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"If it came to pass that they should ask
What could I tell them?
Would they criticize behind my back
Maybe I should let them
Oh if only then and only then
They would understand
They'd turn a full-blooded city boy
Into a full-blooded city man"
..Se accadesse che mi chiedessero
Cosa potrei dire loro?
Mi criticheranno dietro le spalle
Forse dovrei lasciarli
Oh se solo e soltanto dopo
Capirebbero che
Hanno trasformato un ragazzo purosangue di città
In un uomo purosangue di città..
Probabilmente Elton John con questo Lp intitolato "Madman Across The Water", datato 1971, dà alla luce il suo capolavoro assoluto, dopo gli eccellenti "Elton John" e "Tumbleweed Connection", suoi lavori precedenti.
Circondato da session-men di altissimo livello (uno su tutti, un giovanissimo Rick Wakeman), Elton descrive l'America di quel periodo - e quella del passato nel brano "Indian Sunset", che parla della distruzione della tribù degli Iroquois - con poche, decise pennellate di vernice. Quello che rende il tutto così interessante e magico, in questo disco, è che il colore e l'intensità con cui vengono dipinte le nove scene che lo compongono riescono davvero ad incantare l'ascoltatore; tra innumerevoli giochi di luce, improvvisi cambi di tempo, melodie perfette ed arrangiamenti geniali che trasportano inevitabilmente, inesorabilmente, in una sorta di universo parallelo.
Ad un primo ascolto si potrebbe restare spiazzati, in quanto i pezzi possono risultare fin troppo intimisti e oscuri, complici i cupi arrangiamenti dell'immenso Paul Buckmaster e i testi di Bernie Taupin, che dietro metafore a volte indecifrabili lascia alla voce intensa e versatile più che mai di Elton il compito di svelare, senza probabilmente accorgersene, ogni piccolo arcano; probabilmente perché solo Taupin scrive i testi (Elton non ne sarebbe minimamente capace), ma è poi il pianista inglese a trasformare, con le sue intuizioni melodiche e le sue perfette costruzioni armoniche, ogni testo scritto su carta in una creatura del tutto indipendente. Rarissimamente prendendone spunto per citazioni autobiografiche, ma molto spesso per trasmettere all'ascoltatore tutti i suoi dubbi, le sue incertezze, i suoi colpi di genio (lo straordinario crescendo melodico di "Levon" e "All The Nasties", la struggente e pianistica "Razor Face"); un certo gusto per un rock decisamente personale ("Rotten Peaches"); l'amore viscerale di Elton per il gospel, per la ballata d'amore, per il blues, tutte peculiarità della sua musica, della sua personalità maniacale, della sua inesauribile vena creativa fino al suo primo disco "alla cocaina", quel "Rock Of The Westies" del 1976, spartiacque tra due epoche completamente diverse.
La titletrack, la canzone forse più eterogenea dell'album, forte di una lunga parte strumentale che ripete quasi ossessivamente gli accordi di pianoforte e chitarra dell'intro, ha un testo che si presta a diverse interpretazioni: è forse il pezzo più ostico dell'album. Il brano doveva in realtà comparire sull'album precedente, in una versione con il grande Mick Ronson alla chitarra, che poi fu ufficialmente presentata al pubblico nel doppio "Rare Masters", nel 1991.
Il pezzo che chiude l'album, "Goodbye", pianoforte e voce, ha come tema principale l'addio, ed è decisamente evocativa nei versi:
"I'm sorry I took your time
I am the poem that doesn't rhyme
Just turn back a page
I'll waste away, I'll waste away..."
La romantica "Tiny Dancer" è stata riportata in auge grazie alla colonna sonora di "Almost Famous", in una memorabile scena corale di questo film che ha fatto riscoprire, specialmente alle nuove generazioni, la bellezza indiscutibile di questo Lp che, in parte, è una dichiarazione d'amore di Elton verso l'America, il Paese che lo ha lanciato, "out of the blue", verso una irripetibile carriera.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Tiny Dancer (06:17)
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady
Seamstress for the band
Pretty eyes, pirate smile
You're marrying music man
Ballerina, you must've seen her
Dancing in the sand
And now she's in me, always with me
Tiny dancer in my hand
Jesus freaks, out in the street
Handing tickets out for God
Turning back she just laughs
The boulevard is not that bad
Piano man, he makes his stand
In the auditorium
Looking on she sings the song
The words she knows
The tune she hums
But oh how it feels so real
Lying here, with no one near
Only you, and you can hear me
When I say softly, slowly
Hold me closer, tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today
(repeat)
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady
Seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile
You're marrying a music man
Ballerina, you must've seen her,
Dancing in the sand
And now she's in me, always with me
Tiny dancer in my hand
But oh how it feels so real
Lying here with no one near
Only you and you can hear me
When I say softly, slowly
repeat chorus 2x
02 Levon (05:22)
Levon wears his war wound like a crown
He calls his child Jesus
'Cause he likes the name
And he sends him to the finest school in town
Levon, Levon likes his money
He makes a lot, they say
Spends his days counting
In the garage by the motorway
He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas Day
When the New York Times said God is dead
And the war's begun
Alvin Tostig has a son today
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition with the family plan
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Levon
Levon sells cartoon balloons in town
His family business thrives
Jesus blows up balloons all day
Sits on the porch swing watching them fly
And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus
Leaving Levon far behind
Take a balloon and go sailing
While Levon, Levon slowly dies
He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas Day
When the New York Times said God is dead
And the war's begun
Alvin Tostig has a son today
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition with the family plan, whoo
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Levon
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition with the family plan, whoo
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Levon
04 Madman Across the Water (05:57)
I can see very well.
