How much time does it take to make a classic album? If you were part of Elton John’s band during his early 1970s heyday, not much at all. As guitarist Davey Johnstone explains to , many of John’s early, best-selling records were cut in just days. “We worked very quickly,” Johnstone says.
“That’s how things were done in those days, and we didn’t think anything of it. We did ‘Rocket Man’ [ Honky Chateau] in three takes, and [Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ] ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’ only took two passes to get it right. I know that probably sounds astonishing to a lot of people, but the truth is, we knew what we were doing.
The creativity just flowed. We were recording and touring all the time, but we were having the time of our lives. It really was such a brilliant era for making music.
” Elton’s 1973 double-album is a prime example. The double-album — which was released on October 5 of that year — took all of 16 days to make. Its 17 tracks include such classics as “Candle in the Wind,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” and — one of the tracks with which Johnstone is most associated — the opening cut, “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding.
’ “It’s been a staple in our set for a long time," Johnstone says of the track. "Of course, the song starts with that symphonic synthesizer section that David Hentschel did such a brilliant job on. ] “Then we come in with the slow part, and it�.
