![]() Only Reggie's grandmother Ivy (Gemma Jones) encourages his musical talent, and soon the middle - school Reggie (Kit Connor) is breaking out of classical piano music into rock and roll with "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting." Taupin's lyrics have a cocky, exuberant, rough feel but they're polished and thoughtful, too. ![]() Young Reggie sings, "I want love," the mother adds, "But it's impossible." The icy father, a veteran of the recent war, who will bolt from the family as soon as he can, sings, This is what I first loved in Sondheim's Broadway musicals: the characters' expressions of different feelings layer on top of each other, building to a unified statement, the thesis for the movie. ![]() Reggie in his early teens (Kit Connor), his mother, his father, and his grandmother all take lines of a lyric "I Want Love," Taupin's 2002 collaboration with Elton John. Like any classic Broadway show, there's an "I want" song. No sooner does Elton begin to tell about his childhood than his own five - year - old self (Matthew Illesley) leads him to his old neighborhood where everyone dances to "The Bitch is Back." The musical number instantly clarifies his family's social milieu and time, while the lyric states the salient fact of young Reggie Dwight's life, that his mother never wants him around, and never wanted him at all. We see a glittery Satan stalk into a group therapy session and, defensively, arrogantly, introduce himself as Elton John (Taron Egerton), addicted to you - name - it: drugs, alcohol, food, sex, and shopping. The movie's writer Lee Hall and director Dexter Fletcher teach us early on how the songs will tell the story. So as soon as I look at the lyrics, visually, I can see what's going on." ( Elton John interview on Fresh Air) Rocketman proves EJ's point. Taupin "always has been a very cinematic storyteller in his lyrics," Elton John told Terry Gross in 2013. Bernie Taupin, "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" (1973) Saturday night's alright alright alright. "The sun has been quite kind" to the writer, but "It's for people like you / that keep it turned on." Is the sun like a person, or like a light bulb? Is it God who keeps it turned on, for people like you? And what's happening during rainy days and night time? Taupin mangled his idea, here.īut now that I've seen Rocketman, and I've had Taupin's lyrics with EJ's music replaying in my head for a week, I'm re-evaluating. For example, inchoate ideas in "Your Song" hang awkwardly - "If I was a sculptor / But then again, no." - and halt - "Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean / Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen" - while "words" and "world" end the chorus as if Taupin intends them to rhyme. A year after I saw Elton John's 1973 concert in Atlanta's Braves Stadium, I fell in love with diamond - sharp dramatic lyrics of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim (see what I learned from him, ).īernie Taupin's work in comparison seemed rough - hewn, even careless. I send my best wishes to ESA and all the crew, and my thanks for keeping those boyhood dreams alive.Characters' singing Taupin's lyrics to each other also makes this a musical, an art form anathema to so many Americans that Paramount calls it a "fantasy." I embrace the "M" word. “Now, 40 years later, it’s amazing to hear from the astronauts at the European Space Agency that they like the song and that it has been on the playlist on the International Space Station. It was thrilling to find that real astronauts liked our song, Rocket Man, which was about an imaginary astronaut. “Not long after the Rocket Man single was released, my band and I were invited to the NASA headquarters in Texas and shown around by Al Worden, Apollo 15 command module pilot. ‘Rocket Man’ - and indeed ‘Dan Dare’ on the Rock of the Westies album - came from those boyhood dreams of travelling beyond the stars and looking back on Earth. “Our generation was smitten with the glory and excitement of space travel. Bernie and I did not meet until 1967, and two years after we met, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on to the moon. I was 14 years old when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space my songwriting partner Bernie Taupin was just 11. Sir Elton said, “When I was a boy Dan Dare was a comic book hero, and space travel just a romantic idea, not a reality.
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