Elton John
Live at the Pine Knob Music Theatre
Clarkston, MI - August 17, 1986
After finishing off the European leg of his "Ice On Fire" tour in April 1986, Elton took a four month break to work on the album "Leather Jackets", an album that has become well known for being something of a...shall we say, train-wreck.
In the brief span of March 1 to April 26 of 1986, Elton experienced noticeable changes in his voice that went largely ignored. The first signs were a weakening in his falsetto abilities, some changes in his vocal range, and inconsistent vocal stamina. Then, through the course of April, the timbre of his voice began to change from the high and resonant tenor he had been, to a deeper and huskier baritone. As a result, certain songs began to have higher bits removed, with different and easier phrasing replacing it.
The reason for this was Elton's recently acquired pot-smoking habit, something he was doing way too much of--including before singing. This caused the initial vocal inconsistencies, and later likely led to vocal scarring/trauma which caused the timbre change. This is very audibly apparent on the tracks recorded for "Leather Jackets", where Elton's voice is clearly far more ragged and husky than the previous album "Ice On Fire".
Now you'd think with 4 months off from touring things would've improved, but somehow they only got worse. Elton had never been one to cancel a concert for something like 'laryngitis', there were really only ever cancellations due to bouts of illness, such as the flu. And even when ill he'd still be able to sing through his concert sets without much of his vocal ability being sacrificed.
But when the USA leg of the tour was meant to begin on August 15 in Clarkston, MI--for the first time--Elton had to cancel due to 'laryngitis'. Eventually the second concert on the 16th had to be cancelled as well.
The press claimed Elton had been singing in an airport hangar for a music video and lost his voice then...which is clearly made up as there doesn't appear to be any such music video in existence, and he would've been lip syncing when shooting a music video anyway.
The truth was that Elton's vocal condition, over the span of his four months off, had taken a turn for the worse and he had begun to develop nodules on his vocal cords. Not knowing this at the time, he'd eventually begin the tour and solider on, experience significant difficulties that would lead to him finally getting a proper diagnosis of vocal nodules in early September.
Finally, with his voice in stable enough condition to begin, the tour opened on August 17, 1986, finally giving a concert at the place he'd just had to cancel twice.
The tape sadly misses the first handful of songs, and it cuts in right before "Philadelphia Freedom" starts. For what its worth, Elton is in pretty good shape at this show considering the state his voice must've been in to cancel. However, there's plenty of signs of his vocal condition having been further weakened since our last tape recorded in April.
His voice has become a bit thinner, and falsetto has become more thin and "airy" sounding--plenty of moments where they sound really rough. Also the number of 'angry bird' notes have increased a bit on many of the songs, notably "I'm Still Standing".
Despite some of these struggles he still goes for most of the high notes, and even adds back in some things he'd not been doing regularly in Europe. Most notably he does a couple of the "Bennie and the Jets" falsettos that had long been gone, and some of the A4s at the end of "Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting". "Philadelphia Freedom" is the final version to have all falsettos on "Yes I DO" (although it's the modified phrasing from Europe where he does one D5, and the rest are Bb4s). "Burn Down The Mission" has him singing the normal phrasing, but his voice sounds like it kind of disappears during the falsetto sections. "Someone Saved..." has a lot of moments where he sounds like he's having a really tough time. And theres plenty of other sections with noticeable vocal struggles.
There's one very notable moment--"Saturday Nights Alright..." the instrumental break and final chorus are cut and he goes right into the "SATURDAY SATURDAY" chanting after the second chorus. He clearly catches a lot of the band and backup vocalists off-guard. This decision was likely based on vocal struggles.
Anyway! It's a really interesting show. Enjoy! Leave anything you notice of interest in the comments!
I've posted a clip from this concert before but have noticed that, among the wealth of concert recordings shared recently--particularly tapes from 1986--this one was absent among the bunch! So I've decided to post my personal copy.
Please note as it is my personal copy that I did a lot of adjusting on the sound quality to bring out more clarity in the details that were important to me, mainly hearing Elton's vocals. So if it sounds different from your copy thats why!