Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John and Bernie Taupin's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road became a double album after sessions at the Château d'Hérouville in France. “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” opens with an extended instrumental passage before the band arrives at a much harder rock sound.

The sequence moves through the title song's longing, the character portrait of “Bennie and the Jets” and the barroom force of “Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting.” Elton's touring band helps connect those different styles. The arrangements change frequently, but the piano and the group's playing keep the record recognisable from one side to the next.