The 25 Best Live Rock Recordings - No. 9: 17-11-70 Complete --OR-- Hammersmith Odeon 12/22/1973

No. 9 - Elton John - 17-11-70 (Complete) --OR-- Elton John - Hammersmith Odeon 12/22/1973 (The Amazing Kornyfone Record Label, 1975)

Discogs

Sometimes it’s about the fact that the best live performance by an artist is not available commercially. Before CDs, the Internet, and streaming, the record-buying public was at the mercy of the record companies. Whatever was released was what there was; if it didn’t satisfy, that was tough. For the ravenous listening public, some of the best live performances could only be obtained in crepuscular, dank alleyways where less reputable business was done. This alternative existed in a dark corner of the cultural underground where soundboard, audience, and unreleased studio recordings were discovered and shared as if they were sacred scriptures that had been discovered, half covered with sand, in jars in a cave just off of New York City’s Bowery District.

As fine a live recording as Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert (London, 1970) does not compare with Ladies And Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (Eagle Records, 2017), the latter recorded at the band’s famous Houston shows during the 1972 North American Tour. These shows have circulated in many bootlegged disguises and were finally made legitimate with the Eagle release. This is the way to experience the 1972 Rolling Stones.

Elton John is an example of an artist with substandard commercially available live recordings. Here And There (MCA, 1976), Live In Australia (MCA, 1987), One Night Only - The Greatest Hits (Universal, 2000), and Live From Moscow, 1979 (Universal, 2019) all have their admirers. All were made after Elton John became ELTON JOHN. By this time, John was well on his way to becoming the businessman, Vegas act he became (and there is nothing wrong with that). He no longer needed recognition for this musical accomplishment or to establish his live performance acumen. He was there.

The best live music is more often made by artists when they are young in their career, when they are still hungry and without fear of taking chances. Think of the Rolling Stones in the late ‘60s, Rod Stewart and The Faces in the early ‘70s, and Humble Pie of the same period. This was fresh music with a sharp edge and swaggering recklessness that epitomized rock and roll. This same paradigm could easily be applied to Elton John’s early career.

Elton John’s first live recording, 17-11-70 (Uni, 1971) was derived from a live radio broadcast on 17 November 1970 taped at A&R Recording Studios, New York, NY before a modest crowd of 125 people. According to John, the recording was never intended to be released. Covert tapes of the broadcast appeared soon after, inspiring the record label to release it as an album. A fine idea except for the label’s decision to release only 48 minutes of the entire 80-minute performance. But that was what was made available and that is what we had to be content with.

Rather than commit to a two-LP set that could have contained the entire performance, Universal tried to combat the bootleggers on the cheap, releasing a vastly inferior portion of the concert when it could have released a testament to John’s early Band-influenced period encompassing the music from Empty Sky (MCA, 1969), Elton John (Uni, 1970), and John’s early career organic masterpiece Tumbleweed Connection (Uni, 1970), with a peek at his upcoming Madman Across The Water (Uni, 1972).

What bootleggers did was release the entire concert on two LPs, this format translating into an easily obtainable mp3 download 50 years later. The original recording consisted of:

1. “Take Me To The Pilot”

2. “Honky Tonk Women”

3. “Sixty Years On”

4. “Can I Put You On”

5. “Bad Side Of The Moon”

6. “Burn Down The Mission” (with rock and roll medley)

An anemic offering when compared to what the entire show allowed:

1. "I Need You to Turn To"

2. "Your Song"

3. "Country Comfort"

4. "Border Song"

5. "Indian Sunset"

6. "Amoreena"

7. "Bad Side of the Moon"

8. "Take Me to the Pilot"

9. "Sixty Years On"

10. "Honky Tonk Women"

11. "Can I Put You On"

12. "Burn Down the Mission" (with rock and roll medley)

13. "My Father's Gun"

There were reissues including unreleased material in 1995 and 1996 and a 2017 Record Store Day 2-LP release restoring a majority of the show. However, this can be seen as nothing but record company greed, fleecing Baby Boomers not once but three times.

The entire concert is worth finding. Bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson (each contributing critical background vocals) join John. Both men remained in John’s band until Murray died in 1992. Olsson remained with John through the end of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour which concluded on July 8, 2023, in Stockholm, Sweden.

