Elton John - Where To Now St. Peter (60th birthday)

[emcleod2192]

Another very favorite piano masterpiece of Elton's that will always bring back great memories of my youth and lazy summer days......wish I could have been able to say Happy birthday to Reg.....a fellow Aries musician.

[jgh548]

Sorry, I meant to say that the lower lines were not unenjoyable, as opposed to not enjoyable! Damn autocorrect....

[lloydh65]

@jgh548 A singer's voice changes with time/age, Elton actually had surgury in the late 80's to remove polyps from his vocal chords. This changed the timbre and range of his voice.

[jgh548]

Very well performed but Elton's voice is really getting very limited by this point. The lower lines he uses to fill in for the missing falsetto parts change the song in an intriguing way, not at all enjoyable. I like the tempo and arrangement here too. I just wish Elton didn't sound so bloody strained.

[calvinboy27]

When I hd my wisdom teeth pulled out, my doctore gave me some blue canoes, they were blue and gray capsules, W@W were they incredible, they were blue canoes and you should have been there. You do not want to go overboard on them criititers baby!!!!!!!!!!!!

[calvinboy27]

I listened to this song in 1970-something, camping at Ocean Shores, I had some excellent weed from a guy and camped and rocked, it was psychedelic. You should have been there.

[michaelp3138]

incredible guitar by davey johnstone (that is him, right?)...either way, that treatment on the electric guitar is beasty...yeah, i wish elton could hit those high notes like the original studio recording, but no complaints here - great performance!!

[77edster]

@michaelp3138 sure is Davey Johnstone. Caleb Quaye played on the studio version

[tommyrock69]

My very favorite EJ song. It just has everything.

[sasapienza]

TWO WORDS ONLY. SIR ELTON

[spyoanna]

find myself in a blue canoe.....

[Sommelier97]

I wonder who the one vote that disliked this song was and why?

[TheNigelr]

One of the songs from one of the albums that made this man the absolute legend that he truly is.

Fabulous work MESTREDINHO!

[fulteacup]

I love this song, its always had some mystical sound all of its own. Ethereal I guess.

[JennaP46]

I love how he dedicated this to the Nancy and Anne~~I love the "heart" sisters from sooo long ago......

[mizofan]

Tumbleweed Connection is a brilliant album, and Elton's new album The Union, with Leon Russell, is excellent. It's a pity with his deeper voice now Elton can't sing his early songs' high notes

[rockinroller7]

The lack of applause to Elton's comment: "This next song comes from the album, "Tumbleweed Connection," as well as the even less applause, to his announcing the song: "it's called, "Where to now St Peter," gives notice to all of us who heard this 4 decades ago, first on vinyl, regardless of the fact how many generations have picked up on Elton, there's hope that the "young," members of the audience, perhaps bought the CD, allowing some of his finest work to continue, timelessly.

Peace.

Rock

[ranchoboyeros]

thank you

[sacomusic]

Best song of his best album. Unreal. Just unreal. Great performance!!!

[greensea4]

Great performance. I've always loved this song.

[LunaTeVe]

i feel like floating down a crystal river on a canoe and the waters taking me on a trip of nature and beauty...oh elton thanks for that unique song...

[bpmanzoli]

eltonoooooonnnnnnnnnn.........­.

[truthero]

the pipes have deepened (we're all mortal) but this man can still deliver. great song. long live EJ

[goodbyeisthenewhello]

@truthero

He had throat surgery in the 80's. Thats how "the pipes deepened." :/

[sa65cn1]

A peice of my high school sound track in the 1970"s. Thanks, for the great memories.

[272surfing]

amazing

[IrisMG]

An absolute favorite of the early Elton John albums. How I longed to hear them play Tumbleweed Connection all the way through on the album rock station when this first came out. I never knew there was music such as this when I was twelve. I still have my original LP with the black MCA label with the rainbow on it. Now Elton John is a 62 year old knight, and I am 48 and still a fan.

[pedritol45]

Muchas gracias Elton!!!

