The Captain & the Kid
2006 studio album by Elton John
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The Captain & the Kid is the twenty-eighth studio album by British 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.
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 69/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [2] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [3] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A−[4] |
| The Independent | [5] |
| Los Angeles Times | [6] |
| PopMatters | 4/10[7] |
| Rolling Stone | [8] |
| This Is London | [9] |
| The Captain & the Kid | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 18 September 2006 | |||
| Recorded | Spring 2006 | |||
| Studio | Center Staging, Atlanta | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 45:59 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
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| Elton John chronology | ||||
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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 again 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.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Across the River Thames" | 4:31 |
| Total length: | 50:30 | |
Other bonus tracks
| Song | Availability |
|---|---|
| "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
- Elton John – lead vocals, acoustic piano
- Guy Babylon – keyboards
- Davey Johnstone – guitars, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, backing vocals
- Bob Birch – bass, backing vocals
- Nigel Olsson – drums, backing vocals
- John Mahon – percussion, backing vocals
- Matt Still – backing vocals
- Arthur – "woof-bells"[14][15]
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
- Produced by Elton John and Matt Still
- Recorded and Mixed by Matt Still
- Recording Assistant – Tom Rickert
- Mix Assistant – Dan Porter
- Recorded at Center Stage (Atlanta, GA)
- Mixed at Townhouse Studios (London, England)
- Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering (Portland, ME)
- Studio Coordinator – Adrian Collee
- Drum Technician – Chris Sobchack
- Guitar Technician – Rick Salazar
- Piano Tuner – Andy Williams
- Director of Ops – Bob Halley
- Cover Photography – Ryan McGinley
- Art Direction and Design – David Costa
- Management – Keith Bradley, Merck Mercuriadis and Frank Presland
Charts
| 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 Indie Store Album Sales (Billboard)[32] | 14 |
| US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[33] | 7 |
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[34] | Silver | 60,000^ |
|
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||