Elton John Music:

Reg Strikes Back Track Listing:
1. Town of Plenty
2. A Word in Spanish
3. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters, Pt. 2
4. I Don't Wanna Go on With You Like That
5. Japanese Hands
6. Goodbye Marlon Brando
7. The Camera Never Lies
8. Heavy Traffic
9. Poor Cow
10. Since God Invented Girls

Reg Strikes Back Reviews:
Elton John - Second Half Of Album Overcomes 80's Production
2008-10-28 - Elton John had seen an up and down roller coaster of his career through from the mid-70's through the late 80's. 1988 was a year of transition for Elton. He signed to a new record company and decided to give up his gaudy stage persona replacing it with a more mature "adult" approach. The cover the the "Reg" album is a collage of his many outrageous stage costumes that he was forever giving up. The album also marked the first to be recorded after Elton had surgery on his vocal chords. His voice is decidedly different on this record, although he still can hit most of the notes that he wants. The album produced a bit hit with the single "I Don't Want To Go One With You Like That" that became both a top 40 and dance smash. Overall the sound of the album is very 80's-ish with tons of drum machines and synthesizers. Much of Elton's piano work is obviously done on an electronic keyboard as opposed to his traditional grand piano here as well. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but gives the music a more processed feel that Elton's more traditional older work. The 80's sheen aside, much of the music and lyrics on this one are quite good especially the 2nd half of the disc. "Japanese Hands", "Goodbye Marlon Brando", "The Camera Never Lies", "Heavy Traffic", "Poor Cow" and "Since God Invented Girls" are all really strong songs. This album is not going to rival any of Elton's classics from the 70's, but taken for what it is and the time period that it was released it is a nice addition to Elton's catalogue.

Looking like a true survivor
2007-06-30 - The "Strikes Back" portion of this title was apt at the time. Elton had completed surgery on his vocal chords that - as he had been warned - could have resulted in his never being able to sing again. He'd also won a pair of important legal issues; He and Bernie Taupin had succeeded in their challenge to Dick James Music for royalty payments owed, and Elton's lawsuit against a tabloid for slander had been ruled in his favor. So it was a renewed and feisty Elton who was ready to record "Reg Strikes Back."

It shows the reinvigoration. While "Reg Strikes Back" is still very much an 80's album (heavy on synths and drum machines), the songs are uniformly strong. He even went as far as to update "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" from "Honky Chateau," and then perform the two as a medley in concert. Pete Townsend plays guitar on the peppy opener "Town Of Plenty," and the Beach Boys chime in on "When God Invented Girls." There are a couple mistakes here; "Poor Cow" is stupidly misogynistic and I never quite got the atmospheric "Japanese Hands."

With that in place, this was also the album with one of Elton's best mid-80's hits. His friendship with George Michael had clearly given his pop-sense a jolt of energy. The Wham-like "I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That" became his highest charting single of that decade. It was everything his 'recovery' embodied. It is an energetic, sassy and danable record, with an added irony that it was George Michael who held Elton out of the number one position.

This was the album where Elton decided to reclaim his personality, as the great Sothby's sell-off of his old gear on the cover shows. He and Bernie set out to craft songs that emphasized their resurgent popularity and succeeded here, and started the third chapter in Elton's illustrious career. Get this because it is Elton's second best 80's album after "Too Low for Zero," and you'll be satisfied.

Reg's Road to Recovery
2006-11-30 - After having a number of lackluster and uninspired releases through the 1980s, with perhaps the lowest point being the 1986 release of "Leather Jackets," Elton John started a turnaround in quality and artistry that was evident on this album, and would eventually yield albums such as "The One" and "Made in England" in the 90s. While this album had much less quality and artistry than Elton's 70s albums, loyal fans were gratified to see that Elton could still write and sing good songs.

Elton's rediscovered enthusiasm shows in "Town of Plenty." Admittedly this song is one of the lesser songs on this CD; the words are corny and simple, and the music is relatively simple. However, Elton's voice sounds refreshed and clear, and the production is much improved over "Leather Jackets." This simple song is little indication of the music that comes later on this CD.

The second song also has relatively simple words, though more complex and inspired than the words of the first song. However, Elton's music in "A Word in Spanish" contains a flavor of that sound that made Elton John great in years gone by. This song was also the longest song on this CD at 4:39 long. This mellow love song peaked at #19 on the charts in 1988. With the improvement over the first song, this song promised that this CD held even better songs.

