It only seems fitting that my next blog post cover the title track to the Captain and the Kid, the long-awaited (by me, anyway) follow-on to Captain Fantastic.
I must admit that the first time I listened to this song, it moved me to tears. Hearing the intro, I was a goner. You see, it’s the same as the original, albeit arranged differently. I don’t know why I reacted that way. Perhaps because it was thirty years in the making? Who knows how this mind of mine works.
I also must admit that I was the first customer in the door at Target the day the album was released, snatching it hot off the rack, just as the sales person was putting it in. She probably thought I was a lunatic. (No comments, please)!
I’ve been out here on this road some
Can’t help feeling I’ve been showing my friends around
Yes, and your friends so appreciate it…Silly though this may sound, EJ’s music has been part of my life longer than everyone but my parents and siblings, so in many ways, it is like an old friend, something I can rely on no matter what.
I’ve seen it growing from next to nothing
Into a giant eating up your town
Can you remember the EJ mania of the early 70s? I can – I lived it. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, from the end of the world to your town…
But we stuck around for the fireworks
Waiting to explode
Shaped our futures, you a tumbleweed
And me on a yellow brick road
Pleasing the people some of the time
For better or for worse
An urban soul in a fine silk suit
And a heart out west in a Wrangler shirt
Again, the dichotomy that so intrigues me.
And you can’t go back and if you try it fails
Looking up ahead I see a rusty nail
A sign hanging from it saying “Truth for sale”
And that’s what we did
No lies at all just one more tale
About the Captain and the Kid
Or, as I like to say, the Captain and the Kim…(sorry, Bernie)!
And they have always told the truth, even when it’s not pretty or easy. I mean, how much more honest can you get than when you talk about your addictions in the song “And the House Fell Down?” Or the infamous Rolling Stone interview?
Anyway, just like the original, there’s not a bad track on this album either. I know Elton was very disappointed with the way his record company promoted it (or didn’t promote it, which is more accurate). I was lucky enough to see him in concert during the Captain and the Kid tour, in NY no less, and he was quite vocal and colorful in his language about it. I was disappointed, too, but then I know that this isn’t the kind of music that will top the charts these days. I wonder why, sometimes, listening to the drivel that’s on the radio today, but that’s another subject – don’t get me started!
The Captain and the Kid (The Captain and the Kid – 2006)
The Captain and the Kim 