Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

Captain Fantastic is John and the Brown Dirt Cowboy is Taupin, and the album follows their struggles in London between 1967 and 1969. Taupin said the songs were written in chronological order. John composed the music on a ship voyage from the UK to New York. In contrast to the quick, factory-like way the band usually worked, in August 1974 they spent the better part of a month off the road at Caribou Ranch Studios. Dudgeon said there was not one song on it that fell below incredible. John told Cameron Crowe in 2006 that it was probably his finest album because it was not commercial in any way.

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight", the only single, reached number four in the US, and the "someone" of the title is Long John Baldry. The album reached number one in its first week on the US Billboard 200, the first to do so, and stayed there for seven weeks. It sold 1.4 million copies in four days and was certified gold on pre-release orders. In the UK it peaked at number two. Alan Aldridge designed the cover, which draws on Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. It was the last album with the original Elton John Band of Johnstone, Murray and Olsson until Too Low for Zero in 1983.