Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

[0:00]In 2020, for friends, now that's how I intro this episode on this, when we actually get to it, you're going to hear it again, I say 2020, it bugs me so much. I was like, what was I thinking doing that? We listened to every one of the greatest 500 episodes. Listen, this is a fake intro. Okay. We, you are going to hear it all again. This is the intro to the Elton John episode. And it turns out that we did Elton John as a test episode. In fact, it was the third episode. We did Guns and Roses as our first. Okay. Appetite for Destruction. We were thinking about Appetite of Destruction. Appetite for, yeah, of, for Destruction. Appetite for Destruction. Appetite in Destruction? The thing was. Destruction of the Appetite? We listened to that first episode. Was Destruct, was Destroyed? We were thinking about releasing it as like a, as like kind of a old, like, oh, this is What the podcast used to be like. And it was fun. And maybe the Library of Congress would get it and say, it's so important. They got to put it in there. Hallowed Halls. Okay. That we all know what I'm talking about for sure. And then. We listened to it. It was absolutely terrible.

[1:00]It was very bad. It's somehow two hours long. Okay. Much like a certain Kendrick episode that you might hear coming up soon. Our first practice episode ever. The main host told us, if you're not talking, you need to be on mute. Oh, oof. That's correct. That's correct. That's a rough listen. Our second one was the Radiohead episode, which no one will ever hear. Yep, that's, that's under lock and key. That's debatable. Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. So, and I know what you're thinking, because the thing with Yellow Brick Road for Elton John is it's actually a double album. And I know what you guys are thinking, a double album in Britain. That would be two naked guys named Al. A double album? Album. Album? A couple of blokes. A couple of blokes, right? A couple of blokes. Naked blokes. I came up with that all by myself. I didn't see your notes or anything, Rob. Double album. So good. So, oh yes, I did write blokes.

[2:00]Shit. And then I didn't do the joke, but I said, God damn it. So anyway, listen. I didn't want any stolen valor there. Listen, the third episode, we're not this good. Okay. This is years, literally years of experience of us talking to each other, Acting like we like each other and Matt and Aaron laughing at my jokes. So you're going to hear a couple of things that are a little bit different than normal, But it's kind of fun to think that this was like literally the third thing we've ever Come up, we ever did. It's the first time you ever hear one-on-one with Aaron's mom. And stick around to the end. The best part of the episode, the, we will plant our flag on this is the game show at The end. So listen to that. It's when we actually put a lot of time into the podcast. Steve, he needs to listen to the end. That means you got to listen to the music. Yeah. He could never, he never listens to the end. Get to the show at the end, please. We're back. And Aaron, are you going to apologize at this point for all of our audio quality? I think yours might be the worst. None of it's very good. Mine is easily the worst. This was pre me purchasing a semi-decent. Okay. Okay. So this is when I was still recording with the AirPods sitting on my porch.

[3:00]So you're probably going to hear some crickets and it's going to be terrible sound quality On my part. Yes. Apologies in advance. And you have upgraded now from prodigy to AOL. So I think things are going better. I am the fire starter. There is, Hey what? There is one person that listens to this show that I know for certain still has an AOL email Address. Oh, wait, is it that one? Is it the one it's the one you can stand Jeff Bezos at aol.com. That doesn't even make sense. I don't know if I'm ready to just demolge that yet. It could be the one I can stand, but my also might not be. If you told me that magic Mike was always emailing us on an AOL account, I'd be like, Yeah, that makes sense. Hey Rob, the beginning of the real episode kind of bombs a little bit. So maybe we should stop the bombing and limit the bombing here at the beginning and just Get to the, get to K Rob Russ. Boy, I can't believe you're not a salesman or something. I know it's such a good pitch.

[4:00]Let's listen to K Rob K R O B. What's up everybody. Welcome to K Rob K R O B. This week we got Elton John, Yellow Brick Road, But we're going to do this as a test episode. So this might make you frown. You might see this as a con, But we did an old practice episode where we covered Elton John. Oh, He's not good, Rob. Wow. To us, It was all brand new. We didn't have any of our hilarious bits, But recycling our garbage is good enough for you. Yes. There's a deleted scene of me singing that part. Yes, Sir. Yes, There's an old episode. Yes.

[5:00]Yes. But that is not our fault. We just didn't want to do a new one. That's true. So we took this one out of the vault. Yes. The audio quality isn't that good. And we're not as funny as we are now. It's debatable. Still has the most important thing. Episode. Is hosted by. This is a key chain. Is that allowed? Are you allowed to do that, Rosie? When you want to hear the greatest album of all time. That's pretty good. Do it up. But you're just too lazy to look it up online. In 2020. If you want to hear four guys who chat. It's so weird. You got to play. You got to play like the. Yeah. Yeah. You got to play like the Wayne's world. Take me. I ended up. I have for you.

[6:00]Jack. Beck did it better. In 2020, four friends decided to listen to every one of the greatest 500 albums as decided By Rolling Stone magazine. This resulted in a text chain that celebrated the music, excoriated the order and led us To making this podcast. We are far from experts. We promise to do almost no research. All opinions are our own. Unless you disagree. Please sit back and enjoy. Beck did it better. This is Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I have to edit that shit out, but it sounded good. Live from his mom's car. When you want to hear about the greatest albums of all time. But you're just too lazy to look it up online. If you want to hear four guys who chat and then they get off track. I've got the perfect podcast for you.

[7:00]Jack. Beck did it better. Welcome back to Beck did it better. I'm Rob along with Matt, Aaron and Russ. And we are here today talking about the Rolling Stone top 500 album list. Greatest albums of all time. And we are all the way to number 91. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John. Shout out Kevin Green of L.A. Rams fame. All right, let's start over in 2020. I got to say, well, yeah, OK, all right, OK, I love Rob. I love the decay on the hi hat at the end of our theme song. Like, yes, it just really sets me off. So I went into the stratosphere. No, that all the editing of that song took literally all the skills I have. There's nothing more I could have done. I can hear it, man. That's perfection. Yeah, it's very good.

[8:00]My kids now sing it around the house because they've heard it a million times as I was Editing it aloud. It's been stuck in my head as frequently as Love, Life, Bleeding has been stuck in my Head for the last week. Oh, yeah, this I got to say, guys, I'm I'm going to tell you already. Great album. I loved it. This is a double LP. 17 songs, 76 minutes. This is an album that came out in 73. And in 1993, it was certified eight times platinum. In 1973, this sold about 30 million copies. Just to give you an idea. The other day we were talking about Kid A, which sold four million copies. This was in a run that Elton John had where he had six number one albums in a row. Think about that. That's pretty good. Six number one albums. Real quick, though, before we start talking about the album, let's go and talk about anything. How's everybody doing? Matt, how are you doing? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I'm in the I take it.

[9:00]This is the part where we talk about something that something cool we're reading or watching Or listening to that you're thinking of rolling well known, which is our segment. This is just the part where we go around and say, hi, I'm doing well, summer in Minnesota. You can't beat it. It's true. Aaron, how are you doing? Yeah, I'm all right. I'm working at home as usual. And today was a Monday and I didn't have very many meetings. So I got to hang out. I had my wife and son a little bit. And then they went out to the Berkeley campus and he rode his bike around. That was cool. I went to the grocery store. They didn't quite have everything I was looking for, but they had most of it. And then I ate some salmon for dinner, which was delicious. So I'm good. I'm happy. It's a great day. That's a great day. Ross, how are you doing? You were in a new location. Ross, what are you up to? I am actually up in northern Minnesota. My family's been going to the same resort for the last 32 years. So it's a pretty cool tradition we got going on. One of the tough things I've been going through while I've been up here, though,

[10:00]Is when you've been working from home for a while in today's day and age in the workplace Where you can work from home with your computer all the time, I feel like you always have to be on when it comes to work, even when you're on vacation. So I'm getting calls and I'm getting emails and requests, even though people know I'm gone. But I feel like in today's society, you have to continue to respond to those. So it kind of pisses me off. There's no way 40 years ago when my mom came up here with her kids, Or her parents, that she was getting any sort of messages from ravens Asking her to finish up her work or anything like that. So you don't just put on the away message, I'm on vacation, I will not respond until next Monday? You don't put that on? I think it's acceptable, but I think if you have any professional pride, it's not acceptable, Matt. What? I don't know. I think I'm going to pleasantly disagree with you there, politely disagree with you. Not again. We're already off on a bad foot.

[11:00]This is in a good way. I think it's perfectly acceptable to say I am on family vacation. I will rarely check email and I will get back to you at my convenience. Otherwise, I'll talk to you Monday. I mean, people have to respect that, right? I mean. I agree. I agree with Matt. Russ, if you emailed somebody and said, I want you to get this done for me, I'm Russ. And all of a sudden, you got back the auto reply saying, I'm on a family vacation for the next week. How would you feel about that? It's completely reasonable. But sometimes, Rob, just because we think what other people do is reasonable doesn't mean we don't allow ourselves that same freedom. Does that make sense? Oh, totally. It's the worst. You got to give yourself permission, Russell, to be on a vacation. Especially if it's like one week of summer, right? Like this is it. You know, the other times you're up at some of our sponsors. I think you go up there a lot. The problem with that is, Matt, I have been, quote unquote, working from home from my brother's resort. Which is about 30 minutes from here. And I think my co-workers are starting to be in on the bit that, well, I'm actually just sitting out on a picnic table drinking beer all day.

