Rock Of The Westies
Rock Of The Westies
Although it was viewed as one of Elton John’s more lightweight efforts upon its 1975 release–possibly because it followed only half a year after the acclaimed Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (and partly because many thought the album was released to fulfil a contractual obligation)–Rock of the Westies appears in retrospect to be his last great rock album. It certainly does rock consistently harder than any other John album, with guitarist Davey Johnstone even getting cowriting credits (with John and Bernie Taupin) on the opening “Medley: Yell Help/Wednesday” and “Grow Some Funk of Your Own”. Lyricist Taupin seems to be going off the deep end here at times with titles like “Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)” and “Billy Bone & the White Bird”, but “Island Girl” was another huge hit for the pair. And the CD version adds the wonderful pop gem “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart”, which turned KiKi Dee into an eternal Trivial Pursuit answer. –Bill Holdship
Customer Review: this is a real rocker………
i have to say i had this on vinyl and i think even if you not a big Elton John fan this is real hard rocking effort from Elton John,there are more loud guitars “Yell Hell,Dan Dare,Street Kids,Grow Some Funk are all hard rocker and Elton John lets rip with his vocals-for to recommand this album is not problem-if you like “Saturday Night’s All Right For Fighting” you will love tihs album,as all the previous reviewers have said Nigel Olsson and the Late Dee Murray were dropped from the line-up but replacement in Kenny Paserelli,Roger Pope and Rev.Caleb Quayle all do a great job-it is good album to buy
Customer Review: Rocking
This is considered the worst album from Elton’s classic years but….
Actually its an album that frequently rocks in way that most Elton albums don’t. You can definitely hear an early 70’s Stones influence on some of these tracks. Having said that my favourite tracks are the wonderful ballad “I Feel Like Bullet (in the gun of Robert Ford)” and the rocking “Hard Luck Story”.
Eltons regular drummer and bass player (Nigel & Dee) had been dropped for this album and to some extent this accounts for the different feel to the album. I think this is also the first album where Ray Cooper played as regular member of the band. His distinctive touches are felt throughout the album, noteably his Conga and Vibes playing.
So perhaps not the best album of Eltons classic era, but its still a fine album.
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