10. Sacrifice (Elton John - Live In Stockholm: 5/29/1992)

Описание: After the fun of uploading shows from Elton John & Ray Cooper shows, I have decided to upload a show from a year that has never graced this channel until today! After contemplating my list of uploads and the directions I can go in, I thought that uploading a show from the European leg of The One Tour from 1992 would be a good way to get back into the swing of things. A big shoutout goes out to “T0mmyg” from my Discord server since he guessed the correct answer on what year I’ll be uploading from. While this recording is highly incomplete with only 11 tracks and having a running time less than an hour, the quality is excellent since a Swedish radio broadcast is the audio source.

The One Tour of 1992 is a completely fresh start to Elton’s career as this is the first major tour that he undertook after completing his stint in rehab. When compared to a few years prior, Elton sounds like a new man as his energy, enthusiasm, passion, mood, and general mindset are massively improved from his rock bottom days before rehabilitation. The band has also changed as Bob Birch replaced Romeo Williams on bass and Mark Taylor replaced Fred Mandel as one of the two keyboard players in the band. While Charlie Morgan returned to Elton’s band for the 1990 performances, it is great to see him maintain his role as Elton’s drummer and he would be a mainstay through mid-1998. The rest of the band remain the same from the 1989 Reg Strikes Back Tour and the Sleeping With The Past Tour.

Despite technical issues going on at the show (which Elton apologizes about before “Sacrifice”), the band still play quite well during this early tour show and the broadcast really highlights the prowess of Bob’s bass playing and Davey’s creative and melodic guitar work. The crisp sound also highlights Elton’s vocals which can sound pretty rough and ragged at times (especially on the uptempo numbers). When combined with Elton’s renewed enthusiasm for performing, singing over a loud band, and still finding his touring voice, the results aren’t often the most pleasant. That being said, when Elton does ease off of the louder projected singing, his tone sounds nice and there are still some good uses of a softer voice that is most prominent on the ballad songs. Now… time to go through these performances…

“I’m Still Standing” is full of energy to start off the listening experience, but there are technical issues with Davey’s guitar as he’s barely heard throughout the performance and Elton sounds pretty rough during the chorus sections. “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues” has Elton completely botching the lyrics during the first verse, but he otherwise sounds completely into the performance with the band nicely complementing his enthusiasm. “Tiny Dancer” features some nice softer vocals in places as Elton eases off of the gas and allows his natural voice to shine. Other sections are full of excessive overdrive which is in contrast to the whimsical nature of the musicianship. “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” is one of the best performances of the night with Elton’s softer delivery sounding nice along with the keyboard work from Guy and Mark adding pleasant-sounding layers to the overall performance. “The Last Song” sounds pretty nice at this show with the emotional side of the lyrics coming through strongly on the high-quality recording. While Elton’s precision on the lowest notes isn’t as great as it would be later on, his tone still sounds great overall. “Sad Songs (Say So Much)” has Mortonette Jenkins, Marlena Jeter, and Natalie Jackson stretching out their vocal cords along with Elton during the introduction as Mortonette and Natalie show off their fifth octave power while Marlena reaches notes as high as G6. Elton also showcases his baritone range by getting down to strong G2s. The main song is performed with great enthusiasm while Elton pushes his voice for a distorted and overdriven edge. “Rocket Man” features some strong musicianship and good creativity for an early show on the tour. “The Show Must Go On” contains a couple of slight flubs with the lyrics, but Elton still does a pretty decent job on the vocals and Davey Johnstone’s guitar solo is fantastic. “Sacrifice” highlights the wonderful guitar work from Davey and while Elton sounds pretty coarse during the performance, he still is able to deliver the hit single with decent dynamic control. Lastly, “Candle In The Wind” combines some unique vocal cadences with Elton’s slightly weary tone fitting the classic ballad nicely along with a good outroduction vocal.

ENJOY!!!