[12:00]While I'm supposedly been working from home for the last six weeks. Yeah, but it's not their fault. They don't need to know that. Yeah. It's not their fault that their home sucks compared to yours. I mean, their home doesn't have a picnic table. They can suck it. Put that in your thing. I'm away for a week. Too bad you don't have a picnic table. Suck it. Russell. And then the sound of a beer opening. Yeah. Say, Russell, we don't give a shit about any of this. What we really want to know right now is, how did the baby shower go? Did you get a date out of it? Yes or no? Let's hear it, Russell. Baby shower went great. I showed up a few minutes late because, of course, you never want to be the first person there. We talked last time about being the last person there and being there until the end. But are you guys like me? Do you show up fashionably late? Or when do you arrive for a party? I show up the moment they unwrap those deviled eggs, Russ. Give me those deviled eggs. I'm eating deviled eggs right now. I'm on five of them before anybody can take one.

[13:00]Oh, you're having a baby? You know, questions like that. Like, oh, man. Nice work having sex. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And your mouth is full of deviled eggs. And you're just eating deviled eggs after deviled eggs. I'm sorry, Russ. What was the question again? Rob, do you show up before or after they open the deviled eggs, I think was the question. Oh, well, I'm always rolling around with Jenny. So we're always fashionably late. We're super late. We're super late all the time. I have fun with kids, right? I mean, people set up these things. My brother had a birthday party for his one-year-old daughter the other day. And it's set up from four to eight, right? Like, I've got a five and an eight-year-old. I am not keeping them entertained for four hours. No. I will show up 30 to 45 minutes late. We will leave 30 to 45 minutes early. Shrink that time as much as possible. But people say show up at four o'clock. They're not going to eat until five. I think I'm going to roll in with my two hooligans close to five.

[14:00]So we can just try to minimize damage, minimize crying, and just try to have a face table. Yes. Yep. And get out of there. If you got no kids, they've got beer, things like that. You show up at four o'clock. But if you've got kids, you try to shrink that as much as possible. My opinion. Rob, it's funny you mentioned deviled eggs. I always think when I think of deviled eggs, I think one of my first bosses and my first job out of undergrad. I had a group home and this guy, Gary was a Harley rider. He was a super muscley dude. All I ever saw him eat was tuna. Like he was just like hardcore exercise, only tuna. And then one day we had like a staff potluck and there were deviled eggs. I think he ate two dozen deviled eggs. Like those were absolutely. Oh yeah, brother. Hand me those deviled eggs, brother. That's what I'm going to eat tonight. I have to say they did not have deviled eggs there, but the thing they had, which caused me the most stress. Were these little cupcakes. Have you guys ever had nothing?

[15:00]Bunt cakes, stylish little cupcakes. And they just had tons of them, but it turned into this stressful thing because they look delicious. And I saw this one guy went over and grabbed one. And then a few minutes later, he got another one. And my boss, the owner of our company kind of called him out. Like he said, Oh, having another one. And it became like a whole thing. So then I literally spent like the next 30 minutes, not watching anyone open gifts or anything, but I just started thinking of like, how can I get more of these? Cakes without being caught and shame. Mm-Hmm. Ooh, that seems like an unhealthy situation. You yell, Hey, whose kid is that out the window? And then when they're all looking, you just stuff those mini cupcakes right in your mouth. And then they, when they're all gone and they look around and they look at me at the end and they clearly know that I'm the culprit with that. But the other stressful thing for this baby shower for me was they did. They had a diaper raffle. So if you bring diapers. You get your name in a drawing or something. And so I've got to go through the diaper aisle and it's all confusing.

[16:00]There's numbers on them. I'm not sure if this is for the age or what the hell it's for. So what number did you pick? Right? I've got the one at the farthest end. I think it was Anna, which I'm assuming was for newborn. Oh my God. Ding. Russell. That's the bigger size. Those are for adults. Well, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. Rob. I also showed up with my own adult diapers, so we've got it covered that either at age of the spectrum. It's from the womb to the tomb. Russell's got it covered. Womb to tomb. Normally you don't say the word tomb at baby showers, but I think this is a good one. Hey this kid's going to die sometime and they're probably going to wear an adult Diaper like I have on. Are those deviled eggs? And so after they opened the adult diapers, what got me nervous is they do this drawing And I'm curious, I didn't want to win one of the prizes. I didn't want everyone to lose. I didn't want anyone to look at me. I didn't want to be the center of attention. I'm a very social guy, but for some reason in that type of atmosphere, I do not want the

[17:00]Attention. And I was praying. Cause you're stuffed in the gills with butt cakes. I was praying that they were not going to. Russell won. He's got 10 cupcakes. You know, they look over me and my hands are full of velvet red or velvet red cake Or whatever that is. It would have been a complete nightmare. So I was doing everything I could. They pulled someone's name and they weren't there and they said, Oh yeah, I gotta be present To win. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. I'm just trying to grab another of the cupcakes. Let me go look at the rule book. It's right behind these cupcakes. So what was it? So they played the diaper raffle. Did they play any other games there? Russell? Do they do the candy in the diaper? There was no candy in the diaper. I asked about that and all my coworkers stared at me and I think I may have an HR complaint Coming against me on Monday. But overall now tell us about your leaving the party. Did you take Matt's advice? I did not Irish exit, but I had plainly laid out to my coworkers that I was going

[18:00]To be leaving at five and I left at five. I just held to what I was going to, I had said what I was going to do and I made It happen. Nice work. Nice work. Way to stay strong. Russell. Is that all you brought? Did you bring diapers? Did you bring anything else? I actually showed up with a, my coworker is a big Chicago Cubs fan. Rosie's a big Cubs fan. But so I got her a, a book called. Good night Cubs. It's kind of like after the book, good night moon or whatever that kid's book is. Nice job. Russell. I got it. Hats off to you. Russell. That's a great job. You are, you're, you're a baby shower guests. Extraordinary. You're a thoughtful human being, Russ, and that's rare these days. So let's go into our next segment rolling. Well-known this is stuff that we want to make more well-known because we're recommending It to each other. I'll start with mine because mine is not very good. I got a Plex on my computer where you can put all these video files in. It organizes it for you automatically. So I have all my movies now on my computer and like I have totally alphabetized, it'll

[19:00]Play previews for you from other movies that you have. It's a really nice way to kind of organize everything. I love my Plex. I don't know what I do without it. I have it on like a 10 terabyte hard drive. I just can't get enough. I got a question for you. I got a question as hell, but Matt, what's up? How many times do you rewatch a movie? Almost never. Almost never. Yeah. I was in college where everything like it was like social, was social cash to have A whole bunch of movies. So people would come into your dorm room and look at them and then literally rounders and Over the thousands of times from the time that we got to college to the time we got Out of it, like this just turned into worthless pieces of plastic and whatever CDs are made Out of. Like you might as well just throwing them away, but like going off to, Oh yeah, for Christmas. Yeah. Just give me a couple of new movies, things like that. And then they're just worthless. Yeah. Like four years later, I've got a big book that I've moved now to at least five different

[20:00]Domiciles and it's just full of DVDs and CDs. I don't even think I have either one of those players in my apartment right now. I know I don't have a DVD player. I don't think I have a CD player, any CDs, man, CDs are the one I wish I hadn't given Up on. CD was actually a perfect format and I gave up on it way too early. I got rid of a bunch of CDs that I wish I had. Perfect format. How, it's durable. The sound is actually really good. It doesn't take up that much space. Okay. And you get what you want. You know, with streaming, you get what the streaming companies tell you, like, I'm going To talk about that when we talk about this album and CDs, I think are, they were Actually the perfect form. Aaron, have you listened to any of these albums on a CD yet? I have not, because I don't own any of them on a CD and I also, the only CD player I have right now is in my car. So I don't think that I got fucking a hundred laser discs. What am I going to do with those? Matt, what's your role? Rolling well-known. What are you into today? Oh, it's a, it's a constant battle.

[21:00]Anybody is married or has a significant other to try to find something to watch with a significant Other. And it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a healthy balance, right? Like I would, I binge shows and I love binging shows, but with a significant other, that's Not how it rolls. You know, you watch one, they're checking Instagram, they're checking whatever Else they're checking and you might get something out of it. This is kind of an old take it's happens everybody, but you know, you just, you gotta find a happy Medium between watching something that's awesome that you want to binge and Something that's just okay. And you hope that the wife picks the okay thing so that you're okay with just watching One episode a night. Yeah. And so I think we found it. We're on apple TV, the new apple plus, there's a, there's a, a book called defending Benjamin I think. And they made a eight part series out of it and we're into number three. I'd, I'd recommend it. It's a murder. Who done it?

[22:00]On apple plus defending Benjamin, Aaron, what are you rolling well known? What do you want to recommend? So that's interesting. You say rolling well known because what I'm going to recommend, I think is quite well Known. And maybe this is basic. I think it's one of the, most streamed movie is, in America this weekend is the Old guard, the new it's on Netflix. I think it was intended for theaters, but came out on Netflix. So I think it's a good thing. I gotta say hi to my neighbors. They're just coming in from their bike ride. Tell them that we're fucking doing a podcast. Shut those goddamn kids up. What's up, y'all? I'm doing a podcast. No, God, don't say that. That's the most embarrassing thing you could say. The most easiest thing possible. And then the next question is always, what's it about? They're like, well, there's a fight. They're, they're, they're dads like, don't grow up to be like this guy. He like takes them away, give you a look.

