2023-05-22 23:48:48
It lacked the ‘sex appeal’ de Jagger o Bowie and on stage, seated at the keyboard, he saw his ease as a star limited pop but Elton John he managed in his day to stand out with his catalog of tunes (in tandem with the lyricist Bernie Taupin), whether they were ‘sad songs’ or numbers for the dance under the mirror ball, with the soul of an ‘entertainer’ and a touch of extravagance. All of this is coming to an end, but the show must continue to shine until the last scene, and that’s how it was this Monday in the first of two farewell concerts at the Palau Sant Jordifull of mixed emotions.
Enjoyment, melancholy and some relief in an audience that had purchased their tickets in the remote autumn of 2019 and had to eat the postponement of the ‘shows’ on two occasions. Elton John himself participated in that spirit, who shortly after opening the performance (with piano the ‘staccato’ of ‘Bennie and the Jets’) celebrated, taking a deep breath, “finally being here after all this time”.
music video blues
Although his production spans over 50 years, the final scrutiny that this tour represents, ‘Farewell yellow brick road’, limits the period of glory to a decade and a half: 19 of the 23 selected songs are from the 70s (and another three, from the 80s). Cutting to the chase,’Philadelphia freedom’ unfurled very soon its proto-‘disco music’ shimmers, all fizzing on the gigantic recumbent video screen, on the way to the maudlin but unerring ‘I guess that’s why the call it the blues’.
This time there was no need to hide that it was a question of looking back. That’s what it was about, and ‘Border song’ brought back the memory of when Aretha Franklin adapted the song. “It was probably one of the happiest days of my life.” Sir Elton, with his vocal thickness in good condition at 76, licking his lips in improvisations on the piano (‘Rocket man’, very stretched) and enjoying the recesses of relatively obscure pieces like ‘Have mercy on the criminal’ and ‘Take me to the pilot’. And the meandering ‘Someone saved my life tonight’, evocative of the days when he came to consider suicide to escape an unsatisfactory courtship.
Return to Marilyn
Abundance of those ‘deep cuts’ in the heart of the night: ‘Levon’ chant about the guy who gets bored blowing up balloons, metaphor of a family ritual. And after a ‘Candle in the wind’ that recovered its original dedication to Marilyn Monroe (no sign of Lady Di on the screen), the sequence of ‘Funeral for a friend / Love lies bleeding’, with carbonic fog and views of the prog- rock, and a’Burn down the mission’ en llamas. It was not the best night for fans of mature ‘hits’ such as ‘Nikita’, ‘Sacrifice’ or ‘The one’, evicted from the lectern. Yes, there was room for ‘Sad songs’ (with a debatable rock touch) and a crazy ‘I’m still standing’.
The band no small matter at Elton John concerts, which praised each of the musicians, with an emphasis on the recovered percussionist Ray Cooper and the veterans Davey Johnson and Nigel Olsson. Moment to take a breath before the final jolt, culminating in the rock and roll trot (drenched in confetti) of ‘Saturday night’s alright for fighting’. Reciprocal ovations: also from Elton John to the public, bowing before him.
The only one of the 23 songs of the night dated in the 21st century, ‘Cold heart’, is nothing but a ‘medley‘ of old hits in complicity with Dua Lipa and the electronic duo Pnau. It sounded in the encore, with Elton John in a ‘kitsch’ robe à la Liberace, accompanied by two heavyweights, ‘Your song’ and ‘Goodbye yellow brick road’, implying that his art pop transcends generations and that, even if he withdraws, there will be no shortage of those who continue to sing it.
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