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Elton John · S5 E1
Rock of the Westies
A new band, a harder sound, and a number-one debut. But the reviews are getting colder
Spring 1975. Elton John picks up the phone and fires Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray, the drummer and bassist who helped him conquer the world, because the biggest pop star alive has decided he needs a completely different sound.
Elton John -- I'm Still Standing (1983). A decade from now, this will be Elton's defiant comeback anthem. In 1975, he doesn't know he'll need one. The new band is loud, the critics are sharpening their knives, and the man at the piano is heading straight into the years this song will eventually be about.
The New Westies
Elton keeps Davey Johnstone on guitar but rebuilds everything else. Kenny Passarelli on bass, Roger Pope on drums, Caleb Quaye on second guitar, and a 24-year-old keyboard player named James Newton Howard filling the seat Elton used to occupy alone. The sound gets louder, rawer, less polished. This is not the band that played "Your Song."
“The more removed you become from the person you're naturally supposed to be, the harder you're making your life and the less happy you become.”
— Elton John, Me (2019)
TAP TO REVEAL: What did Elton's new keyboardist go on to do after leaving the band?
Caribou Ranch, Nederland, Colorado
The mountain recording studio 9,000 feet above sea level where Elton recorded Rock of the Westies. The album title is a play on "West of the Rockies," a nod to this remote location in the Colorado Rockies.
What made Rock of the Westies historic when it debuted on the Billboard 200 in November 1975?
Rock of the Westies: Quick Hits
Grow Some Funk of Your Own -- Elton John
The other single from Rock of the Westies, released as a double A-side with "I Feel Like a Bullet." This is the only track on the album with a writing credit beyond John and Taupin: Davey Johnstone, the one guitarist who survived the lineup purge, co-wrote it. A barroom rocker about a fight that gets out of hand in a border town. Pure swagger from a band with something to prove.
Grow Some Funk of Your Own, Elton John (1975)
Davey Johnstone co-wrote this one with Elton and Bernie, the only track on Rock of the Westies that breaks their exclusive partnership. Bernie's words paint a rowdy night in a Spanish border town that spirals out of control. Follow along with the lyrics.
The Reviews
On paper, nothing changed: number-one album, number-one single, sold-out tour. But the reviews told a different story. Rolling Stone's Stephen Holden called the songs "synthetic boogie," and NME suggested Elton was just running out the clock on his DJM contract. The sales kept climbing, but the goodwill was starting to thin.
The music is still selling, but Elton's spending is accelerating faster than his royalties. Next: a million dollars a month on flowers alone, and the shopping addiction that mirrors every other habit taking hold.
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