There's a boat on the reef with a broken back
And I can see it very well.
There's a joke and I know it very well,
It's one of those that I told you long ago.
Take my word I'm a madman don't you know.
Once a fool had a good part in the play,
If it's so would I still be here today?
It's quite peculiar in a funny sort of way,
They think it's very funny everything I say.
Get a load of him, he's so insane
You'd better get your coat dear
It looks like rain.
We'll come again next Thursday afternoon.
The inlaws hope they'll see you very soon.
But is it in your conscience that you're after
Another glimpse of the Madman across the Water.
I can see very well.
There's a boat on the reef with a broken back
And I can see it very well.
There's a joke and I know it very well,
It's one of those that I told you long ago.
Take my word I'm a madman don't you know.
We'll come again next Thursday afternoon.
The inlaws hope they'll see you very soon.
But is it in your conscience that you're after
Another glimpse of the Madman across the Water.
The ground's a long way down but I need more.
Is the nightmare black
Or are the windows painted?
Will they come again next week,
Can my mind really take it?
06 Holiday Inn (04:16)
Boston at last and the plane's touching down
Our hostess is handing the hot towels around
From a terminal gate to a black limousine
It's a ten minute ride to the Holiday Inn
Boredom's a pastime that one soon acquired
Where you get to the stage where you're not even tired
Kicking your heels till the time comes around
To pick up your bags and head out of town
Slow down Joe, I'm a rock and roll man
I've twiddled my thumbs in a dozen odd bands
And you ain't seen nothing till you've been
In a motel baby like the Holiday Inn
Oh I don't even know if it's Cleveland or Maine
With the buildings as big and rooms just the same
And the TV don't work and the French fries are cold
And the room service closed about an hour ago
07 Rotten Peaches (04:58)
We've moved on six miles from where we were yesterday
And yesterday is but a long long ways away
So we'll camp out tonight beneath the bright starlight
And forget rotten peaches and the places we've stayed
I left from the dockland two years ago now
Made my way over on the S.S. Marie
And I've always had trouble wherever I've settled
Rotten peaches are all that I see
Rotten peaches rotting in the sun
Seems I've seen that devil fruit since the world begun
Mercy I'm a criminal, Jesus I'm the one
Rotten peaches rotting in the sun
There ain't no green grass in a U.S. state prison
There is no one to hold when you're sick for your wife
And each day out you'll pick, you'll pick rotten peaches
You'll pick rotten peaches for the rest of your life
Oh I've had me my fill of cocaine and pills
For I lie in the light of the Lord
And my home is ten thousand, ten thousand miles away
And I guess I won't see it no more
08 All the Nasties (05:09)
If it came to pass that they should ask
What could I tell them
Would they criticize behind my back
Maybe I should let them
Oh if only then and only then
They would understand
They'd turn a full-blooded city boy
Into a full-blooded city man
If they could face it
I could take it in their eyes
Oh I know I'd make it
Their tiny minds
And sacred cows just fake it
If only then and only then
They would understand
They'd turn a full-blooded city boy
Into a full-blooded city man
But I know the way they want me
In the way they publicize
If they could turn their focus off
To the image in their eyes
Maybe it would help them, help them understand
Maybe it would help them, help them understand
Maybe it would help them, help them understand
That a full-blooded city boy
Is now a full-blooded city man
Oh my soul
Oh my soul
Oh my soul
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Altre recensioni
Di Giuseppe13
Se dovessi scegliere un album musicale da portare con me nell'aldilà... sceglierei un album di Elton, perché il primo amore, anche musicale, non si scorda mai.
Madman meriterebbe una standing ovation dal 1971 sino ad oggi, e che continui ancora.
