Tumbleweed Connection Deluxe Edition

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-11-15 rating:
There Goes A Well-Known Gun
This was Elton John's third LP and stakes a good claim to being his very best. It certainly represents his peak as an albums artist, being a concept album with no singles. The songs are mostly based around themes of the American West, an obsession of lyricist Bernie Taupin at the time, and Elton rose to the occasion with a consistently strong collection of tunes with a predominantly country flavour, citing The Band as a major influence. The American inflections he has always brought to his vocal style have never sounded more convincing or appropriate, and arranger Paul Buckmaster again comes up trumps with sympathetic settings for the songs. The strings are used more sparingly than on Elton's eponymous previous album, with brass more to the fore this time round, although the two are integrated brilliantly on the magnificent 'My Father's Gun'. This song is also one of several which benefit from an impressive choir of backing vocalists which includes Dusty Springfield. The album on the whole is a grittier affair than its delicate predecessor ('Son Of Your Father' and 'Amoreena' feature Elton's voice at its most raucous), although there is the occasional bucolic moment, notably the gorgeous 'Come Down In Time' and Lesley Duncan's haunting 'Love Song', the only cover Elton included on any of his studio albums. 'Where To Now St Peter?' is darkly psychedelic and 'Talking Old Soldiers' is a stark monologue in which a war veteran mourns his dead comrades. Epic closing track 'Burn Down The Mission' has remained a staple of Elton's live set ever since. As with the deluxe version of the same year's `Elton John', this reissue is beautifully packaged and re-mastered, and adds some superb tracks from the archives, the off-cuts being as strong as the material that made it onto the album. The searing 9-minute version of 'Madman Across The Water' (featuring Mick Ronson on guitar) and 'Into The Old Man's Shoes' (released as the b-side of 'Your Song' for its belated single release) were also included on `Tumbleweed Connection's last CD issue, but the previously unreleased material and excellent packaging make for an essential upgrade. A completely different version of 'Ballad Of A Well Known Gun' kicks off disc 2 very nicely, and the smattering of demos prove how strong the songs are in their basic form. There is also one previously unknown song, 'Sisters Of The Cross', but oddly the much bootlegged 'Rolling Western Union' hasn't been included. As before, the addition of BBC session tracks isn't as definitive as it could have been. Great to see some of them at last get an official release, but there are omissions (notably 'Country Comfort') and again some of the information seems to be incorrect - for example, contrary to what it claims on the sleeve, the BBC version of 'Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun' has previously been released, albeit in a slightly edited form, on the compilation Before The Fall and comes from a John Peel Concert (tx 5 April 1970) rather than the DLT session mentioned in the notes. Also, the version of `My Father's Gun' is not the version previously released on '21 Years Of Alternative Radio One' as claimed in the sleevenotes. It too comes from the Peel Concert and is therefore previously unreleased. But these are minor quibbles when such a classic album comes so beautifully presented.

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review by: date: 2008-07-29 rating:
ELTON JOHN'S "Tumbleweed Connection" Gets A SENSATIONAL NEW REMASTER!!
Reginald Dwight's 3rd album proper was released in late 1970 and firmly established Elton John as one of the great singer-songwriters of the Seventies. This 2 June 2008 DELUXE EDITION 2CD set is a fully upgraded version of that breakthrough album and in my books is already up there as one of the re-issues of the year.

Here's the layout:
DISC 1 is the 10-track album originally released in the UK in October 1970 on DJM Records DJLPS 410 and in the USA on Uni Records 73096 (47:04 minutes)

DISC 2 is the BONUS DISC containing 13 tracks, 10 of which are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED and the other 3 are RARITIES with upgraded sound from their previous release in 1988 (1 track) and 1995 (2 tracks) (61:07 minutes)

PACKAGING:
The LP originally sported a textured gatefold sleeve with an attached 12-page booklet which has been faithfully reproduced in the excellent 28-page booklet that accompanies this set. Along with photos from the time of both Elton and Bernie, there's a very informative new essay by noted writer JOHN TOBLER, press adverts and billboard posters from 1970, session details and the fold-out flaps of the digipak even reflect the pictures on the left and right of the inner gatefold of the original album - all very nice touches indeed. However, if I was to nitpick, the UK version of the outer plastic wrap lists no information of any kind, which means the casual buyer picking it up off a shelf can't tell what's inside this DELUXE EDITION - no album track list, nor any idea of what the extras are? But that's a minor niggle that can be fixed on repressings, because the really big news is the SOUND....

SOUND:
Sourcing the first generation original masters tapes from the Universal Archives, the re-mastering has been carried out by GIOVANNI SCATOLA and TONY COUSINS at Metropolis Mastering in London - and surely a GRAMMY awaits each of them! As the owner of way too many re-issue CDs, this is simply one of the best remasters of an old album that I've ever heard! Twenty seconds into the opener and I was already writing a review and picking my jaw up off the table as I went!

