Scattershot

 

Scattershot – Bernie Taupin

Well I have to honestly say that I was a bit disappointed with this one.  After further reflection, though, I’m not entirely sure my sentiments are completely fair.  A bit of background is in order.

Bernie Taupin is mostly known as Elton John’s writing partner. Elton writes the music and Bernie writes the lyrics.  And Bernie is brilliant at what he does.  No one, in my opinion, does a better job of capturing the various personas and feelings of imaginary characters in songs quite like Bernie Taupin.  Every time a new Elton John album is released, I become highly excited when I know that the album is a collaboration with Taupin.   Also, Taupin is a joy to read when he is just writing, or even speaking.  He has such an amazing craft with the written and spoken word that I feel such strong emotion just by digesting his prose, regardless of whether or not he’s crafting actual lyrics to a song.  Several years ago, he had a blog, and I loved simply reading his periodic observations of whatever was going on in the world.  To read reflections by Bernie Taupin was akin to watching Fred Astaire dance.

So what could possibly be better than an autobiography by the man? Especially since he is Elton John’s writing partner and even best friend?  Well, this is where close examination of the life of Bernie Taupin is warranted.  Although the two were musical partners, you get the feeling that these two never were really joined at the hip.  So after Bernie hands the lyrics off to Elton, his work on the forthcoming album that Elton was writing was pretty much done.   Yes, sometimes Bernie would go in the recording studio with him, and yes, he would often go on tour with him, but the hard work for Taupin was pretty much done at this point.  Whereas Elton would collaborate with others in the actual process of making the records and tour the world by playing upwards of 3 hours per show, Bernie wasn’t really much a part of the creative endeavors.  Therefore the man had a lot of free time on his hands.  This “free time” is what we read an awful lot about in this autobiography. Sadly, it isn’t exactly engrossing.

Now, to be fair, Taupin basically alludes to this in the introduction of this volume. In fact, this is probably why he named this reflection “Scattershot”.  This isn’t a linear recollection of his life being Elton’s partner in the crime of music.  Instead Taupin writes about…well….just about everything.  The sad fact is that many of his personal stories really aren’t terribly interesting.  When one reads a biography (or autobiography) of a well-known person, we want to read about the elements of the encounters that we’re already somewhat familiar with; and learn about the behind-the-scenes tidbits of people and events that we, as fans, know.  There’s too few of this here.

We read a lot about Bernie’s neighbors, chauffeurs, musical idols that he meets (most are somewhat obscure), favorite bars, eclectic hobbies, and wives and girlfriends.  The man has had more wives and girlfriends than Elton has had hits.  So most of this just doesn’t interest us; or me at least.  I was wanting to read more about the albums, the meanings of the lyrics, the interactions with Elton and the band, and his reflections on the 50+-year cyclone that began when the two were oddly paired to complement each other in the songwriting department.  Yes, all of that is here to an extent, but not an awful lot.

Many albums in Elton’s catalog are skipped over entirely or very lightly brushed. The one we read the most about is 2010’s “The Union”.  Why? Well, that one heavily featured Leon Russell. And since Leon Russell is one of Bernie’s idols, it’s talked about in significant detail.  It would have been nice if all of Elton’s releases would have been as prominently featured, but again, we have to conclude that maybe Bernie simply wasn’t around that much once he handed Elton a manilla envelope packed with lyrics for potential tunes.

There were many times, I confess, where I lost patience and went into “book skimming” mode – scanning the laborious stories of minimal interest until I came to something “Elton” related.  I remember reading the bit about the re-recording of “Candle in the Wind” after the tragic death of Princess Diana.  It was quite interesting, but Bernie devoted only about 2 pages to the details, and then right after that, he spent twice that long on the details surrounding a chance meeting with (another one of) his idol(s) Leonard Cohen at a chance meeting in a coffee shop.  Yawn.

So, yes, the writing here is excellent.  Taupin, as I mentioned, never disappoints in this area.  I often steal many of his musings since they’re quite moving, well-crafted, and many times laugh-out-loud entertaining.   I would recommend this book on those merits alone.  The reader just needs to be aware that there isn’t much around Elton’s albums, the writing process, nor the meanings of the masses of brilliant tunes that Taupin co-authored.  I must state again, I don’t fault the author for this.  It’s HIS life, and it was an overall enjoyable read.