17-11-70

Only three months after his debut US performance at the LA Troubadour, Elton John returned to the US a superstar in waiting. Taped at New York’s A&R recording studios for a radio broadcast in front of just “100-125 people,” the seven songs included here present a thrilling snapshot of an artist fully aware of just how good he is, and fired up with the confidence that everyone else was about to find out. As he rattles through songs from the as-yet-unreleased Tumbleweed Connection alongside a selection of B-sides and covers (The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” gets a barnstorming revamp), it’s a dizzying testament to the creative streak John and Bernie Taupin were hitting. Best of all is the epic, 18-minute version of “Burn Down The Mission” which segues into Elvis’ “My Baby Left Me” and The Beatles’ “Get Back.” Much like the latter had done with black American music the previous decade, a chubby, thinning-on-top pianist from Pinner and his Lincolnshire lyricist were reimagining and reselling Americana back to US audiences by the barrel. The rest of the world would shortly follow.