The best songs are often the ones that move people without needing that much window dressing, and for as many extravagant pieces that the piano legend put into his live show, he knew he could make many of his finest tunes work with only the piano and voice. But he could also raise his hand and admit when he didn’t do justice to the masterpieces he and Bernie Taupin created together.
But even if the duo were free to work with other people throughout the course of their career, they truly were made for each other in the 1970s. They couldn’t have been more different behind the scenes, but the way that Taupin wrote lyrics helped pull the music out of John more often than not, even if it sounded a bit more sophisticated than anything else on the radio at the time.
John wasn’t afraid of wearing his non-rock and roll influences on his sleeve, but looking at where Taupin was coming from, he seemed to be an American heart trapped in an Englishman’s body. He could certainly make a touching tribute to Princess Diana following her tragic passing, but given the kind of lyrics that turn up on Honky Chateau or Tumbleweed Connection, he wanted to have the same kind of lyrical depth that Bob Dylan had whenever he made one of his masterpieces.
And more than a few times, he managed to actually get there. ‘Your Song’ and ‘Tiny Dancer’ are treated as the fine pop songs they are for a good reason, but a deep cut like ‘Indian Sunset’ is one of the most interesting lyrical portraits he ever painted for one of John’s songs. But even in the different worlds that he created, not every one of those characters necessarily gets a happy ending for their lives.
‘Levon’ is a fantastic tune, but the tale of a man growing up to have a son that wants to walk out on him can’t help but feel unbelievably sad with that music behind the story. But even for a song that had as much depth as ‘Daniel’, John remembered Taupin being pissed when the final version of the tune didn’t tell the full story.
But when listening through the tune, John knew that adding one more verse tying the entire song would have only taken away from the rest of the track, saying, “I also used to do some things to his lyrics which were really heinous crimes, just cross out things and say, ‘Oh, sorry Bernie.’ That’s why the last verse of ‘Daniel’ was never there, which explained the whole song. I said, ‘Too long, sorry.’ Somebody else would have gone nuts. But that’s part of our relationship – we give and take.”
It’s not like John always had the gift of foresight when it came to his songs, either. He may have been on the money keeping ‘Daniel’ more streamlined, but it’s hard to think of anyone not seeing the potential in a tune like ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, which John was vehemently opposed to throughout the entire recording .
If there’s one lesson that both of them needed to learn throughout their time together, it was that no idea was too precious to discard for the sake of the song. There were a few broken hearts by the end of a few writing sessions, but it’s much more important to serve the muse than stand up for that one line or one section that you love to pieces.
