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InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Elton John
Charted: #8 in December 1970
Elton John could be said to be the patriarch for the third generation of rock and roll. The pioneers had the tough job of clearing the way for their new music while the next generation – the English settlers, so to speak – had the job of establishing the community of rock music. By the time of Elton John’s rise to prominence, rock music was firmly entrenched in our popular culture. No longer was it seen as a threat to decent citizenry and the American way of life. Quite the contrary, rock and roll was as American as apple pie. It could still be shocking, but it no longer seemed subversive. The high camp, frills, and theatrics of the upcoming glitter rock movement were tame when compared to the threatening images and deadly earnestness that defined the image of so many ‘60s bands. In the ‘60s, the Rolling Stones, Dylan, The Doors, and the Velvet Underground all seemed real. In the ‘70s, most of the bands were, by definition, theatrical and phony. They were openly playing a role and reveling in it. Elton John rose to the top of his class because he augmented his tremendous melodic talent with some of the most outrageously kitschy stage designs and costumes that were imaginable. He wasn’t dangerous at all. Instead, he was a pudgy teddy bear dressed in a tutu. He was playfully outrageous and self-mockingly campy while acting the role of the sensitive singer/songwriter through the confusing playlets that were provided by his lyricist, Bernie Taupin. The distance that Taupin provided Elton John from direct personal attachment to the words of the songs allowed him to perform these sensitively rendered melodies while dressed as a banana. By putting space between the performer and the song, he was able to be just as theatrical as his most outrageous peers, even when singing a sensitive love song. In perfect glitter-rock fashion, this made him even more of a poseur than his competitors, such as Davie Bowie and Marc Bolan, who usually had to sing their own lyrics.
No matter how incongruous the image was, Elton John remained thoroughly believable, perhaps even overly sensitive. He may not have written the words, but it was hard to imagine that he wasn’t singing from personal experience. “Your Song” sounds as though it is emanating straight from his heart, right down to the self-effacing chuckle that he adds to the line “If I were a sculptor…but then again, no.” His performance is so convincing that I sometimes need to be reminded that he didn’t pen these words. Perhaps it is the beautiful melody that makes the song so real. The words may be winsome and childlike, but the melody helps them sound truly sincere.
Before he was bitten by the glitter bug, Elton John mostly resembled the other early ‘70s sensitive singer/songwriters, such as Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne. Personal songs of pain and experience were replacing the ‘60s concerns of universal brotherhood. Elton John’s inability to write intriguing lyrics of his own prevented him from remaining in that mold. By setting Taupin’s poems to his own melodies, he stretched their interpretability to suit his own personality. Because of Elton John’s phrasing and sympathetic interpretation, “Your Song” becomes his song. It was a challenge that he would continuously prove himself equal to, time and time again, right to the present day. Many rock-and-roll generations have come and gone since, and he is no longer rock music’s designated leader; but Elton John remains one of popular music’s most consistent, respected, and beloved elder statesmen.
 
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