T5CE - #4 : Elton John (1974)

Top 5 Concerts Ever : #4
Elton John - 1974 (Big Surf)

Big Surf is a wave-making water park in Tempe. Water slides, swimming, tanning, and surfing (naturally) during the day. Not much to do at night though, so they hold concerts there. No seating; you just pay a given price, bring your towel and sit on the ersatz 'sandy beach' wherever you fnd an open spot.

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Goodbye Yellow Brick Road came out in October 1973, so this concert must've been in the spring or fall of 1974. GYBR was probably Elton's most ambitious album ever - a variety of musical styles (prog, reggae, R&B, and of course, rock-&-roll!), and not a dull stretch at all throughout the double-LP.

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I was impressed (but not surprised) by Elton's piano skills. And his band totally rocked that night. Davey Johnstone (lead guitar) is awesome. I doubt Elton John concerts in 2007 would be as good. I'm thinking it would be mostly "see Elton tickle the ivories" and not much else. After GYBR, he put out one more great LP (Madman Across The Water); after that, it was mostly just sappy love songs.

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But back to the concert at Big Surf. This is 1974, so we're talking 10,000 hippies. all stoned out of their gourds, passing doobies around, sitting on a beach at night, without a bad seat in the house to see Elton and company. Can it get any better than that?

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HIGHLIGHT : The band's encore song - Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting. About a 15-minute version (or so it seemed) of the band cutting loose a la Bruce Springsteen.

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LOWLIGHT : Hmmm. Can't think of anything. Sand in the joints, maybe?