Elton John - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: Rossia Concert Hall, Moscow, Russia, 5-28-1979

To be honest, I'm not that big of an Elton John fan. I think part of it is because I'm more into guitar based music than piano, especially acoustic guitar. But also, I think a lot of his stuff is overproduced. Add to that the fact that I've heard his hits many times on the radio and elsewhere and I'm a little tired of them.

But it occurred to me recently that if I could hear his music stripped down to just him playing alone on the piano, I might be able to hear his music in a new way and appreciate it more. So I went looking for that sort of thing and found this bootleg. He was the first major Western musical artist to play in Russia (then the Soviet Union) in 1979. He did a few shows in St. Petersburg and then a few in Moscow, and this is from one of the Moscow shows (at the Rossia Hotel Concert Hall, on May 28), in soundboard quality.

John is joined by a drummer halfway through the show, but the drumming is fairly restrained until the last few songs, where it's fun to end on some more lively numbers. All in all this is a great show that has caused me to appreciate his music a lot more. Its over two hours of him going through most of his famous 1970s songs.

By the way, this concert was officially released in 2019 as "Live from Moscow," though it was a limited "record store day" release.  However, this release is about 40 minutes shorter, and the sound quality is no better. So I've stuck with the bootleg version here.

01 Your Song (Elton John)
02 Sixty Years On (Elton John)
03 Daniel (Elton John)
04 Skyline Pigeon (Elton John)
05 Take Me to the Pilot (Elton John)
06 Rocket Man [I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time] (Elton John)
07 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Elton John)
08 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)
09 Roy Rogers (Elton John)
10 Candle in the Wind (Elton John)
11 Ego (Elton John)
12 Where to Now St. Peter (Elton John)
13 He'll Have to Go (Elton John)
14 I Heard It through the Grapevine (Elton John)
15 Funeral for a Friend (Elton John)
16 Tonight (Elton John)
17 Better Off Dead (Elton John)
18 Idol (Elton John)
19 I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself (Elton John)
20 I Feel like a Bullet [In the Gun of Robert Ford] (Elton John)
21 Bennie and the Jets (Elton John)
22 Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word (Elton John)
23 Part Time Love (Elton John)
24 Crazy Water (Elton John)
25 Song for Guy (Elton John)
26 Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting - Pinball Wizard (Elton John)
27 Crocodile Rock - Get Back - Back in the U.S.S.R. (Elton John)

https://www.imagenetz.de/hNKua

I made my own cover, using a photo of him playing in Moscow in that year.