Random Record Rewind: 

Madman Across the Water – Elton John [1971]

Traveling, I found myself with no book, no newspaper, puzzle books or anything. My own fault for sure but it happened. To amuse myself, I found myself singing some things – part of Jefferson Airplane’s cover of Donovan’s Fat Angel from Bless Its Pointed Little Head live album with the lines Fly Jefferson Airplane / gets you there on… time… The Waitress In the Sky handing out hot towels led me into Elton John’s Holiday Inn and then the song that follows,  Rotten Peaches. Unfortunately, my grey matter has lost all but the first verse and chorus and a few lines that did not line up from Rotten Peaches, so I decided I would have to retrack the album once I was settled back in at Casa de Chaz. And so I am.

Elton’s Madman Across the Water is one of those albums that’s pretty much [although as noted, lost parts of Rotten Peaches] burned into my brain. It’s been in my life for as long as I can remember because my parents had the 8 track. Listening even fifty years later I can hear the hum of the highway and smell the heater as we cross West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania on chilly evenings with this playing.

Madman is not happy go lucky Crocodile Rock Elton. Madman is a moody album and is actually one of the lesser performing albums of Elton’s career. Yes, the airy Tiny Dancer kicks the album but aside from some of the lines in Rotten Peaches, it doesn’t come anywhere near the sun again. There are many twisted characters to follow. Levon, the tight fisted wounded war veteran with a son who wants to fly away from his father on a balloon bound for Venus. The aging Razor Face looking for a place to lay down and perhaps a bottle of the rough stuff to ease his aches. Of course, The Madman himself who can see the broken boat on the reef and who knows the joke very well. The Iroquois warrior seeking the Yellow Moon and the place the red sun sinks into the hills of gold and the healing waters run but hears on the horse soldiers coming [Indian Sunset]. The rock and roll man who’s twiddled his thumbs in a dozen odd bands explaining the joys of the Holiday Inn to his driver. The gentleman serving his time picking rotten peaches for the U.S. state prison system. The young man trying to assert himself and to be himself instead of what “They” want him to be [All the Nasties]. I have no idea how to explain Goodbye.

Part of the change in the sound comes from producer Gus Dudgeon only allowing Elton’s touring “band” drummer Nigel Olsen and bassist Dee Murray to play on one song – All the Nasties. Session man Herbie Flowers [also heard on Lou Reed’s Transformer] and David Glover handle the bass on the other tracks.  Dudgeon brought in guitarist Davey Johnstone [soon to join the “band”] for 4 tracks – his mandolin integral to Holiday Inn. Chris Spedding emphasized the riff to the title track. [It IS sort of on the 1970 Tumbleweed Connection version with Bowie’s right arm Mick Ronson on guitar but it’s not as in your face. That version also doesn’t have Paul Buckmaster’s orchestral arrangements that are so well done on this album.] Caleb Quaye, a friend from Long John Baldry’s Bluesology played on three tracks and would return to Elton later in the decade for a couple of albums and tours. B.J. Cole’s steel guitar plays an important part on Tiny Dancer. Session man Herbie Flowers [also heard on Lou Reed’s Transformer], Brian Odgers and David Glover handle the bass on the other tracks. For drums, Dudgeon recruited Roger Pope [who like Quaye would return to Elton later in the decade], Barry Morgan and Terry Cox.  

As a footnote, Olsson and Murray with Johnstone would back for Elton on all of those great albums through 1976’s Captain Fantastic And the Brown Dirt Cowboy, be fired, return in the 80s and continue with Elton through the present except Murray who passed in 1992.

I can’t objectively review a record that runs so deeply in my blood as this one. Elton John made some damn fine albums in the 1970s but time after time I return to this one and I find it to be absolutely perfect. 

 

Thoughts on NCIS While Re-Re-Re-working Walkman Years # 22 Because I Missed Two Songs That Figure Prominently the Remixed Walkman Years # 27

I finally put my finger on the sad state of NCIS circa 2022. Sure one could consider NCIS an ensemble drama with a main group of stable characters ala Law And Order. For almost 20 years, Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs held down the lead chair, Michael Weatherly’s Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo holding down second banana for 13 years, Pauly Perrette’s oddball Abby Sciuto for 15 years and the gorgeous Cote de Pablo playing Israeli turned citizen Ziva David for 8 years [plus the return / ratings grab last season]. David McCallum’s Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard has been slowly being withdrawn for the last four or five years – considering McCallum is in his late 80s, likely a decision by himself and the writers. And in the last two years both Emily Wickersham and Mark Harmon have bowed out. 

Which leaves the last character standing from the original ensemble: former Probie now Senior Field agent Timothy McGee.

