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Elton John · S4 E1
Jamaica
The sessions that almost weren't. A botched recording trip to Kingston, a quick pivot to France, and a masterpiece born from chaos
January 1973, and Elton John's band lands in Kingston, Jamaica, to record the most important album of their careers. Within three days, the whole plan collapses.
Elton John -- Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding (1973). Eleven minutes of orchestral dread exploding into ferocious rock. This is what came out of the chaos: the most ambitious opening track Elton ever recorded.
Dynamic Sounds Studios, Kingston
The studio where the Rolling Stones recorded and where Elton's sessions fell apart within days.
The Disaster
The plan is to record at Dynamic Sounds Studios, where the Rolling Stones recently cut Goats Head Soup. But the equipment keeps breaking down, the mixing desk is unreliable, and Kingston is tense under Michael Manley's government. After roughly three days, the band abandons the sessions entirely.
“The studio was dreadful. The equipment kept breaking down. There were riots outside. We lasted about three days before we got on a plane to France.”
— Elton John, Me (2019)
TAP TO REVEAL: How many songs did Bernie have ready before the band left London?
Jamaica Jerk-Off -- Elton John
From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973). Elton and Bernie's cheeky musical postcard from the failed Jamaica sessions. A reggae-inflected groove that turns the whole disaster into a joke. They could not record there, but they could write a song about it.
Why did the Jamaica recording sessions for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road fall apart?
The sessions are rescued, the tapes are rolling. Next: the double album that crowns Elton John as the biggest pop star on Earth.
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