Elton John-Blue Moves (1976)

 


Artist: Elton John

Title: Blue Moves

Label: MCA Records/The Rocket Record Company

Format: 8-Track

Catalog Number: MCAT2-11004

Year of Release: 1976

Country and Year of Edition: US 1976 white shell

Sell Price: $9.55

Sell Date: 5/31/26

Condition: VG/VG untested

Discogs Last Sold: 11/15/24 M/NM $16.00

Low: $7.99

Median: $9.55

Average: $11.18

High: $16.00

Current low price: $8.76 VG/VG

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 2

Have/Want: 37/27

Where Sold: Fort Worth, TX

Time It Took To Sell:  3 years

Where and When Bought: Ebay 8-track lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: C-

Sad To See It Go: No

This is an extremely difficult album to write about.  I didn't even have a place for it on the mental time line which is a full year after Rock Of The Westies in October '76.  Instead of releasing two studio albums like he did in 1975 he put out a live record in April, Here and There and took a break from touring after this release.  "Break" of course meant a few dozen dates over 77 & 78, but he was going relentlessly before this period and I seem to remember reports on the radio around '78 of some sort of hospitalization but all I can find is a report of a 1979 on-stage collapse in LA.   I find it odd how I blank out on this specific period of his discography, but have a feel for everything before it and at least a decade of decline as an "album artist" into "pop MOR singles artist" for the 80's and beyond.

Like much of the Elton 70's catalog, this one is sprawling and dense.  Sure enough it sold it's million and hit #3 Billboard anyway.  The 8-track edition completely overhauls the track order, but since I never heard the the album before it doesn't matter.  Nothing was faded out on this double length tape.  "Boogie Pilgrim" closes out the last program instead of opening side 2.

Weird instrumentals take on fusion ("Out Of The Blue") and open the record ("Your Starter For...").  The big hit that made the second greatest hits the next year was "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" which opens track three as well as side three of the vinyl. "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance)" predates Rod Stewart's "Hot Legs" in the guitar lick department with decidedly more of a Disco kitchen sink presentation that closed out the vinyl but opens the second track here.

Whenever I embark on an Elton John album, I always feel like I should like it more than I do.  Then the reality hits me.  Outside of a handful of his hits, I generally don't like him in any era.  Like every rule there are exceptions.  For Blue Moves, the feminist western "Shoulder Holster" makes for a respectable number with some mid-70's late night TV horn jamming from David Sanborn, Barry Rogers and the Brecker Brothers.  The other standout track is "Between Seventeen and Twenty."  Elton (or his fictional character) was twenty of course. The subject? "Only 17" followed by mournful oh oh oh's.

That beacon of youth is now 76.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Caribou (1974)

Greatest Hits Volume II (1977)

Various Artists-Music Machine (1977)


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