Elton John to Release Career Spanning Box Set
Elton John has been showing signs of tying up his career for the last few years now. Although his farewell tour may have met a bump in the road due to the pandemic, he is still determined to see things out right and will be releasing a career spanning eight CD box set titled “Elton: Jewel Box” on November 13.
The songs that appear on the album have been hand selected by the musician. They include rarities, demos, B-sides and fan favorites. To get fans excited about the box set, he dropped a previously unreleased 1969 rarity, “Sing Me No Sad Songs”. The song has a jangly minor progression and is characteristic of John’s music from that era.
John released the following statement concerning the box set. “To delve back through every period of my career in such detail for Jewel Box has been an absolute pleasure. Hearing these long lost tracks again, I find it hard to comprehend just how prolific [lyricist] Bernie [Taupin] and I were during the early days. The songs just poured out of us, and the band were just unbelievable in the studio.”
“I always want to push forward with everything I do and look to the future, but having time during lockdown to take stock and pull these moments from my memory from each era has been a joy,” he continued. “As a devout record collector myself, this project has really excited me, and I couldn’t be happier with the level of craft involved in such a carefully curated, lovingly constructed box set. I’m sure my fans will enjoy it as much as I have.”
The box set will be divided into four sections; Deep Cuts, Rarities, B Sides 1976-2005 and This is Me. The This is Me section includes the songs John mentioned by name in his 2019 memoir “Me”. The final song in the section is the Academy Award winning “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” which appeared in his biopic “Rocketman”.
The rarities section will be a special treat for hardcore fans. It begins with material recorded in 1965 with John’s band Bluesology. It then moves on to early solo songs co-written by Bernie Taupin including “Regimental Sgt. Zippo” and “Bonnie’s Gone Away”. Disc three has piano demos of well-known songs like “Burn Down the Mission” and “Madman Across the Water”.
The box set will be released in a variety of formats including an eight CD box set that comes with a hardcover book of photos and commentary by John. Other formats include a four, three and two LP sets. It will also be available in digital formats.
Although John was forced to postpone his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to the pandemic, he plans to pick it back up on Jan. 15, 2021 at Mt. Smart Stadium in New Zealand.
