In combination with the upcoming discussions about the Big Picture Tour and the holiday season, I'm going to deviate from the normal concert uploads and upload some random performances from 1996 and 1997! When the debate was proposed, the original idea was just to focus on Elton's early Big Picture Tour legs (late 1997 up to February 1998) and some of Elton's main performances in the era outside of the tour (An Audience With Elton John, Aschaffenburg 1997, House Of Blues 1997, etc). Out of curiosity, I purchased some random performances from 1996-1997 and was blown away on how good they were! These performances will be uploaded to KZitem and will be discussed on the upcoming Big Picture Debate!
After the 1995 Made In England Tour, Elton took a nearly two-year hiatus from major touring to focus on recording, guest appearances, and raising money for charities. Despite the lack of touring, we still got plenty of live performances documented from 1996 into the summer of 1997 (some of these performances are some of his best from the decade)! This recording is from the Rainforest Benefit Concert in 1996 and this upload highlights Elton's performances (or the ones where his vocals are prominent). The quality is listenable, but the volume is LOUD (so don't blow your ears out)!
The lack of touring and vocal rest have also helped Elton out. From 1996 through early 1998, he would be in consistently good-to-excellent voice on virtually all of his live performances and some of those performances have been compared with his prime live era of 1979 through mid 1986. His voice has developed a slightly richer sound when compared with the previous couple of years, but also has become "fatter" with more depth on his lower to mid-range notes. This stronger voice really shines on ballads and songs with sustains in the 4th octave. There is also more clarity, dynamic range, and less of a rougher sound when compared with the previous year--so this particular Elton vocal era ranks very high for me and I'm sure others will love it! These performances at the Rainforest concert are a key example: Elton is in superb voice and sounds very strong on all his vocal performances! Now... time to talk about these performances...
"It's A Lovely Day" features Elton singing with Sting and James Taylor with Elton providing smooth and rich vocals, "Anyone Who Had A Heart" sounds great with Elton providing excellent vocals with great control, "Philadelphia Freedom" is one of the best 1990s versions as Elton sings various 1980s phrasing throughout the performance, sings some great falsetto "wooos," embellishes throughout, and generally sounds very strong. Also, the gospel and soulful edge to this performance really suits the song well! "Live Like Horses" is the last "non-recorded" version (Elton officially recorded this in May 1996) and sounds much better than the album version with Elton's crisp voice shining on the sustains, and "Shed A Little Light" is another performance with Sting and James Taylor with Elton's voice suiting the song well!
ENJOY!!!
Note: Merry Christmas!
Негізгі бет Музыка 3. Philadelphia Freedom (Elton John-Live At The Rainforest Concert: 4/12/1996)
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