Oil Well Bootlegs - RSC CD: Elton John - Get Out Of This Town

Elton John - Get Out Of This Town
Oil Well RSC CD 090

1 The Tide Will Turn For Rebecca 3:30
2 Sitting Doing Nothing 2:43
3 When The First Tear Shows 3:03
4 Thank You For All Your Loving 3:27
5 Get Out Of This Town (Instr.) 3:09
6 Tartan Coloured Lady 4:00
7 Angel Tree 2:05
8 Turn To Me 3:21
9 I Can't Go On Living Without You 2:58
10 71/75 New Oxford Street (Instr.) 3:07
11 When I Was Tealby Abbey 2:40
12 And The Clock Goes Round 3:09
13 Regimental Sgt. Zippo 4:30
14 A Dandelion Dies In The Wind 3:15
15 You'll Be Sorry To See Me Go 2:48
16 Come Down In Time 1:28
Total duration: 50:42

Notes:

All songs by Bernie Taupin/ Elton John unless noted
Live in Birmingham , UK - 3 March 1969

Tracks 1,3,5,9,10,16 from unreleased album "I've Been Loving You" recorded in 1968
Track 2 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - March 7, 1968 (take 4)
Track 4 recorded in July 1968
Track 6 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - February 16, 1968 (take 11)
Track 7 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - January 11, 1968 & 19th
Track 8 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - March 10, 1968 (take 10)
Track 11 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - April 5, 1968 (take 7)
Track 12 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - April 4, 1968 (take 3)
Track 13 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - May 20, 1968 (take 2)
Track 14 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - March 10, 1968 (take 2)
Track 15 recorded Dick James Studios, 71-75 New Oxford Street, London - April 4, 1968 (take 3)

Lineup

Elton John - Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Harpsichord, Lead and Backing Vocals

Caleb Quaye: Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Flute, Percussion, Backing Vocals

Dee Murray: Bass, Backing Vocals

Dave Hynes: Drums, Backing Vocals

Paul Fenoulhet Orchestra – arranged by Zack Laurence

This bootleg is a digital copy of: Dick James Demos Vol. 1 - Yellow Dog Records (1992)

This album contains studio demo versions of songs for music publisher Dick James Music on 3CD from the period 1967/68 and never published, with the exception of Come Down In Time.
This rare album is a straight re-issue of the "Dick James Demos" material in excellent quality.
Oil Well label released in 1995 all the three volumes of Dick James Demos
Written-By – E. John* (tracks: 5, 10), B. Taupin/E. John* (tracks: 1 to 4, 6 to 9, 11 to 16)
On the quantity of Elton's bootleg CDs compared to other artists, the discourse made for the LPs is very few, ie they are very few in proportion to the available material, Dick James Demo Vol 1,2,3 are three of the best known bootlegs of Elton John with the concert at Hammersmith Odeon in London 1973.

Audio quality:
Quality content:

© Official released material:

Tracks 2,3,6,8,9,13 have been released officially on: Jewel Box (2020)

Tracks 2,7,8,11,12,13,14,15 have been released officially on: Regimental Sgt. Zippo (2021)

Track 16 has been released officially on: Tumbleweed Connection 2008 deluxe edition

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Elton John and Dick Jame's DJM Records
Dick James Music Records (DJM Records) was a British record label, founded in 1969 by Dick James. It was distributed by Pye Records in England and by other labels in various parts of the world. It is known for having contracted Elton John since the beginning of his career; in fact, when the Pinner pianist was still a stranger, he still signed dozens of songs for other artists like Roger Cook and Lulu; later, however, noting their potential, the record company released some singles (I've Been Loving You, the first single by the name of Elton John, Lady Samantha and It's Me That You Need) and a debut album, Empty Sky (1969) : still unripe, made with few resources and without a real producer (Steve Brown was a DJM technician), he didn't get any commercial feedback. But it already shows a certain compositional talent and receives praise from critics; thus, Dick James Music decides to offer a second chance to Elton and Bernie, publishing the album Elton John in 1970 and signing Gus Dudgeon; since then, Elton experienced an unstoppable worldwide success, and DJM Records released (but not in the United States and Canada, where MCA Records operated) LPs like Tumbleweed Connection (1970), Madman Across the Water (1971), Honky Château ( 1972), Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1972), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975). The last record of the rock star published by the record company was the live Here and There, from 1976: in that year, in fact, John signed with Rocket Records, a label he owned.

Dick James Music Records also signed on to Dave Sealy (his song It Takes A Thief is the first single released by the record company), Roger Hodgson (before joining the Supertramp, he had published, on behalf of Argosy, the single Imagine / Mr Boyd with this label), Mr. Bloe, Danny Kirwan of Fleetwood Mac, the Tremeloes, Dennis Waterman and Johnny "Guitar" Watson, as well as several collaborators of Elton John.

Ray Williams the man who discovered Elton John before he became an international superstar.
The music producer will be an important character in the Elton musical biopic Rocketman, but how did he discover Elton and how long did he manage him for? Here's all the important facts you need to know: Ray Williams is an A&R music producer and publisher. He is best known as the man who discovered Elton John, and introduced him to lyricist Bernie Taupin. Williams has since been a major figure in the music and film industry ever since, and has worked as as a press agent, A&R head, artist manager, film music producer, and publisher. In film, he was the music supervisor of films such as The Last Emperor, Absolute Beginners and Naked Lunch. In the 1960s, Williams started his career by working with Cathy McGowan, who presented Ready Steady Go!

