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Russell Crowe

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In his 60-odd years on earth, Elton John has been, first and foremost, a gifted composer, spirited performer and recording star with worldwide sales of 200 million+ albums including 21 platinum albums; a workoholic; a drug addict; an alcoholic; a multi-millionaire whose shopping excesses have become legend; a hetereosexual; a homosexual;, an AIDS crusader and humanitarian of the first rank; a unbelieveably generous, caring friend who can throw hissy fits at the drop of a hat; and, in 1997, a knight of the realm. Author David Buckley details the life of this complicated, conflicted musical superstar in this entertaining, even-handed book from Chicago Review Press.

Pudgy, balding, gap-toothed, four-eyed piano player Reginald Dwight was probably the most unlikely candidate for pop superstardom ever when he began playing piano for the Bluesology group in 1962. Yet, within a few years, the now-rechristened Elton John, having mated his gift for memorable musical melodies with the lyrics of collaborator/ lyricist Bernie Taupin, would became a major force in the music industry, creating such masterpieces as 'Daniel,' 'Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting,' 'Your Song' and 'Crocodile Rock.'

The first third of Buckley's book covers the years 1947 to 1974 and detail the making of "Elton John, Superstar." Seeing Reg Dwight morph into Elton John, create the wonderful songs (and others) mentioned above and develop his larger-than life persona makes for fun reading.

Sadly, despite the ever-growing success of Elton the performer, Elton the person remained an unhappy man, hobbled by low self-esteem and uncertainty about his sexuality dating from his childhood. Those inner demons subsequently developed into deep self-loathing. In the early 1970s those demons combined with a cocaine addiction and alcoholism to set Elton on a ten-year downward spiral, as described in the at-times depressing middle third of the book.

The man and the music suffered in equal amounts until the death of AIDS victim Ryan White in 1990 showed Elton the insanity of his lifestyle. The years since, which form the final third of the book, have seen him rebound, creating new music, some of it the equal of "golden years" titles and finding a whole new audience via his 'Lion King' score. And it seems he has finally conquered those inner demons and found some peace of mind.

Buckley's book is an entertaining, incisive look at Elton's life and career. The author's comments on the music and the man are thoughtful, insightful and entertaining. Buckley has a marvelous way with phrases ("...the audience are clapping like seals at feeding time..."). Likewise he sprinkles the text with a number of quotes or observations from Elton and his contemporaries, business partners and friends that show us the person behind the legend. Elton, in particular, comes across as a witty, drop-dead honest and analytical individual, especially about himself. By book's end, you have learned a great deal about that pudgy, gap-toothed guy and you're happy he's "still standing after all this time."

Recommended.

David Buckley is the author of the best David Bowie biography ever, "Strange Fascination", so I was ecstatic when I learned he had written a book on Elton John. But there is a difference here. What made the Bowie book so special was the fact that Buckley was a long-time fan, so the knowledge he had accumulated over the years gave him a wide edge over the competition. In the case of this new book, he admits to not following Elton's career since the beginning, so now David Buckley has become a biographer by trade. Furthermore, the definitive Elton John biography has already been written by Philip Norman. So Buckley mentions Norman's book whenever any piece of information is taken from it (it would be foolish not to do it, as Norman uncovered new ground in many aspects), but adds a great deal of information obtained by himself. This book is especially strong on Elton's brief stint with Gary Osborne as his lyricist, which is a period of Elton's career which is generally overlooked by most biographies and documentaries. Gary contributed a foreword, so it's clear that he gave his full cooperation. All in all, this is a pleasant read and a nice complement to Norman's book. Elton John fans will not be disappointed.

David Buckley's biography of Elton John was well researched and a good overview of Sir Elton's life. David Buckley interviewed tons of people, and covered everything thoroughly. It didn't dwell on the unsavory gossip (as much as I might have wished), but it was extremely candid nevertheless. I would be very surprised to learn that the author wasn't British, but some of the more obscure Britishisms left me scratching my head. Whenever he gave chart positions on the songs, he gave both U.S. and U.K., and surprisingly, Elton John was often more famous in the U.S. than in his own country. He currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, of all places.

