By Scott Johnson

I saw Elton three times on the UK leg of his tour this year. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the shows, either, I undoubtedly did (albeit his standout performance at Leigh was somewhat marred by some the more worse-for-wear attendees). It's just that there was something ever-so-slightly lacking.

I read the reviews, and they were (for the most part) upbeat and positive about his performance. I read the thoughts of fans worldwide on several dedicated forums, and it seems that the (vast majority) had a ball. But in the back of my mind, I couldn't shake the feeling that Elton was sounding just a little like... well, as strange as it sounds, as if he was almost trying too hard to rock.

Davey Johnstone has teased recently on his blog that next year's setlist will see something of a shake-up. How widespread and deep-rooted this will ultimately be remains to be seen, but it set my mind in train. Elton John remains one of the most versatile artists of our time (just listen to his recent smokey smooth rendition of "Streets of Philadelphia"; his contribution to a tribute night celebraing the work of veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen), with a catalogue of hits and non-hits that showcase the very best of modern music. Each and every track deserves to be heard, in its own way. I'll admit there are some which just wouldn't work on stage in front of an arena crowd, but Davey's pledge that we can expect "lots of surprises" next time around lifted my spirits just a little.

It's not that I'm tired of hearing or seeing Elton; no, far from it! It's just that I can't help but feel that a shake-up of his setlist would be the best thing for him too. Towards the end of this last European tour (and it's the first time I've ever thought this), I was beginning to think that he was going through the motions. An Elton John concert should be much more than that. It should be a musical journey, a tour de force through the best and the most exquisite extracts from the lyrical and melodical partnership that is John and Taupin.

Elton fears (and he's said so himself, not least in the programme that accompanied this latest tour) of straying too far away from "the hits". I understand that completely and it's something I'd struggle to argue with, despite the inner fan that is desperate to shout otherwise. To sell tickets, to keep the crowds pouring in, he has to play the likes of "Your Song", "Rocket Man", "Candle in the Wind" and "Crocodile Rock" each and every time. The soundtracks to many a childhood are the songs that people are drawn there to hear. But, as I said when I wrote about his performance at Leigh this summer, it struck me how Elton's lesser-known material was being so warmly received by a crowd that, whilst peppered with the hardened and stalwart followers of his career, was made up largely of those who remembers only "the hits". Yet "Oceans Away", for instance, earned him a standing ovation - at all three shows I saw! "Hey Ahab" rocked the house, and the crowds were enthusiastically on their feet and dancing as it was played, even if they didn't know the words. Elton, too, looked more vibrant and enthused as he sang both of these songs; as if the shift out of his comfort zone and the detour from playing Elton-by-numbers gave him a new lease of life, allowed his on-stage creativity to flourish. For a few tracks (too few, sadly), UK crowds were treated to a glimpse of the Elton that exists outside of the songs that we've heard played hundreds of times before; the performer who has a catalogue of wonders beyond what is heard on commercial radio.

But there has to be a balance. Fans make lists (I know, I've made them too). They make playlists on their iPods too. The ones where we build the kinds of concerts that we'd love to hear. The ones where he plays deep cuts and album tracks that only the most dedicated would part with their hard-earned money to hear. Oh, they're wonderful setlists.

And on our iPods, where we piece together those imaginary concerts where there's not a "Daniel" or "Sad Songs" in sight, we can listen to them to our hearts content.

But, in real terms, it's time to release our grip on that fantasy. Elton isn't going to play a concert which is wall-to-wall deep cuts from albums that (I'm sorry to say) most of his audience haven't heard in a long time, if ever. Yes, Elton is far more than his greatest hits, but there has to be a balance. And, if the tease on Davey's blog comes to fruition, I honestly believe a balance is perfectly achiveable. If Elton and his team are really looking through the whole catalogue in a bid to roll out some of those "surprises" we're promised, then they have the perfect opportunity to flesh out the setlist with tracks that, whilst not as widely known as "Candle in the Wind", have the potential to be no less appreciated. Elton needs to diversify if he wants to stay relevant. He needs to tone down the "rock as hard as we can" approach, learn when to pack a punch and when to simply let the piano and vocals speak for themselves. "Tiny Dancer" isn't, and should never be, played as if it's in competition for the Most Rock 'n' Roll Performance of the Night prize. Elton doesn't (or, rather, shouldn't) need to shout over the band. A ballad is a ballad, and should stay that way. (Similarly, a rocker is a rocker, so let's hear it!)

