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See Elton John Play ‘The Bitch Is Back’ — as a Hornet — for the First Time in 1974

See Elton John debut "The Bitch Is Back" in rare footage from 1974.

The concert took place a couple of months before the release of his Caribou album, whose lead track is “The Bitch Is Back,” and the performance is fittingly venomous as John keeps a stiff upper lip beneath his ocelli-shaped sunnies as he pounded a feather-adorned grand with fervor. He’s releasing the footage now ahead of a Record Store Day edition of Caribou, which he’s now bumped up to a double LP on heavyweight sky blue vinyl. In a 1974 Rolling Stone profile of John, the artist said that despite the massive success of 1973’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and “The Bitch Is Back,” he was still just a regular guy (who occasionally dresses like a hornet).

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