He also worked as a press agent for several artists such as Sonny & Cher, Cream, Robert Stigwood, and for Brian Epstein's Saville Theatre. He eventually became head of the A&R department for Liberty Records, where he signed then-new artists such as Jeff Lynne (ELO), The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Mike Batt, among others. He also helped launch the career of Gerry Rafferty and his band Stealers Wheel.

How did he discover Elton John?
On June 17, 1967, when Ray was just 20, he put an advert into the New Musical Express, reading: "Liberty wants talent. Artists/composers/singers/musicians to form a new group."
After thousands of applications, Elton came along going by his real name Reg Dwight. Ray later described Elton as "a bit fat, a bit forlorn-looking" when he walked into his office.

Ray told the Daily Mail: "Elton came along. I always remember a sentence that he used: 'I feel lost'. He just didn't know what to do. He was frustrated very much by the fact he was only a backing singer and a piano player."I had a piano in my office and asked him to go and play. He had a great voice and he was a great piano player but he couldn't write, he had no ability to write lyrics."
Ray then encouraged Elton to record a demo, but was unable to persuade his record label to sign him. He then gave Elton some lyrics that he had received from another applicant, a poet from Lincolnshire called Bernie Taupin. He said: "I can recall his letter saying 'I'm essentially a poet, but I think my lyrics could work with music'. So I sent back a note saying come and meet me. In the meantime we had made some demos with Elton and then I gave Elton his lyrics, they were just abstract and I didn't quite understand them but Bernie had something."
Bernie then went to London where Ray set up a meeting for him with Elton.
The rest is history...

Regimental Sgt. Zippo - In Detail

Elton John’s debut album in the UK, 'Empty Sky', was released in 1969. American fans had to wait another year to buy an Elton LP when his eponymous effort was issued. With the release of 'Regimental Sgt. Zippo' on Record Store Day 2021, the beginning of Elton's five-decade-long catalog is backed up by one year. By John F. Higgins

It was during the intense research phase for last year’s Jewel Box box set Rarities items that the hidden history of Regimental Sgt. Zippo came into focus. In late 1967 and early 1968, the year before Empty Sky was released, twelve songs were recorded and organized onto two LP sides for intended release as Elton's introduction to the world.However, it was not to be.

As graphic designer David Larkham recalls, “[Then-manager] Steve Brown would have said to Dick James, ‘Give these guys a little more slack other than just as songwriters in the ‘moon and June’ genre that you’re looking for because they do have other things to say.’ And then a bit later he may have said to Elton and Bernie, ‘Let’s shelve this album and see what you can come up with, and let me produce the next album.' Which turned out to be Empty Sky.”

Three of the twelve songs on the unreleased 1968 LP were actually included, in their final version, on Jewel Box last year. The box set also contains eight more RSZ titles, but in the form of early demos or previous incarnations (there is also one alternate mix). The remaining song, You’ll Be Sorry To See Me Go, has its official debut with the Record Store Day drop.

The earliest known activity for a song on Regimental Sgt. Zippo was the recording of the demo for Nina on November 3, 1967, a mere month after the release of Bluesology’s third and final single (Since I Found You Baby) and a full week before Elton and Bernie signed their first publishing deal with Dick James.

On the 15th of that month (so now five days into the songwriting team working on the clock, as opposed to skulking around the 1st-floor studios in the dead of night to capture their steadily growing volume of work before the famed publisher's staff became wise), Elton, producer/guitarist Caleb Quaye, and the musicians mentioned below picked up their instruments and fired up the four-track tape machine to cut the full-band version of Nina. At some point after, strings were added to the track, and the project was launched. "Regimental Sgt. Zippo was put together as an album, it wasn’t just a pile of demos", says Larkham.

Elton’s studio work that year was not yet done. In amidst demo-ing and developing a number of other John/Taupin compositions, Elton – or, more accurately, someone at the Dick James office – registered Angel Tree with the UK copyright office on December 13, quite possibly at the very same moment the demo was being recorded. As an intriguing point of reference, Elton sang backing vocals for the Tom Jones hit Delilah the following week. The version of Angel Tree heard on RSZ was recorded on January 11, 1968, with the backing vocals tracked on the 19th, during the same session as the orchestration for Elton’s first single, I’ve Been Loving You, was recorded.

Busy days indeed: in March and April of 1968, he recorded the bulk of RSZ as well as a handful of other new songs, released I’ve Been Loving You, and played his first club performance under his own name on April 30 at the Marquee Club in London. 20 days later, the album's title track, evoking not only the Beatles' mind-blowing Sgt. Pepper album but also Elton’s birth name, “Reg”, and the fact that his father was a regimented military man, was tracked and the sessions were complete.

And that is where the story ended...for 53 years. Until now. Finally, “the album that never was”, as Elton calls it, has a home on the Record Store Day shelves and in fans' collections.
https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/regimental-sgt.-zippo-in-detail