Elton John

Rock of the Westies (1975)

1.Medley (Yell Help,Wednesday Night,Ugly)
2.Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)
3.Island Girl
4.Grow Some Funk of your Own
5.I Feel Like a Bullet
(In the Gun of Robert Ford)
6.Street Kids
7.Hard Luck Story
8.Feed Me
9.Billy Bones and the White Bird

Bonus Tracks:
10.Planes
11.Sugar on the Floor

In 1975, Rock of the Westies entered the charts with an almighty thud—straight in at number one, no less. Only the second album in history to do so, following its immediate predecessor (Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy), it should have been a cause for celebration. And yet, it wasn’t. The triumph felt oddly hollow, as though the machinery of Elton’s fame was now running on sheer momentum. The album didn’t mark a creative peak, but rather the beginning of a gentle descent—one of several such descents Elton would endure before each phoenix-like resurgence in subsequent years.

Recorded once more at Caribou Ranch in the Colorado Rockies (thus the punning title, Westies—as in “West of the Rockies”), the album saw Elton steering back toward the looser, funk-inflected sound hinted at on Caribou, but notably absent from Captain Fantastic. The difference here was density. With a swollen lineup—two guitarists, two keyboardists, and the recent departure of longtime rhythm section pillars Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson—this incarnation of the Elton John Band often sounded like it was trying to outplay itself. The result is a cluttered sonic field: instruments competing rather than complementing, textures thickened past the point of clarity.

Elton, too, sounds wearied. In the accompanying photos, he appears visibly worn—his flamboyant polish now dulled by relentless touring, media saturation, and a schedule that bordered on self-punishment. His voice, while still technically agile, lacks the sparkle and effortless phrasing of even two years prior.

Still, the album is far from unlistenable. Indeed, it has moments that flirt with greatness. The opening Medley (a jigsaw of three, possibly four tracks awkwardly stitched together) shouldn’t work—but somehow does. It’s brash, cheeky, a touch sarcastic, and oddly endearing. Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future) attempts to fuse comic book futurism with funk-laced rhythm, but its stylings—both musically and lyrically—now sit frozen in amber, a relic of the mid-70s.

The record’s best-known cut, Island Girl, became a sizeable transatlantic hit. Its reggae stylings gave it a distinctive bounce, but even here the overproduction is hard to ignore. Grow Some Funk of Your Own, a companion piece of sorts, leans into its title’s challenge but gets a bit lost in the shuffle. The album’s most honest moment arrives with I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)—a stripped-down ballad that offers brief respite from the surrounding cacophony, and proof that Elton could still deliver subtlety when he chose.

Side Two continues the stylistic trajectory of Side One, with few surprises. Street Kids and Billy Bones and the White Bird offer rock posturing with intermittent success, while other tracks barely register. Notably, none of the songs from Rock of the Westies have endured in Elton’s live repertoire—a telling silence. Whether they will be resurrected remains doubtful.

In hindsight, the album is best viewed as a transitional piece. Not quite a failure, but certainly not a high point.

Go back to the main page
Go To Next Review