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List Price: $11.98 | | Label: Island
Salesrank: 3003
Released: May 14, 1996 |
| Our Price: $5.42 |
| Used Price: $3.99 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Honky Chateau Track Listing:
1. Honky Cat
2. Mellow
3. I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself
4. Susie (Dramas)
5. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)
6. Salvation
7. Slave
8. Amy
9. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
10. Hercules
11. Slave
Editorial Review:
Japanese-only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD) paper sleeve pressing of this classic album from the British singer/songwriter and entertainer, originally released in 1972. SHM-CDs can be played on any audio player and delivers unbelievably high-quality sound. You won't believe it's the same CD! Includes one bonus track. Universal. 2008.
Description of Honky Chateau:
By 1972, Elton John was already a rising star in America, although most casual listeners still identified him as part of the singer/songwriter explosion, thanks to the success of "Your Song" and "Levon." Honky Château changed all that, beginning with the success of "Honky Cat," a rousing New Orleans-ish R&B powerhouse that kicks off this terrific collection of songs. This was the album that first revealed John as a pure-pop craftsman, and he's all over the musical map on this set, moving from country-ish rock to blues-based rockers. But the best things here still might be two gorgeous ballads: "Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters" (displaying the young vocalist at his best) and the hit single "Rocket Man" (which had many rock fans debating which was the better space odyssey of the day--this or Bowie's). And lyricist Bernie Taupin was revealing a new, slightly darker side here via tunes like "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself." --Bill Holdship
Honky Chateau Reviews:
classic 
2008-11-03 - i look at these reviews and i wonder about people who can rate this anything below five stars. this is a classic recording, right up there with american beauty, brothers and sisters, second helping. it does not get any better than this....sheesh.
Elton John - Turn Around And Say Good Morning To The Night 
2008-10-23 - By the time Elton release "Honky Chateau" in 1972 he and co songwriter Bernie Taupin had several albums under their belts and had become a cohesive team. This album would go straight to the top of the charts with its huge hit singles "Honkey Cat", "Rocket Man", and the AOR favorite "Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters". Elton tried a little bit of everything on this album and for the most part it all worked. This would also be the first album to feature the backing band of Olsen, Murray, and Johnstone who would stay with Elton off and on through the rest of his career. Violist Jon Luc Ponty also is on hand prior to the launching of his own instrumental solo career. This album is somewhat inconsistent and leaned towards a generally more commercial sound. Songs like "Mellow", "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself", and "Slave" only half work, but overall this is a good Elton John record and his first of many to go to number one on the charts.
Change is gonna do me good...
2008-09-11 - As one reviewer wrote of Elton's next album, "Don't Shoot Me...," at that point in his career the brooding singer-songwriter Elton had "left the building," but the fresh, new talented pop star Elton had taken his place, and the change would prove more than equitable going forward from there. Well, a few months earlier, with "Honky Chateau," singer-songwriter Elton opened the door to that building and put his first foot through it on his way out, saying hello to his pop star alter ego making his entrance.
Gone were the darker, somber songs and arrangements, as well as the assembly of studio musicians. Elton put his creative foot down and insisted his road band play on the album, thus beginning the amazing run of the original Elton John Band that would garner so much praise and fandom during the next few years.
Elton and Bernie wrote their most funky stuff to date, and even if it wasn't all perfect, it was damn close. Rockers strutted and stolled, ballads such as "Rocket Man" (the first to get backing vocals by Davey, Dee and Nigel) were beautiful and more electric than previous works. Only "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" bore any resemblance to "Madman..." and earlier recordings, but even that was a departure for John & Taupin. Songs like "Amy" were completely out of the norm to that point; that tune and "Honky Cat," "Hercules" and "Mellow" helped at last launch Elton as a recording "rock star," to equal his already established concert reputation as a rocker.
"One of his very best!"
2008-07-31 - The first Elton John album I ever bought, shortly following its release in the early 1970s. It sounded terrific then, and has held up to the test of time. In addition to the classics from this LP (Honky Cat and Rocket Man), there is not even a near clunker here. Very thoughtful lyrics on "Salvation" and "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters." Really, a fine, enjoyable album from beginning to end. Next to "Madman Across the Water," I think this is his best effort.
A Cat Named Elton Hercules John
2007-10-15 - I bought this classic CD from Amazon recently (at a very attractive price). I bought the vinyl version more than 30 years ago, soon after it first came out. A few of the songs survived the vinyl era on my self-recorded cassette tapes. Since I got the CD, I've listened to "Honky Cat" countless times in the car, and copied it onto my laptop so I can listen to it inside too.
Everyone knows the hit songs "Honky Cat" and "Rocket Man". I remembered fondly the beautiful "tribute" to New York City, "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" (it was actually a DB discussion of this song that brought the album back to mind), "Salvation", and the closing number (inspired by a rhino if you believe the CD notes), "Hercules" (Elton's stage middle name). What surprised me were the other great songs I didn't remember so well--"Mellow" and "Susie (Dramas)", the latter of which has a chorus so great that they have to sing it three times--"She sure knows how to use me/pretty little black-eyed Susie/playing hooky with my heart all the time/Livin with her funky family/in a derelict old alley/down by the river where we share a little lovin' in the moonshine." I'm gonna sing at least one of these at Karaoke some night.
The album also brought back to mind the seamless songwriting collaboration of Elton and his lyricist Bernie Taupin, who did not play or sing with the band. I'm told that Taupin wrote the lyrics (poems) and Elton wrote the tunes around them. On "Honky Chateau", an album that was primarily recorded in France, the producer filled out the sound with an exciting electric violin, used very effectively on "Mellow" and "Amy". Elton's piano composition and playing is fabulous as always. Listening again to "Honky Chateau" makes me understand why Elton John became a pop music phenomenon.
