Elton-Lucy-Wizard

January 4th – Elton John’s version of ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ reaches number 1 in the pop charts. The pop charts…there’s a whole thesis waiting to be written there entitled;“The gradual demise of quality rock music supported by a correlation of the graph mapping ‘talent’ against ‘success’ and the meaning of ‘mediocrity’ in pop-chart listings.”
from just those three words, “The Pop Charts”… but, back to Elton John. I guess its just ego that makes you think you could re-record such a seminal piece of work, done by the original writers and band members (The Beatles) in a seemingly superlative recording (‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band); that or just ill-disguised back-slapping. I seem to remember him crucifying ‘Pinball Wizard’ too…I know, I know, he did it with The Who’s blessing and support…still doesn't make it any bloody good though, does it? I have to digress slightly here and admit that I didn't think ‘Lucy…’was a ‘superlative pop song’. I’m not a Beatles fan, never was, never will be. Liked some of their individual stuff, but think, as a band, they did nothing of note either before or after ‘Revolver’… oh, OK, and I also find them memorable for serenading me in 1970 summat-or-other as I lay on the back seat of a Ford Anglia listening to ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ on a car radio at 05.30 at Santa Pod Raceway with my arms around a very special lady waiting for the drag racing to start…that was my idea of romance; sleeping in both the position and temperature only formerly known to a hibernating Polar Bear and expecting someone to share it with me as I waited for the drag-racing to start, which was probably also my version of foreplay…and I wonder why the relationship never lasted…but the rest of the Beatles phenomena? Forget it.No, it wasn't that Elton John re-recorded something reckoned to be so good (was it any good?) or a personal vendetta against him. I just think, as in the case of ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ or ‘The Italian Job’ or ‘Let The Right One In’…or Madonna’s ‘American Pie’ or Britney Spears' cover of ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ come to that (and these interminable “film of a play of a musical of a song of a book” we have gracing our TV’s, cinemas and theatres) that there’s always some schmuck who thinks they can do something better than the original work and there’s always some arse willing to back a safe bet (i.e. a ‘name’) by committing money to a piece already done.
Hollywood in particular likes nothing better than a sure thing and that’s why we have the franchise movie and the franchise play…
Money that is finite in any artistic field is committed to these endeavours in seeming recklessness and, by so doing, they stifle out an opportunity to showcase new talent in film-making, music, writing or directing... You know what they call a copy of a da Vinci or a Constable painting? A fake.Now, whether Elton John did the cover of ‘Lucy…’ for the money (?) or just to erase the taste in the mouth left after William Shatner released a cover of the exact same song, or William Shatner released his effort after Elton did, saying,
“You think that’s good? It's shit, Elton, listen to this one.”is not the point. What is the point is that IMHO these sorts of artistic shenanigans are as pointless as re-inventing ‘Spingo’…or ears. Although, I have to say, even though I really like Black Sabbath’s ‘Children of the Grave’, the cover version done by Racer X really is pretty tasty… See? This is the sort of drivel you get from a film credit watching, flaky ex-drummer; what do I know?