Vinyl Record
Elton John - 17-11-70
Elton John - 17-11-70 on LP vinyl. A 1971 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.
LP ยท 1971
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 1971 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.
17-11-70 is the sound of Elton John before superstardom hardens into iconography. Recorded at A&R Recording Studios in New York for a radio broadcast on November 17, 1970 and released as his first live album in 1971, it captures a trio: Elton on piano, Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums. That setup is the whole point. There are no layers to hide behind, no spectacle to carry the room, only three musicians stretching early songs until they become bigger, rougher and more physical than their studio versions. The album opens with Bad Side of the Moon and quickly makes clear that this is not polite singer-songwriter documentation. Take Me to the Pilot is driven hard, Sixty Years On gains dramatic weight, and Honky Tonk Women lets the trio claim outside material as if it belongs to the same sweat-soaked set. Burn Down the Mission/My Baby Left Me/Get Back becomes the long closing release, part medley and part endurance test, where Elton's piano turns percussive and the band sounds almost reckless in the best way. Its importance has grown because it preserves a version of Elton that can be obscured by the later costumes, orchestration and cultural fame. Here he is a young performer proving force in real time, closer to Leon Russell fire and gospel-rock drive than to easy-listening caricature. The album also explains why the early American breakthrough happened so quickly: the songs were strong, but the live attack made them feel unavoidable. For a collection, it is not a side note. It is evidence.
17-11-70 matters because it documents the early Elton John trio at full live intensity, before the catalogue became enormous and before the public image became fixed. It reached the album charts and helped show that Elton was not only a studio songwriter with a remarkable voice, but a commanding live pianist and bandleader. It is one of the cleanest ways to hear the engine beneath the early records.
This is essential for collectors who want Elton John as a live musician, not just a studio artist. It belongs beside Elton John and Tumbleweed Connection as part of the breakthrough story, but it hits with a rawness those albums only imply. The appeal is performance rather than packaging myth: a compact live document where the piano, bass and drums make the case without decoration.
Raw early-1970s live piano rock with trio attack, gospel-blues drive, extended medleys and a hard percussive edge from Elton's playing.
Recommended for: Collectors interested in Elton John's early live power; Fans of stripped-down piano trios with rock intensity; Listeners who want the bridge between the early studio albums and the stage.
What year was 17-11-70 released? 17-11-70 was released in 1971. Why is the album called 17-11-70? The title uses the date of the New York radio-broadcast performance, November 17, 1970, in day-month-year order. What makes 17-11-70 different from Elton John's studio albums? It presents Elton with Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson as a live trio, giving the songs a rawer, more forceful piano-rock energy.