Elton John, The Captain and the Kid CD Review on Rock N Roll Universe

Almost 31 years after the release of the fantastic ‘Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy’album, Elton John & lyricist Bernie Taupin are back together for the sequel album titled ‘The Captain and the Kid’. The new album is an autobiographical story of the dynamic duo of songwriting. The first thing I checked out was the well put together booklet and liner notes to see what musicians played on the CD, and it was great to see the core of his 70’s band, drummer extraordinaire Nigel Olsson and guitarist Davey Johnstone in the line up (original bass player Dee Murray passed away in 1992).

The opening song ”Postcards From Richard Nixon," musically would have fit on any of his 70’s albums, as it relives President Nixon welcoming the duo to the States with open arms to create a diversion to the Vietnam situation.T he next song “Just Like Noah’s Arc,” is an upbeat honky tonk number that would’ve fit in nicely on Elton’s ‘Honky Chateau’album. Elton’s performance really shines on”The Bridge,” where Elton challenges his listeners “…Do you cross the bridge or do you fade away?...”. “Old 67” shows the songwriting duo reminiscing about the beginnings of their musical path, which leads into the last track on the CD “The Captain and the Kid”.”The Captain and the Kid” is about moving forward and the differences between now and then.The song references Elton’s career by mentioning snippets of Elton and Bernie’s works such as Tumbleweed Connection,' 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,' Brown Dirt Cowboy' and "Rocket man".

Overall,'The Captain and the Kid' is a great singer/songwriter album that spans the career over 35 years of one of the greatest songwriting duos ever.This album is definitely a must for fans of Sir Elton and lyrically is one of his best. He may not be hitting the high notes he used to, but musically it does pick up where 'Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy' left off.