Elton John 055

Look closer for sixteen song titles from the double album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”: Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding; Candle In the Wind; Bennie and the Jets; Goodbye Yellow Brick Road; This Song Has No Title; Grey Seal; I’ve Seen That Movie Too; Sweet Painted Lady; The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34); Dirty Little Girl; All the Girls Love Alice; Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock and Roll); Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting; Roy Rogers; Social Disease; Harmony

The story: 

Sir Elton Hercules John 

Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on the 25^th of March 1947. As an English singer, pianist, and composer, he has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriting partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits, including seven consecutive No. 1 US albums, 58 Billboard Top 40 singles (27 Top 10, four No. 2 and nine No. 1). For 31 consecutive years (1970–2000) he had at least one song in the BillboardHot 100.

Elton John started playing the piano at the age of three, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out Winifred Atwell’s “The Skater’s Waltz” by ear. After performing at parties and family gatherings, at the age of 7 he took up formal piano lessons. He showed musical aptitude at school, including the ability to compose melodies, and gained some notoriety by playing like Jerry Lee Lewis at school functions. At the age of 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. According to one of his instructors, the young John (Dwight) promptly played back, like a “gramophone record”, a four-page piece by Handel that he heard for the first time.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the seventh studio album by English singer-songwriter Elton John, first released on 5 October 1973 as a double LP. The album has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and is widely regarded as John’s magnum opus. Among the 17 tracks, the album contains the hits “Candle in the Wind”, US number-one single “Bennie and the Jets”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” plus live favorites “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” and “Harmony”.

It was recorded at the Studio d’enregistrement Michel Magne at the Château d’Hérouville in France after problems recording at the intended location in Jamaica. The move provided John and his band with a great deal of creative inspiration and an abundance of quality material was produced, leading to the decision to release the work as a double album (LP).

In 2020, the album was ranked number 112 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was also ranked number 59 in Channel 4’s 2009 list of 100 Greatest Albums.

The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003 when it was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

-credit Wikipedia

The artwork: 

The first print of this illustration is available for non-profit fundraising. Email lisafromlsu@gmail.com for details.

Digital Print on Archival Matte – Original illustration done in graphite and prisma colors top to bottom: Process Red-because life is a process; Canary Yellow-Elton sings like a bird; True Green for “Evergreen heroes whose stories were told. . .” from Roy Rogers; True Blue for “. . . a simple case of mummy-doesn’t-love-me blues” from All the Girls Love Alice; Mulberry for “and see visions of vineyards in my dreams” from Social Disease.

Artist: Tobin Bortner of Bastrop, Texas – drawn in May of 2022 – ©Tobin Signs, LLC/Look Closer Illustrations 
DERIVATIVE Work – photo credits: hairline from home_bt_com – sir-elton-john-performs-on-cannes-beach-after-rocketman-premiere-136436256804802601-190516230055; face and glasses from news.sky_com – skynews-elton-john-cannes_4683177; suitcoat from AP-US-Music-Elton-John-IMG-jpg-630×512

What you get:
$40 (36.95 + 3.05 tax)
11 x 14 Print Package with Authenticity Sheet
signed and numbered (run of 300)
Domestic Priority Mail $8 (Free shipping)