Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
Live at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga, OH
August 19, 1986
So Elton had already had to cancel the first two shows of the USA "Ice On Fire" tour (August 15 & 16) due to 'laryngitis', brought on by the developing nodules on his vocal cords which wouldn't be diagnosed until around a month later. Not knowing this, he intended to set out on the tour once his voice was in better shape, which he was in time for the August 17, 1986 show in Clarkston, MI.
That said, "better shape" at this point didn't mean much as his vocal timbre and range had already been permanently changed because of his incessant pot smoking in the European leg of the tour. And as the 8/17 opening show of the tour showed, his voice was much worse for wear--featuring a much thinner and more constricted falsetto, and an unsure and occasionally vocally unstable Elton.
That said, he soldiered on through a second concert in Clarkston on 8/18, and then made his way to Cuyahoga Falls, OH for his concert on August 19, 1986. Sadly, there is no tape of the 8/18 show, which is truly a shame as it could maybe explain some of the things we hear in the 8/19 show.
As would be the case for the first part of this tour leading up to his diagnosis on 9/9 or 9/10, Elton would usually do three day stretches of concerts and then have a day of rest. Inevitably his voice would deteriorate across the three days, as is the nature of nodules, and that third show would span from a struggle to absolutely abysmal.
8/19 happened to fall on a third day and has many moments which, when compared to 8/17, show just how quickly things would change for Elton. I've uploaded two songs in this video because they both contain something significant in terms of this tour leg, and the song's phrasing.
On "Philadelphia Freedom" the song begins as a normal performance, although we can already hear Elton's timbre getting more and more ragged. Everything seems to be business as usual, until we reach the big "Yes I DO!" D5 falsetto at the end. You may recall, in the Barcelona performance of the song, it was clearly the first time Elton ever experienced falsetto difficulty and couldn't think of what to sing instead of the original phrasing, and resorted to a truly puzzling choice of just speaking it--albeit enthusiastically.
As far as what we have on tape, he had yet to struggle with this note again up until tonight. One of two things happened:
-One, something bad happened when he tried for the note the previous night (8/18 in Clarkston) that caused him to worry about doing it and he was too nervous to try it here as a result...or
-Two, something about his falsetto and voice so far did not feel right and he wasn't confident he could hit the note
As a result, he does a phrasing choice which is--in my opinion--worse than Barcelona and insanely underwhelming. He resorts to what is basically the lower phrasing he does at the end of each chorus after the "shine the liiii---iiight, Phil-a-delphia free-dom" line. It's about the worst replacement he could do for what is meant to be the "big finish" of the song, and once again one can conclude this was a split second decision based on difficulties he was still yet to understand or truly experience. He eventually works up to doing the Bb4 "yes I DO" phrasing, but it's very thin and weak.
Now "Burn Down The Mission" is very significant because it contains the first usage of the second part of the chorus' modified G4 phrasing that you hear in Sydney, and that he still does to this day. This song had yet to have him do anything like this, which leads me to believe this was not a split second decision and something he had to decide on previously. Granted he does try the normal phrasing on the final "it's our only chance of living", but it's not very strong. The rest of the song is sung as normal.
This show was the most conservative yet, after Barcelona which is admittedly (and hilariously) a bit stronger than this show. But there would be many more modified phrasings and far, far worse shows to come vocally.
Enjoy!