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"Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" è senza dubbio uno dei grandi classici del repertorio di Elton John: n° 2 negli USA del 1974, hit a livello mondiale nella sua riedizione del 1991 in duetto con George Michael e omaggiata da un considerevole numero di cover; ma purtroppo questa pur bellissima canzone ha letteralmente "cannibalizzato" il suo album di appartenenza, "Caribou" del 1974: incastonato tra "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" e "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" questo disco, nella cui copertina il Nostro fa sfoggio di un paio di pantaloni quantomeno discutibili è a mio avviso il più sottovalutato di tutta l'epoca d'oro di EJ, ed è un peccato perché se "Captain Fantastic..." ha sicuramente raggiunto la vetta più alta si deve a "Caribou" l'apertura di un nuovo ciclo nella carriera di Elton John, dopo che "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" aveva chiuso il precedente.
Concepito nello splendido scenario delle montagne del Colorado, "Caribou" è un album ispirato, gradevole e variopinto che sembra quasi partire in leggerezza per acquisire sempre più spessore man mano che si scorre la tracklist, e che per la sua completezza riesce ad essere quasi un riassunto dello stile e della personalità del miglior Elton John di sempre, gli ingredienti ci sono proprio tutti: il rock "cazzone" e ritmato di "The Bitch Is Back", quello più soft e intriso si ricordi d'infanzia di "Grimsby", la passione per il country che dà vita alla deliziosa "Dixie Lily", una canzone che conquista subito per la sua innocenza e la sua semplicità, che contrasta con i ritmi e la passionalità quasi sanguigna del tango di "You're So Static" e del blues rock di "Stinker", basato su un'ipnotica e quasi ossessiva linea di basso.
Ovviamente non manca un ingrediente fondamentale come le ballate, semplici, dolci e rilassanti come "Pinky" o strutturate, barocche e stralunate come "I've Seen The Saucers"; l'impasto della torta è arricchito da un pizzico di stravaganza (l'operettistico nonsense barocco di "Solar Prestige A Gammon", vero e proprio tocco di genialità) e sublimato da "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", sicuramente una delle hit pop di maggior spessore di sempre per musica, impatto e messaggio trasmesso e infine da uno dei massimi capolavori del duo John-Taupin, "Ticking", struggente ritratto piano & voce di un ragazzo incompreso e problematico che compie una strage in un bar di New York prima di essere a sua volta ucciso per mano della polizia.
Anche se meno "pubblicizzato" di altri album di EJ, "Caribou" rimane un prodotto di qualità eccezionale, oserei dire praticamente perfetto, concepito e strutturato a regola d'arte, senza una sola canzone fuori posto, che mette in mostra una versatilità notevole ed una classe immensa che si riflette sia nei singoli brani che nella visione d'insieme dell'album, che merita 5 stelle non solo per una questione di gusto personale ma per la sua effettiva qualità e importanza che ricopre della discografia di Elton John, che proprio con queste premesse e su queste basi darà vita a "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy".
