Elton John
Live at The Wiener Stadthalle
Vienna, Austra - April 20, 1986
Afternoon & Evening Shows
Over the span of about seven weeks on the European "Ice On Fire" Tour, Elton had experienced significant changes to his voice. Having been an unstoppable vocal powerhouse since 1979, almost as soon as the tour began he started to find his voice harder to navigate--particularly certain higher notes and especially many falsetto bits. As the tour progressed he had to learn to adapt to whatever it was that was happening, but clearly he didn't think much of it as he continued as if everything was normal.
As we've established, the vocal issues he was experiencing, which would later turn into vocal nodules by September of 1986, were a result of his pot smoking habit. Elton admitted in later years he smoked pot to excess during this period, and this likely included before going onstage to sing. The doctor he saw in Australia at the end of 1986, who performed the nodule removal operation, explained to him that the pot smoking was the cause of his nodule development. This is due to his having continued to use his voice while it was impacted by the effects of the marijuana smoking--which can lead to vocal strain, difficulty singing and loss of range, and a change in vocal timbre or sound, at times as a result of vocal trauma/scarring.
Sometime in April, he very likely experienced a case of vocal trauma/scarring, as by the end of the tour his usually strong, resonant tenor would change to a deeper, husky baritone sound. Unfortunately, due to a lack of recorded performances, it's hard to pin down exactly when this may have occurred.
Coming to the end of the tour, Elton was all set to play two dates in Vienna on April 19 and April 20. That is, until, the stadium they were set to play had a bomb threat or scare, which caused a cancellation of the show on the 19th.
Rather than disappoint his fans, it was decided that the show on the 19th would instead be played on the 20th...alongside the already booked concert on that date as well. Meaning that Elton would be performing his full concert set in both the afternoon, and the evening of April 20. Something that, if documentation is accurate, Elton had not done very often in the past, minus maybe a couple exceptions.
It is, of course, almost comedically ironic that the first time he would have to sing a full 2-hour set twice in the same day came in the midst of his vocal downfall.
It's been established that as early as Berlin on April 1 he still had the classic prime Elton sound he'd had for the last 6 or so years. This is the next tape we have, and it's very quickly apparent that the characteristics of the deeper/huskier voice have begun to settle in. There's much harsher phrasing heard here and there, the presence of his tendency to growl out/"angry bird" many of the high notes is becoming more common place.
But with all of this, I'd say these shows from a vocal timbre standpoint are more of a mixed bag of characteristics of the damaged voice, and the prior healthier timbre as you can hear bits of each through out. I'd say the dominant sound is the deeper/huskier sound, but its totally within reason to say there's a little bit of the prime tone hidden there somewhere.
These shows also reveal just how early on many vocal things had been removed from the set. "Rocket Man" has lost a majority of the falsetto portions, as has "Bennie and the Jets" (although these had been long gone).
Now in terms of vocal strength/consistency, considering everything that was happening to his voice, he actually makes it through the two shows pretty decently. But with that said, there are plenty of moments of his voice sounding very tired in both shows, and weak vocal sections can be heard through out. The shows can both be consistent and inconsistent all at once, and it's hard to say one show is better than the other because of this.
What can be said is that singing for 4 hours when your voice has spent the past month and a half in an impacted state is not wise, and although he didn't have another show until April 23, by April 24 the voice had more or less permanently shifted in the deeper and huskier voice--and far more so than it had on this tape.
Considering their placement in the tour and everything that happened with his voice both before and afterward, these shows are an essential piece of studying the timeline of Elton's vocal downfall that year and are very worth a listen to pick up on the changes.
These tapes have had their sounded edited rather significantly by me for personal purposes, and as such there may be some choices quality-wise that may not be to everyones liking. These were done with the intention of bringing out the ability to hear clearer details in Elton's singing, and this is done at the expense of some possible hiss or some slight harshness here and there. However, these are an undeniable improvement on the original.
Enjoy! And please leave your thoughts below!