Elton John - Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player Review

Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player doesn't often appear on anyone's list of Elton John's top five albums. It is, however one of his strongest works and, in 1973, its release marked an important turning point in his career.  Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player was his sixth studio release and  second number one album in the U.S. (his previous release, Honky Chateau, was the first).   More importantly, though, while Honky Chateau made EJ a superstar, this is the one revealing Elton as a true POP superstar.

Now, people like to knock pop music and often rightfully so.  But, some pop music is very well done.  John was a huge star in the mid 1970's largely because his pop melodies were so well-crafted.  What's really amazing is, he and lyricist Bernie Taupin almost always (and still do) work from different locations with Taupin sending him the lyric and Elton putting a melody to it, often in less than a half hour, yet the music almost always seems a perfect fit to the words. If there were an entry in the dictionary for "well-crafted pop music", you just might find a picture of Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player next to it.

The first track was also one of Elton's first big hits in the U.S. peaking at #2.  Daniel is a tender ballad recognizable to almost everyone, but one Taupin claims the most misinterpreted of his career.  That's probably because John chopped off the last verse as he put his melody to it, forever obscuring this story of a Vietnam Vet returning from the war who simply wanted to be treated the same as he was before he left.

A lesser known track, but just as good as anything they ever did, is Teacher I Need You.  Taupin's hormonal take on a school-boy crush examines this time worn subject in a unique way, giving full voice to the kid's raging hormones with lines like, "It’s a natural achievement/Conquering my homework/With her image pounding in my brain." and the chorus "Oh, teacher I need you/like a little child/You got something in you/to drive a schoolboy wild"  Elton punches it up with with a rollicking melody that accents the grand flow of the boy's emotions.

Elderberry Wine is another rocker featuring some funky sax with a Taupin lyric that bemoans his wife's leaving a year or so ago, probably because she got tired of his laying about staying drunk all the time.  Elton's voice is so raspy and the piano beat so pounding, one can almost forgive the lyric, "You aimed to please me/cooked black-eyed peas me".  But, what the hey, it was pretty rare for BT to write something that bad.

Lush orchestral arrangement by Paul Buckmaster and the soulful plea of a young man to his girlfriend to have faith in his ability to provide them a wonderful life despite her father's ranting characterize Blues for Baby and Me.  The song plays like a little movie with Taupins lyrics, "And its all over now/Don’t you worry no more/We're gonna go west to the sea/The Greyhound’s swaying/and the radio’s playing/Some blues for baby and me." and John's  crescendoing, soaring melody.

Midnight Creeper  features horns and strings in a funky swagger as a slightly dangerous ex-boyfriend begs, in his own way, his former girl to take him back.  And he's not gonna take "no" for an answer.

Paul Buckmaster's strings, Elton's soulful vocals and a rock and roll edge give added weight to Taupins already impassioned lyrics on Have Mercy on The Criminal, a stark view of an escaped con from the escapee's point of view.  One of my favorites, this song features a orchestral arrangement combined with a rugged rock tone for an intense experience.

Elton's first number one single in the U.S., Crocodile Rock, is here also, with it's infectious 50's retro hook and John's crooning into growling rock into a falsetto on a 50's sock hop-like chorus.  Conjuring up visions of everyone's favorite teen hangouts, this song soars to the number one slot worldwide.  This is one of EJ's very best known songs, and some may remember when he performed it on the Muppet Show, surrounded by, you guessed it, crocodiles.

The only song that seems a bit of a misfit here is Texan Love Song, a little foray by the team into country music, with its simple acoustic guitar strumming and back beat.  If you heard only this song from Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, you'd get the wrong idea about it.  It is a nice little commentary on the "us vs them" mentality between rural Americans and the "hippies" of the day.  It's pretty amusing, too.

The Bottom Line

The album allegedly got it's name when Groucho Marx jokingly pointed his fingers at Elton like he was pointing a pair of six-shooters and EJ threw up his hands exclaiming, " Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player"  On it, the EJ/BT team appear to draw from all their musical influences to craft some of the finest post-Beatles popular music of the time.  Before this, Elton was known mainly as a sit down at the piano singer-songwriter, in spite of the rock-edged Madman Across the Water and some pop-leanings on Honky Chateau, much to the chagrin of some of his early fans.  Afterwards Mr. John went on to become on of the biggest pop stars on the planet. Ever. So big in fact, in 2008 when Billboard magazine named its list of the most frequently charting artists in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, EJ came in #3, behind Madonna and the Beatles.

There are four or five more songs on the album that could have been singles, but probably weren't because his next album, the landmark Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released a mere seven months after this one. Elton was quite prolific at the time, often releasing two albums a year.  Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player is one of the finest of those many albums and it really hold up well today.  This is where Elton John became a pop star and he did in a fashion just as grandiose as the arrangements on this album.  GRADE: A-