[eltonator]

Does someone yell "Amoreena" from the audience near the beginning?

[jsw11984]

yes, they did

[fatpizzaman]

Sergio Mendes also did a terrific but overlooked version of this song for his 1976 album "Home Cooking".

[tommyrock69]

His voice of then is gone, but damn it if he isn't a great piano player. Ask him back then and that's all he asked for- prowess as a musician.

Well, Sir Elton, you did just that.

[zenbrenzz]

I always thought this was a drug-related song..the blue canoe being a pill. Original sounded very psychedelic/dreamy. (Maybe just the place I was in in the 70's)

[ozzian2000]

He's just so wonderful! Great song and he does well years later. The original is just so good and his cover at the Rainbow Theatre is outstanding.

[pontiff2]

I'm the same... its a great song.. I only discovered it from this performance

[janie1961]

another remarkable song great memories thanks

for posting

[IloveAlexisBledel689]

MY FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it so much, this album is the best!

[dgstrat]

Yes. Ann Wilson covered this on her recent solo album. Elton snag on it. Very nice version.

[dgstrat]

Yes. Ann Wilson covered this on her recent solo album. Elton snag on it. Very nice version.

[WhisperLady023]

Simply great. Thanks, captain Fantastic!

[phatsideout]

Anyone know what the didication to the Wilson sisters was about?

[danielleburch9893]

Ann Wilson did a rendition of this song on her solo album, Hope & Glory. That's why he dedicated it to Ann and her sister!

[mrmirth]

Every time I hear this rendition I just want to get up and dance.

Bravo

[tictocq]

Killer Lyrics!! "Dirty was the daybreak, sudden was the change...insane; they took the paddles, my arms they paralyzed" Who is they?

 It seems to me this guy is a captive of a soon-to- be execution...on the part of an enemy army

But maybe not. He floats a "blue canoe", a metaphor for espionage? But then he falls asleep, or gets high in this canoe,( Dazzling, dancing...Half enchanted, In my Merlin sleep) a sleeping Sentry perhaps...to be summarily shot as well, but by his own army?

[louvregroove]

Interesting interpretaion. In the second verrse, I think the character who narrates this lyric is looking back from beyond the grave, recollecting on the morning of his execution by firing squad.

"Dirty was the day break (The morning of his execution)

Sudden was the change (sudden death)

In such a silent place as this (standing in front of st. peter)

Beyond the rifle range (again a refernce to the firing squad)

Please check out my cover of this song, one of my favs of Elton's.

[JJ2555]

has he played this since this concert?

[John19182004]

Since then, over 100 shows from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the USA, S. Africa, United Arab Emirates, all over Europe.. he plays about 150+ shows/year, at a salary of almost $1 million PER PERFORMANCE of which most goes to charities, so yeah, he's played since then.

[JJ2555]

i mean this song where to now st peter? has he played this song since his 60th

[ranchoboyeros]

where to now, Sir Elton

[rockinroller7]

Simply beautiful music and lyrics.

Seems he was so confident and accomplshed, even at the release of his first album

[IrisMG]

Tumbleweed was the third studio album, I believe.

[rockinroller7]

IrisMG-

It wasn't my intention to imply "TC," was his first, but after a bit more research, actually John released, "The Captain and The Kid," in '68, (which I wasn't aware of)"Empty Sky," in '69, "Elton John," in '70, and "Tumbleweed," later that same year.

Thanks for bringing all of this to my attention. You've given me 1 CD I'd like to add to my collection Of John's work.

I really am fond of some of his earlier work. Maybe not as popular as later work, but great anyway.

Peace.

Rock

[IrisMG]

Hey Rock,

You need to share the source of some of your research, because I have "The Captain and The Kid", and it's only two-and-a-half years old! (September 2006) It is the sequel, of sorts, to "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" from 1975. There's a documentary of Elton and Bernie talking about it somewhere here on YouTube...a search could easily find it. If you know of one that predates even his first American album, "Elton John", by that same name, I'd like to know about it myself!

[112783]

A highly underrated Elton John song. One of the best.