Join us for a journey through the beginnings of Elton John’s monumental career, from his start as Reginald Kenneth Dwight playing pubs at age 15, to answering the fateful New Musical Express ad that united him with lyricist Bernie Taupin, and began a songwriting team for the ages. After his pivotal breakthrough at LA’s Troubadour in 1970, which instantly transformed him from a promising British import into an American sensation, Elton was on his way to a historic run of seven consecutive number-one albums.
At the heart of the episode is a deep dive into the Honky Chateau sessions and the beloved album track, “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters.” Settle in with Elton’s band at France’s Château d’Hérouville, where his first #1 album was created. We’ll uncover the dark inspiration behind Taupin’s lyrics, triggered by a fatal shooting outside his New York hotel window, and explore this track’s musical brilliance.
“Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters” by Elton John & Bernie Taupin Copyright 1972 Dick James Music Limited
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome once again to the I’m in Love with That Song podcast. I’m your host Brad Page here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, with another edition of the show where I pick one of my favorite songs and we examine it together on our never-ending mission to discover what makes a great song work. As always, this show is for music fans of all stripes, shapes, and sizes. You don’t have to be a musician or any kind of expert to be a part of this show. The only requirement is a little curiosity and a love for music.
This time out, we’re looking at a song from one of the biggest, most successful artists of the 1970s. Few artists have ever racked up as many hits and classic albums as this guy. I’m talking about Elton John. And on this episode, we’re exploring one of his greatest songs, “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”.
Reginald Kenneth Dwight was born on March 25th, 1947. His parents were music fans; his father had been a trumpet player in a big band, and there were always records in the house to listen to.
He started messing around with his grandmother’s piano, and when he was seven, he started piano lessons. When he was 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. And by the time he was 15, he had scored a gig as a piano player at a local pub, playing four nights a week.
In 1962, he formed the band Bluesology. Bluesology would back American R&B and soul artists when they’d come to town.
In 1967, Reginald answered an ad in the New Musical Express placed by Liberty Records A&R man Ray Williams. At the same time, a 17-year-old writer named Bernie Taupin had answered the exact same advertisement. Williams handed our Reggie some of Taupin’s lyrics and said, “Write some music for this.” And so he did… and so a songwriting team for the ages was formed that still continues today.
That same year, 1967, Reginald Dwight began using the stage name Elton John. He came up with that name by combining the names of two of his Bluesology bandmates, Elton Dean and Long John Baldry. Now, we talked about Long John Baldry a little bit just a few episodes back on the show about the song “It Ain’t Easy”. Reginald would legally change his name to Elton John in 1972.
Elton and Bernie Taupin joined Dick James‘ stable of songwriters at DJM Records in 1968 where they’d write songs that James would pitch to other artists. They did this for a couple of years and then eventually they started developing songs for Elton to record himself. He released his first album on DJM Records called Empty Sky in 1969. His second album, self-titled, came out in April 1970. And that record included the hit “Your Song” which made it to number eight on the American charts and launched Elton’s career as a hitmaker.
But what really started the buzz about Elton John was his debut performance in America on October 25th, 1970 at the Troubadour in LA. Performing the show with Nigel Olsson on drums and Dee Murray on bass, the trio kicked out an incendiary performance that electrified the music press and industry insiders all over America. That Troubadour show raised Elton from a promising British import into an overnight sensation in the US.
Elton also released the Tumbleweed Connection album in 1970. That record was inspired by Taupin’s fondness for American mythology. And in February of 1971, Elton released the Madman Across the Water album. That’s a personal favorite of mine. Some people have described this album as Elton flirting with progressive rock; I don’t really see it that way, though parts of it can be musically challenging. But it also includes two big hits, “Tiny Dancer” and “Levon”.
All of Elton’s studio albums up to this point had primarily used studio musicians rather than his live band. But when it came time to record the next album, Elton, Bernie Taupin, and producer Gus Dudgeon traveled to Château d’Hérouville outside of Paris, France in January 1972 and brought Elton’s touring musicians with them. Drummer Nigel Olsson, bassist Dee Murray, and guitarist Davey Johnstone, who joined the band after the release of Madman Across the Water.
The Chateau was a sprawling 18th-century country estate built in 1740 and converted to a recording studio in the early 1960s. At the Chateau, musicians could live, write, and record there, away from the distractions of a metropolitan recording studio. Everyone from Pink Floyd to the Bee Gees to David Bowie to Fleetwood Mac would record albums there. The studio closed in 1985, though it was reopened in 2020.
Together at the Chateau, Taupin would stay up late writing lyrics on his typewriter and then leave them on Elton’s piano. The next morning, Elton would take a look at the lyrics and come up with musical ideas to accompany them. Once he had the song together, he would play it for Olsson, Murray, and Johnstone, and they would come up with their parts. In an interview with Guitar Player magazine, Johnstone said that Elton never dictated what the other musicians should play. He let them come up with their own parts.
Elton and the band would typically perform the basic tracks together live, then lay down the lead vocals, and then Elton would take off. Apparently, Elton didn’t have a lot of patience in the studio. He’d get bored quickly. So, he’d let producer Gus Dudgeon, along with engineer Ken Scott, who had joined them in France—Elton trusted them to do their best work. He let them do their thing, and then he would come back when it was time for the playthrough of the final mix. This was how they wrote and recorded the album that became Honky Chateau, Elton’s first number one album.
