Search - Elton John :: Honky Chateau

Michelle D. from HAMPDEN, ME
Reviewed on 3/9/2021...

This is pretty good. However, the best songs on it are the hits. Honky Cat and Rocket Man were both big hits. Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters may just be my favorite Elton song. (Not the Prt. 2 from Reg Strikes Back. That's pretty bad). The only exception may be I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself. I don't know if that was a hit, but I like it. Those four songs are the best on here, and show up on some compilations. I think i'll rate this three and a half stars. Not as good as it's successors, or as good as it's predecessors.

Kevin F. from BROOKLYN, NY
Reviewed on 4/24/2011...

This album came out in 1972 when i was 11 years old, and i bought it on a hunch at that time. i was raised in a musical family, and we listened to Bach, Chopin, and the Beatles. my older siblings had begun listening to Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, early James Taylor and other rock-folk legends. and yet, amidst all these revolutionary performers, this became one of my favorite albums, with its romping and more playful feel, and was played over and over.

As i got into my later teens, my record collection became more adventurous, with the Velvet Underground, Milton Babbitt and other less accessible musicians. however, i did not disavow some of my early tastes, including this.

when i moved to NYC as a young man, i found myself singing "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" over and over again -- right in the middle of the East Village amidst the New Wave movement -- because it perfectly but beautifully described the darkness of the city i was experiencing then.

as a grown man, i rarely listened to Elton John unless girlfriends would play him on a car trip or something -- i had tossed him aside as "mainstream pop" -- and yet, whenever his songs were played, i could not deny the impact of these "mainstream" songs -- often beautiful melodies, intriguing words, and unpretentious and heartfelt performances.

as a mature adult, this album in particular still comes alive for me after all these years, and does not at all feel dated -- like so much music from that era does. the range of songwriting here is enormous (and the range of apparent musical influences), and the professionalism of the performances and recording here is unmatched. while am less enamored of some of John's (and Taupin's) later more pop and sentimental work, his early albums are still refreshing and remarkable -- Honky Chateau in particular.

Classic

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 02/08/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Right or wrong, I tend to compartmentalize Elton John. Those albums from his first through Goodbye Yellowbrick Road, when he was a writter expermenting with styles, and the drug fuled specticles of Caribu and after.



But of those fantastic early albums, Honky Chateu is by far the best. As a writer and musician, Elton here was able to take all the experiments going back to his first album and synthsize them into an amazing, unpretentious album of fantastic music.



Look at him! Beard, glasses, looking down thinking. This is a musician that we can all relate to, and hang out with. You get no hint of what is about to come as Elton's act became 1970s stage cheese.



"Honky Cat," is one of the best funk singles of the 1970s, bar none. "Rocket Man" is Elton reaching melodic heights that compete with the Bealtes. "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself" is both funny and frightening: the kind of confessional satrie that Ray Davies matered. Is he kidding, or not.



All of this is done with a great back up band, and no showmanship--a good thing. It is great music by a great writter.



Had Elton made more albums like Honky Chateu, he may not have sold as many show tickets, but he would be up their with Paul, John, Ray, some of the best/



Remembered only for the music."