[23:00]Aaron, are these the neighbors that came over to have an hour long discussion about your Compost bin with you a few years ago when I was there? That would be it. Yep. You got it. That's correct. Oh boy. That's the talk of the town, correct? California for you. You know how I know you live in the Bay Area? You talk about your compost. That's what it was like in Vermont too, is that when we'd have people over to eat, They would get done eating and they'd say, oh, where's your compost? Like it wasn't like, do you have, they're like, where is it? So we immediately had to get one because we didn't have one to start with. And they looked at us like we would have said, oh yeah, We have a bunch of locked up children in the basement. Like that's the look they gave us when we didn't have, when we didn't have compost. So we immediately like had to get a compost. It's like, oh yes, I love having this stinky ass thing in my kitchen. Oh yeah. So good. I love it. It's part of the culture. We've gone through several compost Original rooms and I think the one we have now works really well. So yeah, but back to the old guard. It's an action film. Charlie's Throne is fantastic. I feel, so we're going to talk someday about how my opinion

[24:00]Done, Stevie Wonder differ from some of yours. And I feel the same right now about Charlie's Throne As I do about Stevie Wonder. Like this is greatness. While it still exists, you need to appreciate what's going on. So I think she's like aging, gracefully into some very cool roles. But basically what I want to say is I like the old guard. It's an action film that has dabbles in the supernatural and immortality. I think the fight choreography is fantastic. Charlie's Throne is out here like the mercant dudes With double taps in the forehead and swords. There's a super great scene where the two ladies Shoot four dudes at once and all four dudes at the floor at the very same time. So that's a fun one. There's two hours. But so supernatural, where are we at on the scale of supernatural? Because that's always where I get lost. Like stranger things is a five, let's say. And this is like a two. So I mean, I don't want to give too many spoilers away, But basically there's a team of soldiers who are immortal.

[25:00]Otherwise they don't really have that many powers. All right, that's good. Their powers come from having lived for thousands of years and, You know, learned stuff. So I enjoyed that one. My lady liked that one. She's not a big action fan. So sorry, that was a little longer than I intended. That's my role in the film. That sounds good. I'm down. People shooting people. Sign me up. I have to admit, I use my plex of their day to watch Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone. Terrible, awful movie. That same night I was like, Oh, I want to see this new Dredd movie with the guy from the boys, Carl Urban. And that movie kicked ass. It was so good. It was just like the raid where he's like, There's a building, there's 100 floors. We got to get to the top. Okay, there's the movie. Like, no, nothing else. It was very enjoyable. I love the Dredd. Russ, what do you want to rolling well-known? I have to say, so you guys are all dads. I am not a father, but I've got nieces and nephews. And I think one thing you guys can probably echo or appreciate

[26:00]Is when you go on vacation with kids, There's a fine line of whether this is vacation Or this is pure hell, right? Never vacation. I don't, my vacation is when I drop them off at the airport And then I go park the car to get in the, And then I'm walking from the car at the airport And I'm like, oh God, this is such a great vacation. I love it. So what I've realized, what I've realized As much fun as I've had with my nieces and nephews, Fishing and whatnot, eventually I need time To prepare for this podcast, right? I need to get rid of these kids somehow. And I've found that the best tool in the world for this, And you guys have probably seen it, Or kids have probably seen it, Is this YouTube show, Ryan's Toys. Oh yeah, well, no bias, no about it for sure. That dude's like, makes like 20 million bucks a year. Yeah, they make insane money. It's just some eight-year-old kid And his sister and their parents, And they just ordered new toys from Amazon, Open them up. And essentially, my nieces and nephews would rather Watch other kids play with toys

[27:00]Than actually play with the toys themselves. And there's part of me that thinks this is just ridiculous. This is the downfall of society. These are our future leaders. But then the other part of me thinks, Well, I don't care as long as they're not bothering me While I'm listening to Saturday Night by Elton John. I'm cool. Yeah. You're like, kids, this is Jamaican jerk-off. You got to get out of the room right now. Oh, that's like, it's like, it's like pornography for kids, right? It's like, oh, here's this great thing That you're never going to be able to get, But watch these other people play with it. Yeah, I'm going to edit that out. That's not good. I don't like, I don't like the words Pornography and kids being so close to each other. And playing with it. They're really messing up our history. That seemed really funny in my head. And then when it came out, it seemed really actionable. Speaking of Jamaican jerk-off and computers, though, I have to say, I think this is the first time on this quest Where I had to sit and think about whether I could Google the lyrics

[28:00]To a song on my work computer. I chose not to do it. Yeah, I will say, Alexa, if you ask her to play Jamaica jerk-off, She goes, Jamaica, boop, which is not good. Makes it sound so much worse. I don't think the song is actually about jerk-off, right? It's just a done album song. Yeah, we'll get into what it's about. It's about an experience you had in Jamaica Recording the album in the first place, Because what a clusterfuck that was. But let's, before we talk about that, What's your personal history with Elton John Or this album in general? Let's start it from the reverse. Russ, what's your personal history with this album? My personal history, I would say I'm not, I was never a huge Elton John fan going into this, So I have to look at it from just an Elton John perspective. And I remember as a kid, I knew who Elton John was, But I don't think as a teenager that I grew up Or that a lot of my friends grew up being Elton John fans. I think we were more fans of harder rock Or alternative music or rap.

[29:00]And Elton John felt kind of like my parents' generation, So I don't think I ever really got into it as a fan. And for me, my biggest Elton John memory Is him singing at Princess Di's funeral And singing that song. I think it went on to be one of the biggest Selling singles of all time, But honestly, I don't really have any history With this album. And my history with Elton John is really knowing him Through the Princess Di song back in 1997. I know some of his music going on afterwards, But I've always kind of put him in that Billy Joel category Where now I think as I've gotten a little bit older, I really appreciate and enjoy the music. But as a kid, I never really connected with it. Aaron, what about you? Yeah, this one, you guys. So I will echo Russell's sentiments. I thought a lot of this music sounds a lot Like Billy Joel's albums from a similar time period, And I didn't get a chance to research Who was doing what first, But they clearly were borrowing from one another. So I listened to a few other music podcasts. Am I allowed to shout out other music podcasts

[30:00]On this podcast? Oh yeah, sure. A ton of people are going to hear this. Not if you want your 25% split Of our $100 million Spotify deal, you better not. I really enjoy Heat Rocks with Morgan Rhodes and Oliver Wong, And they frequently ask a guest, You know, how did you come to this album? And they'll often say, Oh, I never knew a time when I didn't know of this artist. And that's how it is for me. I can't think of a time when I didn't know about Elton John. And it was an artist that was, I know played around my house a lot. I know my mom was a big fan, So I had to call my mom last night to confirm, Like, mom, were you an Elton John fan? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Yep. Is this the part where we talk about your mom? I think this is it, because we were talking about my mom, yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's time for One on One with Perrin's Mom. Okay, so what were you saying about your mom?

[31:00]I can't. I have to say this is the most relieved I've ever been That I don't think Rob was ever invited to your house in college, Because if he would have talked your mom in that voice, I think every part of me would have just scribbled up and died. Right, too much, way too much. Okay, I didn't, I really didn't mean to distract you. So I happened to own this album on vinyl. I had this album on vinyl, which was a fun listening experience, Because the vinyl is the original pressing from 73. And then I, so I listened to that on my vinyl speakers. And then I've also listened to the version that's on Spotify, Which is the 2014 remaster, and that's been on my son. So it's been fun for me to try to understand, To really hear a difference. Anyway, we're talking about my mom. I called my mom last night, because I was like, Mom, were you really an Elton John fan, Or was it just on the radio? And she said, oh yeah, my best friend growing up Gretchen and I, We were big Elton John fans. And you know, at the time, like I, I didn't, Like you couldn't always know the lyrics to songs, Because you didn't have the internet.

[32:00]So we would slow down the record to try to hear the lyrics And then write them down. And my friend Gretchen was way better at writing down lyrics than I was. So I really, I truly enjoyed like talking to my mom about this record. And she knew like the lyrics about Electric boots, mohair suit, read a new magazine, Goodbye, you'll ever grow over the dogs in society. How like, those still just like come right to her mind. So like that made me feel pretty emotional. And then the other weird thing about this album That really hit me in the fields, Right in the cardiovascular, is Russell mentioned Candle in the Wind. John re-recorded Candle in the Wind for Princess Die, right? And Candle in the Wind for me is associated for me, The memory of that song is associated with my dad, Because I remember my dad happened to be home watching the news The night that Princess Diana died. And my dad was not an Anglophile or a royal family person, But I like strangely have like a vivid memory

[33:00]Of like watching CNN with my dad when Princess Diana died. So, this album definitely resonated with me like very emotionally. I have some thoughts about how it sounds and the songs And the general composition of the album. But yeah, it's an album that for me is like, Right, it just like lives in my heart and my guts somehow. And I didn't really realize it until I started listening. But thank you guys for taking me on this journey. Okay, well now I feel bad, But I have to play this again to close up the excitement. It's time for one on one with Eric's mom. Oh, yeah! Okay, so I realized now I should not probably say that at the end after that story. I really should have recorded the cover songs with my mom. And my mom did say she wants to listen to this podcast. She's got her own segment now. Well, it's a good thing I held off on the fact that I believe Out of the four of us on this podcast, Or the three of us other than Aaron,

[34:00]The only person's room she's ever slept in during college was mine. It's time for one on one with Eric's mom. And Russell's bedroom. Yep. I showed a lot of restrails. I showed a lot of restraint making that sting. I feel like I could have gone a lot more. You could have gone further. I appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. I get credit for not being a terrible person. Matt, what's your history with Elton John in this album in particular? I mean, this album in particular, not much. I had the greatest hits, the CD, I think it's a double album, White cover, probably late 90s. And just listened to it on repeat for a long time. And it wasn't so much that I had this big feeling with it.

