I completely agree. Even tho he's a pop mainstream composer now, you can see the brilliant composer in him in these young songs.

I don't know if we can forgive you that easily :D Actually this is one (or the only one) of my favorites by Elton John.

Well, at least it's not as painful as "Valerie"

What's with the negative EJ comments? Early and mid-period EJ/Taupin songs are among the best in rock history, IMHO. This song is included therein.

I'd just like to apologise to you all for my country giving you Elton John....

You tell me...I looked on the credits and EJ played all piano and Rick Wakeman played organ on some songs. I know EJ used the mellotron a lot on other LPs, but don't see it listed here. By the way, this was the first LP I ever purchased. In fact, I bought it before I even had a system to play it on.
:) :)

Trivia question: Who played keyboards (specifically Mellotron) on this album?

This is good news. I think Tumbleweed Connection was EJ's finest hour, and my vinyl copy has gotten pretty scratchy over the past 30 years.

How did you know? This is my favorite Elton song. Thank you

This is the finest song....okay it is elton john, but so what!

An Elton John track. Mummy always told me if you can’t say something nice,
say nothing at all ………

Nice nutshell description. I agree 100%. This album in particular was especially excellent... Levon, Madman, Holiday Inn... yum.

Note: the recently re-released version of Tumbleweed Connection has a couple of cool bonus tracks, one of which is the original studio version of "Madman Across the Water," much more raw and edgy than the reworked version on the Madman album.

This song was covered fairly recently (well, in 1991 on Two Rooms, a John-Taupin tribute album) by another prominent piano playing pop star...any guesses...OK, it's Bruce Hornsby. It's a nice version with some jazzy piano but nothing earthshaking. I used to refer to him as Bruce Yawnsby until he came out with the "Harbor Lights" CD which is really pretty cool.

Oh yeah, I like the song quite a bit, but have heard it a billion times. The album is one of my favorites from Elton.

I don't believe anyone ever covered this tune. One of many indelible musical moments made from this collaboration, one of the most fruitful in popular music history. They were like an old time Broadway writing couple, Bernie writing wonderful lyrics and Elton spinning out tunes of (sometimes) great complexity to meet the open meters.

Oh course, the line was written by Bernie Taupin. Elton John just did the music. Taupin was a poet (IMHO), Elton John's ealy genius was doing excellent music around Taupin lyrics.

One of Elton's best songs ever! Wonder how his career would have turned out if he'd stayed on the rock path rather than going to the pop side.

"Is the nightmare black or are the windows painted?" -- one of my favorite lines ever.

I forgave an awful lot of what Elton John became (and admittedly unbecame) because of songs like this. Still not crazy about his voice though. Has anyone ever covered this song?

Two Words:

Hair Transplant. Works wonders -- uhhh... so I hear....
:D

Well if they've saved all of their old hair brushes perhaps.
One of the benefits of being folliculary challenged is that you don't have to comb all that hair out of the brushe every day ;) I can say that since I am one such person ...

One word: Rogaine :D

They didn't have laser beam methods way back when?
BTW, now he regained his hair, the glasses seem to become less important. :p
But don't let these kinda things draw away too much attention from the fact that John/Taupin are one of the great songwriting duo's.

Oh most definitely, I've been putting mine away and saving it, lo these many years ... :D

Ask Paul Simon! :-)

A pretty good tune.
I pose this question: How does someone have MORE hair in his 50s than in his 20s?

WOW! Great to hear this classic tune again. Takes me back to my high school days. THANKS BILL.