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List Price: $6.98 | | Label: Polygram Records
Salesrank: 1400024
Released: May 14, 1996 |
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| Used Price: $9.95 |
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| Media: Audio Cassette |
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Rock of the Westies Track Listing:
1. Medley: Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly
2. Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)
3. Island Girl
4. Grow Some Funk of Your Own
5. I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)
6. Street Kids
7. Hard Luck Story
8. Feed Me
9. Billy Bones and the White Bird
10. Planes [*]
11. Sugar on the Floor [*]
Editorial Review:
Although it was viewed as one of Elton John's more lightweight efforts upon its 1975 release--possibly because it followed only half a year after the acclaimed Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (and partially because many thought the album was released to fulfill a contractual obligation)--Rock of the Westies appears in retrospect to be his last great rock album. It certainly does rock consistently harder than any other John album, with guitarist Davey Johnstone even getting cowriting credits (with John and Bernie Taupin) on the opening "Medley: Yell Help/Wednesday" and "Grow Some Funk of Your Own." Lyricist Taupin seems to be going off the deep end here at times with titles like "Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future)" and "Billy Bone & the White Bird," but "Island Girl" was another huge hit for the pair. And the CD version adds the wonderful pop gem "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart," which turned KiKi Dee into an eternal Trivial Pursuit answer. --Bill Holdship
Rock of the Westies Reviews:
Elton John's album "Rock of the Westies" 
2009-09-17 - A rare photo of Elton John wearing a beard is found on the cover of this awesome album. Great songs, including the 70's hit "Island Girl." Full of classic Elton John magic, this compilation is a wonderful addition to any Elton collection or fans of 70's rock music.
Different from many of Elton's other albums
2009-05-13 - Elton employed a new and larger band for this album, retaining some but not all of his previous band members. The resultant music sounds very different from anything that he recorded previously and while I haven't heard all of Elton's later music, I've heard a lot of it and it doesn't sound like anything I've heard from him.
Other re-masters of Elton's albums have as many as four bonus tracks. On my British copy, there is only one, but it's a classic. (The Amazon.com gives a different bonus track, but the editorial seems to agree with the British listing). Don't go breaking my heart, recorded as a duet with Kiki Dee, became Elton's first British number one hit and at one time, it seemed that it would be his only such record. In fact, he eventually had four more. The hugely talented but seriously under-rated Kiki Dee never came close to number one as a solo singer, but another duet with Elton, this time a cover of True love (the Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly classic) made number two in Britain during the early nineties.
As far as the main album here is concerned, the major single here was Island girl, which was a number one hit in America but didn't come close in Britain, where it peaked outside the top ten. Unfortunately for Elton, the follow-up single (Grow some funk of your own) was a more modest hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The other side of that single (originally promoted in America as a double A-side) was the song about the shooting of Jesse James (I feel like a bullet in the gun of Robert Ford). Trust Bernie Taupin, with his reputation for strange lyrics as well as his enthusiasm for the old American west, to come up with a song like this.
This album is not one of Elton's masterpieces, although it is strengthened by the addition of Don't go breaking my heart (at least on the British re-issue that I have). Nevertheless, I find it to be quite an interesting album, precisely because it offers such a contrast with all the other Elton John albums that I own.
Obscure but not Oblivious 
2009-04-07 - This was one of the last albums before Bernie and Elton quit working together and was in a peroid of waning popularity for Elton, also he was using many differant musicians in this peroid. This album is worth purchasing alone for the epic and beautiful"I Feel Like a Bullet(In the Gun of Robert Ford), but is then followed by the jazzy and wistful shuffle of "Feed Me". Two of Elton Johns greatest tunes in my opinion.Also take a listen to the "Medley (Yell Help, Wednesday Night,Ugly)" and of course the Hit "Island Girl: and you'll see why Elton John is one of the most prolific songwriters of our time.
very good but not for everybody
2009-03-25 - This is not a very well-known LP of Elton's. However, in my opinion it is one the best. It sounded different, it sounded fresh.....one could breath some freedom from the target of selling at all the costs. Apart from "Island girl", more commercial, the rest is an experience....an experience of "western sound". I strongly recommend the initial wonderful "Medley": for me it is great. Nevertheless, one cannot say this LP is a masterpiece. Moreover, nowadays it sounds a bit "old-fashioned". However, it remains a very good work of Elton that could be appreciated by those people with a taste for the "unusual".
Not Fully Appreciated in Its Time
2009-03-24 - I admit, when I first heard Rock of the Westies, as a teenaged EJ fan in the mid-80s, I was disappointed. I liked Island Girl, of course, and I Feel Like a Bullet, but the other songs struck me as fizzled rock. Some tracks started out strong (Street Kids, for example) but never really established a hook.
Now, some twenty-odd years later, as a 30-something adult, I find this record charming. I also find it more satisfying that Captain Fantastic, which came out right before Rock of the Westies and which most fans consider superior. I am now smitten with the American rock stylings of the record and admit, oddly, that it rocks. It grooves, it churns, and it plunges from cut to cut. This makes up for the occasional lack of chart-ready hooks. Oddly, this record had three top forty hits, but Elton has rarely played any of them live since the CD's release. Island Girl is the track that receive the most radio airplay today, but even then it's a surprise to hear it on the airwaves since so many other EJ songs receive first bidding. The other two hits, Grow Some Funk of Your Own and I Feel Like a Bullet, are practically forgotten (Meaningless aside: one could compile a list of EJ's hits that are rarely heard on the radio anymore: Friends, Grow Some Funk, I Feel Like a Bullet, Chloe, Nobody Wins, A Word in Spanish, Mama Can't Buy You Love, Heartache All Over the World...)