[35:00]And it resonated. I just think the songs, he's got so many great songs That you kind of get the Benny and the Jets. And so realizing this is kind of the first time I realized this is the album that it came from Because I've always just listened to the greatest hits. I've seen him live with Billy and Joel a couple of times. Phenomenal. Can I ask Matt? When you say you've seen him with Billy Joel, I was going to ask you guys, who's kind of the bigger act? Who said the most successful career? Who opens for who when you see Billy Joel and John together? They switch off. So Billy Joel opened one night, Elton John the next, And then they come out and play together to end it. And so kind of like an encore together Where they're playing each other's songs. And they got two pianos playing back to back kind of a deal. And so they make a whole thing of it. So to your guy's point, I don't know who came out first Or second or last or whatever. But I think Elton was on the scene first.

[36:00]But Billy Joel he's got a different sound, Much more of a New York nightclub kind of a sound Than Elton John in my opinion. But so I don't have this album, not much. The song's a ton of history. Elton John, a ton of history. I mean, he's easy to sing in karaoke. Everybody knows his songs. What's a go to Elton John song? Oh, I think Tiny Dancer. Oh my God, that thing's like 10 minutes long. You're one of those karaoke guys. Well, when you're hammered, you just go with what you know. You love the attention. And so I have to admit one time When I was drinking a little bit at my sister's, Before my sister's wedding, I did sing that meatloaf song. Paradise by the dashboard lights. Yes, I did do Paradise by the dashboard lights. And that's also a 10 minute one. And I also did the whole baseball call on the middle of it. You did the full Phil Rosino baseball call. I absolutely. And I nailed it. I'm pretty sure that's how I remember it anyway.

[37:00]I believe you. When you bring up meatloaf, I'm kind of curious, Who do you think's had a better run, Meatloaf the singer or meatloaf the food? The food, by far. And it was it was brought back to life by Will Ferrell. And what's that? I need some meatloaf. Yeah, wedding crashers. But I don't know what she's doing back there. But I think if you had to tell me You could never have meatloaf again Or you could never hear meatloaf again, I would say I could never eat meatloaf again. I agree 100% agree. When have you guys ever ordered Meatloaf at a restaurant? Never. Never. That would be the saddest day. All the time. All the time. Like a greasy spoon where like this. Oh, this is on special night or meatloaf. You order that shit. Somebody specializes in meatloaf? That's the best. Just the name meatloaf. Man, that's the leftover meat from the whole week. They just sprinkle it off. No, no, no. No, it's I'm sure Matt's going.

[38:00]It's Top Shelf, Surloin, Grade A, Kobe beef. Was it Town Hall at Second Corners That had a meatloaf sandwich? That was good. I like the meatloaf sandwich. But I haven't eaten meatloaf for 15 years. You guys don't make meatloaf? I mean, never. Oh, you should try it. Well, so is mine. My kids aren't. So we should talk, Rosie offline. Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. I got to admit that my mom made absolutely Positively the worst meatloaf in the history of human being. We go. And it pains me to say it because I love my mother. And now as a parent, I just realized Like why my parents were always pissed off all the time. Like they're just constantly banned. And I was always like, God, why are they always pissed off? And now I understand. And but her meatloaf, it was just like, I would hear these stories about, oh, I love meatloaf. I love meatloaf. And this thing came out and it was like a charcoal briquette, But bigger. Like it was probably your thing. Yeah. Oh, it was just awful. I'm like, there's so many good foods out there. Why are we stuck eating literally a loaf of meat? Like if you called it a loaf of meat, nobody would order it.

[39:00]It's not. But it's not like you're just putting, It's not like you're just putting hamburger In that little bread tin thing and then coming out. I mean, you got to make it right. Putting in onion soup mix and cheese and ketchup And all sorts of stuff. I mean, you got to make it right. Obviously we need to have a cooking episode. We're going to have a special episode. Matt, you sent me a recipe and before the next one, I will make meatloaf for my kids and my mom and dad Who I'm currently staying with. And I will let you guys know how that goes. I know everybody's waiting on tenterhooks. They want to see Rob's meatloaf. What's going to happen? Everybody's so excited. This is the time of the century. Rob, are you sure that your parents weren't mad all the time Because your mother would do anything for love? But she wouldn't do that. Rob's mom. Rob's mom. Oh, yeah. Oh, Lord. I'm in charge. I make the stings. You guys don't get to make the stings. I'm going to start over in 2020. Four friends.

[40:00]I'm going to make one comment in response to Matt And then we got to hear Rob's experience with his album. I think this album sounds like a great hit to tell And I don't know when we get into that, But I think the album makes no sense In terms of sequencing or tracks that fit together. Oh, it's horrible. Jams start to finish, But the album makes no sense together. But Rob, I want to hear what you got to say. Actually, Elton John, for me, It was one of the few CDs I owned was his Greatest Hits And his Greatest Hits 2. And I actually lost those CDs And it's one of those where he lost it. Then you were like, do I buy these again? And sure enough, those are two that I bought twice. I mean, I loved them so much. They're so good. When I was in sixth grade, 1991, Rod Stewart came out With a version that got pretty big of your song. And I always said to myself, when I get married, This is going to be the first song of my wedding. And then I realized later when I was older, I was like, oh, that's Rod Stewart's version. Like, if I play that in the wedding,

[41:00]That's going to be really shitty. And so it ended up being the first dance at my wedding For my wife and I was your song, Elton John. And then just last year, my parents came out to New York And it's something that has never been heard of. My parents came with me to Madison Square Garden. And we saw Elton John in his farewell Elbrick Road tour. So we saw him in the garden and we had a great time. And that I, I fuck, I should go look up the set list right now Because he played songs that I didn't know what they were. But like this song for a funeral, That's how he opened up the second half of the show. That's what This is a jam I did not know. And song for a funeral slash levelized breathing. It was so good. Oh, I disagree. And the concert was fantastic. And part of the reason I love the concert is They have a camera that just shows his hands. And if you ever look at Elton John hands, He looks like he has baby doll hands. His fingers are so short and so fat, right? They literally are like tiny. And yet he can move all over that piano

[42:00]And he's playing it so fast And he's wearing these giant rings. It's just fascinating to watch him play Because he's a true like savant on the piano. I mean, it's contrast that with Billy Joel Who literally looks like he has meatloaf hands. And like hands made of meatloaf. And he can play the hell out of a piano. Yeah. I mean, neither guy you would be worried About taking like your wife away from you at any point. I guess for various reasons. Billy Joel, please. Billy Joel was married to Chrissy Brinkley. I would hide my wife from her on Billy Joel. No doubt. That was in a time where like you could just, Ugly guys were dating movie stars. That was like Lyle Lovett, You know, Julia Roberts time. Like anybody, if you could sing, Girls were like, oh yeah, I love this guy. That's why I always wanted to start a band when I was younger. I was so jealous of those guys That did like battle the bands in middle school Because I was like, oh, I bet they're getting so many women. Like that was like the focus of my life from about 1992 To about 2020. Rob, I bet Billy Joel can't squat 110 pounds.

[43:00]But if he looked at your wife the wrong way, You'd never see her again. Yep. That's it. True play for real. Yeah, it's true. They'll be real around me. It's totally true. If we look at the Rolling Stones greatest albums list, We have before us, the three before this are At Fulls and Prism by Johnny Cash, Dusty in Memphis by Dusty Springfield, Talking Boat by Stevie Wonder. Then we have Elton John, Goodbye Yellowbrick Road. And then the Buddy Holly, 20s gold grades that we have to do next, Sino the Times by Prince, And the 40 Greatest Hits by Hank Williams. So that kind of shows you where we are on the list. And I want to put this album into contrast. Context. Context. Edit that out. I want to put that album into context. In 1973, the number one selling album of all time Was an album by War. And actually, Elton John's earlier album Also was one of the tops selling albums of 1973. Elton John was an absolute tear that don't shoot me.