So what's changed? When GUS DUDGEON replaced the useless 1980s CDs with the excellent 1995 remasters, he got the best sound out of the tapes that he could at the time (he sadly passed away a few years ago). But 13 years on to 2008 and that's a lifetime in remastering techniques. These 2008 versions BREATHE - you can hear everything - and clearly too. A good example is the quietly delicate duet with LESLEY DUNCAN on her own "Love Song" - as pretty a tune as you could hope to hear - it's BEAUTIFUL now - finally given the clarity that it has always deserved. (She later did her own superlative version on GM Records in 1974).

BAND/GUESTS:
Other vocal contributions come from DUSTY SPRINGFIELD, MADELINE BELL and Bronze Label Artist TONY HAZZARD on "My Father's Gun" and "Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun". UK folk duo SUE and SUNNY make a rare appearance on "Son Of Your Father" while IAN DUCK, the lead vocalist for HOOKFOOT puts in great harmonica work on one of the album standouts "Country Comfort". In fact, the majority of HOOKFOOT (his DJM label mates) make up the bulk of his band - and would stay with him for years afterwards.

DISC 2 gives us excellent PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Piano Demos along with two separate BBC sessions - the "Dave Lee Travis Show" from April 1970 and the "Sounds Of The Seventies Show" from July 1970. They vary in sound quality, but are more than pleasantly good. Having said that, there are THREE genuine sensations on Disc 2. When Sting was asked to do a cover for the all-star "Two Rooms" compilation in 1991, he wisely chose "Come Down In Time", which for me has always been the best track on the album. Well track 3 on Disc 2 is a recently found PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED PIANO DEMO of "Come Down In Time" and it's sensationally good - just beautiful. Stripped of clutter and intruding instrumentation, the melody shines though, and luckily this is one of those demos that is in TIP-TOP STUDIO QUALITY CONDITION - very little hiss - just him and his lovely song. It's truly fantastic stuff and will remind many a weary fan of why they loved Elton John in the first place - he was a bloody good songwriter.

Second up is the near 9-minute "Original Version" of "Madman Across The Water" with MICK RONSON on Lead Guitar instead of Chris Spedding (Spedding was the guitar player on the shorter album version finally released on the "Madman Across The Water" album in October 1971). Along with the next track discussed, it turned up on the 1995 re-issue CD as a bonus track. What makes this version better is the UPGRADED REMASTER, which gives his raunchy guitar work an in-your-face clarity that pummels real axe-power into the song. Ronson, Bowie and Mott fans will absolutely love it!

Last is a rare B-side. Although "Tumbleweed" produced no singles at all, "Your Song" from the previous album "Elton John" was given a belated UK release in January 1971 with a unique non-album B-side, "Into the Old Man's Shoes". It first turned up on the 1995 Gus Dudgeon remaster with good sound - but here its upgraded sound quality is STUNNING!

To sum up: I've loved coming back to this album - the great sound quality - actual tunes with thought-provoking lyrics - the attention to detail in the well-thought out packaging - the bonuses you'll play more than once - all of it...

For fans of this unduly forgotten gem of an album, this is an absolute MUST BUY!

A job well-done Universal - and roll on the same deluxe treatment for "Madman Across The Water" and "Honky Chateau".


review by: mccontrol date: 2008-06-07 rating:
Tumbleweed Deluxe!
Another remaster,another addition to Universal's very successful "Deluxe Edition" series.Some of which have been excellent value.We have already seen "Captain Fantastic" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" given very lavish deluxe treatment.According to the extensive essay by John Tobler contained within the booklet of this double cd reissue of one of Sir Elton's career defining early 70's albums for DJM records,it has been released(along with his self titled second album)to commemerate 40 years of recording.And what a wealth of material it contains.It's not so much how good the album sounds,it's all the extra material contained on the second disc,most of which is previously unreleased,that make these new deluxe editions a must have for any fan of Mr.John!
It's not the first remaster of course.Almost all his classic 70's back catalogue was first given a clean up in 1995 by the late Gus Dudgeon,Elton's longtime producer and collaborator.The remainder of the 70's albums and most of the 80's and 90's were finished by 2003.
And for those us who were quick enough to snap them up,six of his classic 70's albums were reissued in Hybrid SACD 5.1 by Universal America's excellent "Chronicles" series a few years back.If you have an SACD player,.They are pretty nice sounding surround remixes though the Stereo layer was still the 1995 remaster(track down the deluxe edition of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and you'll understand what I'm talking about).
So onto the 2008 clean up.The albums themselves sound like they were recorded yesterday,very nice indeed.Universal,along with Sony use single bit technology(DSD or direct steam digital)that they created for archiving all their aging analogue back catalogue,so any remasters they have released since 2001 sound as close to the original master as possible.
The bonus tracks that were on the 1995 remasters are included on the second disc along with almost all of the album in demo form or alternate versions and some previously unreleased live radio performances.Worth the price of admission for the second disc alone.
I hope that all his classic albums get the same treatment as each one passes the big 40 anniversary.

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