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 The Bitch Is Back (03:43)
I was justified when I was five
Raising Cain, I spit in your eye
Times are changing, now the poor get fat
But the fever's gonna catch you when the bitch gets back
Eat meat on Friday that's alright
Even like steak on a Saturday night
I can bitch the best at your social do's
I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue
I'm a bitch, I'm a bitch
Oh the bitch is back
Stone cold sober as a matter of fact
I can bitch, I can bitch
`Cause I'm better than you
It's the way that I move
The things that I do
I entertain by picking brains
Sell my soul by dropping names
I don't like those, my God, what's that
Oh it's full of nasty habits when the bitch gets back
02 Pinky (03:54)
I don't want to wake you
But I'd like to tell you that I love you
That the candlelight fell like a crescent
Upon your feather pillow
For there's more ways than one
And the ways of the world are a blessing
For when Pinky's dreaming
She owes the world nothing
And her silence keeps us guessing
Pinky's as perfect as the Fourth of July
Quilted and timeless, seldom denied
The trial and the error of my master plan
Now she rolls like the dice in a poor gambler's hands
You don't want to tell me
But somehow you've guessed that I know
Oh when dawn came this morning
You discovered a feeling that burned like a flame in your soul
For there's toast and honey
And there's breakfast in bed on a tray
Oh it's ten below zero
And we're about to abandon our plans for the day
03 Grimsby (03:46)
As I lay dreaming in my bed
Across the great divide
I thought I heard the trawler boats
Returning on the tide
And in this vision of my home
The shingle beach did ring
I saw the lights along the pier
That made my senses sing
Oh oh Grimsby, a thousand delights
Couldn't match the sweet sights
Of my Grimsby
Oh England you're fair
But there's none to compare with my Grimsby
Through nights of mad youth
I have loved every sluice in your harbor
And in your wild sands from boyhood to man
Strangers have found themselves fathers
Take me back you rustic town
I miss your magic charm
Just to smell your candy floss
Or drink in the Skinners Arms
No Cordon Bleu can match the beauty
Of your pies and peas
I want to ride your fairground
Take air along the quay
04 Dixie Lily (02:54)
Music by Elton John
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin
Showboat coming up the river
See her lanterns flicker in the gentle breeze
I can hear the crickets singing in the evening
Old Dixie Lily moving past the cypress trees
My little boat she rocks easy
I've been catching catfish in the creek all day
Oh and I've never seen ladies like those on the big boats
Must be fancy breeding lets you live that way
Dixie Lily, chugging like a grand old lady
Paddles hitting home in the noonday sun
Ploughing through the water with your whistles blowing
Down from Louisiana on the Vicksburg run
Papa says that I'm a dreamer
Says them skeetas bit me one too many times
Oh but I never get lonesome living on the river
Watching old Lily leave the world behind
05 Solar Prestige a Gammon (02:52)
Oh ma cameo molesting
Kee pa a poorer for tea
Solar prestige a gammon
Lantern or turbert paw kwee
Solar prestige a gammon
Kool kar kyrie kay salmon
Har ring molassis abounding
Common lap kitch sardin a poor floundin
Cod ee say oo pay a loto
My zeta prestige toupay a floored
Ray indee pako a gammon
Solar prestige a pako can nord
06 You're So Static (04:51)
I've a constant ache in the morning light
It's on account of the night before
Some Park Lane lady in a shady bar
Took a fancy to the watch I wore
But I can still remember how she laughed at me
As I spun around and hit the bed
She said thank you honey, forget about the money
This pretty watch'll do instead
City living woman, you're so static
Matching your men with a hook and eye
If you're gonna spend the summer in New York City
Them women oh oh oh they're gonna slice your pie
Said you're so static, baby I've had it
Rolling in a yellow cab
Downtown hustlers trying to pull some muscle
If they catch you, oh oh oh it could turn out bad
It's a Show me what you want, I'll show you what I've got
I can show you a real good time
She's a friend indeed of a friend in need
But you'll be sorry when she leaves you crying
08 Stinker (05:19)
Say what you will but I'm a stinker
I come crawling up out of my hole
Dirt in my toes, dirt up my nose
I'm a perfect curse to pest control
Seeds and weeds and muddy meals
Crawling around the earth
Down in the ground where the sun don't pound
I hibernate in English turf
Better believe it, I'm a stinker
Burning vermin stink
Watch me get as high as a heat wave honey
Tell me what you hound dogs think
Set in my styles with a beady eye
I got connections with the underground
Call me a common rodent boy
Sitting here safe and sound
Some mole hill mother sauntered by
Acting like the ace of spades
Don't give that cutey no reason to shoot me
When I'm living on the eggs she laid
09 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (05:35)
Don't go breaking my heart
I couldn't if I tried
Honey if I get restless
Baby you're not that kind
Don't go breaking my heart
You take the weight off me
Honey when you knock on my door
I gave you my key
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
So don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
And nobody told us
'Cause nobody showed us
And now it's up to us babe
I think we can make it
So don't misunderstand me
You put the light in my life
You put the sparks to the flame
I've got your heart in my sights
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it, nobody knows it
But right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my
Don't go breaking my
Don't go breaking my heart
Don't go breaking my
Don't go breaking my
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
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