Elton John

Tumbleweed Connection (1970)

1.Ballad of a Well-Known Gun
2.Come Down in Time
3.Country Comfort
4.Son of Your Father
5.My Father's Gun
6.Where To Now St.Peter?
7.Love Song
8.Amoreena
9.Talking Old Soldiers
10.Burn Down the Mission
bonus tracks:
11.Into the Old Man's Shoes
12.Madman Across the Water (original version)

With his third album, Elton John turned sharply west—not metaphorically, but musically. Tumbleweed Connection abandoned the ornate orchestral flourishes of its predecessor in favor of something leaner, dustier, and deliberately evocative of an America that, at the time of recording, Elton had yet to set foot in. The vision, as always, began with Bernie Taupin, whose adolescent infatuation with the mythic West and recent immersion in Music from Big Pink inspired a set of lyrics that painted frontier towns, Civil War ghosts, and prairie laments with an Englishman’s romantic distance.

Elton, for his part, met the challenge with an astonishing sense of empathy and instinct. Years later, he would cite Tumbleweed Connection as one of the purest and most complete fusions he and Taupin ever achieved—a statement difficult to dispute. Indeed, few albums in his catalog feel so conceptually unified. Even the sepia-toned cover imagery, shot at a preserved railway station in Sussex, telegraphs the tone with quiet precision: this is an album steeped in imagined Americana, constructed from parlour pianos and borrowed iconography.

Musically, the album strikes a confident, earthy tone. It is more rugged than Elton John, though rarely aggressive. Amoreena (later to gain minor fame via Dog Day Afternoon) opens with rolling piano lines and wistful lyricism, setting the stage for what follows. Burn Down the Mission, closing the album, is arguably its crowning achievement—a swirling narrative of defiance and decay, underpinned by gospel-tinged piano and one of Elton’s finest early vocal performances. The song builds to an almost cinematic climax, a reminder that even in their more stripped-down moments, these two were never short on ambition.

Come Down in Time, an understated ballad wrapped in modal harmonics and melancholy woodwinds, is perhaps the album’s hidden jewel—one of Elton’s most haunting melodies, and, criminally, one of his most overlooked. Where to Now St. Peter? offers a similarly striking moment: cryptic, charged, and powerful, though its abstract leanings may leave some listeners adrift.

In contrast to the cohesive songwriting team, Love Song stands out for its origins—it is the sole track not written by John and Taupin, but by British folk singer Leslie Duncan. It is to the album’s credit, and Elton’s humility, that it sits so comfortably in place. Duncan’s sparse acoustic accompaniment and vocal harmonies turn the song into a hushed, reverent interlude, its fragility all the more striking for being so simple.

Talking Old Soldiers is another bold detour: a stark, solo performance from Elton, just piano and voice, telling the story of a war veteran with no one left to remember. It is unflinching and, in its way, one of the most poignant recordings he ever made. Country Comfort, though lighter in tone, encapsulates the album’s thematic core—an ode to simple living, seen through an outsider’s longing gaze. That it became a minor country standard (covered by Rod Stewart and others) proves its sturdy appeal.

Connection contained no hit single, and for that reason, was perhaps slightly overlooked at the time. Yet its critical stature has only grown. Within months of its release, Elton would storm America—not with this album, but very much because of it. Tumbleweed Connection is not only a brilliant collection of songs, but also a striking demonstration of how vision and authenticity can be conjured not from experience, but from belief.