The Captain & the Kid Tracklist
The Captain & the Kid is the twenty-eighth studio album by Elton John, with lyrics penned by Bernie Taupin, and released on September 18, 2006. The album peaked on the UK charts at number 6, and at 18 in the US. It fell of the charts quickly, and suffered the lowest sales of any album since John’s debut album Empty Sky in 1969 but received generally positive reviews.
The Captain & the Kid is John and Taupin’s second autobiographical album; it is the follow-up to 1975’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. It picks up where Captain Fantastic left off, and continues the tale of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s songwriting partnership. The songs include themes of nostalgia, aging, and wisdom, and deal heavily with John’s mental state and drug use in the thirty years since Captain Fantastic. The booklet in the album contains photos of John and Taupin at various stages throughout their career, as did the booklets included in Captain Fantastic in 1975.
Of all the albums John and Taupin created together, this is the first to feature them both together on the cover. The Captain & the Kid is also the last appearance of both bassist Bob Birch and keyboardist Guy Babylon on an Elton John album; Babylon died in 2009 and Birch in 2012.
“The Captain & the Kid” Q&A
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How did Elton feel about this album personally?
This album is very close to his heart because it is an autobiographical album. The album was badly handled, and he calls it “the lost gem of my life.”
“It was telling the continuing story of us, Bernie and Elton, now. I cared so deeply about it, because it was so personal and such a really good record. I was so furious with Interscope Records because they put it out and they dropped it. I had meetings in the South of France, and I said, ‘I know this isn’t a commercial album, I just want you to do your best,’ and they dropped it like a fucking turd. It’s probably why I didn’t make another solo record. It was pure heartbreak.”
