Elton John – Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy

Tested this against the remastered copy by Bob Ludwig. This wins hands down. I guess my copy of a rather old copy and is noisy. This is such an alive copy. The reissue sounds dead when compared to it.

A couple I once knew introduced me to the album in the early ‘90’s. As a teenager in the eighties, I thought Elton was the devil (sorry Elton) as I hated his records from the ‘80’s. My friends insisted that I listen - I was blown away, I couldn’t believe how good this album is.
I started looking for it and found it almost immediately in a record shop in Belfast called Hector’s House (now long gone). I picked up a mint first edition (with the dark red vinyl) with all the inserts for 5 English pounds. I could hardly believe my luck.
The album is one of my all time favorites - and I’m a Velvet Underground/Captain Beefheart fanatic! I love everything about the album. The album is so good. Other people who have written reviews have done far better than I ever could, but what I will say is that Elton’s voice/singing on the album is astounding. He’s singing round this era (and his voice in general) is very underrated. The guy can sing like an angel.
If you have heard the greatest hits albums and want somewhere to start in Elton’s huge catalog, then start here. This is Elton’s greatest album, and Bernie’s lyrics are a huge part of the album’s success.
Highly recommended.

This is not a great copy of this record. Mine was too noisy, and it is not very dynamic.

This is an incredibly present record full of detail with a deep sound stage. Unfortunately, my copy has some pretty extreme inner groove distortion, which is a drag since it affects "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," which is one of Elton's very best. As a whole, I'd say this is his second best LP after the similarly conceptual 'Tumbleweed Connection'.

Fabulous pressing, dynamic, detailed and rich in tone. The packaging. Booklets etc are terrific too if you can find a complete copy

My favourite Elton album. The sound quality of the A1/B1 is spectacular. Very open and airy.

You have to be careful with this one. Later post-1975 issues are also identified as 'DJLPX' with higher A/B numbers on the deadwax, but the record is black, not translucent red, and it doesn't sound as good as the A1/B1.

This pressing is pretty good, but by no means audiophile grade. I hear a lot of folks yammer on about only first pressings sound truly great, and maybe that’s true, but it’s not automatically true, and certainly not in this case. That said, I really enjoy this one because I owned it when it was first released and it brings me back to my childhood. Great album! By the way I noticed zero compression on this. Big dynamic range

This master is bright and lively without overdoing it. Admittedly, I have not heard the 2004 SACD, but I think this is probably the best this has ever sounded digitally.

My copy has MCA 734 -1C stamped on side one in the runout and MCA 735 -1C stamped on side two. Blue rainbow MCA label on disc. Also has MCA-3009 printed in the upper right corner of the back. Can't find a version with exactly these identifiers, this is the closest.

This is a nice 70's album by Elton John and sounds great. The sound is analog warm and soft crisp.