(Guest review) Elton John at the Civic Center - 2/28

For this article, I have a very special guest...my mom, Melissa Martin! She went to the Elton John concert last Thursday and wrote a very thorough and detailed report of the show. I'm going to sit back for this one and let my mom explain the wonders of Elton John to you...

Three weeks ago… Elton John is coming to town… Boy, the tickets are expensive. He’s alone with no band… At the Civic Center… A hockey arena… Nah… I can see him just as good on a DVD or TV. Ok… Like an itch you can’t scratch… Tickets went on sale today… I got caught up in work… All the good seats must be gone… Oh, it’s just as well…

Four days later, sitting at my computer, I decide that I really wanted to go. If I plug in one seat, where would it be? Typing the code for authentication on Ticketmaster… Section E Row 14…God, it’s a LOT of money. More than I’ve ever spent on a ticket and it’s not even a scalper! My finger involuntarily clicks the mouse … “Thank you for your order.” it said. “Why did I do that?” I said to myself, but I knew why.

Elton John - The Greatest Discovery

Why? Because all of the times I heard him on the radio in the 70’s. I remember looking through my friends’ Sister’s albums that she got from Columbia Record Club. One of them was Elton’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. That album had a gatefold album jacket that opened up. Inside, lots of great artwork and the booklet that contained all of the lyrics, pictures and details of who played on the album. Reading the credits… Wow! “Better Off Dead” has a double drum track! I LOVED that album. I declared that Elton John was my favorite artist in 1975. I play the piano and got the piano music to play along with the records...

Today’s the day. Ok. Got home from work I talked to my fiancé and he said something about, “Now watch out for the tears…” I said, “What?” He said, “Well, his music means something to you. It might move you to tears.” Well, NOTHING prepared me for the emotions that I felt when the lights went down…

SIR ELTON JOHN came onto the stage promptly at 8 p.m. My body surged forward with a wave of emotion that was like a tidal wave. The tears just streamed. I was realizing how many years I had listened to him. How I would listen to his music sitting between two speakers and how I would get goose bumps. Yes, Elton and his music mean a lot to me. Music has always been my “Religion”. To some people, that would make me a bad and “lost” person. But this is the passion I feel for music that reaches deep into my soul and courses through all of my emotions. Elton has heart and soul. It’s obvious that the reason Elton performs is because he truly loves that he can share his music with people and he is as appreciative of his audience as they are of him. His fingers are the vehicle that translates such a wonderful and heartfelt sound through the piano. He watches his fingers on the piano like every touch and execution needs perfect translation. The first song was “Your Song,” an old and faithful friend to many.

Elton did a very different set from what many people might have expected. He sang “Ballad of the Boy In the Red Shoes” from the wonderful 2001 album, Songs From the West Coast. It’s about U.S politicians failing to act on the epidemic of AIDS and he targeted Ronald Reagan saying.” He never did a thing”. That’s only one of the issues that touches Elton deeply. Elton has given so much money and time to charity during his lifetime. He can leave this life knowing that he’s given more than his share of compassion, love, and humanity and not to mention filling the hearts of his worshippers.

“Ticking” from the album Caribou. I hate to say that I had never paid attention to the

lyrics, but by reading many newsgroups, I discovered that it’s a chilling John/Taupin collaboration about a young boy who grows into a troubled adult and is killed by police when his sanity snaps in a local bar… Then he surprised us all by doing “Roy Rogers” from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and “The Greatest Discovery” and “60 Years On” from his second album, Elton John. He played one from The Fox album from 1981. I saw that in cut out bins back in music retail and at the time I thought, “That one must be a dog” Oh my! It’s called “Carla/Etude/Fanfare/Chloe”. What a beautiful classical-based instrumental piece of music!! I heard it for the first time tonight. It rendered me, again, to tears. How beautiful. So, if there’s moss in some places, there might be a diamond embedded in it. This was one. Now I have to seek it out!

Other songs weren’t the classic hits from the 70’s but rather from the 80’s where some fans of his earlier work would roll their eyes and say….”Oh God…not those!” Take away the 80’s production and tear it down to “the song”, it’s melody and lyrics. Then “Nikita” “Blue Eyes” and I Guess It’s Why They Call It The Blues”, filled with rich chords, lyrics, and add Elton’s beautiful voice, makes you forget those were his “weak years”.

“Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word” is a sentimental favorite for me from the Blue Moves album. He played “Levon”, “Candle In the Wind” and “Bennie and the Jets”. When he played “Bennie”, it continued on into a soulful piano vamp and then segued into a faint rendition of Glenn Miller’s, “In the Mood,” but in the style of Little Richard.. You can tell that the meat of the chords and the sound of the piano draws Elton in and he engages in the instrument- it’s hard for him to stop.

I forgot to mention that after practically every song, he stood up to bow to all angles of the venue. He didn’t leave anyone out. He played for over 2 hours. I lost track of time but it was over at 10:40 and he started at 8! He was escorted off the stage. The crowd chanted for more. Five minutes later he returned. He took a good 5 minutes to walk around all of the stage to show his appreciation. He said at one point in the show that if it wasn’t for America, he wouldn’t be where he is and thanked us. He even said that he liked playing Portland!

As he walked around, he had a pen in his hand and began to sign programs, pieces of paper, and other things that extended from the out reached arms of the crowd. He signed quite a few. Then he ambled back to the piano and did “I’m Still Standing” and the finale, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”. By then the crowd was satisfied even though we would have loved more. He gave a great show and the love he received from all of us resulted from “the love he makes” through his music.

I now have seen Elton John. I would have deeply regretted not going tonight thinking of the money and the hassle but he was 10 minutes away from my home! But regardless of the distance, it was the right time for me to see him- finally. What a beautiful, talented, warm, and giving person…Thank you, Elton!