The problem here is that McGee was the sixth [or seventh or eighth, depending on w how one ranks Rocky Carroll’s Leon Vance / Lauren Holly’s Jenny Sheppard and Muse Watson’s recurring Mike Franks] most interesting character out of the ensemble for years. Even the fleshing out of his character over the years has not improved the interestingness of Tim McGee. As a matter of fact, the recent years have forced McGee into a more wooden role – when is the last time his wife and kids or book writing were mentioned?

I get it – actors have other opportunities [Weatherly], feel that the shows writing is going downhill [de Pablo] or just tire of the role [Harmon, Perrette].  But the exodus that began with De Pablo in season 11 started weakening the ensemble. Emily Wickersham’s Ellie Bishop was about as far from De Pablo’s Ziva David as one could get – blonde, brainy and computer nerdy, basically a female McGee. But the cast already has a McGee. Wilmer Valderrama’s Nick Torres grew on me but the comic relief that Weatherly’s DiNozzo provided was gone and never replaced.  Brian Dietzen’s Jimmy Palmer is a pale ghost of Ducky Mallard and often grates more than anything. And poor Diona Reasonover. Not that she could [and to her credit did not try to] fill the shoes of Perrette / Sciuto but the once bustling forensics lab and Forensic Specialist Kassie Hines seem to be a mere afterthought most of the time despite efforts to elevate / flesh out her character. I don’t find new additions [last year, season 19] Gary Cole’s Aiden Parker or Katrina Law’s Jessica Knight very interesting either.

Sure, CBS may want to keep the flagship of the franchise going. Somehow it has remained a top 5 show after peaking as The Number One show in 2012-13 [tenth season]. This seems to fly in the face of cast members leaving or being written out and sliding script quality and poor character development [in my opinion]. It’s also seemed to have survived a change to Monday night and into the 8:00 [central time] slot.

Should NCIS continue though? I don’t make decisions like that but I don’t make a point of watching it anymore and have not for several years. Tonight, I watched out of morbid curiosity of the season opener [which turned out to be a crossover with NCIS Hawai’i] and lack of anything else on. [Spoiler: they saved the day!] But the show feels tired and uninspired, going through the motions. I guess averaging 10 to 11 million pairs of eyeballs once a week in an era where anyone can watch any of tens of thousands of shows and millions of movies at any given time is a coup. But my eyeballs are less likely to be on NCIS.

 

Random Record Rewind: 

Aqualung – Jethro Tull [1971]

   So twice this week I have found myself singing [parts of - the whole thing would take about 43 minutes] Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick. Thick As A Brick is one of those albums engrained on my soul because my parents had the 8 track albums. Tuesday evening I came in and played side 1 / Part 1 and thought myself sated.

   Tonight’s singing adventure tells me that I am not necessarily finished with Thick As A Brick. But tonight, singing Thick As A Brick led me down another road. You see even though I went on a bit of an exploring expedition a few years back I am still no more than a casual fan. Of course, I know the FM radio staples: Aqualung, Cross Eyed Mary, Locomotive Breath, Bungle In the Jungle, etc. I found I rather liked Too Old For Rock And Roll, Too Young To Die [1976] and Songs From the Wood [1977], kinda liked Minstrel In the Gallery but did not so much like the other extended piece album A Passion Play [it seems unfocused to me a pale imitation of Brick]. I have liked Stand Up since [surprise] Tracey Berry first played it in my presence. Benefit is okay but not one I reach for a lot. Having said all of that I find myself admitting I have never gotten into their best seller Aqualung. But it’s been a long time since I sat down with the album and listened to it.

   The opener and title track is one of those I really never have to hear again and almost instant punch out when I happen to be listening to the radio. You know the usual suspects: Free Bird, Stairway To Heaven, Dream On, Walk This Way, Dude Looks Like A Lady [yes, I love some Aerosmith but those three…], More Than A Feeling, You Shook Me All Night Long… It is an interesting character study as is the very good Cross-Eyed Mary that follows. Mother Goose is a nice piece of Jethro Tull. No one else would be doing something like this at the time. If someone asked me “what the hell is this Jethro Tull?” this might be the song I played for them.

   Side 2’s two kick off tracks My God and Hymn 43 seem to be critical of religion [I will not speak of Mr. Ian Anderson’s motivations] which led some people to think that Aqualung is a concept album about religion. But both are very good songs. Locomotive Breath has long been a favorite. It mentions a Gideon’s bible so maybe that plays into the religion thing. Oh, there’s some God question and response in Wind Up too. That shows how much I have paid attention to that song.

   So what’s my new take on Aqualung? Well seven of the eight main songs and the three short interlude songs [between a 1:15 and 1:53 long] are pretty good. Aqualung has the same problem as Benefit; it seems one song too long. [Benefit: Sossily, You’re A Woman; Aqualung: Wind Up.] But overall I found that Aqualung is better than I recall and  I think I will need to return to it again in the near future.