Elton John - Burn Down The Mission- Live on The Tube 1985

[@EthanThompson-Murray]

Thank god a full version of The Tube surfaced, we can finally hear the full version of this and a unheard version of Restless.

[@Tomnewcomb93]

What an absolute machine Elton John was in the 80’s lol

[@kahlil88mph]

Wow! So happy to hear a complete performance! Possibly the best 1985-86 version.

[@turbochargedsports6327]

Agreed - especially considering that by 1986 he had completely blown his voice out (between years of coke use & simply running his voice into the ground w his grueling tour schedules.) When he developed a throat tumor that had to be surgically removed, he completely lost his tenor range that he had been famous for over his first 15 years & had a more baritone range & could no longer hit falsettos or even what had been previously easy to reach high notes one octave above middle C. As a result from '86 onward he could no longer sing Burn Down the Mission faithful to the original melody because the upper range was gone. It's a totally different song IMO from '86 onward & not nearly as enjoyable to listen to as his live renditions from the early 70s through the early 80s.

[@blueflame1856]

@@turbochargedsports6327that’s not true, he still retains his falsetto to this day, and the first years after the surgery have more falsetto and high notes than 1986 and parts of 1985, the lack of falsetto and high notes are a misconception, he lost a lot of his range, but he retained most of the original melody notes for many years, even keeping the original falsetto notes in Eltons song, all the girls love Alice, Levon, Rocketman, Bennie and the jets, Saturday nights alright for fighting, for many years

[@jerryyeaaah15]

@@blueflame1856but i think the tippy top of his timbre is somewhat lost after his 87 surgery even tho his voice got really clean after the surgery ..i still think a lil bit of the timbre quality is different after.

[@garymancuso3974]

We are all so blessed to have lived in the Elton John era!

[@TheMcesar84]

Amazing vocals considering this was ‘85. Thanks for this gem!

[@EltonStuff]

1985 performances are known for Elton’s voice generally being in top notch. This is no exception.

[@tylerbounds8918]

Great version! I love burn down in this period.

[@eliassandgren3132]

Amazing version, Elton put a lot of effort into this performance, and man do i love the sweet work done by the band and especially the horn section! It was awesome and I wish he’d kept it a little longer. However later, we got the amazingly talented black singers…!

[@tylerbounds8918]

This is absolutely amazing. I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to hear the complete version of this. Thank you so much! You made my week!!

[@maryclark5329]

Ray Cooper is an animal on percussion!!!

[@sagegoodwin1]

Incredible song, my fave by Elton. Thanks for this upload, very much appreciated :)

[@maryclark5329]

This is so freaking good!!!!

[@Caperhere]

Thank you, great song.

[@kbsh1993]

In my top 10 of Elton songs. Such energy!!

[@grungetea]

Amazing!!

[@Alexfoxxrox]

0:58 Ray Cooper waiting to take things seriously

[@lemurianchick]

It's so weird--when he got up from the piano, he looked so short. I never paid attention to Elton's height. I was shocked when I found out how short Roger Daltrey is.

[@toastertwo1602]

I've noticed his short height for the first time on photos from Freddie Mercury funeral.

[@DG-sq8pj]

@@toastertwo1602 I think the compressed aspect ratio of the frame of the video makes him appear shorter. Elton is 5 ft 8 inches. Not tall but not short. I had the fortune of meeting Elton in 1992 and I'm 5 ft 9 and 1/2 inches. He was was barely shorter than me.

[@toastertwo1602]

@@DG-sq8pj Yeah, he's quite normal.

[@jdenino6022]

@@DG-sq8pj My husband is the same size as Elton, 5' 8" and a lot of times he seems shorter than a lot of other men walking around. But he's not really short, just a little under average which is around 5' 10" for American males. I'm only 5' 3" myself. My husband also has a size 8 1/2 shoe which is about the same as Elton's shoe size I believe. When we met he only weighed about 140 lbs in H.S. now he's over 180 lbs which is too much but hard to lose weight.

[@dansharkey5218]

I think we had some Tower of Power horns on this ☝️

[@bruceski2133]

They were called onward international horns, they toured with ej all the way up to his live in Australia album . They can also be seen in live aid footage.

[@francescaferriani4185]

Who is the second drummer?

[@EltonStuff]

Charlie Morgan/Ray Cooper

[@francescaferriani4185]

@@EltonStuff thank you! I really love this song

[@dansharkey5218]

I think we had some Tower of Power horns on this ☝️