Elton John - Regimental Sgt Zippo

The Guardian 0

(UMC)
This album of psychedelic, Beatles-inspired Taupin/John songs was shelved at the very start of Elton’s career, but it has a naive charm and shows hints of what was to come

Now becoming available vinyl-only for Record Store Day, this “long lost” 1968 would-be Elton John debut was shelved in favour of 1969’s Empty Sky and finds the young singer-pianist more of a psychedelic explorer than chart balladeer. Beatles harmonies, harpsichords and flute-like sounds abound, while some of Bernie Taupin’s lyrics (“the watercolours of my mind”, or near pastiche A Dandelion Dies in the Wind) are almost trippy. Titles such as When I Was Tealby Abbey (“not so long ago, maybe a hundred years or so”) show why the pair weren’t yet troubling the pop charts. However, the 12 songs – five in finished form for the first time, with You’ll Be Sorry To See Me Go previously unreleased – have a naive, endearing charm.

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