Elton John — Honky Chateau (1972) by: Jim

Elton John — Honky Chateau (1972)

Honky Chateau was produced when Elton was at the top of his game, creating immaculate pop classics with ease and vigour. The album itself embodies many influences and nuances with considerable grace and produces a final product that fits together with charm and dignity.

The album starts off with “Honky Cat”, a boogie filled number (and a top 10 hit in the US), with jaunty piano and some nice brass arrangement.
The first half of the album is testament to Elton’s ability of crafting hooks and melodies with aplomb, with the charming “Mellow” and the morbidness of “I Think I’m Gonna Kill Myself”, with its catchy hooks and meandering piano.
The infectious boogie rock of “Susie (Dramas)”, is full of inventive hooks and melodies, a real Elton classic.
“Rocket Man” is where Elton comes into his own. The opening verse is moving and with a hauting quality, moving onto the spine-tingling chorus with superb harmonies and some great swooping synthesizer work. A classic in it’s own right.
The other memorable track is “Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters”, a moving ballad with a great chorus that just provokes a sing-a-long. One of Elton’s classic ballads.

“Slave” was a nod to ‘country-rock’ and inspired by The Band (who were one of Elton and Bernie’s favourite groups at the time), it has some interesting banjo work that may be considered an aquired taste to some.
“Amy” is another nice piano boogie number which features Jun-Luc Ponty on electric violin providing the the solo in the middle.
“Hurcules” closes the album and has a 50’s feel with the ‘Doo-Wop’ chorus and the scattery piano.

Altogether this album was a very ambitious effort by Elton, managing to combine the differing influences with great class and some trademark Elton eccentricity.