At one point while reading Elton's hugely entertaining autobiography, I commented to my wife that one thing which made it so great was that Elton "has no fucks to give." At this stage of his life, he's completely comfortable putting it all out there, and he doesn't particularly care if some of his life's episodes make him look foolish, selfish, or just plain dumb. That was all part of the journey, and he owns it all, and always with self-deprecating humor. His ability to laugh or roll his eyes at the earlier versions of himself is the key to the book's success. At no point does he seek forgiveness for his bad behavior; and if one seeks to judge him, he really doesn't give a shit. It's all part of the story of Elton John, and the reader is better off for this approach.
Elton John has been one of the most important musical figures in my own life, one in which music has played an important, and even formative role. He wasn't my first musical hero - that would be some combination of The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater and Dionne Warwick (which is a story unto itself) - but he was my musical hero during my early teenage years, those years that for many form the musical blueprint of one's life. I now own thousands of albums across various media, but the first album I bought with my own money was an Elton John album ("Honky Chateau"). And while it's true that the legacy of subsequent musical heroes has surpassed that of Elton's, it's also true that his place in the Hall of Fame is richly deserved, and true that few artists have surpassed the accomplishments of the richest three year period of his career - from 1972 through the end of 1975. During that period, he released six albums that ranged from very good to great - the aforementioned "Honky Chateau," "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Caribou," "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy," and "Rock of the Westies." That's approaching Beatles territory, right there.
There are so many stories that one could point to as being highlights of the book - Elton meeting the Laurel Canyon musical royalty shortly after his legendary performances at the Troubador in 1970, his experiences with the Watford football club, his interactions with the royal family, his accounting of the disastrous decision at Wembley in 1975 to follow incredibly well-received sets from The Eagles and The Beach Boys by playing all 10 "Captain Fantastic" songs in order, with few having ever heard them before, his complicated relationship with his mother - but the one I'll share is what he thought after seeing and hearing The Sex Pistols for the first time:
I was in bed alone at Woodside one Sunday morning, half watching television, when a guy with bright orange hair suddenly appeared on the screen and called Rod Stewart a useless old fucker. I hadn't really been paying attention, but now I was suddenly riveted: someone slagging Rod off was clearly too good to miss. His name was Johnny Rotten, he was wearing the most amazing clothes and I thought he was hilarious - like a cross between an angry young man and a bitchy old queen, really acidic and witty. He was being interviewed about the burgeoning punk scene in London by a woman named Janet Street-Porter. I liked her, too; she was gobby and bold. In absolute fairness to Rod, Johnny Rotten appeared to hate everything - I was fairly certain he thought I too was a useless old fucker. Nevertheless, I made a mental note to ring Rod later, just to make sure he knew about it. 'Hello, Phyllis [Elton's pet name for Stewart], did you see the TV this morning? This new band were on called the Sex Pistols and, you'll never believe this, they said you were a useless old fucker. Those were their exact words: Rod Stewart is a useless old fucker. Isn't that terrible? How awful for you.'
I didn't really care what they thought of me. I loved punk. I loved its energy; attitude and style, and I loved that my old friend Marc Bolan immediately claimed he invented it twenty years ago; that was just the most Marc response imaginable. I didn't feel shocked by punk - I'd lived through the scandal and social upheaval that rock 'n roll provoked in the fifties, so I was virtually immune to the idea of music causing outrage - and I didn't feel threatened or obsolete by it either.From that passage, you can appreciate the humor, the candor, and above all the clarity that Elton had about where his own career fit into the larger spectrum of rock 'n roll history. Even then, he knew that his time in the zeitgeist was over, but as subsequent albums proved, he didn't try to change what he was.
A passage on the book's last page provides a blueprint for how Elton has looked at his life: "I live and have lived an extraordinary life, and I honestly wouldn't change it, even the parts I regret, because I'm incredibly happy with how it has turned out."
With "Me" and the film "Rocket Man," Elton is back in the spotlight in a way he hasn't been for a long time. Here's hoping that a new generation of fans will discover his work.
