2017 - September 20 - Levon

I wasn't ever a real big Elton John fan. My parents had Blue Moves from 1976 in their record collection, but that is one of the weaker albums of his 70s output - yet it has one of his strongest songs in Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. It was nevertheless easily dismissed by me. But in 1991 there was this collection being released called Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. I did not have this cd, but at this time, I was actively involved in a teetotaler youth organization and frequently travelled to the Oslo area. And while I was there, I usually stayed with my good friend Stein Pettersen, who lived a little bit north of Oslo at the top of the hill in a small place called Rånåsfoss (which also happened to be where my engine head of the nice brown Renault 5 cracked - although the likelihood was that it cracked at Elverum during an incredibly cold overnight stay but was asymptomatic until I got closer to Stein's following a very nice Christmas party in Oslo).

I always enjoyed staying there, I would race cars with his son, Anders, and Stein would fire up the grill from time to time, so I always ate well while there. And then there was his record collection. He had a lot of crappy pop (right, Stein?) - he was really into music produced by Trevor Horn, if memory serves me right. And we would always argue about what the real Genesis was - I maintained that the Peter Gabriel era was superior (and I still do) and he claimed that their popularity and ability to write intelligent pop was proof positive that the Phil Collins fronted era reigned supreme (and a similar discussion about Pink Floyd, I believe). I have always been good at maintaining that bands were better before massive commercial success - and I have had good points, I believe, to all of that. 

But that wasn't while I was going there today. Stein had the Two Rooms cd in his collection. It is filled with the big names of the day: Sting, Kate Bush, Joe Cocker (with the aforementioned Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word), Eric Clapton, and Sinead O'Connor, to mention but a few. However, there was one song that really stood out for me, and that was Jon Bon Jovi's rendition of Levon from 1971's Madman Across The Water. The most popular song from Madman... is probably Tiny Dancer, thanks to the movie Almost Famous, but I hold Levon a notch higher. It is most definitely worth a listen - Bernie Taupin's lyrics are cryptic but evoke strong images for me. He shall be Levon...