What's in your CDP tonight? the minority report

FWIW on this Elton John topic.  Here's a great review posted on Amazon July 15 2013  by one, "Jacktavish" for the Honky Chateau remaster.  

"Forget Elton John's Greatest Hits part one. Just buy Madman Across the Water, Tumbleweed Connection, & Honky Chateau to understand why Elton John is a legend. He cranked these three albums out in 2 years!!

It's a blast to hear EJ at the peak of his phenomenal singing: soulful, poppy, but with a rock edge. During this stage, he & Taupin were in love with The Band & Leon Russell, so there is a funkiness, a backbeat, a gospel soul that totally disappears when he becomes a jet-set popstar. For people who hate all the excess & drama that EJ has come to represent, it's a joy to hear him when it was all about the music."

Great comments.  Explains for me why I like these and not so much of his later output.  I'd include that self-titled, so a "quad" of albums worth having.  

WHEN IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC - words to live by.

ghosthouse...

Spot-on appraisal of Elton John's earlier and by any measure best output. Only album left out could be "11/17/70", an excellent live in studio recording that I had written a review for my 8th grade English class. (Great record, and one gawd-awful attempt at a record review.)

Personally, I stopped at Madman. After that...well,  I lost interest altogether as his stardom exploded. 

Thanks everyone for their interest and comments regarding Tumbleweed Connection and other Elton John music and bio. arcam88 recommended this dics while I visited his home a few weeks ago. I've actually been spinning his copy - but was fortunate to pickup my own yesterday at my local shop, Phil's Records. He had the remastered disc in stock. 

I like all forms of music media, however the best thing about owning CD's (or LP's) is the cover art and the liner notes. Tumbleweed Connection comes with a 12 page sepia colour book chock full of lyrics, liner notes. In fact, some songs from this albumn have been covered by some well known artist. James Taylor's sister Kate, Rod Stweart, Phil Collins and Sting. This compilation was released in 1995. 

"...Gus Dudgeon: All of the  tapes used to create these new masters are the original mixes. However, due to the fact that many of the tapes are at least 25 years old, they have "softened up" to varying degrees. So, the sound has been passed the most up to date digital processing equipment, at 20 bit Resolution: namely The Sadie Digital System and Prism Super Noise Shaper. The effects purely to "enhance" rather than "colour" the sound. 
As the original producer, I would have used this equipment at the time, had it been available for mastering. The very nature of analogue recordings being transfered to vinyl demanded major compromises. With the benefits of digital sound these constraints are removed, and the recordings can be heard much closer to the reproduction we had originally intended..."

Elton has said of 'Tumbleweed Connection' : "Lyrically and melodically, that's one of our most perfect albumns". 

(ghosthouse, sorry if I hijacked your thread) 

N

Nutty - Apology completely unnecessary.  You are very welcome here and I've appreciated your posts and input.  People talking about what digitally formatted music they are listening to and WHY they like it is what I hoped would happen with this thread.  BTW I'm planning to get the remastered Honky Chateau and Tumbleweed Connection from The Classic Years series.  

oblgny - Madman Across the Water as an 8th grade record review!  Well done.  Must say, you are dating ME!  8th grade woulda had to have been been The Beatles or maybe Simon & Garfunkel "Bookends".  Why the latter comes to mind is I remember our 8th grade Spanish teacher (younger guy) coming in one day with a copy of Bookends and playing the whole thing for us.  Had NOTHING to do with learning Spanish.  Based on personal experience years later, am guessing he might have been at a party the night before and had a revelation revolving around that album.   It would be a hoot to read your record review now.  Post it here!  

he's decades past relevance, and was never hip in the first place, but tumbleweed connection is unarguably a great record--just pulled it out to listen to with my jaded ex-skatepunk bride, who wholly agrees with the foregoing.
also in queue is steven wilson--hand,cannot, erase--highly recommended prog rock for people like myself that don't especially like prog rock