Elton John retires: The story of the ‘Rocket Man’

After the evening in Sweden’s capital he will retire from the road to spend time with his family – husband David Furnish, and sons Zachary and Elijah.

Titled Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road, John’s farewell tour began in 2018 but was delayed due to Covid and other ailments suffered by the septuagenarian. It has been a 271-concert farewell, with the musician performing around the world at some of his favourite venues.

Pioneering performer

In the 1960s, when the biggest stars – the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley – were all about the twang of the guitar, a young boy from the northwest London suburb of Pinner, arrived at the music scene and changed its face forever.

Elton John was one of the first artistes to infuse the sound of piano into rock n roll. While the world’s musicians were finding their expression with the guitar, John stuck to the piano and merged it with the propulsive rhythms of rock n’ roll. His music was accessible but poignant, his personality unique and his concerts an experience – an eclectic mishmash of high-voltage rockers and beautifully soothing ballads, complemented by his wild costumes.

Elton John performs in the rain in Sydney in January 2023. This was his final performance in Australia. (Wikimedia Commons)

Before there was the kooky Lady Gaga being applauded as a shapeshifter, there was Elton John, an artiste whose sartorial choices were anything but understated. Remember that giant chicken outfit in The Muppet Show in 1977? Or the suit he wore while receiving his Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1975 – embellished with stars containing names of previously consecrated stars? Or the wild white piece with a 15-foot train and silver wig, reminiscent of Queen Marie Antoinette he wore on his 50th birthday?

Elton John was theatrical, somewhat excessive, and routinely provocative. Yet, he managed to do his job well. A showman who did not dance a lot, John sported bold colours and an even bolder attitude, while singing intensely behind the piano.

Born for music

Born in 1947 as Reginald Kenneth Dwight, in the aftermath of World War II, John’s childhood was not easy. Money was scarce and both his parents had terrible tempers. However, fortunately for him, both his parents were musically inclined. His mother noticed his talent when he was just four, after seeing him play French composer Émile Waldteufel’s Skater’s Waltz by the ear on his grandmother’s piano. John would often do this, listening records both his parents collected and playing what he heard by the ear.

 

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John began formal piano lessons at the age of seven, and at 11, he earned a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in central London. However, after a few years of studying western classical music and falling in love with Bach and Chopin, he realised that he did not want to read music and play it for the audience. John wanted to create what he played and realised that he was meant to do something different. He left the Academy just before the final exams and moved in with his mother, now divorced and living with painter Fred Farebrother.

At 15, John got hired as a pianist at a local pub with his parents’ help. He started by covering Ray Charles, and a few months later, he created the band Bluesology with some friends. John would perform in clubs around London, even securing a number of solo gigs.

A new name

After a few years of struggle, John’s life turned around in 1967. He answered a Liberty Records advertisement which said ‘Talent Wanted’. Incidentally, Bernie Taupin, a Lincolnshire writer answered the same advertisement, beginning one of the greatest musical partnerships of all time, one that continues till date.

In the process John realised that he held massive disdain for the name that his parents gave him. He wanted a name that felt like it belonged to a famous musician. So, six months after meeting Taupin, Reginald Dwight became Elton John – ‘Elton’ from Elton Dean, the saxophonist of Bluesology, and ‘John’ from vocalist Long John Baldry. Many also think that John was also an ode to The Beatles’ John Lennon, one of Elton John’s favourite musicians.

He has said that the name change made him feel like a new, regenerated person, hence allowing him to leave his difficult past behind. In fact, John wrote in his autobiography Me (2019), that the coloured hair, flamboyant clothes and shoes, and exuberant glasses, were all a reaction to everything that he was not allowed to do when he was a child. Fortunately for him, his aesthetic fit right in with the glam rock scene of the time.

Becoming a superstar

For the next two years, Taupin and John wrote music for up-and-coming artistes of the time. John’s melodies, were always easy-on-the-ear and produced over a very short period of time.

Soon enough, however, the duo decided to work together on John’s solo projects. After a couple of singles and a less recognised album named Empty Sky (1969), came Elton John (1970) – comprising passionate ballads, fusing gospel-style music with pop rock. Your Song, the marquee piece with lyrics written by Taupin on a napkin on the kitchen table of John’s mother, was an instant chartbuster and an exemplar of Elton John’s genius.

Rocket Man came soon after, catapulting the album Honkey Chateau to number 1 on the charts. Elton John followed this up with seven more albums over a four-year span, all of which topped the charts.

“I’d like to be a legend … But I don’t think I will be … because they are all very very special,” John said in 1973. John was already a star, a legend even. But he was on his way to even bigger things.

His magnum opus, Goodbye Yellow Brock Road came in 1973 with iconic songs such as the Marilyn Monroe tribute Candle in the Wind and Bennie and the Jets. Taupin rewrote Candle in the Wind for Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997 – the poignant lyrics and John’s heartfelt rendition touched a special cord.

John did not stop. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) was certified as a “gold record” even before it was released, and so was Rock of the Westies, less than five months later. John was churning out complex music at a rapid rate, while going on massive tours. What made his achievements even more impressive, was that he never wrote down a note. As Taupin would often say, it was all, “almost always, in his head”.

Highs and lows

But this is also the period in Elton John’s life when drugs and alcohol started becoming an ever more integral part. What has won fans over,  has been his honesty in speaking about these issues. He has even helped other artistes get sober in the later years – notably, he remains Eminem’s AA sponsor.

Elton John has also been a vocal advocate for gay rights. He came out as bisexual in the Rolling Stones magazine in 1976, seven years after he broke his engagement with Linda Woodrow and merely nine years after same-sex relationship was decriminalised in England. In showbiz, where there is always a premium put on honesty, Elton John made sure that fans do not feel cheated.

In 1970, John started dating John Reid, his manager. The relationship lasted for five years. He then married sound engineer Renate Blauel, a German woman, in 1983. The marriage ended in three years. He founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, to help find a cure for the disease which had affected many in the LGBTQ community, including his close friend Freddie Mercury.

He met his current husband and filmmaker David Furnish the same year. He has two sons with Furnish.

A fitting end

For years John turned his pain, pleasures and life into songs, allowing them to transcend time. “I knew I’ll be famous one day… And it’s that ambition which kept me going really,” Elton John said in a 1973 Norma Jean documentary.

As he takes a seat behind the grand piano at a concert for one last time, the veteran of thousands of such shows will well up many, who will wish luck to the dewy-eyed ‘Rocket Man’. As always, however, he will hide behind a pair of colourful, outrageous-looking glasses. An artiste who became a soundtrack to our lives, will croon live one last time – “You can’t plant me in your penthouse/ I’m going back to my plough.”

We are listening.