Bingo Square: Repeat (Music)
He’s a music legend, what else can you say?
This book takes the reader through the entirety of Elton John’s life, from his early years in the London suburb of Pinner, where he is a lonely only child with a disinterested father (and parents who really shouldn’t be together anymore), to his early shows in America that rocket him to stardom, his drug addiction and getting clean and his family life that he has now. Written in a way that you can clearly hear John’s voice, it’s funny and moving in parts, and always entertaining. Although if you have seen Rocketman it can at times feel like you’re reading the movie (which of course it would given that it’s based on John’s life, but still, it’s like beat for beat except the movie doesn’t go on quite as long).
I did like the way he discusses the serendipity of meeting Bernie Taupin, and how, if the stars hadn’t aligned in that moment, would you ever have Elton John? The two are definitely magic but they so easily might not have met. He’s very frank about his personality and behaviour (if you’ve seen Tantrums and Tiaras, you know what I mean), and while he looks into where that comes from – his family dynamic, especially his mother – it doesn’t feel like he’s making excuses. It also seems like he has curbed a lot of that behaviour as he’s got older, although I’m sure he can still throw a fit with the best of them.
I am beyond sad that he has retired from touring, since I never got to see him live, but it also makes sense for where he is in the stage of his life and putting his boys and David Furnish first. He has retired before though, or claimed he was going to, so I am hopeful that maybe one day I’ll be in the right place at the right time to catch one more show.