GregsynthWizard's video: 22 Crazy Water Elton John - Live In London: 5 7 1977

After nearly a decade and a half of being on Youtube uploading Elton John concerts, I have finally been slapped to my senses so I could upload this classic show from the Rainbow Theatre in London. This recording has fantastic audio quality as it’s taken from a soundboard and it is complete! With nearly 2 hours of music featured, make sure you give this show a listen! This show can be used as an early version of what would be featured during Elton’s 1979 tour as the first half of the set is a solo set from the Madman Across The Water and the second half features Ray Cooper on percussion. Many of the elements of this show would be kept and greatly refined for the future shows that would take place in 1979. Despite performing while drinking wine, Elton has a ball at this show where he throws his voice around during random moments to see what fits. While his voice is in good shape, his singing still hasn’t reached the more refined and robust status that would be introduced by Thom Bell later in the year. After shaking off nerves during the first few songs, Elton really starts cutting loose on the performances with many of them foreshadowing ones from the next couple of years. Now… time to go through everything… “Your Song” has Elton sounding slightly nervous as his phrasing and piano playing aren’t the cleanest in places, but the performance is generally pretty solid. “The Greatest Discovery” has some coarseness in Elton’s tone and the last chorus features some interesting embellishments. “Border Song” has flubbed lyrics and the arrangement getting thrown around in the wrong order (Elton goes into the instrumental break before the chorus). “Daniel” is an improvement over the last few performances as Elton sounds more “settled in” and is in more control with everything going on. “Sweet Painted Lady” features some great singing with Elton sounding more confident with his vocals when compared to the earlier numbers in the set. “Rocket Man” contains cut-off falsetto notes, but the improvisation section has some nice singing that highlights Elton’s middle range. “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” is a barebones rendition compared to the juggernaut that the song would be transformed into by the 1979 tour, but it’s still nice to hear Elton try out experimental falsetto phrasing and foreshadow what the song would eventually evolve into. “Candle In The Wind” has some really nice and smooth singing throughout the performance. “Roy Rogers” sounds nice, but the vocals aren’t quite as refined as they would be on the 1979 tour. “Dan Dare (Pilot Of The Future)” stomps all over the versions from the 1975 tour as Elton’s vocals are much stronger and he sings the track with great enthusiasm. “Cage The Songbird” has some fantastic use of softer tone and Elton’s falsetto sounds lovely. “Where To Now St. Peter” has a couple lyrical flubs, but is otherwise a pretty strong rendition with Elton’s vocals sounding good. “Ticking” sounds very nice and is a nice preview to what the song may have sounded like on the 1979 tour if Elton decided to keep it in the set-list. “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” is a spirited rendition with Elton really getting into the performance after the first chorus. The outroduction section also contains some fantastic vocal dynamics. Concluding this section, “Take Me To The Pilot” has a very fun vibe to the performance with some great belting and falsetto use being put on display. “Tonight” contains a stronger vocal performance compared to Edinburgh 1976’s version, although Elton rushes a lot of the cadences and doesn’t sing with as much ease as he would do on the 1979 versions. “Better Off Dead” features Elton turning up the aggression on the vocals. “Idol” is a nice rendition, although the later tours that feature the song (1979 and the Ray Cooper shows from the 1990s) either have better upper range control or more resonant singing. “I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford)” contains some fantastic vocal control throughout Elton’s upper register with the falsetto switching being strong. “I Think I’m Going To Kill Myself” has a fun nature about it and Elton flubs lyrics in the last chorus (which causes him to laugh quite a bit). “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” contains some nice phrasing, but some of the vocal cadences aren’t sung as cleanly as other renditions from the era. “Crazy Water” gives a nice blueprint to how the song would be performed on the 1979 tour as wild vocal improvs and extremely creative piano playing are frequent highlights of the performance. “Bennie And The Jets” is a short-but-sweet rendition with Elton oversinging falsetto parts in the last chorus, Ray Cooper getting into the performance, and the crowd atmosphere helping to elevate the mood on stage. “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” features random oversinging during the last chorus where Elton doesn’t hold back on his falsetto flourishes. Lastly, “Goodbye” ends the show on a wonderful note! ENJOY!!!