Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
Live at the Omni in Atlanta, GA
September 16, 1986
Just 8 days prior to this concert on 9/8, Elton gave a disastrous performance in Philadelphia that had his voice in such bad shape that he offered the audience their money back. He admitted he'd yet to be 100% on the tour so far. This is very true, because although the first small handful of shows had a decent night here and there, in the 10 days leading up to the Philadelphia show his voice was on a steady and intense decline.
Shaken by what happened on the 8th, within the next two days Elton finally went to a throat specialist and received the news that he was developing vocal nodules, with little-to-no time before his four night stand at Madison Square Garden. By some miracle, likely steroid treatment, he made a shocking recovery in time for his opening on 9/11/1986 and the first three nights were a resounding success, from a vocal standpoint most definitely.
And then, on 9/14/1986, his luck ran out. The nature of vocal nodules can be that, even without steroids, you can still have an occasional good day--or even a string of decent ones--but what can sometimes happen is you will go to bed one night, voice still working in your favor, and wake up hardly able to speak, let alone sing, the next morning. Elton was dealt this major blow on his final night of the four night run, and turned in what is tied with only one other show for being the worst vocal performance of his entire career.
Thankfully he had off on 9/15. Intensive vocal care/rest was really his only hope to get his voice back in any sort of shape for a concert he was to give on 9/16 in Atlanta, GA.
So what does he do?
He goes on Howard Stern, and sings this:
• Elton John - Why Isn't...
Recovery was not looking great for Elton. It was almost as if he was egging his own vocal cords on, daring them to continue defying him by doing things like the above.
At any rate, 9/16 rolls around. And, of course, the man with nodules who could barely sing two days prior and didn't rest his voice properly in-between, begins his concert and--to the shock of absolutely no one--is still having pretty noticeable vocal difficulties.
To be fair to him: it wasn't as bad as 9/14, and his voice eventually loosened up a little bit as the night went on, but it was not what you would call a "recovery", and it only made his situation worse in the long run.
But what is MOST baffling in this tape is very aptly showcased in several sections in his performance of "Philadelphia Freedom"--and this is something that continues to happen on a couple subsequent tapes--he mind-bogglingly insists on trying for notes and vocal lines he should know he couldn't hit. In particular the falsettos. In many situations when you're vocally compromised the falsetto is one of the first things to become extremely difficult to use. And what makes this insistence to do it even more confusing is he had been experiencing a steady decline in the abilities of his falsetto since the European leg back in March and April!
Anyway, this clip is a continued fascinating look not only into the story and progression of Elton's vocal decline, but an amazing study into singing with nodules in general. Enjoy!