[44:00]I'm only the piano player. Was the number one song for two weeks of 1973. And then his album came out of the head at the end of the year, Beating out the Almond Brothers Band and Rolling Stones, Their famous album, Goat Head Soup, Which actually plays in the story Because they recorded it in Jamaica, Which is exactly what Elton John tried to do originally With this album. This album spent eight weeks at the top. He released four albums in 1970. I want you to think about that. This is Elton John at his absolute peak of creativity, His absolute peak of his just churning out album after album. They basically, Bernie says that he wrote this album, The lyrics in two weeks, And Elton John took three days And composed every single song in Jamaica. Do you realize he achieved more in three days Than all four of us will combine in our life Unless Spotify pays us a hundred million

[45:00]For this podcast sometime soon? Spotify, everyone's favorite streaming service. If you had one song that was as good by Yellowbrook Road, I'd be like, yeah, I'm happy. One song as good as Roy Rogers, I'd be happy. I gotta talk about Roy Rogers when I get there. So they originally wanted to record this song in Jamaica, And when they went down there, It turned out that Frasier was fighting Forman down there, So it was a big mess, And the recording studio was totally broken. And they wanted to record down there Because Kat Stevens and the Rolling Stones Had just recorded albums down there, And so we thought it would be fun. And he realized that when he tried to record, He originally recorded, I think, Like the Saturday nights all right for fighting. He sounded like he was coming Over the worst transistor radio ever. So they immediately went back to the Chateau in France Where they've recorded their two earlier albums In the last 12 months, And they started recording there. And basically, he has this cool story of, Every morning they would come down, And Bernie would have had all these lyrics That he would have written at night, And Elton had a piano down at breakfast,

[46:00]And all the instruments were around the breakfast table, And they would basically just create the songs right there And record them basically the same day That they were written, which I thought was really cool. Just cranking it out, man. That's what didn't work. If you had to guess, If you had to guess real quick, How many studio albums do you think Elton John has? In his career? 36. Okay, what do you think, Matt? I'm gonna go with like 18. I don't think 36, right? What do you think? I'll go with Price is Right, And I'll take 19 and try to middle these guys. The correct answer is 33. So, Ron, you win. Price is Right, Rose. In the 1970s, Elton John album was number one For an average of one out of every four weeks In the decades. Wow, holy cow. I mean, you don't realize how dominant he was. It's absolutely crazy. That's almost a quarter. Holy shit. You were a math major, weren't you, Matt? Richfield math is a thing. What was somebody gonna say?

[47:00]I interrupted somebody. One thing I was gonna ask you guys, And there's a specific song on this album That it kind of really tripped me up, But as not a big Elton John fan And going into this quest, I wasn't a huge Rolling Stones fan. Either I love both their music Now that we've been listening to them more, But I have to admit, There were songs on here that I heard, And I don't know if I'm gonna admit it Because I'm embarrassed by it, Where I thought the Rolling Stones Sang these songs. You guys see like the similarity In some of the music there? What the fuck are you talking about? What on earth are you talking about? The one that jumped out to me the most Is Saturday Night's All Right. When I listened to that, I thought that was a Rolling Stones song. Obviously, I'm not as big of a music buff as you guys, But I had first thought that was always a Stones song. And when I was listening to it, I saw Mick Jagger singing this, Not Elton John. And then when I listened to it a few times, I was like, okay, it's Elton John, But I was embarrassed to text you guys Because I thought I was looking at This thing to the wrong album Or something like that. You should have been embarrassed. This is why. No, I can't get it.

[48:00]I mean, it's similar. You could hear the Stones doing this. Something about the guitar sound Is different to me. Also, it sounds like a person, Like it hates to be this way, But like something about Elton John Does not sound like a guy Who's got a belly full of beer, right? But he just, he sounds like he's playing To get the belly full of beer. I don't know what it is. It's just funny to me that a guy like Elton John Is talking about how he's going to get Out of Switchblade And he's going to get more oil Than a diesel train. Like, that always tickled me. But of course Bernie Toppin wrote all the lyrics to this And who knows, maybe he's like, Maybe he's like Russ, Or Aaron's old boss Who only ate devil's eggs. Wrote around like a motorcycle. Hey, Elton, we should do a song About devil's eggs. I love them. It sounds like a little too anthemic For the Stones for me, maybe. But I mean, I can see that Because like obviously Elton John Was listening to the Stones Now we know, right? From what I read about his album. Like clearly that's what was in his ears. Which is a fun thing When you get to study an album, It's funny like if you can read

[49:00]About what the artists were listening to, It's fun to think about what was in their ears When they were making their albums. I can tell you for this album, He had to have a whole bunch of shit In his ears because this song, I think, has some of the best, The best four openers in a row of any album. But after those, that shift in tone, And he says there, There's a lot of different type of music on the album. There's a lot of different types of music On this album. It is a lot. Right, he's packing it in. He's packing it in. It's a ride. By the way, I should say, Saturday Night Wrath, All Right for Fighting is the top single Off this album. It was the first one released. Go ahead, Russ. I have a question on the first song. I don't know if you were headed that way, Rob. But is this funeral for a friend, The first song, Is it two songs in one Or is this treated like a, We Are the Champions, We Will Barakou with Queen Where they're always played together? Do you guys know if that's two songs Or how does that work? I mean, I can say on the LP, On the vinyl LP, It's one track. There's no space between the two tracks On the LP.

[50:00]Yeah, forward like four minutes there, Rob, Till we finally get to what's going on. Okay, I'm going to say again, I cannot tell you how much time is on here, Only how much time is left. So I have to do math. I also got to say this stuff Reminded me so much of Jesus Christ Superstar, Which also reminds me of my mom Because I had that one on vinyl too. Do they still hold on? Hold on. Oh, yeah. So somehow this stuff just like boosted me. But yeah, no, it's just, It's one track on the LP. And I did not know these songs. And this, I love this. For the beginning of a song, For beginning of an album though, Rosie. But you know who did sense better than Elm John? Stevie Wonder, but we'll talk about that. Oh my God. The Weeknd. So, this is a wild start to an album though, Isn't it? Because he wrote the song saying, Yeah, he wrote the song saying, I want to hear music that I would want to hear at my funeral. And this is what he came up with. And then he said that it ended in A

[51:00]And at Love Lies Bleeding starts in A. So he's like, oh, we can throw them together. Yeah, and they work. So, but do they, when they play this on the radio, Do they play the whole thing? Does anyone play this on the radio? They don't play this on the radio, no. I've heard Love Lies Bleeding before. I know I have. Then probably they just play, Probably just play Love Lies Bleeding. This sounds like disco almost. I'm telling you didn't like this? I thought this was a jam. I thought this whole thing was a jam. Oh, me too. This has been stuck in my head for days. Nope, did not fast forward enough. The song is endless. Right, this might be my favorite song on the album. I think this is indicative of kind of the fun beats You're going to have for the whole hour and 15 minutes On this album. I love the guitar. There's this guitar stings kind of where it's like And you hear a lot of those.

[52:00]It's like Boston kind of. Yeah. Also, I discovered in researching this album That Love Lies Bleeding is the name of a flower. I did not know that. And on the wind, next song coming up. So we go from this slow build To like this legit rock song And then all of a sudden we're going to candle in the wind. So I got, I feel a little bit upset. I feel a little bit upset about candle in the wind. Why is that? Is that it? Then it gets tagged with Princess Diana? Is that one? No. You didn't find a nude when she was nude? That wasn't you would find in here? No, it's totally different. It's totally different. I read an interview with Bernie Toppe. And it was sort of like, It was just about the alienation of fame Like whatever. And I just chose Marilyn Monroe because she seemed bolder. And I had this thought in my mind that Elton John, Young man struggling with his identity,

[53:00]Like really drew inspiration from her. And he was just sort of like, I just Bernie wrote the songs. I wrote the lyrics. I wrote the songs, just sang it. And I was disappointed because I couldn't do it. He said it could have been anyone, Jim Morrison or anyone like that. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And that was a let down for me. But there's a Rolling Stone article Where they interview both of them. And they're both saying very different things Because Elton is going on and on About how she's the most glamorous person. And she's was so important to him. Yeah. And then Bernie's like, I could have been anybody who cares. That's what I want to believe. No I love this song. I got no problems with the song. It was just when I started reading about it, I felt sad. Do you think you could sing songs That someone else wrote And put the emotion into them That Elton John puts into these songs? I think you hear it in his piano play. That's a little cheesy. But I think you hear and you see him. If you see him in concert, the way he plays, I think he I think the lyrics are, they're wonderful. They're some of the best of all times.

