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Rating: "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" is undoubtedly one of the great classics from Elton John's repertoire: #2 in the USA in 1974, a worldwide hit in its 1991 reissue in duet with George Michael, and paid tribute to by a considerable number of covers; unfortunately, however, this albeit beautiful song has literally "cannibalized" its home album, "Caribou" from 1974: nestled between "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy," this record, whose cover features Our Hero sporting a pair of questionable pants, is in my opinion the most underrated of EJ's entire golden era, and it's a pity because if "Captain Fantastic..." indeed reached the highest peak, it is thanks to "Caribou" that a new cycle in Elton John's career began, after "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" had closed the previous one.
Conceived in the gorgeous setting of the Colorado mountains, "Caribou" is an inspired, pleasant, and colorful album that seems to almost start off light-heartedly to gain more depth as one goes through the tracklist, and due to its completeness, it nearly succeeds in being a summary of the style and personality of the best Elton John ever. It has all the right ingredients: the vibrant and rhythmic rock of "The Bitch Is Back", the softer side tinged with childhood memories in "Grimsby", a passion for country music that brings the delightful "Dixie Lily" to life, a song that wins over immediately with its innocence and simplicity, contrasting with the rhythms and almost sanguine passion of the tango of "You're So Static" and the blues rock of "Stinker", based on a hypnotic and nearly obsessive bass line.
Of course, an essential ingredient like ballads is not missing, whether they are simple, sweet, and relaxing like "Pinky" or structured, baroque, and whimsical like "I've Seen The Saucers"; the cake batter is enriched with a pinch of extravagance (the operatic baroque nonsense of "Solar Prestige A Gammon", a true stroke of genius) and sublimated by "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", certainly one of the most substantial pop hits ever for music, impact, and message conveyed, and finally by one of the great masterpieces of the John-Taupin duo, "Ticking", a poignant piano & voice portrait of a misunderstood and troubled boy who commits a massacre in a New York bar before being killed by the police.
Even if less "advertised" than other EJ albums, "Caribou" remains an exceptional quality product, I would say almost perfect, conceived and structured to perfection, not a single song out of place, showcasing remarkable versatility and an immense class reflected both in the individual tracks and in the album's overall vision, which deserves 5 stars, not only for a matter of personal taste but for its actual quality and significance within Elton John's discography, who with these premises and on this foundation would give life to "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Bitch Is Back (03:43)
I was justified when I was five
Raising Cain, I spit in your eye
Times are changing, now the poor get fat
But the fever's gonna catch you when the bitch gets back
Eat meat on Friday that's alright
Even like steak on a Saturday night
I can bitch the best at your social do's
I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue
I'm a bitch, I'm a bitch
Oh the bitch is back
Stone cold sober as a matter of fact
I can bitch, I can bitch
`Cause I'm better than you
It's the way that I move
The things that I do
I entertain by picking brains
Sell my soul by dropping names
I don't like those, my God, what's that
Oh it's full of nasty habits when the bitch gets back
02 Pinky (03:54)
I don't want to wake you
But I'd like to tell you that I love you
That the candlelight fell like a crescent
Upon your feather pillow
For there's more ways than one
And the ways of the world are a blessing
For when Pinky's dreaming
She owes the world nothing
And her silence keeps us guessing
Pinky's as perfect as the Fourth of July
Quilted and timeless, seldom denied
The trial and the error of my master plan
Now she rolls like the dice in a poor gambler's hands
You don't want to tell me
But somehow you've guessed that I know
Oh when dawn came this morning
You discovered a feeling that burned like a flame in your soul
For there's toast and honey
And there's breakfast in bed on a tray
Oh it's ten below zero
And we're about to abandon our plans for the day
03 Grimsby (03:46)
As I lay dreaming in my bed
