Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Elton John Available Now
You don’t need tube equipment to hear the prodigious amounts of Tubey Magic that exist on Tumbleweed Connection. For those of you who’ve experienced top quality analog pressings of Meddle or Dark Side of the Moon, or practically any jazz album on Contemporary, whether played through tubes or transistors, that’s the luscious sound of Tubey Magic, and it is all over Elton John’s Masterpiece, Tumbleweed Connection
Ranked strictly in terms of Tubey Magic, I would have to put Tumbleweed Connection on our list of Most Tubey Magical Rock Recordings of All Time, right up there with, in alphabetical order (limited to one album per artist or band):
- The Beatles / Sgt. Peppers (1967)
- David Bowie / Ziggy Stardust (1972)
- Dire Straits / Self-Titled (1977, and clearly the outlier in this group)
- The Doors / Self-Titled (1967)
- The Eagles / Self-Titled (1972)
- Pink Floyd / Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
- Cat Stevens / Tea for the Tillerman (1970)
- Ten Years After / A Space in Time (1970)
- The Who / Tommy (1969)
This has to be one of the best sounding rock records of all time — certainly worthy of a Top Ten spot on our Top 100 list. Engineered by Robin Geoffrey Cable at Trident, there is no other Elton John recording that is as rich, big, powerful and dynamic as Tumbleweed Connection. (Honky Chateau, the Self-Titled album and Madman Across the Water would not be far behind. All are amazingly good sounding Rock Demo Discs that — on the right pressings of course — will more than likely put to shame 99% of the records you own.)
Many of the albums you see here played an important role in helping me improve my stereo [1], some of them starting as far back as the mid-70s.