I confess that I read this book out of order, like the way F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby. By that I mean that I began at the height of his fame, then I went back a chapter, then ahead to the next chapter, and so on. I read it in two directions: chronologically and counter-chronologically. I was just kind of impatient to begin with, but once I got into it I found the book to be fascinating and I read right through to the end.

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Don't let the sun go down on me

Although I search myself, it's always someone else I see
I'd just allow a fragment of your life to wander free
But losing everything is like the sun going down on me
==================================

Some of the more memorable moments in the book were Elton's meeting with Elvis not too long before he died; his friendship with Rod Stewart (they called each other Phyllis and Shirley), his meeting with David Bowie (they didn't have much to say to each other), and he once jumped on stage in a gorilla suit and danced with Iggy and the Stooges.

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Goodbye Yellowbrick Road

Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road
====================

Elton has had a troubled relation with the fame. Three people very close to him died very tragically as a result of their fame, either by being hunted by paparazzi until she died in a tragic auto accident, or like the designer Versace and John Lennon, killed by twisted killers obsessed with becoming famous by killing a famous person. Sometimes he has been perhaps too candid about his personal life, and it has cost him some fans. David Buckley's book details all of these events, and also describes a battle Elton had with a British tabloid. The Sun printed some false claims that he attended wild parties and paid for underage rent boys. He filed a law suit for slander and libel against them and won. The source for The Sun story later admitted that he had made the whole thing up just to get money from The Sun, who weren't all that keen on verifying his outrageous claims. He didn't even know Elton John. Elton's trial went much better than Oscar Wilde's, who when asked if he had paid a certain lad testified, "Oh, no. He is much too plain."

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Your Song

If I was a sculptor, but then again, no
=======================

Though Elton is a very talented composer, he hardly ever writes any lyrics. He met his lyricist, Bernie Taupin, when they both answered an advertisement by a music publisher looking for song writers. The publisher put them together, and they worked for a long time in London's Tin Pan Alley. Around this time Elton met a young woman who was a pickled onion heiress and he was engaged to her. Both he and Bernie Taupin lived with the woman. Elton and Bernie shared bunk beds. This woman wanted Elton to give up his musical career and work in a bank. He balked and decided he didn't want to marry the pickled onion heiress after all. Later on, Bernie and Elton wrote Someone Saved My Life Tonight about that episode:

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Someone Saved My Life Tonight

And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn't you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You're a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away, bye bye
================================

"Sugar Bear" is actually the singer Long John Baldry, a friend of Dorothy. Long John told Elton that this marriage would be a huge mistake because she was against his musical career, and also not really his cup of tea. Years later, after Elton had been out of the closet for a long time, he actually did fall in love with a woman and got married. She was a recording engineer from Germany, and they had grown very close; but alas, that didn't really work out.

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Tiny Dancer

Hold me closer tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
===============

Tiny Dancer is about a woman that Bernie Taupin met in L.A. They were together for a long time. You could also say that it was about coming to the U.S. and making a huge splash at the Troubador on Sunset.

Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy is an album that Elton and Bernie wrote that is more personal than what they'd written previously. It is about them, in a way. Elton, the performer, is Captain Fantastic, and Bernie, though he is British, sees himself as a cowboy. Tumbleweed Connection is a concept album that Taupin wrote also exploring the Western theme. Later on they did kind of an update of Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy, and though it didn't sell that well, it was one of their better efforts. It was called The Captain and The Kid, and the orchestration was mostly just piano rather than a band and orchestra. The kid is Bernie, not Tenille, or Kiki Dee, even.

What I enjoyed the most about David Buckley's book was the insight into the songwriting process. Bernie would write a stack of songs and just give them to Elton to write music for. Elton would pick certain ones that he liked, and if he liked it he could write the music for it amazingly fast. He might cross out certain lines, leaving the lyrics a bit enigmatic and mysterious, and other lines might be repeated as a chorus or the hook. At the beginning of his career he went to a Château in France, and they recorded an album that came to be known as Honky Château. Bernie would hand Elton a stack of papers, and while the band was having breakfast he would knock out a song or two. Then they would record the songs. They flowed so easily at this point, like he just had to open the faucet. The band members were witnesses, and in the book they describe hit songs that were written before their eyes, in under 15 minutes.

