Elton John
Live at The Spectrum
Philadelphia, PA - September 8, 1986

Oof.
We've gone over these details many times already so here's a quick recap: When Elton began the European leg of his 1986 Ice On Fire tour in March, he abruptly began experiencing uncharacteristic vocal inconsistency, and much difficulty with his falsetto and his vocal range. Then in April the timbre of his voice changed from the resonant tenor he'd had since 1980, to a huskier and heavier baritonal sound. These changes occurred due to damage that was being inflicted on his vocal cords from his pot smoking habit--something he wouldn't learn until it was more than far too late in November unfortunately. Singing thru this vocal irritation likely caused vocal trauma/scarring which resulted in the timbre of his voice changing.

Four months later Elton was to open the USA leg of the tour, but cancelled the first two concerts due to 'laryngitis'. Elton had never cancelled for laryngitis prior to this, and he had inexplicable vocal stamina, so it should've been clear something was very wrong. But Elton foolishly proceeded with the tour once his voice was 'better' enough to continue.

What followed after the opening on August 17 was 3.5 weeks of an endless rollercoaster of vocal inconsistencies and problems. He usually did shows in groups of three, and by the third show of each stretch his voice was considerably weakened by comparison to the first one. On August 30 in Saratoga things took a major turn for the worse, and things just snowballed until this gig on September 8.

Elton had managed to turn in a solid gig on September 2 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia and was all set to return on September 8. However, in the couple of days leading up to his second show in Philly his voice hit its limit, and his concerts in Worcester on the 6th and Providence on the 7th gave him extreme difficulty. And then the 8th happened...

While we cannot nail down when exactly the nodules became fully developed, due to the nature of how they form gradually over a period of time, it is safe to at least say they were in some stage of development for sure when the tour began on 8/17.
We can say that because, following the show on 9/8, Elton--after basically ignoring all of the problems he'd been having since March--was finally spooked enough by just how awful his voice had gotten that he sought out a specialist who gave him the news that he had developed vocal nodules on his vocal cords.

Listening to this show, it is no surprise that this show got him scared enough to finally get to a specialist. He is in horrid shape here. There's very little to say beyond this, quite frankly. He struggles and strains through a ton of the songs in the set, and is so upset by how he sounds that he offers the audience their money back after turning in a truly abysmal "Someone Saved My Life Tonight". In essence, it's only a small bit better than the show he gave on 9/14 in New York.

Regardless, this show is significant in that it is the show that finally got him to see a proper doctor after having problems with his voice for the six months leading up to this, but it's also frankly fascinating to hear how bad things had to get for him to actually see a proper doctor to figure out what was going on---and sadly, far far too late for the problem to be solved.

It is an interesting listen! I usually end my descriptions by saying "Enjoy!" but that may be a difficult task here...either way, please leave your thoughts in the comments below!

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