Word: elton
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...GAME LAD, SO WHEN ELTON John was asked to write songs for The Lion King, he said why not. In a career that began 30 years ago with the band Bluesology and thus spans most of the rock era, John had worked and lived in the grand and sordid rock-star tradition: written hundreds of songs, sold albums in the hundred millions, cavorted onstage in tuxes and plumes, dared to announce his bisexuality, endured rehab for alcoholism, cocaine addiction, bulimia. Nothing human was alien to him. But as he began the task of composing melodies to Tim Rice's words...
Best of all, the pop soap opera that has been John's public life looks to have a happy third act. At 47, the star has emerged from his rehabs fit and creatively recharged. "For a decade or more," says Taupin, "people have tended to view Elton John only as a commercial figure. You wouldn't even know he made records. He was just this character from the tabloids. But now he's totally alive. His rehab was more than fixing what was broken. It was an exorcism. He's become stronger, and he wants to prove himself again...
...believe in artists," said the hero of Tom Stoppard's play The Real Thing. "I believe in singles." The joy and curse of Elton John's music is that every song on every album has eyes to be a hit single. These are super-productions, aural Busby Berkeley numbers, ascending an oratorical mountain to the sky-rocketing crescendo. And, on Made in England, they sound swell; there's heft and meaning in the songs--no throwaways. "Since I've been sober I've made three albums, and this is the best," he says. "Getting adjusted...
...still likes to buy things--"I can find a store in the desert"--but now he's more interested in selling them off: the former contents of his house, at Sotheby's last year, and cartloads of old clothes, with the proceeds going to aids charities. His own Elton John aids Foundation-to which he donates all profits from his singles-has raised $5.5 million for care and education...
...right, he's no Rubinstein, no Picasso. But even a Rocket Man can have a long trajectory. Bank on it: Elton will forever keep pumping the piano and cranking out the hits. Still standing. Still playing your song...