Elton John says goodbye for good to Philly on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour

Philadelphians had their third and final chance to say goodbye to Elton John at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night as the legendary showman opened the last North American leg of his valedictory Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

Rock and roll retirements are a notoriously retractable prospect, though Sir Elton sounded genuine as he thanked the stadium full of fans for their “loyalty, love, and kindness” near the end of his 2½-hour performance.

“America made me famous,” he continued. “How could I ever forget you?”

Equally genuine was the weariness in John’s voice as he noted that there were still more than 100 dates left in the tour, which kicked off in September 2018. The veteran singer had planned to be a private citizen by now, as the original three-year tour has been extended to nearly five by pandemic postponements, delaying the day when he can stop to spend more time with his children and husband, as he explained his plans.

Noting that this was his “52nd and last concert in Philadelphia,” he recalled his first, in September 1970 at the Electric Factory. Given that history, the 1975 hit “Philadelphia Freedom” arrived with remarkably little fanfare as the second song of Friday’s set. A far greater response greeted the first song of John’s encore, “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” which he sang alone to a backing track that included Dua Lipa’s vocal quoting “Rocket Man.” The song was a No. 1 hit for John last year in the U.K., which the 75-year-old marveled at achieving at his age.

Those accumulated years failed to dim John’s exuberant spirit throughout the evening, though they did take their toll on his vocal range. He no longer attempts the high notes that once were routine, robbing songs like “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man” of some of their drama. Still, he sounded strong within the confines of his current range, and summoned powerful emotion through classics like “Levon” and “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.”

The concert began with a relaxed “Bennie and the Jets,” Elton clad in a rhinestone-trimmed white jacket with tails. His skilled six-piece band featured several veteran collaborators, including drummer Nigel Olsson, animated percussionist Ray Cooper, and guitarist Davey Johnstone, who was too often buried in the bass-heavy mix but unleashed blistering solos on “Levon” and an extended jam appended to “Rocket Man.”

The stage was surrounded by a gold, rose-bedecked frame, evoking a more glamorous variation on the brick-and-plaster border of the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album cover. A plexiglass awning arced out overhead between huge video screens that occasionally revisited key moments from John’s history but too often beamed Gap-ad-style montages that proved more distraction than accompaniment.

One of the more egregious showed a series of models sporting T-shirts featuring rock and/or civil rights icons as the band performed an otherwise impassioned rendition of “Border Song” from 1970′s self-titled Elton John album. Beforehand, the singer took the opportunity to sing the praises of Aretha Franklin, who covered the song later that year, dedicating the tune to the Queen of Soul.

While the majority of the set was, unsurprisingly, a parade of hits (and there are plenty in John’s history to choose from), he did reach a little deeper into the catalog for a few surprises that proved to be highlights, in part because they haven’t become quite so routine over the decades. “Have Mercy on the Criminal,” from 1973′s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, was especially moving, while both “All the Girls Love Alice” and “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” were new additions to the setlist.

The piano glided across the stage as John sang his Marilyn Monroe tribute “Candle in the Wind,” signaling a brief intermission while storm clouds played across the screens, heralding the cinematic overture of “Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)” — and a costume change, with John reemerging in a powder-blue jacket sporting a diamond-studded kitten’s silhouette on the back.

The second half roared to its conclusion with “The Bitch Is Back,” “I’m Still Standing,” “Crocodile Rock,” and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” the latter still as chainsaw-edged as ever. Following “Cold Heart,” John segued from his most recent hit to his first for a tender “Your Song” before bidding adieu to Philly with one last “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

Shedding the pink sequined bathrobe he’d donned for the encore in favor of a personalized tracksuit, Sir Elton ascended in a hydraulic lift to exit through a door atop the stage and into a video screen Oz. It felt like an appropriately over-the-top exit for one of rock’s most flamboyant figures.