For a while Elton stopped writing with Bernie, and during this time he wrote with Gary Osbourne. Gary was more of a lyricist, where Elton would write the music and Gary would write lyrics that fit. Gary did write a stack of lyrics for Elton, but by then he was back writing with Bernie Taupin, and Elton never even looked at them. During their hiatus Bernie had also written with other people, for instance, with Alice Cooper. Elton has also had success writing for Disney with Tim Rice.

Elton's music is mostly piano based, and sometimes will have more complicated harmonic structures and key modulations than your average three chord rock song, but a few of his songs really rock, powered by the guitar of Davey Johnstone. Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) is one such example. While recording this, Elton couldn't get it right while playing the piano. He finally did it just standing at the mic, jumping and dancing like a mad man. The rocking piano was added later.

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Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)

My old man's drunker than a barrel full of monkeys
And my old lady she don't care
My sister looks cute in her braces and boots
A handful of grease in her hair
============================

Elton John was inspired by Rock 'N' Roll piano players like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, and in performance he moves quite a bit, but he is kind of anchored to a piano. This led to him wearing outrageous costumes on stage, and the crazy glasses, to make up for the fact that he was mostly seated at a piano and couldn't move as much as a singer or a guitarist. He also felt drab and dumpy so he compensated for that, too.

One last tid bit that was gleaned from David Buckley's book on Elton John: as most people know, Elton's real name is Reginald Dwight, but maybe you didn't know that his middle name is Hercules. It wasn't the mythological hero Hercules he was named after, but rather it was the horse from the show "Steptoe and Son" that loyally pulled their cart about town. "Steptoe and Son" is about a cockney junk dealer and his son that served as the model for Redd Foxx's show "Sanford and Son."

Elton John
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Madman Across the Water
Tumbleweed Connection
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
The Captain and the Kid
Honky Chateau
Caribou

OTHER BOOKS BY DAVID BUCKLEY

Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story by David Buckley
R.E.M. Fiction: An Alternative Biography by David Buckley

I recently became mildly obsessed with Elton after my husband and I (finally) saw him in concert this summer! I wanted to find a book that was perfect for the average reader, with a busy life. I found this to very be very informative and it had a nice pace. This was easy to read,and easy to follow. I just wish there were more photos! I'm not a "professional" Elton John fan to know if the facts/stories in the biography are true or not, but I found it quite fun to read!

One of the best biographies I've read on Elton John. A great book to add to your collection.

Elton John has matured and become a lasting superstar. He is so refined and polished at this stage of his life. You cannot read this and not find a new deep rooted respect for Elton's life, and abilities. You read this, you will be delightfully enlighted. Long live EJ! google Elton John and Luciano Pavarotti, Live Like Horses!

I thought I knew alot more about Elton than I did.
Great stories from close people to him - and a very good read.
I highly recommend this book - Elton fans or not - very good book.

In this fascinating biography Mr. Buckley delves into the man behind the music without reverting to gossip and tabloid theatrics. Although there are a few moments in this book where Buckley allows himself to falter into such territory (an unseemly discussion of anagrams with Elton's name for example) overall the text focuses on the music of Elton John and how it came to be shaped and formed.
After reading this text I have a new appreciation for the longevity of Elton's career and music, and also for Mr. Buckley's nice ability for demonstrating how a long career in the music world unfolds and is shaped by the personality, and demons, of the singer.
Although this is an unauthorized biography Mr. Buckley has kept away from the slanderous territory of many unauthorized bios, and he cites wide-ranging sources for his claims. The book also includes nice references and extensive notes about Elton's music, interviews, and television appearances.
This text is about Elton John and his music, and if you are looking for more personal and "juicy" insight into Elton's private life you might need to look elsewhere. However, as a source of many things Elton it is an invaluable resource.
Recommend.

This biography tends to mostly concentrate on highly detailed accounts of most of Elton's band members, singers, publisher's and PR. It touched on a little about Elton personally but mostly about the music business, labels and such. A good read for those who are interested about the music business, recording studio's, many other performers and their stories about Elton.