Madman Across The Water Anniversary Edition: A Guide

June 10 marks the release of the “Madman Across The Water” Anniversary Edition

In addition to the original 1972 album’s nine songs, there are 24 audio tracks, 16 of which have never been officially issued before, and two performance videos, both making their debut appearance on an Elton release. This is also the first time that Elton has released the entire Madman Across The Water album in demo form.

By John F. Higgins

A guide to the ‘Madman Across The Water’ Anniversary Edition extra tracks:

Never before released…

Levon (Mono Single Version)
Rock Me When He’s Gone Madman Across The Water
Tiny Dancer (Piano Demo)*
Levon (Piano Demo)*
Madman Across The Water (1971 Piano Demo)*
Indian Sunset (Piano Demo)*
Rotten Peaches (Piano Demo)*
Goodbye (Piano Demo)*
Rock Me When He’s Gone (Piano Demo)*

* Kindly supplied to the Anniversary Edition by collectors Brendan Glover and Peter Thomas.

Tiny Dancer
Rotten Peaches
Razor Face
Holiday Inn
Indian Sunset
Levon
Madman Across The Water
Goodbye

Audio from the BBC Sounds For Saturday program, broadcast on BBC2 Saturday, April 29, 1972.

Previously released…

Indian Sunset (Live Radio Broadcast) – First time on CD and streaming.
Razor Face (Extended Version) – Only available before on the 5.1 mix of Madman Across The Water (2004), now in stereo for everyone to enjoy!
Madman Across The Water (Original Version, feat. Mick Ronson)
Rock Me When He’s Gone
Madman Across The Water (1970 Piano Demo)
Razor Face (Piano Demo)
Holiday Inn (Piano Demo)
All The Nasties (Piano Demo)

Elton John collector Peter Thomas, owner and founder of PMC Speakers, spoke with us about the contributions he made to the ‘Madman Across The Water’ Anniversary Edition, including seven never-before-released demos (three of which have never even escaped on a bootleg)!

The first two Madman.. demos I came across were Holiday Inn and All The Nasties. I acquired those from a guy who had worked at Dick James Music. This was in about ’79. I always remember getting Holiday Inn because it had that extra verse in it that had never been heard before. “The TV don’t work and the French fries are cold”. I loved that.

Peter Thomas (owner and founder of PMC Speakers) holding the 'Madman Across The Water' Anniversary Edition.

Elton John collector Peter Thomas spoke with us about the contributions he made to the ‘Madman Across The Water’ Anniversary Edition, including seven never-before-released demos (three of which have never even escaped on a bootleg).

All the others I found because there was a program on BBC Radio One about Trident Studios. So these, and other, demos sort of came out of the woodwork. My phone rang. I had made it pretty clear when I was working at the BBC that I was a big fan of Elton’s. I spent most of the first three or four years working there trawling through their archives to try and find these sessions that had been erased…and then tracking down the producers and engineers who had worked on them to see if they had kept a copy. And for one session, they did. This ultimately led to me being involved with the Elton at the Beeb program showcasing the Radio 1 sessions.

Peter Thomas's copy of the Madman Across The Water demos.

It was quite an exciting period. Everyone got to know me, especially Radio 1. I was an Elton John fan and I was looking for stuff. So I just got a call from one of the technical operators of the Trident programme; I just knew him and he said “There’s going to be a programme on Trident and there’s a guy who’s bringing in a lot of Bowie and Elton demos.” So I went, “Ooo!” This was the most exciting Elton-collecting phone call I had received up to that time.

So I went over to the studio and he gave me a one-to-one high-speed copy (so the deterioration was minimal) of the Elton Trident demos. It’s all about the sound quality, for me. I always try to find the best quality possible, and these were the best I’ve ever heard. When I transferred these from the 15 ips tape to 16-bit digital years later, I didn’t even have to clean them up at all.

The program wasn’t about Elton or David Bowie; it was about Trident Studios. It was just that this guy brought these in as part of the discussion about the program. I don’t think any of the Elton ones were even featured. It’s pure luck that that person working on that particular program knew of my interest. But that happens the more you let people know you are an Elton collector.

And then in the ’90s or so, so quite a bit later, I found an acetate for the Rock Me When He’s Gone demo…on eBay! An acetate is an aluminium-based disc that’s sprayed with a very thin plastic and the groove is cut into that disc by the studio’s cutting machine. It’s a one-off disc. It’s not used to manufacture any other disc…this is the disc they give to the band, to go away and listen to a rough mix or whatever. Or to give to a music arranger; Zack Laurence was given loads of Elton acetates to do the string arrangements and so on. The other major use is to give it to a dj before a single has been released – before it’s all been pressed up, so the dj can get ahead of the crowd and promote it a week or so before it actually comes out.

My mission has always been to try and collect as many acetates as possible and copy them before they deteriorate any more than they have done. Elton collecting has never been business for me, it’s always been an absolute pleasure. I just love it. And I concentrate on the music side, mainly. I’m not one who has loads of memorabilia, that is more the purview of my collecting partner Brendan Glover. It’s always been finding unreleased stuff in good quality.

The thing that intrigues me is, how does this stuff come out of the woodwork so late?? It’s not like Elton has had a patchy career…… he’s been successful for so long and you couldn’t fail to know that his popularity would make him hugely collectable. So, anyone who had an acetate in their loft or whatever, they would think “Oh, I could sell that.” It’s amazing. Like, an acetate of a demo of Michelle’s Song surfaced just about seven years ago from a guy who was involved in clearing out Dick James Studios way back when! It’s remarkable that that guy hung onto it for forty years, and then suddenly thought to sell it (to me). You just have to bide your time, really. But I never thought that I would find all this stuff in the past twenty years. I thought I had found it all by the year 2000, because it had dried up. Then suddenly a tsunami of stuff started to appear. And I don’t even know what I haven’t found yet! And of course, you’ll never have everything. I mean, there is nothing else for Madman that we’re aware of…but you never know.

These demos are delicate, intimate versions of the tracks you know so well. And they’re fresh, because this is right at the beginning, when they were written. So they haven’t become tired. Like, “This is take 423,” or whatever. And of course, just hearing vocal and piano, without anything else on it. It exposes the track, doesn’t it? It’s bare…and actually shows how powerful the song is, I think. And you connect with the lyric much more, because you’re even more focused on the vocal. I mean, Gus Dudgeon did these amazing productions, but the songs still stand on their own. That’s what is so great – they’re powerful in three ways: the arrangements, the production, and the songs themselves are just so wonderful!

And to have all of them [on the Anniversary Edition], that’s the great thing. Usually there’s one or two missing. But now we have the entire album in demo form for the first time ever…and in such great quality. I find that very exciting.