Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Studio album by Elton John
Released	19 May 1975
Recorded	June–July 1974, Caribou Ranch, Nederland, CO
Genre	Rock, pop
Length	46:54 (original album) 62:29 (1995 reissue) 137:13 (2005 reissue)
Label	MCA (US/Canada) DJM Records
Producer	Gus Dudgeon
Elton John chronology
Elton John's Greatest Hits (1974) Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) Rock of the Westies (1975)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	(B)
Rolling Stone	(favourable)

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy is the ninth studio album by British singer/musician Elton John, released in 1975. It debuted at number 1 on the U.S. Pop Albums chart, the first album ever to do so, and stayed there for seven weeks. It was certified gold in May 1975 and was certified platinum and 3x platinum in March 1993 by the RIAA. In Canada, it also debuted at number 1 on the RPM national Top Albums chart and only broke a run of what would have been fifteen consecutive weeks at the top by falling one position to number 2 in the ninth week (May 31 - September 6). On the UK Albums Chart, it peaked at number 2. In 2003, the album was ranked number 158 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. This was the last album until Too Low For Zero that Elton John and his classic band would play together.

History

Written, according to lyricist Bernie Taupin, in chronological order, Captain Fantastic is a concept album that gives an autobiographical glimpse at the struggles John (Captain Fantastic) and Taupin (the Brown Dirt Cowboy) had in the early years of their musical careers in London (from 1967 to 1969). The lyrics and accompanying photo booklet are infused with a specific sense of place and time that would otherwise be rare in John's music. John composed the music on a cruise ship voyage to the U.S.

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight", the only single released from the album (and a number 4 hit on the U.S. Pop Singles chart), is a semi-autobiographical story about John's disastrous engagement to Linda Woodrow, and his related 1969 suicide attempt. The "Someone" refers to Long John Baldry, who convinced him to break off the engagement rather than ruin his music career for an unhappy marriage. It was viewed by Rolling Stone writer Jon Landau as the best track on the album: "As long as Elton John can bring forth one performance per album on the order of 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight', the chance remains that he will become something more than the great entertainer he already is and go on to make a lasting contribution to rock."

In a 2006 interview with Cameron Crowe, Elton said, "I've always thought that Captain Fantastic was probably my finest album because it wasn't commercial in any way. We did have songs such as 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight,' which is one of the best songs that Bernie and I have ever written together, but whether a song like that could be a single these days, since it's [more than] six minutes long, is questionable. Captain Fantastic was written from start to finish in running order, as a kind of story about coming to terms with failure—or trying desperately not to be one. We lived that story."

Elton, Bernie and the band laboured harder and longer on the album than perhaps any previous record they'd ever done to that point. As opposed to the rather quick, almost factory-like process of writing and recording an album in a matter of a few days or at most a couple of weeks (as with "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"), the team spent the better part of a month off the road at Caribou Ranch Studios working on the recordings. Producer Gus Dudgeon was apparently also very satisfied with the results. The album's producer was quoted in Elizabeth Rosenthal's "His Song", an exhaustive detailed accounting of nearly all John's recorded work, as saying he thought "Captain Fantastic" was the best the band and Elton had ever played, lauded their vocal work, and soundly praised Elton and Bernie's songwriting. "There's not one song on it that's less than incredible," Dudgeon said.

In 1976, Bally Manufacturing released a Pinball machine for arcades, titled Capt. Fantastic. Elton is featured on the backglass, in his character from the movie Tommy, as the pinball wizard. It is considered an iconic pinball machine by most enthusiasts as far as artwork. It was also the most produced electromechanical pinball machine.

While John was known for his rather elaborate or lavish packaging of his albums, Captain Fantastic may well have topped all previous releases. The original LP included a "Lyrics" booklet, curiously beginning with a lyric for "Dogs in the Kitchen" that was never completed and not on the album's lineup, and another booklet called "Scraps", which collected snippets of reviews, diary entries and other personal memorabilia of John and Taupin during the years chronicled on the album. It also contained a poster of the album's cover. (These were all reproduced, in smaller versions, for the 2005 Deluxe Edition CD.) Limited edition copies were also pressed on brown vinyl.

The 2006 album The Captain & the Kid is the sequel, and continues the autobiography where Captain Fantastic leaves off.

Later releases

Both "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Philadelphia Freedom" were originally released as non-album singles, but years later both songs, along with "Lucy"'s B-Side, the John Lennon-penned "One Day at a Time", were included as bonus tracks on the remastered Captain Fantastic CD reissue.

A deluxe 30th anniversary edition CD was released September 2005, containing the complete album and the bonus tracks included on prior reissues and adding "House of Cards", the original B-side to the 7" single of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight", which had previously only appeared on CD on the 1992 Rare Masters collection. Also included is a second disc containing the complete album performed live at Wembley in 1975.

