Did you know there is Thanksgiving music?
We're all in such a rush to embrace Mariah Carey, we forget about Elton John
In his excellent Boss Fight Books volume on Final Fantasy V, games critic Chris Kohler makes a succinct observation about FF series composer Nobuo Uematsu that blew my dang mind when I first read it: “Uematu’s strongest musical influence at the time was 1970s piano rock. Final Fantasy would be Dungeons & Dragons by way of Elton John.”
For those of us who played these games in our adolescence, it may be hard to feel what Kohler’s saying. In 1992, the same year FFV came out, Elton John’s biggest song was “The One”, a sweeping, maudlin piano ballad that, while beautiful, doesn’t really evoke RPG adventure at all. In fact, for pretty much the whole time of Final Fantasy’s existence — the whole time I’d even been alive — Elton John’s brand was soft, saccharine pop music. Where’s the D&D in that?
But Uematsu hails from a different generation, and the Elton he first met hadn’t yet become a mega pop star. In 2014, Uematsu said in an interview with Red Bull Music Academy1 that the first album he bought with his own money was John’s Honky Chateau2. This record, from 1972, comes from what many now regard as Elton’s classic period, and its music resonates differently than Elton’s future pop tunes. The songwriting is still complex and full of flourishes — you can see the superstar talent without a doubt — but its presentation has harsher vibes. The piano playing is more reckless, the vocal deliveries are hungrier. The albums Elton released between 1970-1975 spotlight a young British man who clearly wants something — likely, for the world to see and appreciate him in a certain way3. This is an Elton John on a musical adventure. This is the Elton that spoke to Uematsu.
This Elton speaks to me, too. And I’m especially reminded of it every Thanksgiving.
In 1976, Elton John released a double-live album called Here & There, sort of a capstone to his classic period in the same way that Live 1975-85 is for Bruce Springsteen — a reminder of how much these dudes can fucking rock live before they go off and do something a little quieter.
It’s the There half of Here & There that’s especially relevant on Thanksgiving, mostly because it was recorded at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving night, November 28, 1974 — exactly 50 years ago today, now. And There is Elton and his band in their most rock-oriented, hungry configuration you’ll likely ever hear. In contrast to his later mega-tours, Elton fronts just a four-piece — guitar, bass, drums, and a percussion/keys floater4 — and the relatively sparse instrumentation makes all of these songs so punchy and immediate. The opening number, “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,” carries us from a stark prog rock keyboard intro through a raucous, angsty and hard torch song, and boy, you can absolutely hear the Uematsu in this.5
But what’s super wild about There is that it doubles as an incredible piece of music history that almost no one talks about: it also features the last live concert performance of John Lennon.
I confess I don’t really understand why this isn’t a bigger piece of music trivia. Obviously when Here & There first came out on vinyl in the 70s no one could have known this was the case, and the songs Lennon guested on weren’t even included on its pressing. But by the time of the full-concert CD reissue in the 1990s, this fact feels, I dunno, titanic. It certainly felt that way to me the first time I listened to There in probably 1998, and I wasn’t even a giant Beatles fan then. It’s just one of those things where the historical impact of the moment feels inescapable.
Lennon joins Elton and his band for three songs that night — “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” (a new Lennon single Elton guested on the studio version of)6, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (a Beatles tune Elton had just released a cover of), and “I Saw Here Standing There” (which Lennon introduces as “a number by an old, estranged fiance of mine called Paul”). And, man, it’s cool as fuck. As much as Here & There is a capstone on Elton’s time as a classic rock star, There in particular feels like the capstone on another, larger musical legacy.
Because of the historical heaviness of the record, and because of how freaking good it sounds, There is an album I make it a point to revisit every Thanksgiving. But especially today, on the 50th anniversary of its recording, I want to cherish this incredible time capsule of rock and roll music, and to sing its praises to y’all. There is an artifact that makes it clear for me why Elton John resonated with a generation of young, creative, and hungry folks like Nobuo Uematsu — a resonance that, for me, has never gone away.
So, if you’ve got a spare hourish today while in the car or making dinner, I highly recommend giving There a listen. If nothing else, it should make you say “Damn. Elton John can fucking rock.”
Happy Thanksgiving to all you fine folks out there. I hope you’ve got a warm, peaceful day ahead.
PS: While searching for “Elton John fantasy” pictures to use for this post, I found a dude who made an Elton John avatar in Final Fantasy XIV, and I couldn’t not share.
Yeah, like the energy drink. I don’t get it either!
Having heard most of Uematsu and John’s catalogs, I feel the most clear line between Honky Chateau and Final Fantasy is the Elton song “I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself” and the FFIX piece “Jesters of the Moon”.
While I’m not going to dive too deep into Elton’s journey of coming out here, I’m sure this is pretty darn relevant.
A small horns section joins for a couple songs, but these are rootsy rock horns, not symphonic pop horns.
Folks sometimes cite “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” alongside Emerson, Lake & Palmer as a clear influence on the epic Uematsu suite “Dancing Mad.”
This song is the reason Lennon appears at Elton’s show; Elton made Lennon promise that if the song hit #1, Lennon would appear on stage with him at a future concert.