No artist gets into the industry to suffer for their art.
Elton John may have been one of the greatest artists of all time, but he knew that there were bound to be some risks that he would have to take if he wanted to become one of the biggest artists in the world. And while a lot of his work was able to become iconic, he knew when the wheels were falling off ever so slightly.
But looking at John’s work, there’s normally a certain standard that he holds himself to far above anyone else. Even the low lights of his catalogue are perfectly fine for what they are, and even when looking at a few of his tragic misfires like Leather Jackets, it’s much easier to look at the dated musical kitsch on display than worry about being bored out of your mind while listening to it.
Because throughout every piece of his career, John knew that the song mattered most before anything else. He was always a firm believer in having the best material that he could think of at his disposal, and even if he started to write more for himself than outright looking for hits, there’s a reason why he turns to modern legends like Brandi Carlile. He knew what made a great songwriter, and even if he plays second fiddle to them sometimes, he’s proven himself to be as much of a musical performer as he is an artist.
Then again, living onstage was never something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. It’s heartbreaking to think that he has officially retired from the road, but that’s only because he sounded immaculate even when he was delivering his songs to the people. Sure, he has to take some liberties with the few high notes he sang every night, but when playing in Australia in the late 1980s, he was in top form.
Or at least, that’s what he wanted everyone to think. All the pieces were there for John to make a fantastic record, but behind the scenes, he was already starting to crumble a little bit, having been told that he would need to get surgery on his vocal cords and coming dangerously close to potentially never singing onstage ever again.
While you’d never think that listening to the record, John felt it stood out as more of a document of the time when listening back to it, saying, “It was a very special album to me. It was me falling to bits, I couldn’t sing. I sang, but I don’t know how I sang. Most of that album was taken from the last night of the tour, and on things like ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, I was crying when I was doing that. My life was an utter disaster area, and one thing I love about the album is that you can feel the emotion.”
But beyond the songs, what John created here is a glimpse into his life that not many people get to see. For an industry that prides itself on the biggest stars giving away their deepest secrets, John didn’t need to say a word about his condition to let everyone know the raw pain and stress that he was feeling and channelling everything into his work.
Does all art need to have that kind of melodrama behind it to be good? Absolutely not, but it takes professionals like John to show what can happen when art and life begin to overlap. It’s a dangerous decision, and not everyone gets out of it without a few scars on their heart, but John has been the phoenix from the ashes with every single day he continues to get behind that piano.