In September 2005, Elton John and his band again performed the entire album (minus "Tower Of Babel" and "Writing") in a series of sold-out concerts in Boston, New York City and the tour's final stop, Atlanta, in October. These "Captain Fantastic Concerts" were a part of the Peachtree Road Tour and were the longest concerts in Elton's career, many lasting at least three and a half hours. The songs from Captain Fantastic were aired by Capital Gold Radio in a broadcast taken from the 16 September 2005 performance in Boston.

Track listing

All songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" – 5:46
2. "Tower of Babel" – 4:28
3. "Bitter Fingers" – 4:35
4. "Tell Me When the Whistle Blows" – 4:20
5. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" – 6:45

Side two

6. "(Gotta Get a) Meal Ticket" – 4:01
7. "Better Off Dead" – 2:37
8. "Writing" – 3:40
9. "We All Fall in Love Sometimes" – 4:15
10. "Curtains" – 6:15

Bonus tracks (1995 Mercury and 1996 Rocket reissue)

11. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 6:18
12. "One Day at a Time" (Lennon) – 3:49
13. "Philadelphia Freedom" – 5:23

Bonus tracks (2005 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Disc one (Follows original album)

11. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (Lennon, McCartney) – 6:18
12. "One Day (At a Time)" (Lennon) – 3:49
13. "Philadelphia Freedom" – 5:23
14. "House of Cards" – 3:12

Disc two (Live from "Midsummer Music" at Wembley Stadium, 21 June 1975)

1. "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" – 7:02
2. "Tower of Babel" – 4:38
3. "Bitter Fingers" – 5:06
4. "Tell Me When the Whistle Blows" – 4:39
5. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" – 7:17
6. "(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket" – 7:19
7. "Better Off Dead" – 3:01
8. "Writing" – 5:30
9. "We All Fall in Love Sometimes" – 3:57
10. "Curtains" – 8:48
11. "Pinball Wizard" (Pete Townshend) – 6:31
12. "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" – 7:40

B-sides

Song	Format
"House of Cards"	"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" 7" (US/UK)

Personnel

Musicians

• Elton John – acoustic and electric pianos, clavinet, mellotron, ARP String Ensemble synthesizer, harpsichord
• Davey Johnstone – acoustic, electric and Leslie guitars, mandolin, piano on "Writing", backing vocals
• Dee Murray – bass, backing vocals
• Nigel Olsson – drums, backing vocals
• Ray Cooper – shaker, congas, gong, jawbone, tambourine, bells, bell tree, cymbals, triangle, bongos

Additional musicians

• Dave Hentschel – ARP synthesizer on tracks 9 and 10
• Gene Page – Orchestral arrangement on track 4

Production

• Producers: Gus Dudgeon
• Engineer: Jeff Guercio
• Assistant Engineer: Mark Guercio
• Remixing: Gus Dudgeon, Phil Dunne
• Remastering: Tony Cousins
• Digital transfers: Ricky Graham
• Orchestral arrangements: Gene Page
• Art direction: David Larkham, Bernie Taupin
• Graphic conception: David Larkham, Bernie Taupin
• Cover design: Alan Aldridge
• Package design: David Larkham
• Illustrations: Alan Aldridge
• Liner notes: John Tobler, Paul Gambaccini (Deluxe Edition)

Accolades

Grammy Awards

Year	Recipient	Award	Result
1976	Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy	Album of the Year	Nominated
		Best Pop Vocal Performance - Male	Nominated

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
United Kingdom (BPI)	Gold	100,000^
United States (RIAA)	3× Platinum	3,000,000^
*sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Charts

Chart positions

Chart (1975)	Peak position
Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart	1
Austrian Albums Chart	7
Canadian RPM Albums Chart	1
French SNEP Albums Chart	1
Italian Albums Chart	12
Japanese Oricon LP Chart	20
New Zealand Albums Chart	1
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart	2
UK Albums Chart	2
U.S. Billboard 200	1
West German Media Control Albums Chart	22

Year-end charts

Chart (1975)	Position
Australian Albums Chart	5
Canadian Albums Chart	1
French Albums Chart	25
Italian Albums Chart	36
UK Albums Chart	12
U.S. Billboard Year-End	7
Chart (1976)	Position
Canadian Albums Chart	99

Chart procession and succession

Preceded by An Evening with John Denver by John Denver	Canadian RPM number-one album 31 May – 19 July 1975 (8 weeks) 2 August – 6 September 1975 (6 weeks)	Succeeded by Venus and Mars by Wings (both runs)
Preceded by That's the Way of the World (soundtrack) by Earth, Wind & Fire	US Billboard 200 number-one album 17 May – 18 July 1975 30 August – 5 September 1975	Succeeded by Venus and Mars by Wings
Preceded by Living in the Seventies by Skyhooks	Australian Kent Music Report number-one album 16 June – 20 July 1975	Succeeded by Ego is not a Dirty Word by Skyhooks
Preceded by An Evening with John Denver by John Denver	New Zealand Chart number-one album 4 July – 1 August 1975	Succeeded by Venus and Mars by Wings