Hello! This is the first post in a series of posts where I'm attempting to re-rank Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 issue, "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time." Check out my introduction to it here. The first number I randomly selected was 357, which I was quite relieved to find was an album that I know by an artist I love: "Honky Chateau" by Elton John.
"Honkey Chateau" is a great album. It opens strong, with "Honky Cat" and "Mellow," and it contains my favorite Elton John song, "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters."
I've never been so sure about "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself." It's a sort of mockery of over-emotional teenagers who say that they're going to commit suicide but they're really just looking for attention. The thing that stands out to me there is that instead of parodying these teenagers, maybe they actually do need attention. And then there's also the fact that while most kids like this are just lying for shock value and to get people to look at them, sometimes teenagers do kill themselves.
I think side two is a lot stronger, with all five songs running into each other perfectly, and all five ranging from solid ("Salvation") to greatest-song-of-all-time contender ("Mona Lisas"). In terms of the Elton John albums that did make it to the list, it's smack dab in the middle of the five, and while I don't think it's as good as "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and I do think it's better than "Elton John" and "Tumbleweed Connection," I wouldn't say that it's the third best EJ album. (Oh, there's also an EJ Greatest Hits compilation on the list, which is...just...blah.) I guess what I'm really saying is, where's "Madman Across the Water"?
This puts my list at:
1. "Honky Chateau" (1972) by Elton John
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