What makes this concert special is its lack of pretense (compared to what was to come). Tumbleweed Connection was released in England on October 30, 1970, and would not be released Stateside until January 1971. The New York City fans attending the concert would be treated to music they had likely not heard. John and writing partner Bernie Taupin had been intensely influenced by the Band when composing and recording Tumbleweed Connection. The organically agrarian, darkly romantic America reflected in Music From Big Pink (Capitol, 1968) and The Band (Capitol, 1969) stormed through the psyche of John and Taupin resulting in “Country Comfort,” “The Border Song,” and “My Father’s Gun.”

John’s trio format was novel in that it was a “power trio” with an acoustic piano rather than an electric guitar. John’s superb pianism enabled his expansive orchestral sound making his humble trio sound bigger. This same ability enables John to self-accompany on the opening solo pieces, “I Need You To Turn To” and “Your Song” from Elton John (Uni, 1970). John introduces his band and music from his soon-to-be-released Tumbleweed Connection. He claims his and Taupin’s bragging rights by noting that “Country Comfort” was already released by Rod Stewart on Gasoline Alley (Mercury) the previous June and was recorded by Kate Taylor for Sister Kate (Cotillion) released in January 1971. Murry and Olsson provide a ragged high-lonesome harmony that adds gravity to the performances by its sheer genuineness. The same background vocals would emerge from Keith Richards behind Mick Jagger on Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones Records, 1971) and Exile On Main St. (Rolling Stones, 1972). On John’s “Border Song” (to be released by Aretha Franklin on Young, Gifted And Black (Atlantic, 1972)) Murry and Olsson’s background vocals push John to a performance-critical mass.

In “Country Comfort,” “The Border Song,” “Sixty Years On,” and “Burn Down The Mission,” John joins Robbie Robertson as a superb detector and reflector of the shadow American Romantic Myth, with “My Father’s Gun” becoming his and Taupin’s “The Night They Drove Old Down.” The two would repeat this feat 40 years later on “Gone To Shiloh” from The Union (Decca, 2010). 17-11-70 is the stripped-down Elton John. It featured new material from Tumbleweed Connection which was this era's masterpiece, short as the era would be.

A short three years and three albums (Madman Across The Water (Uni, 1971); Honky Chateau (Uni, 1972), and Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player (MCA, 1973)) later and Elton John of Tumbleweed Connection evolved into the Elton John he would remain on his career masterwork, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (DJM, 1973). As Elton John and Tumbleweed Connection were steeped in the secrets of the past, GYBR throws open the doors to the future. John reached provincial escape velocity on this thematically and stylistically disparate 2-LP watershed and never looked back. A live recording presenting this new music closer to its commercial release would have been a perfect addition to Elton John’s discography.

Here And There (MCA, 1976), was originally released as a single LP with nine predictable selections. It was a serviceable release of material recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London and New York City's Madison Square Garden. To the credit of the MCA and Mercury Records, this release was vastly expanded to include all 25 songs performed, including three Beatles Covers 20 years later. This exceptional live recording would do in a pinch if this thought of bootlegs makes one queasy. While exciting, it lacks the creative grit John brought to London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 22 December 1973.

BBC Radio 1 recorded this concert as part of their In Concert Series. This is still early Elton John while defining him as a performer. Separating the spectacle from the music, one can hear what made Elton John so popular as a songwriter (with Bernie Taupin) and why his music was ubiquitously present in the 1970s. When this music was being performed, it was new and its initial impact was yet to be assimilated and considered. Opening with “Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” and closing with “Saturday’s Alright For Fighting” This show was devoted exclusively to Honky Chateau, Don’t Shoot Me…, and GYBR.

“Rocketman” emerged here as the concert staple it would continue to be for 50 years, performed here in an extended version that John would continue to extend throughout his career. “Honky Cat” and “Hercules” received robust and imaginative performances while “The Ballad Of Danny Bailey” retains the early dusk of the Tumbleweed period, but “All The Young Girls Love Alice” shows a salacious future (the song was included in John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour setlist).

A just criticism of the Hammersmith Odeon show would be the relative absence of Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, and Madman Across The Water. This is justifiable as John was moving past that period into one more overtly glamorous and over the top. This show was just before profligate excess and consumption took over the Elton John story. While he remained ever-popular, Elton would not enjoy the accomplished craftsmanship he shared with Bernie Taupin on his first seven studio recordings again.

This Hammersmith Odeon show was released as part of the Goodbye Yellowbrick Road Super Deluxe Edition (Mercury, 2014) which is presently out of print. For the superfan, it is well worth seeking out.