Rock of the Westies

by

Elton John
Edit

Release type:

studio album

First released:

Oct 4 1975

Overview Edit

Rock of the Westies is the tenth studio album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1975 (see 1975 in music).

Like Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Rock of the Westies also debuted on the United States Billboard charts at #1, the only two albums at that time to have done so. It was less successful in the artist's home territory of the United Kingdom, where it only reached #5. Rock of the Westies also contained the U.S. #1 (but only #14 in the UK) single, "Island Girl," which was released prior to the album coming out. Elton John noted at the time in a radio interview that he had wanted to release "Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)" as the album's first single instead of "Island Girl," because he thought it had more commercial potential. He was however, overruled, and "Dan Dare" was never released as a single, and "Island Girl" became a huge hit.

The make-up of Elton John's band was different on Rock of the Westies, with long-time drummer Nigel Olsson and long-time bass player Dee Murray gone after being fired via telephone by Elton himself. Accordingly, the sound of John's music was somewhat different on this album, and had a much harder edge to it. This was a disappointment to many long-time Elton John fans, which was evident by the disappointing sales of his next single from Rock of the Westies (the double-sided "Grow Some Funk of Your Own" / "I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)"), as well as the disappointing sales of his next effort, the double album Blue Moves.

The track "Hard Luck Story" had already been recorded by Kiki Dee and released as a single one year prior to its recording for "Rock Of The Westies" . It and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" are credited to Ann Orson/Carte Blanche (An horse and cart, Blanche) a moniker Elton devised when composing a song (music and lyrics) on his own. The name Ann Orson is also used as the name of a back-up vocalist which is assumed to be Elton.

Labelle performs backing vocals on the opening track, "Medley: Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly." However, when some of their vocals were accidentally wiped from the tape on the closing section of the track, Gus Dudgeon smoked some marijuana and imitated them, an (uncredited) performance that made it onto the final record.

While the music of Rock of the Westies was not well-regarded during and immediately after the time of its release, it has subsequently been revisited over time by music critics and Elton John fans alike as being a strong effort, and probably his last "great" album during that stage of his career.

Outside the US and Canada, this was the last original studio release from John on DJM Records, as he would finally be able to record for his own Rocket Records.

The song "Street Kids" was featured in the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_of_the_Westies. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

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This particular version Edit

Record label:

unknown

Catalog number:

532432

Release dates:

1996 in United States

2 other versions of this release

Genres

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR), Classic Rock, Folk-Rock, Pop Rock, Soft Rock. Vote on Genres

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Rocking Fun with Elton

In retrospect, Elton John created a lot of relatively serious music from the start of his career until ""Yellow Brick Road." There were moments when his music was fun, such as "Crocodile Rock" and "Jamaica Jerkoff," but the general tone of his music was serious. Even the often reviled "Caribou" had some of Elton's most serious music ("Ticking") mixed in with the inane songs. "Rock of the Westies," on the other hand, was almost all fun, typically hard-rocking, songs.

The CD kicks off with a medle…

The CD kicks off with a medley that's fast paced with multiple changeups and some deliberately funny lyrics. The ending of this song is so fast that you have to wonder whether the speed was helped by some creative electronics. "Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)" continues the fun and silliness. James Newton Howard manages to have a lot of fun with keyboards throughout this song. Silly and fun and a song I enjoy when I'm in the right mood. This song would be fun for a frat party.

"Island Girl" was a huge hit in the mid-70s. The song has some reggae elements to go with the lyrics. Though the lyrics had the potential to be serious, Elton kept the music in the vein of the opening songs and kept this song to the lighter side. "Grow Some Funk of Your Own" remains light and funky and more than a little humorous. There are some good guitar licks in this song and some more James Newton Howard synthesizer sound effects.

"I Feel like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford) is the one moment of seriousness on this album. This ballad about the breakup of a relationship has always been my favorite from this album, and one of the most creative songs on the album.

The next three songs are rockers, but are relatively fun songs. The tone of the sound just refuses to allow any of the three, "Street Kids," "Hard Luck Story," and "Feed Me," to be serious to any degree. These are good party songs.

Admittedly "Billy Bones and the White Bird" should fall into the same group as the previous three songs, but I really like this song and think the lyrics and music were creative. The allusions to seafaring myths were interesting and original. The only thing I do not care for in this song is the repetitiveness of portions of the lyrics.

This CD includes two bonus tracks, "Planes" and "Sugar on the Floor." Both songs are much more serious than the majority of the songs on the CD. "Planes" is bluesy and shows none of the synthesizer silliness that tended to appear in many of the other songs. This song sounds more like music from "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player." "Sugar on the Floor" is even bluesier, and also reminds me of Elton's early music. This particular song is the mellowest song on this CD.

1975 was a turning point for rock music, and for Elton John. Soon funk and disco would be overwhelming the airwaves, and Elton would drift away from the style that made him famous. But for one album we got to see Elton having a good time, and do it thoroughly and well. While much of the music may be among Elton's lesser efforts, it is still powerful and frequently creative, and nearly always listenable and interesting. Worthy of being considered a classic Elton John album.

Read the full review

Written by Lonnie E. Holder "The Review's the Thing"

Watch out for remastering goof

I still have my original MCA vinyl of this baby and while the remastering job is quite nice, there is one audible goof. ISLAND GIRL slows down in the final chorus. If you listen carefully you can hear the pitch slowly change while the CD plays. Don't believe me? Play the last few measures of the song which are exactly like the beginngin ones and you will notice the change in pitch. There is no key change in this song. My LP does not exhibit this problem. Otherwise this Polygram release is wonderful!!

Written by Elwood Conway "elwoodc"

Track listing Edit

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Medley: Yell Help / Wednesday Night / Ugly