Elton John FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Rocket Man

by Donald Gibson

Overview

(FAQ). In a career spanning five decades, Elton John has sold over 250 million records worldwide and has appeared in nearly 4,000 live performances. Inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award-winning singer-songwriter is the most successful solo artist Great Britain has ever produced and the third-most successful artist overall in American music history (behind only Elvis Presley and the Beatles). Elton John FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Rocket Man chronicles the music legend's entire career to date. Beginning with his humble, and at times disheartening, childhood in the North London suburb of Pinner, readers are privy to the serendipitous meeting between John and lyricist Bernie Taupin, with whom he'd form a songwriting partnership that would ultimately rank alongside Lennon and McCartney in its success. Investigating the highs and lows throughout each of John's musical phases and sartorial changes, the book underscores not only the talent behind the legend but the unvarnished truth behind tales that are familiar only to diehard fans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617136504
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/30/2019
Series:	FAQ
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,008,779
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Donald Gibson (Pinellas, FL) is a freelance music journalist and the editor in chief of Write on Music (writeonmusic.com). A former senior music editor for the web magazine Blogcritics, Gibson's work has also appeared at No Depression, AOL Spinner, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Gibson holds a BA in English from the University of South Florida, where he graduated in 2007 with honors.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: His Gift Is His Song xi

1 Made in England: Childhood 1

2 It's a Long and Lonely Climb: Early Dues 8

3 Hand in Hand Went Music and the Rhyme: Examining the Elton John-Bernie Taupin Songwriting Partnership 19

4 We're Gonna Need a Helping Hand: The Musicians 31

5 Well, I Looked for Support from the Rest of My Friends: Special Guests 44

6 From the Day That I Was Born I Waved the Flag: Made in America 65

7 The Change Is Gonna Do Me Good: The Honky Château 76

8 Solid Walls of Sound: The Producers 83

9 When Are You Going to Land?: Themes of Escapism in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 95

10 Dirt in My Toes, Dirt up My Nose: The Caribou Sessions 99

11 Well, They're Packed Pretty Tight in Here Tonight: Notable Live Performances 112

12 Everything Crumbles Sooner or Later: Blue Moves, Breakdowns, and Goodbyes 128

13 And It Feels So Good to Hurt So Bad: The Soul Man 137

14 Sitting Pretty in the Masquerade: The Fashions 145

15 Let Me Get Electric, Put a Silk Suit On: But Was Elton John Really Glam? 153

16 But I Know What I Feel: Captain Fantastic Comes Out 157

17 Like Freedom Fields While Wild Horses Run: The Football Fanatic 163

18 I've Got a Line or Two to Use on You: Composing with Other Lyricists 166

19 These Independent Moves I Make: A Timeout from Taupin-A Single Man and Victim of Love 169

20 Me and You, We're All We've Got: Ten Best Duets 177

21 Something Tells Me You're Not Satisfied: Uneven in the Eighties 185

22 Do They Know What It's Like to Have a Graveyard as a Friend? Grief, Tragedy, and the Untimely Deaths of Famous Friends 196

23 It's a Human Sign When Things Go Wrong: Demons and Addictions 206

24 I'm Strangled by Your Haunted Social Scene: The Philanthropist 208

25 You Put the Spark to the Flame: Forty Most Underrated Deep Cuts 214

26 I'm a Bitch, I'm a Bitch, I'm Better Than You: Infamous Feuds and Fallouts 227

27 It's Like Throwing a Switch on the Hands of Time: Rejuvenated in the Nineties 239

28 And Some of Us Soar to the Stars: Scoring for Stage and Screen 248

29 I Could Really Get Off Being in Your Shoes: Ten Notable Cover Songs 257

30 Read 'Em, as They Say, and Weep: Awards, Records, and Distinctions 268

31 This Life of Mine Seemed Surreal at Times: Befriending the Beatles 275

32 I Was Playing Rock 'n' Roll and You Were Just a Fan: The Official Live Releases 279

33 I'm Not Dying and I'm Far from Gone: A Twenty-First-Century Music Man 289

Appendix 1 Get a Little Action In: Side Jobs and Sessions 297

Appendix 2 Discography 305

Selected Bibliography 319

Index 323