Elton John - The 1968 Debut Album

Record Collector has once again prompted me to trawl the net following one of their articles, and this time it is the news that Elton John had recorded a number of songs in 1968 for a proposed psychedelic debut album. It was mixed and given a running order, but then shelved, possibly because by the time of its proposed release psychedelia had become a bit passe. Some of these tracks have since surfaced on bootleg CDs of Dick James demos, but not all of them have yet appeared on the net, so my searches have only managed to find ten of the 12 tracks. To make up the running time I've bolstered the album with a few other demos from the same period which I felt fitted the running order, including a killer instrumental '71-75 New Oxford Street'. 

Track Listing

01 When I Was Tealby Abbey
02 And The Clocks Go Round
03 Sitting Doing Nothing
04 Turn To Me
05 The Angel Tree
06 Regimental Sgt. Zippo
07 A Dandelion Dies In The Wind
08 You'll Be Sorry To See Me Go
09 71-75 New Oxford Street
10 Tartan Coloured Ladies
11 Hour Glass
12 Taking The Sun From My Eyes
13 Sing Me No Sad Songs

The missing songs are track number 9 'You're My Woman' and track number 12 'Watching The Planes Go By', but I hope the ones I have replaced them with fit with the rest of the album.

To be honest, the most psychedelic thing about these songs are some of the titles, but they do show that Elton and Bernie Taupin had something together even back then, with just 'Sitting Doing Nothing' being a co-write with Caleb Quaye, and 'Hour Glass' coming from outside writers. Elton is in fine voice, and a couple of the ballads do point to what was to come a few years down the line, while 'Turn To Me' is my current fave.