Across the great divide
I thought I heard the trawler boats
Returning on the tide
And in this vision of my home
The shingle beach did ring
I saw the lights along the pier
That made my senses sing
Oh oh Grimsby, a thousand delights
Couldn't match the sweet sights
Of my Grimsby
Oh England you're fair
But there's none to compare with my Grimsby
Through nights of mad youth
I have loved every sluice in your harbor
And in your wild sands from boyhood to man
Strangers have found themselves fathers
Take me back you rustic town
I miss your magic charm
Just to smell your candy floss
Or drink in the Skinners Arms
No Cordon Bleu can match the beauty
Of your pies and peas
I want to ride your fairground
Take air along the quay
04 Dixie Lily (02:54)
Music by Elton John
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin
Showboat coming up the river
See her lanterns flicker in the gentle breeze
I can hear the crickets singing in the evening
Old Dixie Lily moving past the cypress trees
My little boat she rocks easy
I've been catching catfish in the creek all day
Oh and I've never seen ladies like those on the big boats
Must be fancy breeding lets you live that way
Dixie Lily, chugging like a grand old lady
Paddles hitting home in the noonday sun
Ploughing through the water with your whistles blowing
Down from Louisiana on the Vicksburg run
Papa says that I'm a dreamer
Says them skeetas bit me one too many times
Oh but I never get lonesome living on the river
Watching old Lily leave the world behind
05 Solar Prestige a Gammon (02:52)
Oh ma cameo molesting
Kee pa a poorer for tea
Solar prestige a gammon
Lantern or turbert paw kwee
Solar prestige a gammon
Kool kar kyrie kay salmon
Har ring molassis abounding
Common lap kitch sardin a poor floundin
Cod ee say oo pay a loto
My zeta prestige toupay a floored
Ray indee pako a gammon
Solar prestige a pako can nord
06 You're So Static (04:51)
I've a constant ache in the morning light
It's on account of the night before
Some Park Lane lady in a shady bar
Took a fancy to the watch I wore
But I can still remember how she laughed at me
As I spun around and hit the bed
She said thank you honey, forget about the money
This pretty watch'll do instead
City living woman, you're so static
Matching your men with a hook and eye
If you're gonna spend the summer in New York City
Them women oh oh oh they're gonna slice your pie
Said you're so static, baby I've had it
Rolling in a yellow cab
Downtown hustlers trying to pull some muscle
If they catch you, oh oh oh it could turn out bad
It's a Show me what you want, I'll show you what I've got
I can show you a real good time
She's a friend indeed of a friend in need
But you'll be sorry when she leaves you crying
08 Stinker (05:19)
Say what you will but I'm a stinker
I come crawling up out of my hole
Dirt in my toes, dirt up my nose
I'm a perfect curse to pest control
Seeds and weeds and muddy meals
Crawling around the earth
Down in the ground where the sun don't pound
I hibernate in English turf
Better believe it, I'm a stinker
Burning vermin stink
Watch me get as high as a heat wave honey
Tell me what you hound dogs think
Set in my styles with a beady eye
I got connections with the underground
Call me a common rodent boy
Sitting here safe and sound
Some mole hill mother sauntered by
Acting like the ace of spades
Don't give that cutey no reason to shoot me
When I'm living on the eggs she laid
09 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (05:35)
Don't go breaking my heart
I couldn't if I tried
Honey if I get restless
Baby you're not that kind
Don't go breaking my heart
You take the weight off me
Honey when you knock on my door
I gave you my key
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
So don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
And nobody told us
'Cause nobody showed us
And now it's up to us babe
I think we can make it
So don't misunderstand me
You put the light in my life
You put the sparks to the flame
I've got your heart in my sights
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Nobody knows it, nobody knows it
But right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
Nobody knows it
When I was down
I was your clown
Right from the start
I gave you my heart
I gave you my heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my
Don't go breaking my
Don't go breaking my heart
Don't go breaking my
Don't go breaking my
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
Don't go breaking my heart
I won't go breaking your heart
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