Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (50th Anniversary Edition)

The infamous live set from the “Midsummer Music Live At Wembley, 1975,” Elton John and his new band performed at a massive show in England that year, kicks off Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (50th Anniversary Edition). In addition to this concert snippet, released here on vinyl for the first time, there is the 2016 remaster of the original Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album, plus a whole bunch of unreleased session demos in this collection. Additionally, there are seven songs Elton performed live from Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy in 2005 during the album’s 30th anniversary and a 28-page booklet containing sleeve notes and Elton’s never-before-seen 1974 diary entries.

As I felt on first hearing this fantastic (sorry) disc from Elton, the songs here are perfect little gems to the overall concept of Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin’s early years. CFatBDC went on to become the first album in history to debut at #1 on the US Billboard 200, and also the first to be certified Gold upon its release due to the number of pre-orders, marking yet another singular milestone in a pop career that Elton John enjoyed above all others. Next to his Madman Across The Water album, which I’d surely come to love as I grew older, too complex as it was for me when it was first released in 1971, CFatBDC is one of my favorite Elton John albums. With songs like “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” (the “dammit” gets me every time) to the tile track (one of my all-time fave Elton songs) to “Bitter Fingers,” and the artwork, booklets and poster by Alan Aldridge, and incredible line-up of musicians playing here—guitarist Davey Johnstone, dearly departed bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson, to name a few—the album is made all the richer from all the extras one is given on Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (50th Anniversary Edition).