Review: Elton John Opens Vaults For ‘Live From The Rainbow Theater,’ With Ray Cooper, From 1977, A Wonderful Performance

Elton John has released a live album from the vaults, Live At The Rainbow Theater, originally recorded in 1977. Apparently this performance was broadcast and has been highly bootlegged over the years, but I must admit, I’d never heard it before this release. The performance is mostly Elton alone at the piano, but he was accompanied by percussionist Ray Cooper on some of the songs and thus he gets billing on the album as well. I don’t know if this the first time Elton played a show with Cooper but I know the pair played shows off and on a number of times during the years. Listening to this performance, I have to say something I’ve never said about a live album or any rock album for that matter… this is a simply lovely performance. The vocals and piano are just beautiful. It almost reads as a classical concert recital. That’s not to say it’s without passion, quite the opposite.

1976 was a difficult time for Elton. Between 1970 when he released Elton John with “Your Song” and 1976 when he released his second, yes second, double studio album Blue Moves, he had released 10 albums in seven years. Two of those were double-albums so it’s more like 12 albums released over that time period. The first of those double albums was Goodbye Yellow Brick Road which made my list of favorite “old school double albums.” By any measuring stick, that was a lot of music to release. By the time Elton recorded that second double-album, 1976’s Blue Moves, fatigue or perhaps even exhaustion was setting in. The well was probably running a bit dry. The whole 70s ethos of write an album/record the album/release the album/tour/rinse/repeat was burning him out. Critical reception to Blue Moves was tepid. Yellow Brick Road obviously overshadowed it. It was considered to be very experimental but to my ears it’s suffused with melancholy. It just feels like a sad record. Some say it was his reaction to the backlash he’d gotten in America for admitting to Rolling Stone magazine he was gay… well, he admitted to being bisexual, but the reaction was equally negative…unfortunately.

Blues Moves is a critical record in John’s career for a number of reasons, to my mind. Prior to recording it he let most of his band go. He fired Nigel Olsson (drums) and Dee Murray (bass) who had been with him since that 1970 eponymous second album. The only member of the Elton John Band he retained for Blue Moves was Davey Johnstone (guitar). That album was also the last one he’d do with longtime producer Gus Dudgeon until the mid-80s. In a move that shocks me, he stopped writing songs with his longtime co-writer, lyricist Bernie Taupin until a slight reunion in 1980 followed by a more permanent reunion a few years on. It seems we had an exhausted musician who was getting diminishing results and decided rather than take a rest to get rid of some of the folks he’d relied on to achieve the amazing success he’d seen in the early 1970s. And make no mistake, Elton was HUGE in the early 70s, comparable with the Beatles in the 60s or Sinatra in the 40s. Let me put it this way, I didn’t listen to music in the early 70s and I still knew who Elton John was. I remember touring the Smithsonian with my father, the Hard Guy, and hearing “Rocket Man.” It was impossible to escape Elton.

Throughout the last week when I was immersed in the latest “Super Deluxe Edition” of the Talking Heads’ More Songs About Buildings and Food, I was pulling this live album up as a palette cleanser, if you will. After a little work on the inter-web I discovered the original performance/broadcast was 25 songs long. On the version released – originally this year for Record Store Day – and more widely on July 25th, there were 12 songs (CD and vinyl) and the streaming version is 13 songs long. They could have easily released this performance as a “double-live” but chose to keep it to a “single-live” album. I have nothing against single live albums, I recently posted about my favorites, but this could have certainly worked as a double live album as well… maybe next Record Store Day we’ll get the rest of this one.

The version that has been officially released reminds me of another of my favorite Elton live albums, 17-11-70. The tracks they chose to release are mostly album deep tracks. I know he played a lot of hits that night in May of 1977, but they went with those deep tracks on this live album much like 17-11-70 and I am here for it!! The live album opens with two tracks from the eponymous LP, “The Greatest Discovery,” about a young boy who discovers he has a new baby brother and fan favorite “Border Song.” Elton’s voice is just so razor sharp here… I know he was drinking heavily and likely drugging pretty intensely but there’s no degradation in these performances. Elton has such a huge personality – the glasses, the costumes, the orchestral backing – and hearing these great songs laid bare is just breathtaking.

After that stellar 2-track opener, he goes to “Cage The Songbird” from Blue Moves and then on to “Where To Now St. Peter?” from Tumbleweed Connection. I think that certain artists have a bedrock they return to in trouble times. Dylan plays folk music during tough patches in his career, Hendrix always returned to the blues. I think Elton always returns to his beautiful deep tracks, just him and his piano, like when he started and that comes through on these songs. “Ticking” was a track I’d almost forgotten about and it’s wonderful. I was stunned he chose to do “Sweet Painted Lady” a great deep track from Yellow Brick Road. He does a version of “Tonight” (also from Blue Moves) that is one of my all time favorite songs about a troubled couple… I’d have loved to hear “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word,” the most devastating breakup song ever recorded (other than maybe Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”) which I know was performed that night but it didn’t make the cut. “Tonight” is a wonderful song about a couple coming apart at the seams. “Tonight, do we have to fight again? Tonight, I just want to go to sleep.” He goes on to sing, “Tonight, why not approach with less defiance.” Oh man, we’ve all been there.

“Idol” is a track about a fading rock star that I had forgotten about but it’s a wonderful reading here. I think George Michael covered this song live at some of his concerts. He wraps with two cowboy songs, “I Feel Like A Bullet In The Gun Of Robert Ford,” and “Roy Rogers” but then goes cartoon hero “Dan Dare (Pilot Of The Future)” which is truly a deep track fan boys like me revel in. He ends with, what else, “Goodbye” from Madman Across The Water. The crowd sounds as enthused as I am!

This is a poignant, stirring performance. I’m surprised he didn’t pull the whole thing together and release it in 1977. I think it’s just a wonderful, if truncated performance from one of our most important artists at a tough moment who turned back to doing what he does best… playing piano and singing by himself. This is a must listen for Elton fans and fans of rock n roll everywhere. This isn’t going to be the Elton John you play at a party but it’s wonderful for a late night on the porch with a tumbler full of dark and murky fluids…

“And if you want a drink, Just squeeze my hand and wine will flow into the land…” Cheers!