The Captain & the Kid

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

The Captain & the Kid
Captainkid.jpg
Studio album by
Released18 September 2006
RecordedSpring 2006
StudioCenter Staging, Atlanta
Genre Rock
Length45:59
Label
Producer
  • Elton John
  • Matt Still
Elton John chronology
Peachtree Road
(2004)
The Captain & the Kid
(2006)
Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits
(2007)

The Captain & the Kid is the twenty-eighth studio album by English musician Elton John, released in 2006. It is his second autobiographical album with lyricist Bernie Taupin, picking up where Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) left off. The Captain & the Kid chronicles the events in their lives over the intervening three decades.

Contents

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 69/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]
Entertainment Weekly A− [4]
The Independent Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]
PopMatters 4/10 [7]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [8]
This Is LondonStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [9]

The Captain & the Kid reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart, a considerable improvement over the performance of John's preceding Peachtree Road in 2004, which peaked at No. 21. Captain reached No. 18 on the US Billboard 200, before quickly falling off the charts. At concerts in early 2007, John made clear his dissatisfaction with Interscope Records' promotion of the album, having threatened to terminate his contract with the label and because of that, John did not release a solo album until 2013's The Diving Board .

Background

According to Bernie Taupin, Elton John's manager at the time, Merck Mercuriadis, suggested in 2005 that John and Taupin write a follow-up to Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy. [10]

Interscope Records announced that there would be no physical single released from this album as the emphasis was on presenting the album as a body of work, making the album his third after Tumbleweed Connection and Leather Jackets to lack any Top 40 singles on the UK singles chart (as John, during that time, still hit the Top 40 in the US Adult Contemporary chart). [11] [12]

However, a radio single would be released in "The Bridge". The album's booklet has photos of John and Taupin all throughout their career, and in the lyrics section, two songs are included, "Across the River Thames" and "12", which do not appear on the album. "Across the River Thames" was available as a free download to anyone who played the CD on a computer. The song "And the House Fell Down" is based (metaphorically) on the story The Three Little Pigs . [13] This is the first album recorded by John and Taupin to show them together on the front cover.

It was also the last studio album to feature Guy Babylon on keyboards; he died in 2009. This was also Bob Birch's last appearance on any of John's solo studio albums before his own death in August 2012 (Birch last appeared on the Gnomeo and Juliet soundtrack).

Track listing

All tracks are written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Postcards from Richard Nixon"5:15
2."Just Like Noah's Ark"5:33
3."Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (NYC)"4:38
4."Tinderbox"4:25
5."And the House Fell Down"4:48
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."Blues Never Fade Away"4:45
7."The Bridge"3:38
8."I Must Have Lost It on the Wind"3:53
9."Old '67"4:01
10."The Captain and the Kid"5:03
Total length:45:59
UK bonus track and download
No.TitleLength
11."Across the River Thames"4:31
Total length:50:30

Other bonus tracks

SongAvailability
"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" (live) Best Buy (CD included download link)/iTunes
"We All Fall in Love Sometimes/Curtains" (live)Best Buy (CD included download link)
"Tell Me When the Whistle Blows" (live) iTunes
"(Gotta Get a) Meal Ticket" (live)iTunes
"Better Off Dead" (live)iTunes

Personnel

Musicians

Producer Matt Still noted during an interview that in "Just Like Noah's Ark", John's black and white spaniel dog Arthur "barked in the middle of [the recording], because John Mahon was playing a cowbell, and the cowbell freaked him out. So he ran over to John and started barking at him right in the middle of a take. It's funny, just randomly he happened to hit the beats and he barked in time. So I recorded it and we actually kept him in there."

The sampled "woof-bells" can be heard in place of the cowbell on the track.

Production

Charts

Chart performance for The Captain & the Kid
Chart (2006)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [16] 37
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [17] 37
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [18] 99
Danish Albums (Hitlisten) [19] 26
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [20] 43
French Albums (SNEP) [21] 56
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [22] 25
Italian Albums (FIMI) [23] 21
Japanese Albums Chart [24] 100
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [25] 10
Scottish Albums (OCC) [26] 8
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [27] 52
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [28] 27
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [29] 10
UK Albums (OCC) [30] 6
US Billboard 200 [31] 18
US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard) [32] 14
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard) [33] 7

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [34] Silver60,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Related Research Articles

<i>Peachtree Road</i> (album) 2004 studio album by Elton John

Peachtree Road is the twenty-seventh studio album by English musician Elton John, released on 9 November 2004. The album was named after Peachtree Road, the northern part of Peachtree Street in Atlanta, where one of John's four homes is located. This is the only album during his long career on which John has sole credit as producer, although on some previous projects he was listed as a co-producer, with Clive Franks, or Greg Penny. It was recorded in January 2004.

<i>Madman Across the Water</i> 1971 album by Elton John

Madman Across the Water is the fourth studio album by English musician Elton John, released on 5 November 1971 by DJM and Uni Records. The album was his third album to be released in 1971, at which point John had been rising to prominence as a popular music artist. John's first progressive rock album, Madman Across the Water contains nine tracks, each composed and performed by John and with lyrics written by songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman plays Hammond organ on two songs.

<i>Honky Château</i> 1972 studio album by Elton John

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<i>Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy</i> 1975 studio album by Elton John

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy is the ninth studio album by English musician Elton John, released on 23 May 1975 by DJM Records in the UK and MCA Records in the US. The album is an autobiographical account of the early musical careers of Elton John and his long-term lyricist Bernie Taupin. An instant commercial success, the album was certified gold before its release, and reached No. 1 in its first week of release on the US Billboard 200, the first album to achieve both honours. It sold 1.4 million copies within four days of release, and stayed in the top position in the chart for seven weeks.

<i>Rock of the Westies</i> 1975 studio album by Elton John

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<i>Leather Jackets</i> (album) 1986 studio album by Elton John

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