The album features “Rocket Man” and “Honky Cat”, two big hits. But the track that has always resonated with me the most is “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”, the second-to-last song on the album. It wasn’t released as a single, but it’s become one of Elton’s most memorable songs and a real fan favorite. It’s one of Elton’s personal favorites, too.
Elton wrote the music, Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics, and the song was performed by Elton John on vocals and piano, Davey Johnstone on electric and acoustic guitars and mandolin, and Dee Murray on bass. Nigel Olsson doesn’t appear on this track because there’s no drums. It was produced by Gus Dudgeon and engineered by Ken Scott.
The song begins with Elton’s piano and vocal.
In this first line of the song, you hear Elton mention “Spanish Harlem”. And this is a direct response to the Ben E. King song “Spanish Harlem”, which opens with the line, ‘There is a rose in “Spanish Harlem”.’
“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” was written about Bernie Taupin’s experiences and reactions to the band’s first visit to New York City. This was in the fall of 1970 when New York was on the verge of bankruptcy and Times Square, where they were staying, was a much grittier place than it is now. During their very first night in the city, Taupin was awakened in the middle of the night by a gunshot right outside his window. Bernie looked out and saw a dead body lying in the street.
It was a shocking revelation that wiped away any romantic notions he had about New York. The lyrics to this song are Bernie’s way of processing that whole experience of their first New York trip. And he begins by questioning the very notion that anything as beautiful as a rose could survive in this New York.
Let’s double back and listen to what Dee Murray is doing on the bass. I think it’s really complementary to the piano part.
That brings us to the first chorus and some backing vocals join in here.
So, what I think is kind of interesting here is that usually backing harmony vocals are riding on top of the lead vocal. They’re pitched higher, which usually adds more energy, more drama to the chorus or whatever. But here, the backing vocals are all pitched lower. They’re riding underneath the lead vocal. Let’s just hear those backing vocals.
Those backing vocals are in stereo, and you’ll notice that they skip the first word and start on ‘Lisas’. Let’s hear them together with the lead vocal, and you’ll hear how they’re lower until one of the voices goes up high on the very last word.
Okay, let’s play that chorus all the way through.
Second verse; Davey Johnstone has overdubbed what sounds like some acoustic guitars and mandolin. Let’s listen to just the instrumental track without the vocal for a minute.
Now let’s hear that in the final mix.
I think, nowhere is the disparity between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, more obvious than in the city. Not just New York, any city. It’s all there in front of you. The Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters—the beautiful people, the crazy all-night party people, the sons of bankers and lawyers, all removed from the ground-level reality.
But Bernie Taupin’s lyrics don’t envy these people. If anything, he pities them. And each verse ends with him turning to his friends and family, grateful for the good people he’s found.
And now we get one final verse. This combines the first stanza from the first verse and the second stanza from the second verse. And they bring it down to just Elton and his piano before the band joins back in.
There’s a really sweet little mandolin part there by Davey Johnstone. Let’s back that up and play it again.
And one last chorus. First, let’s hear it without the vocal. Has a different feel to it, I think, without the vocal melody on top.
All right, let’s play that last chorus through to the end.
“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” by Elton John.
Honky Chateau would hit number one on the charts, and that was the start of Elton’s Imperial period, a string of seven consecutive albums that all hit number one. That’s right, seven number one albums in a row. That’s a pretty remarkable run.
“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” is not just a high-water mark of the Honky Chateau sessions. It’s a testament to the power of popular music to confront the sometimes dark reality of modern life while simultaneously extracting a timeless beauty from it.
Elton John would, of course, go on to make many more records right up until 2016. Over 30 albums, plus live records and soundtracks. And many of those albums featured the same musicians that played on this record.
Unfortunately, Dee Murray passed away in January 1992 from a stroke. He was only 45 years old. But Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone are still with us at the time of this recording, and so are Elton John and Bernie Taupin, still writing songs together. Elton has retired from the road and reportedly has lost most of his vision. But I doubt that we’ve heard the last from Elton John.
And you haven’t heard the last from me either. The I’m in Love with That Song podcast will return in two weeks with another new episode. All of our previous episodes are available on our website, loveththatsongpodcast.com.
There are no celebrities here, no marketing people, and no brand managers or agents or executive producers. Just me, doing my little bit to help keep these great songs alive. If you want to support this mission, you don’t have to send any money or donate anything– all I ask is that you spread the word about this show. Share it with your friends and family. Post the link on your social media. Tell people about this podcast. As Bernie wrote and Elton sang in this song, “I thank the Lord there’s people out there like you.”
Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time.
RESOURCES:
Elton John (Artist): www.eltonjohn.com
Bernie Taupin (Lyricist/Artist): www.bernietaupinart.com
Nigel Olsson (Drummer): www.nigelolsson.com
Davey Johnstone (Guitarist): Wikipedia Profile
Dee Murray (Bassist): Wikipedia Profile
Château d’Hérouville (Studio): History of the Studio
The Troubadour (Venue): www.troubadour.com
Ben E. King – “Spanish Harlem”: Song Information
Long John Baldry: Wikipedia Profile