[54:00]But I think you hear it in the way That he plays the song And brings the music to it personally. I thought the most interesting thing, I want to kind of echo Aaron's scent About having kind of these flashbacks To where you remember like hearing this song Or where you remember your parents being. Because I remember this to me Was one of the first times When Princess Didide after that, He sang this, or before, You know, he sang this after at her funeral, But that takes me back to when Princess Didide, And I think that was, If I think about it, One of the first times that a celebrity died And it was a huge story, At least that I can remember. Now you've seen it recently With the Kobe Bryant or someone like that. But do you guys remember anything else like that? I remember there was the OJ Car Chase Where everyone was watching it. And there were some other things Like that where everyone was watching it. But other than that, I don't really remember a lot of things like that. And then when he followed it up With the kind of redo of the song, I just remember it being a very big deal at the time. Totally, it was a big cultural moment. It was such a big news item That there were people in my high school Who dressed up as

[55:00]Passed away Princess Diana for Halloween one year. And how many years in a row did you do that, Rob? I just, that was just, And that was me who did it for one year at a party. It was not, It was received well by the guys And not by the girls. And it was later until I realized Maybe that was the mistake I was making For most of my high school career Is trying to go for laughs instead of impressing women. The other thing that I thought about with this song Is, Rosie, you were mentioning How it's really not about Marilyn Monroe, But I started thinking, What if it was really about Marilyn Monroe And how would she feel about being kind of, They use her death to capitalize off? If I've always thought about this With those shows like 48 Hours or Date Line, How bad would it suck to only be remembered As the guy who got, Who a lady had five different families And you were the fifth husband that she'd killed? I just think it's totally unfair. If I ever get killed And I'm the subject of a 48 Hours or a Date Line, You as my friends have my power of attorney To stop them from ever making a story About how some woman

[56:00]Cheated on me with 12 different guys And I didn't want to listen to you And then she killed me out in the mountains somewhere. All right, Rosie. All right, good. Good to know. This is a lot like that time, A lot like that time we had to cover We were going to cover for a friend Who was doing auto erotic asphyxiation. Yeah. Because this is really similar. It's very similar. To be clear, the friend was not doing Auto erotic asphyxiation. We just assumed it was And we said we would cover If we ended up catching it. We assumed, yeah. Yeah, well, I think we all did by the end. We talked about it for most of that trip. All right, next song, Ben and Ditt. I got to say a lot of these songs, I love them. They are not very long. So here's my only thing And I'm not going to speak too much On this album, But I really, really wish That this was the first song of this album And that the one and two were towards the end. Oh, that would be a big change. Yeah. Yeah, and I because I do not like The funeral for a friend start. I think it's a great and put it all together, But not as a start of an album. I think if you hear the beginning

[57:00]Of Benny and the Jets here, And this is the beginning of this album, I think it would be so different And it would just, It would be up there with some of the best. So let's imagine I'm Aaron, I've stolen the record from my mom. I'm going to put it on right now. Hear the crackle. They recorded live crowd noise In the concert two years earlier And that's what they used. I think we've taken a great lesson For that and had Rosie's Aaron's Fake last auto piped into our podcast. It's been a great move. Just every time I say something, I'm like, better put it that laugh. That was a good one. So this song is kind of interesting. Elton did not like this song. He did not want to release as a single, But a radio station Detroit Told him, hey, this is our number one song By a mile off his album. He complained it and people love it And he goes, okay, let's release it. And this ended up being the third single

[58:00]After Saturday night. It's all right for fighting And Good Bride Yellowbrook Road And being one of the biggest hits To come out of this. I think it was also sampled By Biz Markey, right? Is this what he's on? Not on, Not on she's got a friend, But a different song. Biz Markey sampled it. Those other Biz Markey songs That we're also familiar with. We go on to the fourth track, Title track. One of the better titles we've heard. This isn't that. Oh, so good. Right? I mean, what can I say? I mean, you just get this feeling of like, You know, it's this guy went into the city

[59:00]Trying to make someone of himself Didn't work out realizing he should go back. Like, so many of these songs are just, It's just Bernie's heartbreak Of not being successful. When ironically, he was putting out Hit album after hit album. Right? And went up to him and just dominating the charts. Yeah. I don't always love Elton's vocals, But there's such an ease to them, But like, honestly, it reminds me of Lionel Richie. Like when I say ease, I think it's easy Like sending more than just like up and down The range. Beautiful. As our listeners know, We've been keeping track of our top 10 Title songs on albums. So this is Welcome to Yellowbrick Or Goodbye Yellowbrick Road. So I figured like we could go through What we had as our top 10 so far. And I wanted to see if you guys Think this jumps into that top 10 list. You guys ready for me to go down the list? Yeah. All right, let's hear it. Yeah. So as we've discussed before, Here are the top 10. What's going on? Marvin Gaye.

[1:00:00]London Calling by the Clash. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen. Michael Jackson Thriller. Yeah, I would put Thriller above this song. Yeah, I think so. Hotel California by the Eagles. That's last in the last. You sing that, but you can sing along. You know the lyrics. I know lyrics to a lot of songs. Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Good one. Good one. I think it goes behind this one. I'll say it goes behind this one though. You know who's recording Bridge Over Troubled Water? I enjoy his. Stevie Wonder.

[1:01:00]Yo, my lord. Starting. ACPC Back in Black. John Lennon, Imagine. See, and that's a wild thing about this list, right? Is how do we compare ACDC Back in Black? Yeah, how do you rap? I would say it's a better song Just because it's like, It's a very clear of what it's trying to do. And I think it's better at that. But it makes me ill trying to compare these two songs. Yeah, I can't. And the last one was the hidden track on Chuck Berry's album. It was the self-titled album, The Great 28 Toilet Cams. Bravo, your thoughts. Listen, we all know that I love that album And I love that song in particular, But that is very good.

[1:02:00]So my question is, is doing this track off on that list? So far, yes. I put a top three. Yeah this is a great song. So I think the album takes a little bit of a dip here in the middle. I mean, obviously you have to take a dip after those songs. But what we started to see here is some wild, Wild changes in the music. So this piano stuff, this is what makes me think of Orange Hill. I got to say, I love this song. There was a number of times where Alexa was playing this, I had to ask what the name of the song was. And it would be like, the song has no name. And I'd be like, you son of a bitch, Are you telling me what's going on? No, what is the name of the song? Alexa, I'm your human master. You will tell me. I feel like this also, I think it's fun to think about what begat what, Like if you're doing your Old Testament stuff, I feel like this is like Ben Folds Five, Like there'd be no Ben Folds Five if there were stuff like this. I got to say this song, I think it tails off a little bit at the end,

[1:03:00]Which is why it's probably not as popular, But this opener song is so fun. Gray Seals, pretty prog rock. Yeah. And it reminds you a lot of what filled up the freedoms Going to come in a couple of years with him, what that sounds like. I do want to say, so this, this drum sound, that drum sound, I really, so I tried to put on my audiophile hat with a sound Because I listened to the vinyl as well as the digital remaster. And I think the digital remaster just seems louder in general. Like they pumped everything up, But there's a drum sound on here That I cannot hear on my vinyl that I, yeah. So I don't understand remastering. I tried to like use the album as an opportunity To win the world. Rob, could you keep playing a little bit? I think one of my favorite parts on this album Is this build up to the chorus here. I mean, this is, the album was a joy to listen to.

[1:04:00]Right here. To me, this is fun. Oh yeah. Now I will say, I did listen to this album once, Lifting Weights today. And you want to guess, Does anybody want to guess what song came up right When I was going to hit my heaviest set of squats? I'll give you a hit. It's the eloquent title, Jamaica Jerk Off. This is a song, I haven't done this, But I listened to this album Today I think I listened to this album three or four times. I skipped the song twice. I just couldn't, I couldn't do it. And it's not the worst English person dabbling in reggae song ever maybe, But it's terrible. And I have to discuss from the pod That I discovered some racist album art In their lighter notes of this album.

[1:05:00]And I was confused. And the strange thing is, there's no mention of it On the internet somehow. Elton John has been able to bury the album art here, But it's because it's a crap song. It's just a crap song. Nobody has ever listened to this song in its entirety. When you guys are deciding whether an album Is properly ranked or overranked or underranked, How much do you hold one bad song against it? Like, does this one song make you want to drop The whole album in your overall list? I think if there's two of these, You're always allowed, me personally, You're always allowed one. I like that rule. You know, but if there's two, If there's a trend, then yeah, it drops it. But there's always one. I got to say too, Elton John trying reggae Is like, well, it's super offensive. And it's like, and it's not great and it's very bad. It's a huge blight on this album. It's not great. And it's, yeah, especially when you consider It's a double album and you just think,

[1:06:00]I mean, how many other things could you have left off If you started leaving Jamaica? Like the whole side three is just like, Yeah, he must have. Yeah, you could have left some more stuff. Yeah, he must have loved that song so much. He'd be like, no, you got to have Jamaica jerk off now. Please. He's like, make it a single. But it's so different. I mean, so here we go. I've seen that movie too, right? Yeah. This is like Elton John and his Real House, right? Yeah. You're in this pocket. I thought Rob was referencing the movie Jamaican Jerk Off There. I got a little nervous for a second. No, I love Jamaican Jerk Off The Movie. A plus. System of years, right? Yeah. You held it in that, yeah. No, when I searched Jamaica Jerk Off on the Internet, I went down a deep rabbit hole. I didn't take it very long, but I went down a deep rabbit hole. Is that why you skip the song two times? Sweet Painted Lady. Sweet Painted Lady. Yes, I do.

[1:07:00]That's the science you know. The master bass. I put this on the top third of this album. It was a deep jam. Yeah. I like this one. Matt, I also really enjoyed this. I know we've talked about Billie Joel a lot already, But I think these albums where it's piano focused Has been a really nice departure From all the guitar focused stuff. We listened to the whole way. I just thought the album was really enjoyable. Well this was the first album too That he recorded with his touring band. Every album up to this, He had recorded with like a studio band Or just him on the piano. And so when people went to see him in concert, They were kind of blown away By how rock and roll the songs turned into. And so this was kind of his first time Where he got to have this guitar player Who ended up playing his entire career With Elton John as one of the few band members Was on fire. I think the guitar work on the side was pretty good. I really, it stuck out to me. I like the guitar work. It was fantastic. The Ballad of Danny Bailey, 1909 to 1934. I just, is there anything cooler Than the bottom end of a piano?

