NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� If you're thinking of checking out the new memoir by lyricist to learn more about the Rocket Man, you're out of luck. This is song to sing.
is a fascinating read for the pictures it paints of the music scene of the 1970s, 鈥�80s and 鈥�90s but if John is what you seek, he writes, the singer-pianist is "in absentia for much of this narrative.鈥�
鈥淲hat people don鈥檛 realize is that we were joined at the hip at the beginning. It was sort of me and him against the world,鈥� Taupin said in a recent interview. 鈥淏ut I think once that we gained a modicum of success, it was natural that we would sort of separate and find our own lives.鈥�
鈥淪cattershot" is the story of an Englishman bewitched by country music and the American West who grows up to supply lyrics to one of rock n 鈥檙oll鈥檚 all-time superstars and later in life embraces art and becomes a bona fide cowboy.
鈥淚t was a great sort of psychological adventure, in a way,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was like being on the couch and remembering things, being prodded by myself rather than a psychiatrist.鈥�
Readers will learn that 鈥淏ennie and the Jets鈥� was inspired by 鈥淭iny Dancer鈥� actually describes a handful of Los Angeles women, and 鈥淚鈥檓 Still Standing鈥� was based on a breakup suffered by Taupin.
They鈥檒l learn he was buzzed and poolside in Barbados when John called him for lyrics to a new duet he was working on. Taupin threw something together that was 鈥渟implistic without being overly trite.鈥� It became their first U.K. No. 1 and winner of an Ivor Novello Award. 鈥淣ot bad for 10 minutes of drunken scribbling,鈥� he writes.
Of meeting John the first time, he writes: 鈥淚 like him tremendously because he鈥檚 not condescending. I sense a kindred spirit; we鈥檙e outsiders looking for a way in, and I鈥檓 willing to play along, Sancho Panza to his Don Quixote.鈥� He also writes about gracefully declining an early pass from John, paving the way for 50 years of friendship.
Taupin reveals he once punched John Belushi, ate a half block of opium on a flight from New York, split his pants at a reception at Kensington Palace and that Marilyn Monroe was not the initial choice to anchor 鈥淐andle in the Wind.鈥�
When he and John revisited the song to honor Diana, Princess of Wales, Taupin spent just half an hour and acknowledges in his memoir that 鈥渋f you put a gun to my head right now and threatened to kill me if I didn鈥檛 recite the lyric, I鈥檇 be a dead man. I don鈥檛 remember a word of it.鈥� It would become the highest selling single of all time.
Taupin doesn鈥檛 avoid spilling tea. Of Andy Warhol, he writes: 鈥淭alking to Andy was like conversing with an 8-year-old girl鈥� and he wasn鈥檛 a fan of 鈥淗e was the possessor of a perpetual, passive smirk that I found unsettling.鈥�
鈥淚 always find that people tend to tiptoe around in autobiographies. But you have to call people out," he said in the interview. 鈥淚 call out a few people, some more than others. But I also compliment the ones that deserve to be complimented.鈥�
He also isn't shy about criticizing his own work. He and John's first album, 鈥淓mpty Sky,鈥� was 鈥渁n acceptable debut, but more importantly, a harbinger of growth and improvement.鈥� Later, the album 鈥淛ump Up!鈥� was 鈥渄efinitely subpar.鈥�
Ben Schafer, an executive editor at Hachette Books who worked with Taupin on the memoir and is thanked in the acknowledgements, said 鈥淪cattershot鈥� benefits from a writer living in two worlds.
鈥淗e got to live like a rock star, but he didn鈥檛 have to be one and that gives him a certain kind of clarity," said Schafer, who has worked on books by Brian Wilson, Lou Reed and Buddy Guy. "He鈥檚 totally inside, but, in a way, he鈥檚 outside and can live something of a normal life in the way Elton John can鈥檛.鈥�
Taupin rejected writing a linear memoir, instead taking a page from Bob Dylan's 鈥淐hronicles鈥� and collecting his thoughts in themes or locations. His feelings and encounters with the royal family get one chapter, as does his trips to Mexico.
鈥淒oing it in a linear fashion, I think would have bored me, basically. It鈥檚 like writing songs: You write what you feel like writing at any given time. And that鈥檚 how the book was.鈥�
There are unusual sections, like a chapter that compares the prominent surrealist artist Salvador Dali, who got on Taupin's nerves, with Taupin's driver, Ralphie, an unknown guy whose company he enjoyed.
鈥淭he chapter was to say there are people that are there for a short time in our life that don鈥檛 leave a great legacy, but they do in your own mind,鈥� said Taupin. 鈥淚n my mind, Ralphie was every every bit as important to me as running and hanging with Salvador Dali.鈥�
The John-Taupin collaboration has created some of modern music鈥檚 most lasting hits, like 鈥淵our Song鈥� and 鈥淩ocket Man.鈥� But Taupin is not precious about the meaning of his lyrics.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 far more interesting to let people come up with their own conclusions as to what this song is about. I think it鈥檚 fascinating. It鈥檚 like looking at contemporary modern art or abstract art. 鈥楴ow, what was he trying to say with this?鈥欌�� he said.
鈥淚 never take for granted that our songs have stood the test of time. I鈥檓 completely complimented by that. And I never take it for granted.鈥�
Though associated closely with John, Taupin has also co-written such hits as and 鈥淏reakfast in Birmingham鈥� by Tanya Tucker.
鈥淚 like writing in a country vein and the Americana vein because it suits my sensibility better than anything else. So I鈥檓 just lucky to be able to find the people that are able to put my stories into the right framework,鈥� he said.
Later in life, he embraced making expressionist art and the sport of cutting, an equestrian competition in which a horse and rider are judged on their skill separating cows. It's full circle for the boy who once played cowboy.
The book comes out a few months before Taupin's 鈥� almost 30 years after John got in and, to many, a long-overdue honor for the man who wrote 鈥淢y gift is my song, and this one鈥檚 for you.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 probably going to be the first lyricist that鈥檚 actually in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, because, quite honestly, there aren鈥檛 many others,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think I only got considered when they realized that I actually wasn鈥檛 in there.鈥�
___
Mark Kennedy is at
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
