Word: elton
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...Elton's concerts are fun. People augh as much as they shriek. ("If they scream," he says in his self-mocking way, "it is probably in horror.") Fans eagerly await his first appearance onstage to see what outrageous variations he will work on his image that night. No one can predict which of his 200 pairs of glasses (total value: $40,000) he may wear. He has three pairs that are mink-lined, another with 57 tiny light bulbs that spell out ELTON, yet another shaped like musical notes linked by a jeweled bridge bar. Most gorgeous...
...Elton's trademarks is pounding the piano with his feet; another is throwing his piano stool in the general direction of the audience (but actually into the pit). He has been known to dye his hair orange or pink for some gigs, to bat tennis balls into the crowd, and once in Los Angeles he hired actors to dress as Queen Elizabeth, Frankenstein and Elvis Presley and wander around the stage. Whether this represents a display of unquenchable energy, the response of a sometime wallflower suddenly encouraged to be the life of the party, or just overripe showmanship...
...have a laugh and enjoy ourselves.' " There have been no acid-rock-style riots at his concerts. Somehow, right from the stage, he manages to get across to his audiences the message that he is just kidding. A small but serious point, however, underlies the fun. Elton says, "I didn't start enjoying life until I was 21, so I'm living through my teenage period now." One imagines that the suppressed child, the introverted adolescent of not so distant former years is letting a great deal hang out onstage. There are clues...
...quite porky. In a caftan he looked like a myopic nun." Still young Reg, unable "to chat it up with the girls," did what he could to change his unprepossessing image. He unsuccessfully tried amphetamines to cure his weight problem. He borrowed the Christian names of Saxophonist Elton Dean and Leader John Baldry to create a new stage name for himself. Then he went off to London, where he found work as an errand boy at a music company...
During those months, Elton spotted an ad in a trade paper, placed by a record-company executive who asked artists and composers to send samples of their work by mail. The executive matched some music written by Elton with lyrics Taupin had sent in. He introduced them, but then decided not to hire the team he had created...