Tumbleweed Connection
ELTON JOHN
Island
In many respects, Tumbleweed Connection is the least celebrated album of Elton John's early milieu. That's in part because not one of its tunes made the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Song for song, though, I'd put it in a dead heat with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as his best. Overall, Tumbleweed is more marked by a sense of rootsy Americana than the more sophisticated popcraft to come. Most of the rhythm tracks are driven by little more than a rhythm section, twangy guitar and Elton's chunky piano (Exhibit A: "Amoreena"). His singing is full of snarl and fury, countered by genuine tenderness on the ballads.