Elton and his band get bombastic on "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Part Two)." The original song was a mellow and harmonious creation on "Honky Chateau." This version is funky and bouncy, and far from being mellow. While I am tempted to compare this song with some of the worst from "Leather Jackets," the comparison would be wrong. This song has fun with the overblown style and keeps the enthusiasm evinced from the first song. This song also makes an excellent stylistic introduction to the next song.

The next song is the best indication that Elton had created a very listenable album. "I Don't Wanna Go on with You Like That" had a sharp musical production with a snappy beat that maintained the pace and power of the three previous songs. This #2 charting song had good lyrics and even better music to make this song one of the best created by the Elton John-Bernie Taupin team in a long time, and gave fans the opportunity to rejoice that the duo still had this kind of music to give the world.

Then comes a song that I think belongs in the portfolio of some of the best Elton John ballads. In "Japanese Hands" Bernie Taupin finally created lyrics to match some of his best from the era that yielded "Madman Across the Water" and "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player." Elton matched those words with lovely music and a singing style that was heard on Elton's "Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra" and would be later heard on "Songs from the West Coast." This beautiful ballad is one of my personal favorites on this CD.

The next song is a change of pace. "Goodbye Marlon Brando" has a beat that is even faster than the first songs on the CD. This song reminds me of Billy Joel, especially "We Didn't Start the Fire." The song is less ambitious than the Billy Joel song, confining itself to summarizing the 80s, and perhaps the 70s to a certain degree. The song does say goodbye to a lot of things I remember from the 1980s. This song is interesting and fast, and perhaps slightly better than the average song on this CD.

The next three songs combined form a weak spot in this CD. "The Camera Never Lies" is the rock version of those country songs that deal with the bad things that happen in life. In this case the subject is infidelity. While the music and the words are less than inspired, the song is okay and is an average song for this CD. This CD goes from an average song to a less than average song. "Heavy Traffic" contains a few moments of interest, but otherwise the song is one of the weaker songs on this CD and sounds more like Elton on cruise control. The following song lyrically seems intended to be sympathetic to women who get stuck with too many children and a loser husband, but "Poor Cow" never fulfills the promise of the lyrics, and is another that is much less than average.

This CD originally finished with another lovely ballad, "Since God Invented Girls." This song contains a tribute to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. The backing vocals enhance the feeling of the tribute by adopting the harmonious style of the Beach Boys. This song joins "Japanese Hands" as being another of my favorite songs on this CD.

This album starts with a promising title. This CD was not quite the "strike back" that the title promised. However, there are enough good songs on this CD to make this CD a good improvement over the previous original album, and fans a few years later would recognize that this album marked a turn for the better for Elton John and Bernie Taupin, now going by the single name Taupin. In a few short years Elton John would receive more awards and nominations than he had received in his career to this point, and while the future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member may have fallen short in striking back with this CD, perhaps this CD was just the beginning of a strike that is pushing its way into two decades.


Elton Uninspired!!
2006-01-26 - Just 3 average songs and the rest us just filler....

The best songs here are "Town of Plenty" (with The Who s' Pete Townshend on guitar), "A word in spanish" and "Since god invented girls" (with the Beach Boys on chorus). The only hit from this cd "I dont want to go on with you like that"...i can not hear it..it is so one dimentional...and unispired... There are many other recordings from this period..i hope they stay in the can if they are as bad as the ones on these cd...this is the result of "medicine abuse"...

I don't care, this is one of his best albums!
2003-10-07 - This is my second favourite Elton John album after the one. I hated it at first but man! This is a lot better than something like 2 low 4 0 because he hasn't overdone it with the rockers. 1 or two rockers and that's it. I mean The Fox had four [mindblowing] ballads and six rock songs, and not all of them were good. This album is thus the best 80's effort I've heard but I havne't got Sleeping with the past. Town of plenty is a great song, A word in Spanish is possibly one of his all-time best, great melody and great guitar. i don't know why I hear somuch bad rap about that one. ML and MH PT 2 has a great trumpet solo and is fun, I don't wanna ... is fun and has a great lyric, Japanese hands is one of his best love songs, Goodbye to Marlon Brando is a great rocker, The camera never lies is very good and melodic, Heavy traffic is catchy and cool, the only song I don't like is poor cow, and it's still not bad, just too down and techno-y. Since God invented girls is a great song too. One of his best albums.