Elton John will take his final bow at Dodger Stadium. So let’s time travel back to his legendary 1975 concert there, with John and his then-wife, Sara.
The place had turned into a carnival, with rides and games and a band playing music on the grandstand on the south end of the stadium. There was a line out the door. The band went on, and John came on to sing the opening number. A sea of black-and-whites had turned into white-and-gray: it was his long-time pal, the great Sammy Davis Jr., who was joined by a young man who was on the Dodger payroll (John was working with them around this time as a songwriter and producer).
And what happened then? The young man who was with the band walked away. It was the most extraordinary thing that has ever been done, and the music they produced was unlike any other music ever played at Dodger stadium. It was the first time a rock ‘n’ roll band had ever done such a thing; and it marked the beginning of the end of John and Davis and the band, all of whom are still working in this country to this day.
The band was called Cream.
The place became an orgy of chaos, which is exactly what John wanted. He arrived early by helicopter, and at 6:30 he went on stage. When he introduced himself, according to The New York Times account of the concert:
“The band was playing right then, but I didn’t recognize them as my old friends, the boys on the band called the Beatles.”
John was singing “I Saw Her Standing There,” about the first time he met Paul McCartney, “and he’s walking off the stage.”
John went on:
“I was standing out here alone. I thought of all these people singing my songs. I knew I had to play this show. And I got to thinking, man, you and these boys, you’ve been playing this music for 50 years, I thought, but you’re the first people to ever do this kind of music. I thought that was something special. But I realized that I had to tell you before