If this sounds overly critical, it isn't meant that way. Elton and Bernie's work is at its best when it is understated, perhaps even stripped down (although I'm not one of those who advocates Elton returning to a three-piece band on small stages as he sails towards the twilight of his career). But I do believe that "softer" segments of his concerts should be introduced, as some of the songs I'm about to suggest below, demonstrate. He also needs to save the rock and roll for the end of the show - there's nothing like a rock and roll finale by Elton to end the night, prior to the encore, and songs like "The Bitch is Back" and "I'm Still Standing" will pack a greater punch if Elton and the band haven't over-indulged in a blizzard of rock and roll arrangements from the very beginning.

"Softer", of course, doesn't need to equate to downbeat. Elton's admitted himself that he loves singing sad songs, but it's possible to slow the pace of the show somewhat without casting gloom over the arena.

So, after chatting with fellow Elton fans (some casual, most concert-goers in their own right), Elton collectors, and indulging in my own look back through the archives, I've come up with this list. Ten songs that, if Elton wants to shake up his setlist, he should bring back on his next tour.

If the man himself, Davey, or anyone else is reading this... I won't mind at all if you decide to steal every last one of these ideas! I'd be willing to bet that, if you did, you'd see a whole new Elton on that stage; re-energised, dramatic, versatile and (most importantly) bringing the house down once again.

1. Simple Life
I'm one of the few who thinks that "Funeral for a Friend" and "Love Lies Bleeding" isn't the best concert opener. I know, I'm in the minority - even Davey is against me on this one, so I'm probably not going to win the argument. But cast your minds back to the 1997/98 tour that Elton played in support of "The Big Picture" album. There, he opened his shows with a percussion-heavy rendition of "Simple Life", those glorious drumbeats announcing his arrival, before delicately sliding into piano-heavy "The One", the duo of songs collectively making a 12-minute opening akin to "Funeral" and "Love". "Simple Life" also ticks the box of being a track that Elton could do justice to with his lower register. What about a refresh that beings right at the start of the show?

2. If the River Can Bend
Tracks from the 1990s are few and far between in Elton's setlists these days, as he prefers instead to concentrate on his 1970s heyday. But if ever there was a 90s piece that deserved resurrection, then look no further than "If the River Can Bend". A gospel-heavy, upbeat number to get the audience on their feet. It received raptuous receptions during its debut tour in 1997 and 1998, so would benefit from a welcome comeback.

3. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
2015 will mark the 40th anniversary of the "Captain Fantastic" album; the 1975 masterpiece which is (sorry!) even better than "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", musically and lyrically. It seems only fitting that the first album ever to enter the Billboard charts at Number One should be recognised during its anniversary year. Elton has a fun story to tell behind this song (he wrote the music on a boat sailing from Southampton to New York) and it encapsulates everything that's good about his partnership with Taupin. It's a great number, will give Davey a chance to shine on guitar, and would be a perfect mid-point centerpiece to next year's shows. And it deserves to be heard again in the UK too!

4. Come Down in Time
There are only a few songs that ever leave you truly lost for words, but "Come Down in Time" has to be one of them. At least it did when I first heard it. Elton's admitted himself that this is one of his personal favourites (described once as "one of the best ballads I've ever written"). It's from the 1970s (so likely to be remembered by more than a few of his long-term fans) and it's been dusted off for both US and European tours before, both solo and with the band. It's more than deserving of another day in the sun.

5. Oscar Wilde Gets Out
Elton may be over-critical sometimes, but he hit the nail on the head when he admitted that many of the songs from 2013's "The Diving Board" aren't, as he described it, "arena songs". As much as those who love the album would protest differently, I struggle to see the gorgeous "The New Fever Waltz" being played in somewhere like, Madison Square Gardens or the UK's Manchester Evening News Arena. It just doesn't fit. Nor does the more creative "The Ballad of Blind Tom", as much as the catchy "Play me anything you like / I'll play it back to you" deserves to be much more widely appreciated. Aside from the lead single "Home Again", and the recent flavour-of-the month "Oceans Away", I'd argue that "Oscar Wilde Gets Out" might be the only other track that would work in a modern day Elton show. And work wonders it would! It's concert debut came at the Leeds Arena, just before "The Diving Board" was comerically released. It's concert arrangement seemed to me at the time better than the album cut, and listening back, that holds true. Let the band give this one their all, couple that with the delectibly catchy melody and a whirl of creative piano playing from Elton, and "The Diving Board's" second track might - just might - become a concert staple.

6. Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)
There used to be a time when Elton would only play this track in the titular Madison Square Garden, a somewhat personal tribute to the dearly departed John Lennon who sang there on stage with him on that historic night in 1974. Then there have been exceptions to that rule, which was never hard and fast to begin with: Elton re-introduced the song to audiences across the UK and US on his Medusa tour in 1999 when he played it solo. More recently, it's become a centrepiece of The Million Dollar Piano shows in Las Vegas. Already rehearsed by the band for the Vegas residencies, and with Lennon's name so widely known across the globe, it's an ideal song for Elton to use to reflect on his career and provide a hail to decades gone by. It's also a brilliant song.

7. Blue Avenue
"Sleeping with the Past" might be one of Elton's most under-appreciated albums. Released at the sunset of the 1980s (a period from which Elton seems reluctant to pick out selections for modern-day play), the album contains one of the most poetic and tear-inducing Taupin finales in the form of "Blue Avenue". I toyed between including this, or Ice on Fire's "Shoot Down the Moon" in my list, but figured that, of the two, this was the more likely to see the light of day again. Last heard during the 1992 tour in support of "The One" album, it's a song that Elton's post-2000 voice could still do justice to and provide a little variety with in the slower segments of his shows.

8. Harmony
Looking back at the "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" tour, I'm amazed this one didn't make it in. A fan favourite, "Harmony" has dipped in and out of setlists across the decades more than perhaps any other non-hit single. It is, as Elton once described it, his "most famous non-played number". It was a staple of the solo tours in the late 1990s, found itself rolled across the lawn of Central Park in 1980 (mercifully before the Donald Duck outfit was unviled) and has been peppered throughout the 1990s and 2000s whenever the mood seemingly takes the Elton John band. I was taken aback that it didn't feature in the 40th anniversary celebrations, given how often it has made a return to the stage. It works so well in concert, the fans love it, casual audiences will remember it. Go on Elton, it's time to bring back the never-leaving Harmony.

9. The Last Song
I'm one of a rare breed who actually believes that "Your Song" isn't the best closer to an Elton John concert. Yes, I know it's the one everyone longs to hear and it's so often been thought of as the ideal track to bring a curtain down on the night with. But if Elton really wants to refresh his setlist next year and bring about a real revival of his live shows, then he could do worse than take a look back at the format of many of his 1990s tours. Those were the days - when many of the tracks I've already mentioned were slipped into setlists so casually and recieved roaring appreciation. Ironically, one that lasted the course (from it's 1992 debut right through to the 1999 "Medusa" tour) was the AIDS-inspired and tributory "The Last Song". In it's early appearances, it was the closing number for the first "act" of the show, before the sombre bars of "Funeral for a Friend" opened the "jukebox" segment. It worked just as well in the mid 1990s when Elton used it as - well, the last song of the show, performing both this and the aforementioned "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" as an encore. It's a winning combination, and despite Bernie's own concerns about the lyrics (he doesn't, from all accounts, rank them amongst his best), Elton's delivery of the line about misjudging love between a father and his son is heartbreak at it's most acute; and deserving of one more curtain call.

10. We All Fall in Love Sometimes & Curtains
So if one were to follow my argument and agree that "Your Song" actually works better part-way through a show rather than as its finale, what else (aside from the afore-argued "The Last Song") might be a deserving closing number? Cast your minds back, if you can, to Madison Square Garden in 2005 when the Voice of Atlanta delivered a rousing rendition of "Curtains" alongside Elton; those "lum-de-lums" rebounding off every corner of the arena, quite akin to nothing that we'd heard before. The duo of songs that rounded off 1975's "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" album are a seminal masterpiece of artistry; "We All Fall in Love Sometimes" is one of Bernie's most adult and bittersweet lyrics, a perfect finale to both the story of a songwriting partnership and a love song that is frankly (sorry, Elton) miles better than "Your Song". Last used as a closing number back in 1997 and, like the opening track from the album, celebrating 40 years in 2015, Elton could do worse to his fans than dust off this epic and let is crackle on the speakers for a few more nights.

(Narrowly missing my list of "most wanted" were "High Flying Bird" and "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun", but I solemnly restricted myself to ten tracks, and ten is where it stayed.)

Agree with my choices? Hate them all? I'd love to hear from you.

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