Elton John

Madman Across the Water

Sir Elton John piano-pounded Toyota Center March 28.

Last Night: Elton John At Toyota Center

Elton John has become the best-case scenario of the future life of a troubled character in one of his songs. Albeit a song that he has been writing since he and collaborator Bernie Taupin decided to forge a songwriting partnership nearly 45 years ago. He's now a seasoned sage, deeper in voice, ric ... More >>

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week: Free Radicals, Scott Weiland, Elton John, etc.

Free Radicals AvantGarden, March 25 Free Radicals is both Nick Cooper's revolving-door ensemble that at any given moment could be playing free jazz or Latin funk, and also Cooper's ongoing testimonial to how much he digs being a member of the Houston music community. He has so much experience at th ... More >>

Songs I Didn't Want to Hear at a Casino While Losing Money

Recently, I spent more than a little time at the Harrah's casino smack in the middle of downtown New Orleans, which was unfortunately the only place besides my hotel room floor where I could get some sort level of sanity away from football. If you have ever been to a casino, you know it is built l ... More >>

Dear Grammys, I'm Breaking Up With You

Dear Stupid Grammys, I have a bone to pick with you. I sat through Taylor Swift's uninspired opening act while she half-sung/half-yodeled at a guy on a spinning bullseye. It was complete with an insulting and transparent Alice in Wonderland costume ripoff (which I'm not getting, by the way... is s ... More >>

Yellow Brick Road Brings Elton John to Toyota Center March 28

Wednesday morning, Live Nation announced that British superstar Elton John and his band will perform at Toyota Center on Thursday, March 28. This is good news, because Rocks Off has been in a Tumbleweed Connection phase anyhow, not that we're all that likely to hear "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun," "C ... More >>

Rocket Man: Elton John's 5 Greatest Characters

Great songwriters create great characters. Elton John has a plethora in his songs some real like Princess Diana, and others purely fictional. The stories he tells in his songs are what makes him one of the greatest artists ever to come from Great Britain. His characterizations have even been celebr ... More >>

Saturday Night: Def Leppard, Poison & Lita Ford at The Woodlands

Def Leppard, Poison, Lita Ford Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion Saturday, September 1, 2012 Rewind: Lita Ford: Still Living Like A Runaway The Best Def Leppard Demos, Rarities, And Deep Tracks Lita Ford kicked off Saturday evening with her blazing cover of Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back." Consid ... More >>

Best-Selling Single Of All Time "Candle In The Wind 1997" Turns 15 Years Old

Re-written in the wake of his friend Princess Diana's car accident death on August 31, 1997, Elton John's "Candle In The Wind" was merely a maudlin tribute to Marilyn Monroe before tragedy struck. Diana died from her wounds in a Paris road tunnel crash, along with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, and the d ... More >>

Start the Revolution! 10 Songs About Historical Events

If you ever look at music throughout time, along with a history book -- they kind of complement each other. Some of the greatest songs in rock, R&B and rap have chronicled history both social, major news events, sports, entertainment and political. In my opinion, many times, the song is about what ... More >>

Frog Eyes! The 10 Greatest Glasses-Wearing Musicians

If you were like me growing up, you had glasses. You got ridiculed for it with names like "frog eyes," "nerd" (sadly children didn't equate that with smart, just weird), "ugly" and "geek." Even worse was the fact that, as a result of my wearing glasses, I couldn't wear sunglasses because the good o ... More >>

Pam Ann: Cockpit

Who's Got the Power?: The Musicians On Forbes's Most Powerful Celebrities List

Fame and fortune might not be the ultimate goal for every person to ever write a song or learn an instrument, but it is for a lot of people out there. It would be lovely to believe that music is done 100% of the time for the "right" reasons, but most of us are cynical enough to know otherwise. Some ... More >>

Unscripted: Top 10 Actor/Musician Collaborations

Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson have been hanging out a lot lately. The actor joined the antichrist onstage a couple of weeks ago at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards show in L.A., and played guitar on "Sweet Dreams" and "Beautiful People." Depp also collaborated with Manson on a cover of Carly Simon' ... More >>

Tears In Heaven: The 10 Best Songs To Come Out Of Tragedy

Since the dawn of time, great art has been birthed out of great tragedy, happening numerous times with playwrights, artists, and musicians. In many ways, expressing grief through music serves as a healing agent that gets the artist through tough things such as the loss of a loved one. It also helps ... More >>

Scruncha Roo Picks The Worst Rap Album/Song Names

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. Not ... More >>

No-Fun Number Ones: The Worst Chart Toppers Since Tiffany

It's no secret that chart success is no real guarantor of musical quality. Hell, "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" went number one way back in 1952, pissing kids off so badly that they had to invent rock 'n roll. Twenty-five years ago this week, however, Billboard reached a new low when m ... More >>

Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians' Paternal Professions

If you're a Texan of a certain age, this week you've probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children's TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes' show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the '60s to the '90s and was widely syndicated across the state, incl ... More >>

2 Become 1: Musical Match-Ups We'd Like To See

​Kanye "Hitler" West and Jay-Z released their (overused music writer word alert) epic Watch the Throne album this week, to mostly great reviews. This fall the first fruits from the recently announced Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration should be on the store shelves, which still sorta weirds us o ... More >>

Arcade Fire On For ACL; Kanye Expected In Midnight Lineup

​Tonight at midnight, the folks at C3 Presents who book the Austin City Limits Music Festival are expected to drop the lineup in full onto the festival's official Web site. And like, duh, Rocks Off will of course be up and about to post it to the blog once it goes live. You are more than welco ... More >>

Scissor Sisters

The Ultimate Musical Space Shuttle Crew

​The first man to ever leave the Earth and venture into space was a Russian cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin, who, if he hadn't died at the young age of 34 in a plane crash he would be 77 years old today. Garagrin was launched into space on April 12, 1961, and orbited once around the planet in 108 ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Billy Elliot, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The War of the Worlds

Which Rockers Are Best Suited For Autumn?

​What season are you? It's a question that doesn't get asked often enough in the world of rock and roll, but if the half dozen fashion and beauty Web sites Rocks Off consulted while writing this are any indication, seasonal color analysis is big. The phenomenon took off in the 1980s, which as ... More >>

Prince William: Who's Playing The Royal Wedding?

Now, if it were Prince Harry's wedding...​Sorry, ladies. Prince William is (almost!) officially off the market. When the future King of England officially announced his engagement to girlfriend Kate Middleton earlier today, Rocks Off instantly envisioned potential entertainers for the couple' ... More >>

Tear Me Down: Five Songs About The Berlin Wall

​Today is World Freedom Day! The holiday was declared in 2001 by George W. Bush to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall and just how awesome he felt Ronald Reagan was. It was 21 years ago today that East and West Berlin were reunited, and the Berlin Wall remains a source of musical inspiratio ... More >>

Music's Top 10 Biggest Post-Drug Comebacks

​The list of drug casualties in rock and roll is a long and sad one. All the suicides, car crashes and the stray gang-related murder are outweighed by the amount of people who just can't stop putting junk into their system, or at least moderate it to a point where they aren't lying cold on a h ... More >>

Top 10 Celebrity Music-Video Cameos

​Ratt, "Round and Round" Thursday night, Ratt hits up Warehouse Live with what passes for their original line-up. At their peak, the band was a gritty and decadent alternative to bands like Poison, skewing closer to Motley Crue in terms of excess and drug abuse. ​The band managed to ... More >>

"Monkey With Arthritis": Top 10 Cattiest Musician Insults

​Think of Tony Bennett and you'll probably picture the kindly older gentleman crooning "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" and any number of other pop standards, or perhaps the guy who upstaged Alec Baldwin as "Anthony Benedetto" (his birth name) on a 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live, turnin ... More >>

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. in Song

In the Name of Love

Damn the Torpedoes, Live Nation is Full Steam Ahead

Start saving those nickels and dimes, kids, because the biggest tour of 2009 (so far) is headed for Houston. At a press conference in House of Blues' Foundation Room this morning, Live Nation President Bob Roux and Toyota Center General Manager Doug Hall announced Elton John and Billy Joel will br ... More >>

Bettye LaVette's an old soul, through and through

Dances for the Seasons of Life

Ad Deum gets serious

Lynn Wyatt Spotted on the Isle of Capri on Perez Hilton. (No, Not on Him in That Way.)

Scissor Sisters

An interview with the band

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

YuleTube

Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Tortoise & Bonnie "Prince" Billy

The Brave and the Bold

ODB

A Son Unique

Geddouddahere

The Nightfly buzzes away to the Northeast. Luckily, he left an exit interview behind him.

Elton John

Saturday, March 26, at the Toyota Center, 1510 Polk, 713-758-7200

Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza

Here are a bunch of hilarious misheard lyrics. Now send us more.

Nile Dazzler

Aida gets an assist from the glitz of Disney

Best Place to Buy Used CDs

Wherehouse Music

Road to El Bathhouse

Animated film puts a gay spin on the old Hope-Crosby comedies

Perfect Pitch

John Axelrod has a plan to make classical music hip--and himself hot

Rotation

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