Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
Live at the Palau dels Esports in Barcelona, Spain
March 4, 1986
If I'm going to keep showing clips and giving the timeline/story about Elton John's vocal nodules, it would make sense to go back towards the beginning of the story right?
Here we are, third night into the European "Ice On Fire" tour. As far as we can tell, things had been going alright--Elton opened the tour with the continuation of his excellent "prime live" vocals from the 1985-86 block of shows. And especially considering he had just had a day off from concerts, the show in Barcelona should be another vocal success.
That is, of course, until the show actually started, and right from the second song there was something the matter. Elton went for one of his trademark falsettos in the song "One Horse Town" and...he failed. His voice broke as soon as he landed on the note-which he barely landed on for the half-second he was on it, and he quickly had to improvise the rest of the line.
His voice itself didn't sound all that impacted, no noticeable shift in timbre or hoarseness, but whatever he felt when he went for that first initial falsetto left him uneasy enough to not just cut them from the song for that night, but for every performance on the tour from then on. Something he had yet to do to this extreme in his concert career.
The problems didn't end there. He started to have problems all over the place, especially in songs with falsetto bits. "Rocket Man" gave him a ton of issues, he removed the regular phrasing from the end of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight", "Bennie and the Jets" he skipped every single falsetto...
And then there's the usual "Philadelphia Freedom". Now much of the song is deceitfully normal sounding unless you listen very closely. But there are some things skipped and this is surprisingly significant. He first sings conservatively on "whippoorwill OF freedom", skipping the Bb4, and then there's the "Yes I DO" big ending which...let's just say the ending of the song on this tape has become infamous.
In the 11 years Elton had played this song, regardless of whether he was ill or vocally tired, Elton never backed off a single falsetto or even a high note in this song, or any song. This concert nowadays isn't necessarily shocking, but if you put it in context, it's significance becomes extremely apparent.
Having never backed off the ending of "Philadelphia Freedom" and always without fail hitting that D5, in sickness or in health, Elton had no plan B for what to do on this song should his voice fail him--because it simply never had. Faced with a split second, in the moment decision, he sings what is some of the most confusing phrasing in the song's history, and has become a legendary moment from this tape for the sheer ridiculousness of it.
This show caught Elton completely off guard. This man had never cancelled for "laryngitis", and even when he did have the flu or a strained voice onstage he went for all the highs and falsettos.
Although things would get better after this show, this was the first sign of what was to become one of the most significant events in his entire career.
So anyway enjoy this weird ass performance. I think he was stoned or something idk.