musician credits, and a few new pictures from the period, but the included essay about the album is largely identical to the one in 1995. This comes across as kind of lazy. TC is a much loved album by musicians, so it would have been nice to hear from players who either worked on the original sessions or were influenced by it. So I give this Deluxe edition four stars. It's a classic album that's a pleasure to listen to today, and this is the best release so far of it, but it could have been a better presentation with just a couple more days of work. (Actually, no reissue producer is listed, so maybe nobody was particularly motivated to push it to the next level.)

Elton's "Tumbleweed" Get Deluxe Treatment
Inspired by The Band's Music from Big Pink and feturing lyricist Bernie Taupin's Great Western imagery,Elton John's "Tumbleweed Connection" is widely regarded as one of his finest albums and for good reason.Though it did not have a big hit single,it contains many classic songs including "Country Comfort"(later covered by Rod Stewart and Juice Newton,of all people),"Burn Down The Mission","Come Down In Time","Amoreena" and others as well.This Deluxe Edition contains a sepia-toned 28-booklet feturing elegant photos and song lyrics,a stunning 2008 remaster of the original album done by Giovanni Scatola and Tony Cousins at Metropolis Mastering,London which surpasses all the previous masters,and a second disc of 9 previously unreleased demos and live sessions of the "Tumbleweed" tracks plus the original version of "Madman Across The Water",the B-side "Into The Old Man's Shoes" (with its piano demo also included)and the never-before-released "Sisters Of The Cross".All which make this an essential purchase for Elton John fans.

What could have been......
For starters, I have every single Elton John album ever made, (with the exception of Victim of Love). I have virtually every B side that I know exists and have mulitple sources of other unreleased material, studio and live. Depending on the day of the week you ask me, Tumbleweed Connection is probably my second favorite Elton release behind Captain Fantastic. To be clear, my mediocre rating has absolutely nothing to do with the original record. If you have never heard Tumbleweed before, purchase this right away. It is Elton and Bernie at the top of their early game. While there is much to cheer on this release, my mediocre review is solely predicated on what is not here. For some reason, a trend is developing on re-releases, where the original album is placed on one disc with no additional material, and the second disc is jammed with the extras. It's as if the belief of a few purists that the original release should not be tampered with has permeated the masses. I, for one, just don't understand it. If I am repurchasing an album I already own, I want as much unreleased material on BOTH discs. If I only want to hear the original album, I'll either GO PLAY THE ORIGINAL ALBUM, or simply hit the stop button once Burn Down the Mission has ended. It's not that hard... Now, if this was a case of what we have here being the total wealth of unreleased material, then obviously there wouldn't be a problem with formatting the CD this way. But I know there is A LOT more material, because I've already heard it. I have heard perfectly clean demo versions of Amoreena, Burn Down the Mission, Where To Now St. Peter, and worst of all, a criminally unreleased version of a beautiful song titled Rolling Western Union that was recorded in this time period. Where are these tracks, among others? O.K. Enough ranting. Let's get to what's great on here. The first song on the bonus disc is worth the price of admission all on its' own. It is an alternate take on Ballad of a Well Known Gun in a more countrified rock version. And it is absolutely gorgeous. This track is followed by some clean and clear demo versions of about half the album tracks, including a very nice unreleased song I've never heard before, Sisters of the Cross. Some alternate live BBC versions end the album. The first is a fantastic, piano only version of My Father's Gun, followed by an another great version of Ballad. The last two songs are a treasure of immeasurable value. They are culled from the same session that ends the other re-released "Elton John" album, (a BBC Sounds of the Seventies session). Although the rather hapharzard and incomplete liner notes make no mention of it, we are listening to the Elton, Nigel and Dee trio on their mini-tour, months before their U.S. sessions that produced the 11-17-70 album. The arrangements and playing style are almost exactly the same and it is absolutely wonderful to hear the slightly different takes of these songs. I would give an eye tooth to have those full sessions released on disc. (Who know, maybe they can remedy that with a deluxe edition of 11-17-70). Overall, there was and is no chance of any diehard Elton fan not purchasing this album and loving what they hear. There is a treasure trove of unreleased material on here that is absolutely wonderful. My only issue is this; if you are going to go to the effort of re-releasing an album, take time and get it right. I understand that there isn't enough room on two discs to give the fans every second of unreleased material. But when there is an easy opportunity to give them more, take it.

Tumbleweed Deluxe!
Another remaster,another addition to Universal's very successful "Deluxe Edition" series.Some of which have been very good value.We have already seen "Captain Fantastic" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" given very lavish deluxe treatment.According to the extensive essay by John Tobler contained within the booklet of this double cd reissue of one of Sir Elton's career defining early 70's albums for DJM records,it has been released(along with his self titled second album)to commemerate 40 years of recording.And what a wealth of material it contains.It's not so much how good the album sounds,it's all the extra material contained on the second disc,most of which is previously unreleased,that make these new deluxe editions a must have for any fan of Mr.John! It's not the first remaster of course.Almost all his classic 70's back catalogue was first given a clean up in 1995 by the late Gus Dudgeon,Elton's longtime producer and collaborator.The remainder of the 70's albums and most of the 80's and 90's were finished by 2003. And for those us who were quick enough to snap them up,six of his classic 70's albums were reissued in Hybrid SACD 5.1 by Universal America's excellent "Chronicles" series a few years back.If you have an SACD player,.They are pretty nice sounding surround remixes though the Stereo layer was still the 1995 remaster(track down the deluxe edition of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and you'll understand what I'm talking about). So onto the 2008 clean up.The albums themselves sound like they were recorded yesterday,very nice indeed.Universal,along with Sony use single bit technology(DSD or direct steam digital)that they created for archiving all their aging analogue back catalogue,so any remasters they have released since 2001 sound as close to the original master as possible. The bonus tracks that were on the 1995 remasters are included on the second disc along with almost all of the album in demo form or alternate versions and some previously unreleased live radio performances.Worth the price of admission for the second disc alone. I hope that all his classic albums get the same treatment as each one passes the big 40 anniversary.

My Favorite EJ
I bought the original vinyl for this "back in the day" and I'm still confused as my vinyl has "Madman" on it. Regardless - this version of Madman with Mick Ronson on guitar is my favorite. While this might be the only EJ album without a hit single, it's my favorite work of his (and obviously Bernie). There isn't a weak song on this CD. My favorites include "Ballad of a Well Known Gun", "Where to Now St. Peter", "My Father's Gun", "Country Comfort", "Amoreena" and "Burn Down the Mission". If you don't have this - you should. It's essential "Classic Rock".