[1:08:00]Yeah. This is a song that Bernie said He wrote when he just saw the first line. He was like, man, I just wrote a song Because I had thought of the first line. I was like, I could never do that. Right. I didn't think of the first line, Jamaica jerk off. And then I was not able to complete the song. Here's a song, Dirty Little Girl. So just picture your mom sitting down And writing out all these lyrics. Dirty Little Girl. I think that's a fun thing to do right now. We can picture this. Is there any way we have, We could have Matt the poet read the lyrics, Starting with, I'm going to tell the world. Yeah. Well, if you give me two seconds. Well, we'll let you pull it up, Matt. You're very busy. I'm, I'm going to tell the world, You're a dirty little girl. Someone grabbed that bitch by the ears, Rub her down, scrub her back, And turn her inside out. Cause I bet she, I bet she, Oh, I bet she hasn't had a bath in a year.

[1:09:00]What? Is there over, Is there a non-zero percent chance He collaborated with Axl Rose on this one? Duff McKegan. Yeah. The whole group. Yeah. Bernie's like, Duff, I love your work. We got to get together on this. All right. All the girls love Alice. Hey, this is like everybody's favorite song, right? Like the Red Dice Result, The one that all the other people like to cover. It's interesting. I used to, I've looked at a site called genius.com Occasionally and they usually have a brief Right up on the meaning of the song. And when I listened to it, I kind of got this positive vibe for it, Vibe with it. But then when I read the meaning of it is Alice is a heterosexual teenage girl Who fell in love with an extremely profitable career As a lesbian prostitute, Leading her to either commit suicide or be murdered. That's unfortunate. Well, thanks Russ. Thanks for bringing us down on that. That was the first dance of my wedding. Oh my God.

[1:10:00]I feel like I'm never going to read lyrics again Because I don't want, I don't want to think of that When I'm listening to this awesome music. Okay. So how about this? Here's a, here's a song that I can guarantee The lyrics are not any different Than the mood of the song. And then this is your sister can't twist, But she can rock and roll. And this is the song I'm talking about Where it's got this organ. Right. And I'm going to, I'm going to play, There's an organ part in here. There's a song called Palisades Park That I'm going to put in right now. And then, yeah. Oh my God. Now I got to match it up with my voice. It's going to be terrible. But it sounds a lot like this song. I'd like to do the shout.

[1:11:00]Yeah. I love the song until the organ kicks in. As soon as you get the circus music. Oh yeah. Oh, I fucking love circus music, but It's a weird gimmick in a song. It's like pretty rocking. I don't quite get it. So deep dive into that. I mean, is this like a anti rolling stones, Anti lead Zeppelin talking about Blues is dead and all that Rosie? I mean, like, is this like, Am I thinking too deep into this? No it's a good thought. This is just going into all the blues is dead, Blues is dead, all that stuff. And those guys, Which you've talked about a number of times On this podcast, Continue to rip off the early blues. You might be right. Yeah, that's what everybody was doing. I was doing something different. I almost feel like it's a, It's a, I don't know. I think you're probably right, man. I think he's kind of like pushing back on that.

[1:12:00]But it also reminds me, Strangely, I don't know why, You know, Paul McCartney had Vaudeville and his family, What like his grandpa, maybe. And it even, Even at this really fast tempo With the big drums and stuff, It kind of reminds me of a Vaudeville tune. I think I feel like he's kind of like Taking the license from the Beatles To like bring in some other Stuff into rock and roll. But I might be just really Making stuff up there. I got to say, I love listening to this album And hearing these Violent switches and tones of song. I thought it was really fun. It's more fun than listening To like a Led Zeppelin Where it's essentially the same song Every single time. But I will say, If you listen to this album With other people in the room, And they're not listening to it, They're not listening to it For the same reason you are, Where you have an awesome podcast For your three best friends. Can anybody's ever add? Except my dad does. He's recording a podcast in the room. Yeah, I see you, dad. Oh, yeah.

[1:13:00]Rob's dad. But when you're listening to this song, When you're listening to this album, And they're like, Oh, yeah, I love yellow brick road. And the next song is you. Everybody kind of looks at you like, Okay, what? You're like, no, we can't skip it. We have to listen to every song. Do you guys not enjoy this song? To me, I never really heard This song before this quest. And this is one of my favorite new songs That I've heard because of this quest. And to me, it's just so catchy. If you were to tell me that This isn't drawing you in To continue to want to listen to more, Elton John, I think I would have to say I can't be your friend anymore. Oh, no. We're really working on ending our friendships. All right. Friendship with Russell ended. I enjoy the song. I just don't like the circus music. I love this thing. I love that Beach Boys type sound. It's just that middle part With the Cliope Drives me absolutely crazy. Saturday nights, all right for fighting. This was the first single Just to give you an idea Of what we're dealing with in 1973. A ton of radio stations banned this single

[1:14:00]Because they thought it would incite violence. Can you imagine? I'm so violent. Yeah, I'm curious. I have a little game for you While you play a little bit of this one. Rob, you guys up for a game? All right. By the way, I should say This is the only single Not to make the top 10 In a three year, 13 hits single. He released 13 singles in three years And this is the only one Not to make the top 10. It made it to 12. So I was wondering, Is this the greatest song ever About Saturdays? No, I think Bay City Rollers. Saturday fever? I'm going to give you guys A few options And I'm going to let you vote on What's the greatest song ever Over Saturdays, okay? All right, the first one Is the one we just listened To Elton John Saturday nights. All right. The one that I thought was played By the Rolling Stones Up until about an hour ago. The next one is Another Saturday night by Sam Cook.

[1:15:00]That's a good one. The next one is Saturday in the Park by Chicago. That's a good one. I do have to say I love that song. I love Chicago at a level That is not healthy. And another one would be Saturday night special Leonard Skinner. Oh, that's a good song. We also have Saturday night By the Bay City Rollers, Which I think Rob mentioned. And then the last one I have is I forgot the country music artist, But it's Louisiana Saturday night. That's a good one. What is the greatest, the consensus Greatest song about Saturday night?

[1:16:00]This is going to be the consensus Greatest. Can I also throw in sweeps? Get a pie by Domino. Saturday morning, just getting up. Where the hangover? Smellin' like it. No, my little one. That sounds very similar To the greatest Sunday song ever, Sunday morning coming down. No Sunday morning coming down, no doubt. Johnny. And Chris Christofferson. I got to go with Sam Cooke, But it's close for me between Sam Cooke. Yeah, I'll vote Sam Cooke as well, But I'm with you. This is darn close. It's not easy. Rob, I'm going to go With the equivalent of Sam Cooke, And that is the Bay City Rollers. There are a lot of Sam Cookes I think in a band together. You would get the Bay City Rollers. We once had a football game At Augsburg on a Saturday night, And I sang that song To get myself fired up, Which is a great perspective. Let that go. Oh, yeah. S-A-T-U-Y-Y-Y. Night. Roy Rogers. Great song. This is where I love this song.

[1:17:00]I didn't know this one until we listened to it. Oh, I've heard a great song. I think it sounded great as tits. And I mean, this orchestration Is just super cheesy, But it just pulls on the heart strings. I don't know what it is. Sounds like your Garth Brooks song. It sounds like your Garth Brooks song. It's like watching a Pixar movie About getting older. Your kids are having a great time. You're sitting there making like, Not a bit of Thai. Any moment. Yeah, I loved it against my- What have I done with my life? Against my better judgment In spite of myself, as you would say. Okay, so this next one, Harmony is kind of interesting. This was a song that Elton John Released Candle in the Wind As a single in the UK. It didn't release in the U.S. And they were going to release Harmony Actually as like the fourth single Here in the U.S. But they couldn't do it Because his next album came out In 1974, like four months after This album came out. And so they had to stop releasing

[1:18:00]Singles to start promoting The next album. Like that's how prolific he is. He had too many good songs On this album. But they're convinced that if They released this as a single, It would have been an absolute hit. But the chorus is a banger. I wasn't familiar with this song Really, but No, neither. But it's good. If you get a chance, I highly recommend you just listen To this Harmony song again And just realize like, This could have been on the level Of Goodbye Yellowbrook Road Or Candle in the Wind. Russ, let me ask you a question. Beck is working with Bernie Toppin. Okay. Could Beck do this album Better than Elton John? What do you think? I don't think I heard anything On this album where I ever thought That there's a connection here Where I thought Beck would even sniff Anything on this album Other than maybe that circus music We heard about four songs back. So I don't think, Other than the circus music, If we're just going to hit

[1:19:00]On that one piece, I don't think Beck did it better here. I got to say a Beck version Of Jamaica Jerk off. Oh, I wasn't that. I'd keep that up. Come on, Beck. I'm listening to that. That's what we should. Robert, why don't you? We should make a band Where we just cover the worst Verse, the worst songs On all these best albums. It'd be so good. Oh, yeah. All right. So we have our final Rating system. And this is a final rate system That has taken years to develop. It's a sweeping the nation right now. Everybody's talking about it. It's a great system And definitely is not confusing at all. Is this album, This album is ranked 91 As we remember because of From a frame from the LA Rams. Kevin Green. I think he's playing for the Steelers as well. I think he's still coaches. Is this album, Is this album rolling well toned? That means it's ranked perfectly. Is it did this album get rolling Boned, meaning it's too low on the list, Which means it's a higher number?

