Friday, July 19, 2019

ELTON JOHN “ROCKETMAN” MOVIE LIES & FACT TWISTS + His Whiter Shade of Pale “Borrowing”


Elton and Taron. Yes, the make-up work on Taron was very good. He looked quite a bit like Elton John. And sometimes Gary Burghoff.

Now that ROCKETMAN is all over the torrents, including the recently revived DEMONOID, you've probably caught up with it. Or did the publicity about a brief gay bedroom scene put you off? Or have you had enough of "what's up with gay icons with weird teeth" after sitting through BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY? 

If you did see the film, you might be wondering, as one usually does with "based on a true story" films...how much of it is reality, and how much of it is bullshit? Or, as we say, "dramatic license?" After all, "it's only a movie" is the bottom line, and the bottom line is profits. So invent characters, play with the timeline, conveniently darken a few people into villains, and if it's a musical, make sure to have ludicrous moments where people burst into song. 

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (directed by the same guy who helmed ROCKETMAN) made a convenient villain out of a dead guy. Here, the very much alive John Reid is presented as a twisted Machiavellian who seduced the virginal 23 year-old Elton only to make him a contract slave and to sneer at him and even punch him. Reid, a recluse these days, can’t prove this film has damaged his ability to make money. So what are his monetary damages? None. The truth? He remained Elton’s business manager a long, long time after he and Rocket Man stopped rocking their inner spaces together. You can argue the film merely “compacted” Reid’s misdeeds, as Elton eventually did sue the guy, but the settlement was out of court. 

The film insists Elton and Bernie "never had an argument." Yeah? The film itself shows them arguing! In an artful moment of the impossible, we see Bernie storm away from his drugged-up friend singing (yes, singing) "Goodbye yellow brick road..." In an admittedly amusing coincidence, Taupin (well known for having a ranch and horses) sings, "going back to my plow." (The film also bypasses the drama of Taupin making solo albums and working with Alice Cooper while Elton used lyricist Gary Osborne amid his drug hazes, and, not mentioned at all, had some very big hits working with Tim Rice.)

Another movie villain in ROCKETMAN is Elton's mean ol' daddy, who was aloof while is mother was smothering him with alternate attention and put-downs. Elton’s half-brothers dispute the depiction of Elton’s father as a cold nasty guy. Geoff Dwight: “When I was growing up, Elton was always there and we had a lot of fun on family holidays.” But presenting both of Elton’s parents as ogres (father cold, mother overbearing = homosexual son) is good drama. 

The most egregious and obvious lie in ROCKETMAN is when Reggie Dwight, calling himself Elton (after Elton Dean) glances at a photo of John Lennon and…announces his last name is JOHN. 

No. Reggie Dwight chose John as a tribute to a different idol, the flamboyantly gay John Baldry. Can we forgive Elton for wanting to alter history and give a salute to John Lennon, who beame more important in his life than Baldry? Then again, it was the gay Baldry who insisted Elton was making a mistake in getting engaged to Linda Woodrow, a woman Elton had dated (but apparently not slept with) for two years. “You almost had me roped and tied,” Bernie Taupin apparently wrote of this incident via “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.” Baldry saved Elton by clucking, “Oh my dear, for God’s sake, you’re getting married and you love Bernie more than you love this girl. This is ridiculous.”  (That line, and Woodrow, are not in the film, and the film makes it a point several times to insist Elton and Bernie never experimented together, much less were lovers). 

Did Elton John really try to kill himself in a swimming pool? Movie producer Elton will say it's good movie drama. Old quotes from Elton indicate NO: “I was typical me. There was no way I was going to kill myself doing that. And, of course, my grandmother came out with the perfect line: ‘I suppose we’ve all got to go home now.’”  

There are plenty of continuity errors in ROCKETMAN (not ROCKET MAN) but it’s sort of nit-picking to complain about them. Yes, he opens The Troubadour set with “Crocodile Rock” which he hadn’t yet written. Doug Weston, the club owner (depicted here as being outrageously gay...the film may be outing the long-dead man) claims Neil Young played the club a week earlier, when in reality, it was a YEAR earlier. Elton frets at the show that he’s nervous in part because he hasn’t played with a band before…but he already had Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson on British gigs. PS, that was it, a trio. Elton didn’t add guitarist Davey Johnstone for several more years. 

Oddly, or perhaps pointedly, producer Elton John chose not acknowledge that Neil Diamond introduced the audience to the brilliant but unknown Englishman on his first show at the Troubadour. A Neil Diamond impersonator, or just “Neil Diamond is going to introduce you” could’ve been a nice little “thank you.” But, no thanks. 

I wonder if Neil Diamond is a little peeved about being left out of the movie. Come to think of it, I was left out of the movie, too. But then again, I only met Elton once at a party, and spoke to him for maybe three minutes. That's the truth. 

Less truthful is the scene where Elton auditions several familiar hit songs for Dick James that he also hadn’t yet written (it’s 1967 and he’s singing 1983’s “I Guess That’s Why they Call It the Blues”).  Elton seems to be getting wicked revenge on Dick James by making it seem the guy wouldn’t know a hit song from a poke in the ear. But can you blame Dick James for the fact that a dozen or more demo songs by Elton John from that period NEVER became hits? Most NEVER were even recorded by anyone. (An exception, which is here on the blog somewhere, is Edward Woodward singing that tune about "Rebecca," but it may have been recorded long after Elton was a star and his back catalogue was being peered at for potential gold.)


What disappointed me about the Dick James early scene is that it would’ve been a good place to drop in one of the demo songs Elton wrote, or a truly early number like “Lady Samantha.” Why pander constantly to putting the familiar hits on the soundtrack? 


This leads, for your inspection, to the obscure “Tealby Abbey.” For some reason (it could be technical, legal or artistic) Elton’s never officially released his early demo material. “Tealby Abbey” is a light little pop prance, with the usual obscurities and confusions one always finds in Taupin’s lyrics, but check the opening chords.

 Isn’t that “A WHITER SHADE OF PALE?” Isn’t it using the same chords that organist Matthew Fisher created for Procol Harum’s hit song that had come out about a year earlier? It sure is. That’s not dramatic license. It’s a fact. And not a coincidence.  Fortunately, after borrowing five or six notes, the song kicks into something totally original. It was the days when Elton “was Tealby Abbey.” Oh, wasn’t he Reggie Dwight? No, no, Tealby is a little village in Lincolnshire, and there’s probably an abbey there, just like there’s a cathedral in Winchester that brings people down.  




Due to bandwidth issues, the blog will have less instant download links from Box. (And no, this blog does NOT use rogue companies that are full of spyware, that have porn ads on their site, or deny copyright owners quick takedown relief). 

However, you all know how to Google and get a website that will convert a YouTube post to a downloadable mp3 file. In most cases, YouTube streaming actually does put a few pennies into the pockets of the people who created the music.

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