Video will appear as you scroll through the story
Elton John · S3 E1
Tumbleweed Connection
An Englishman obsessed with the American West. A country-rock album that proves the debut was no fluke
Two Englishmen who have never set foot in America sit in a London studio and record an album about cowboys, prairies, and the Civil War. Tumbleweed Connection sounds like it was shipped from Nashville, but it was made at Trident Studios in Soho.
Elton John, "Daniel" (1973). Bernie writes about a Vietnam veteran heading home, the same character-driven American storytelling he perfected on Tumbleweed Connection. A song so vivid you can see the red taillights leaving Spain.
Bernie's America
Bernie Taupin grows up in rural Lincolnshire devouring Westerns, Steinbeck novels, and every record The Band ever made. His lyrics are soaked in imagery he has only seen in films and books: dustbowl highways, Confederate soldiers, frontier saloons. He writes about America the way a homesick person writes about a country they have never visited.
“I was completely obsessed with America and I'd never been there. Everything I knew came from Westerns, from Steinbeck, from listening to The Band. It was a fantasy version of a country I'd built entirely in my head.”
— Bernie Taupin, Rolling Stone (2019)
TAP TO REVEAL: Where was the Tumbleweed Connection album cover actually photographed?
The Proof
Tumbleweed Connection reaches number two in the UK and number five in America without a single hit single being released. Critics hear it as proof that the self-titled record was no fluke. Elton John is not a one-album wonder with a piano ballad; he is a songwriter with range.
Tumbleweed Connection: The Numbers
Which famous rock singer covered "Country Comfort" before the Tumbleweed Connection album was even released?
My Father's Gun
From Tumbleweed Connection (1970). Bernie writes about a young man picking up his father's rifle during the American Civil War. Elton's arrangement builds from a quiet, haunted opening into a full cinematic sweep. A teenager from Lincolnshire channeling Gettysburg with the conviction of someone who was there.
Tumbleweed Connection proves Elton and Bernie can write in any genre they choose. Next: "Tiny Dancer," "Levon," and an album called Madman Across the Water that changes everything.
0 XP earned this session