[1:20:00]Or is this album a rolling groan? It means it's too high on the list. We did not enjoy listening to it. It's a lower number. This is the worst writing I have. Okay. So is it rolling well toned, Rolling boned or rolling grown? Matt, what do you think? So it's just for the record. Who came up with this? It's a number of very smart scientists. Rob, you did? Okay. And mostly me. And I look at rhyme.com And I've rated stone to see what came up. I'm going to go with rolling boned. It's too low. I mean, I don't think it's like a top 50, But I think it's higher than 91. I think there's a few other albums That we've gone through. You know, it could sit Comfortably in the high 60s, Low 70s in my book. Ross, what do you think? I would agree with Matt. I think it's been rolling boned. It should be higher, especially if you consider, We mentioned this sounds almost like a greatest hits album. And to me, that needs to put, It needs to jump any sort of compilation

[1:21:00]Or greatest hits that we've listened to so far. And to me, once I get through this album, I just think it's really catchy. And I want to go back and listen to it again. And to me, appealing music that I want to re-listen to Is something that to me should be rated higher on the list. All right, great points. Erin, what do you think? Well I'm going to surprise you After I waxed poetic about this album. I'm strongly influenced, And I'm not as good at seeing the forest for the trees As you all are. So I'm strongly influenced by the surrounding albums on the list. And I just can't rank it above the sign of the times. So for me, it's a rolling groan, Even though, as I said, It's the album that affected me emotionally. More than I expected so far on the list. But rolling groan, but no shots through Elton Jack. So your mom's favorite album, You're going to rank below 20 greatest hits by Buddy Holly. Right around Hank Williams, 40 greatest hits. Terrible son. All right.

[1:22:00]So the correct answer is actually this album is rolling sewn. Because he's sewn a lot of great outfits, And we never even talked about the costumes anymore. And I think that's a huge part of Elton John Is coming out and just being so flamboyant Before that was even really a thing. And it's a shame that you guys didn't want to talk about that. And it's probably pretty offensive, actually. So let's talk about this is the game That is also going to start sweeping the nation. And this is Elton John, When he checks into hotel rooms, he uses dirty names. And he thinks that's the hate of humor to use dirty names. I had to look up. I looked up the names of porn stars, Which are also dirty names. So this is the game is, and you can say it with me, Is it a porn star or is it a name that Elton John Uses to check into hotels? The name that Elton John uses at hotels. Yes. Okay. So that came together really well.

[1:23:00]I'm happy with that. I had to look those up. Doesn't know any of these names from personal experience. Let's do a practice round real quick. The first name I'm going to give you, Bill Clinton. I might have shot my wad with the first one here. Is Bill Clinton. Is that a name of a porn star or is that the name That Elton John would use when he checks into hotel? I'm going porn star. All right. All right. I'm going, I'm going, I'll go with Rosie. There's a porn star. There's only two options. All right. I'm going to go porn star. I'm assuming Rob came across that when he was Looking for Jamaica jerk off info. Bill Clinton is a porn star. All right. Next one. This is another practice round. Is this a Sir Horace Pussy?

[1:24:00]Is Sir Horace Pussy a name of a porn star? Is that the name that Elton John Used to check into a hotel? What do you think? Definitely. Definitely. Check in name. He's a knighted. All right. Yeah. He did make it a Sir. So he is. He is. They did say, oh, it's Horace Pussy. You are now a knight. And by the way, his mom called once and he made him say, He made her say, oh yeah, Ask for Horace Pussy at the end, which is a baller move. All right. So next, okay. Here we go. Matt, you have the first one. You get a point for getting it right. One tie all tie. Matt, the first name Marquis of Minj. Marquis of Minj. That is Elton John used it. That is correct. That's an Elton John. I don't know what Minj means. I don't either, but it's probably dirty. Oh, it's so dirty. Oh, it's filthy. So you're okay with Googling. You make it jerk off, but you're not okay with Googling. I'm going to look for Minj right now. And guess what? This is a work computer and I teach so it's extra dirty.

[1:25:00]Minj, a nice pie. No, it's a vulgar term for women's pubic hair Or genitals, crotch hair. They had to put crotch hair in there. Pubic hair, bush. Okay, that's a Google. You're fired. You're fired. All right. So if when you are Sir Horace Minj, That is actually pretty gross. All right. Next one. Okay. Russ, what do you think? John Cutesack. John Cutesack. John Cutesack. Is that a porn actor? Or is that the name that Elton John would use? You can check with your hotel. What do you think? Russell. I'm going to guess based on Rob laughing at his own joke. It's got to be a porn star. Yeah, that is a John Cutesack in a porn star. Okay. Okay. Well, I can't laugh at all these. Okay. I'm not going to laugh anymore. Erin, Binky Poodlecliff. Binky Poodlecliff.

[1:26:00]Is that a porn star name? Okay. First of all, picture if that was a porn star name. That would be very good. Or is that an Elton John check-in name? What do you think? It's so it sounds very British. So I'm going to go Elton John check-in name. That is correct. Everyone has one point. Binky Poodlecliff is an Elton John name. All right. Matt, this is where it's going to get tough. Oh, he's already laughing. This is a porn star. It's funnier than it was earlier today. All right. Hold on. Straight face. Judas Fart. Judas Fart. Is that a porn star? Or is that a name that Elton John used when he checked into a hotel? That's a porn star. That is incorrect. That is a name that Elton John used when he checked into a hotel. I'm going to, I'm going to regret asking this, but is there fart porn? It probably is, right? Oh, because there's fart porn. I'm going to put it in the trash here.

[1:27:00]Is there fart porn? You perv. All right. How can you ask such a thing? Bobo Latrine. Bobo Latrine. Is that a porn star, Dave? Or is that a name that Elton John used when he checked into a hotel? And I just want to picture this right now. Okay. There's two parts. Hey, this is your co-star, Bobo Latrine. Or hello, yes, I'm here. This is Bobo Latrine. Can you please send us some room service? I'm going to say that's the name he uses to check in. That is correct. That's the name he uses when he checks in. You've got two, man. It's got one. Aaron, you've got one right now, but you can catch up here. Here we go. I'm ready. All right. So the next one, I, okay. So the next one, Aaron, is Throben Hood. Is that a name of a porn star? Is that a name that he used to check in? I mean, I think it's probably both, but I'm going to go porn star.

[1:28:00]That is incorrect. That is a name he used when he checked in. You should have nailed that, like Robin. This is like Sheriff of Nottingham. This is over in his neck of the woods. You should have nailed that, Aaron. I'm going to find, I'm going to find a porn with Throben Hood in it. And if there isn't one, it's very good. I'm going to make one in star in it. It's going to be 16 seconds long. Okay, Russ, Dick Nasty, Mr. Nasty, if you're nasty. This might be one of the toughest ones so far. I'm going to say that's the adult film star. You're right. That was a hard one. Dick Nasty is an adult porn star. Nice job. It was a hard one. So you got, I believe that you got two, I don't know anymore. All right, Aaron, Brian Bigbum. A lot of jokes here. I'm going to go with Elton John.

[1:29:00]Check in there. That is Elton John. What gave it away? Was it the use of the word bum? I think bum. Yeah, it's just too, it's just, bum is just too proper. You know, it just felt like that. He seems to still have some brother sensibilities. Guys, I can't laugh at Brian Bigbum. Not that funny. Okay. It's a serious affliction. Let's see. And I'm also not going to laugh at this one. Rocky Bell Boner. Is that, is Rocky Bell Boner, Matt? Matt, is Rocky Bell Boner a porn star? Is that somebody that Elton John checked in asked? Can you say it one more time? I didn't quite get that. Rocky Bell Boner. That's a porn star. That is correct. That is a porn star. And it's one of the greatest named porn stars I've ever heard. Okay, Russ, Sir Humphrey Handbag. Sir Humphrey Handbag. I'm going to stick with it. Seems like he's been, he's going back to his roots overseas. And I'm going to say that's a real name he uses.

[1:30:00]You're so wise, Russ. Nice job. That is a real name he uses. Okay, Aaron, next one. Tom Wanks. I'm the captain now. I'm the captain now. Hello, I'm Mr. Wanks. Don't make fun of that name, please. I've got to say that is a porn star. That is a porn star. Nice job. So Matt, last one. Fanny Beaver Snatch Clip. Fanny Beaver Snatch Clip. Is Fanny Beaver Snatch Clip a name of a porn star? Or is that a name Elton John uses when he checks into a hotel? Or a name of Rob this movie. It's got to be Elton John. Got to be Elton John's name that he would use. Which is absolutely brilliant. All right, everyone. Well, that is, that was great, Rob.

[1:31:00]I don't know if you guys can hear in the background, But you can hear maybe a speedboat going by. I'm living in a family cabin this weekend, And this is the first time where I had to leave the cabin Because I didn't want any of this repeated out loud. So I'm sure our listeners are going through the same thing As they're fiercely rushing for their headphones right now. The speedboat drives by and goes, Who's Fanny Speedboat Snatch Clip? All right. So the next album that we are reviewing is 20 Greatest Hits by Buddy Holly, Which is definitely going to be just as good as this album And not a discussion about whether or not There should be Greatest Hits on this list in the first place. Thank you for listening to Beck Did It Better.

[1:32:00]Beck Did It Better