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
