Elton John – Rock Royalty?

Thursday 30th April

Undoubtedly Elton has assumed the mantle of National Treasure and Rock Royalty.  He even played a special version of ‘Candle in the Wind’ at Princess Diana’s funeral. But like Royalty, amongst the splendour and glamour the question poses itself “What is it all for?”  For me it has to be the music, and despite a few good records Elton has disappointed.  Throughout the eighties and nineties he kept making albums and apart from “Too Low for Zero” and “Sleeping with the Past” they were largely poor.  He was often in the news and sued the Sun for a false story, he got married to a woman and quite soon divorced and came out as being Gay.  Wow, we were surprised at that news.  Lately he has married his long-term partner and adopted two children.  He has written musicals and film scores.  For my money the songs from Lion King are the worst he has ever written, but millions love them.

He tours quite often and tends to sing the songs from the seventies when he was cutting edge and writing beautiful melodies.  If I had to choose one song it would probably be “Your Song” from his second record; the lyrics are so simple and original.  “My gift is my song babe and this one’s for you”.  But despite the excesses, despite the ridiculous glasses, despite the temper tantrums, despite the many middle of the road records he has been a large part of my life and I still buy his records and actually of late they aren’t at all bad.  I imagine he will continue singing and making music into his very old age and why not.