Tumbleweed Connection is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Elton John. It was recorded at Trident Studios, London, in March 1970, and released in October 1970 in the UK and January 1971 in the US. It is a concept album based on country and western and Americana themes. All songs are written by John and Bernie Taupin, with the exception of "Love Song" by Lesley Duncan.
Co-writer Bernie Taupin said of the album, "Everybody thinks that I was influenced by Americana and by seeing America first hand, but we wrote and recorded the album before we'd even been to the States. It was totally influenced by The Band's album Music From Big Pink and Robbie Robertson's songs. I've always loved Americana, and I loved American Westerns. I've always said that 'El Paso' was the song that made me want to write songs, it was the perfect meshing of melody and storyline, and I thought that here was something that married rhythms and the written word completely." John has remarked, "Lyrically and melodically, that's probably one of our most perfect albums. I don't think there's any song on there that doesn't melodically fit the lyric."[6]
Basic tracks for three of the album's titles, "Come Down in Time", "Country Comfort" and "Burn Down the Mission", were recorded at Trident during the sessions for the previous LP, Elton John, with overdubs completed for Tumbleweed Connection. An early version of "Madman Across the Water", featuring Mick Ronson on electric guitar, was also recorded during the sessions for the album. It was released on several albums and reissues of Tumbleweed Connection, though the track was ultimately re-recorded for the Madman Across the Water album.[7]
Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson appear for the first time together on this album as the rhythm section on "Amoreena". Olsson had played on one track on Empty Sky for John in 1969. It is Murray's first appearance on an Elton John album. In addition to several studio players who also performed on John's previous self-titled second album, several tracks feature backing musicians from the band Hookfoot, who were also his DJM Records label mates. Hookfoot guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope had also appeared on John's Empty Sky album.
No singles were released from the album in the US by either DJM or John's US distributor, Universal Records, but "Country Comfort" (b/w "Love Song") was released as a single in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.[8] It peaked at No. 15 in New Zealand,[9] and did not chart in the other two territories it was released in.
The wraparound cover photo for the album was taken at Sheffield Park railway stationinSussex, approximately 30 miles (50 km) south of London on the Bluebell Railway. Photographer Ian Digby Ovens[10] captured John (seated to the right in the photo but appearing to the left on the front cover, shown above) and Taupin (standing to the left, on the back cover) in front of the late-nineteenth-century station, to represent the album's rural Americana concept despite the English location. Additional photos were taken from the interior of a train on the line for the album liner notes and libretto.
In August 2020, the Bluebell Railway announced that, to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the album, it had restored the station to look as it did when the cover photo was taken, giving people an opportunity to re-create the scene in their own photos.[11]
The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and number five on the US Billboard 200 chart.[3][4] In the US, it was certified gold in March 1971 and platinum in August 1998 by the RIAA. The album sold very quickly in the US, debuting at number 28 on Billbord'sTop LPs,[22] an unusually high debut for a new artist at the time, and reached its peak position in just four weeks.[23]
Reviewing later for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote:
"Half of the songs don't follow conventional pop song structures; instead, they flow between verses and vague choruses. These experiments are remarkably successful, primarily because Taupin's lyrics are evocative and John's melodic sense is at its best."
Robert Christgau wrote in his 1981 Record Guide: "good melodies and bad Westerns on it. Why do people believe that these latter qualify as songpoems?" (Note: There's an earlier Christgau review of the album, written in 1970 for The Village Voice). Reviewing for Rolling Stone, David Fricke wrote: "1971’s Tumbleweed Connection needs no improvement; it is one of the best country-rock albums ever written by London cowboys."
Robert Hillburn wrote for The Los Angeles Times: "Tumbleweed Connection is that near-perfect album that artists often spend a whole career trying to produce."[24] Dave DiMartino wrote for Yahoo! Music: "A step up from the slightly more overtly commercial Elton John... Tumbleweed is beautifully recorded and filled with very fine songs... Bordering on classic status."
"Burn Down the Mission," the tenth and final track on Tumbleweed Connection, is the most enduring and frequently played number from the album, the only one played by John on his Farewell Tour in 2022–23.[25] It was one of the very few non-singles in the Farewell Tour setlist, being played every night.[26]
"Burn Down the Mission" is musically driven by the story told by Bernie Taupin's lyrics, as is common in John/Taupin collaborations.
The lyrics themselves, while telling a simple story, are vague enough to be open to interpretation. Ostensibly the story is that of a poor community oppressed by a rich and powerful force, and the narrator, driven by some sort of revelation, has decided to take direct action to remedy the situation. However, his attempt fails and he is "taken away", presumably to meet his fate, and justifies his actions as an attempt to defend his family.
The music reflects this narrative structure by starting with a slow piano introduction and the telling of the hero's situation and his progress towards direct action; the middle section, which is faster, jazzier and brings in full instrumentation, can be read as an interpretation of the actual struggle in which the hero engages. Finally, the struggle has ended and the music returns to its initial understated form, reflecting the eventual defeat of the hero. The song ends with a restatement of the middle section while it fades out.
In the premiere episode of Elvis Costello's show Spectacle on Sundance channel, John cited Laura Nyro as an influence on, among other, unusual structure and rhythm changes of this song in particular.[27]
This is one of the most musically complicated works of John's career. The key changes four times before returning to the original opening chord sequence at the half-way mark. It has always been quite a fan favorite, and John has frequently performed it live over the last 40 years: [28]
John's first live album, the WABC radio broadcast 11-17-70, concludes with a version (running 18:10), interpolating Elvis Presley's "My Baby Left Me" and the Beatles' "Get Back"
The song was a regular feature of the 1974 US and UK tours, with a version from the Royal Performance in London, included in the album Here and There
Elton's longest and most complex standalone jam of "Burn Down the Mission" (lasting 10:17) was in the Christmas Eve 1974 performance broadcast live on the BBC from Hammersmith Odeon in London, much bootlegged as Ol' Pink Eyes Is Back and Just Like Strange Rain (listen here at timecode 9:43).
^ abcGlickman, Simon (1998). "Elton John". In Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds.). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. pp. 607–609.
^"Elton John: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Portions of this album guide appeared in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (Fireside, 2004). Retrieved 12 April 2013.
^Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
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