Best Song: Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Elton John at his very best. Both musically and lyrically Elton John and Bernie Taupin have always had two sides: the fun side that borders on lightweight and the serious side that borders on pretentious. And when it comes right down to it there was a serious problem getting those sides to play nice on a single album…except this one.
I mean the two best known songs (and two of the best) show these polar opposite sides and I don’t question them being on the same disc at all. Honky Cat is a great piece of honky-tonk with some very clever lyrics about being a bum. Rocket Man on the other hand doesn’t need an introduction. Elton’s most well known song and…well you all know it anyways.
The absolute best is Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters which is tied for the best lyrics in an Elton John song (with Good Bye Yellow Brick Road). It is an ode to New York, and who knows if it is praising the city or condemning it. The tickling piano and sparse bass serve as an amazing back drop until the mandolin shows up after the first chorus, which takes the song to a whole new level.
The rest of the songs are all great too. Well Amy is almost bad but it is saved by an exquisite Jean Luc-Ponty electric violin solo. Slave is a great country song showing that the problems with that genre lay with the performers not the genre itself. Also make sure you don’t skip I Think I’m Gonna Kill Myself. It features some great juxtaposition between the cheerful music and lines like “I think I’m gonna kill myself/ cause a little suicide” before actually changing to be musically appropriate…for like 20 seconds.
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