David Buckley (1) (1965–)

Ah, Elton. I'm with the author in that I like some of Elton's songs, which are like radio wallpaper (depending on which station you listen to, of course), but I've never really been a fan. Then the teen invasion of the Queen fandom put me off my usual music, so I drifted sideways into Elton (and Bernie, his songwriter), who was a good friend of Freddie's (they called each other Sharon and Melina!) Now I'm buying LPs and waiting eagerly for the film, Rocketman later this year!

So, what did I know about Elton, apart from his best known hits? I knew he was gay but that he'd married a woman (although I thought that was before he came out), and that he's now married to a guy called David Furnish and they have two kids. I knew about his Liberace style stage costumes, his reputation for being a diva, and that he's also written songs for musicals, like Disney's The Lion King. And, thanks to his book Love Is The Cure, I know he runs a charity for people with HIV/AIDS. So what did I learn from this biography, which is not 'official' but seems like a well-researched and objective story-so-far (2006), with firsthand accounts from people close to Elton and quotes from the man himself?

Well, first that Elton - born Reginald Dwight, then changing his name by deed poll in 1972 - was a shy child who spent a lot of time in his room playing records, and that he is still shy off stage. I seem to be drawn to performers who somehow overcome personal insecurities to entertain an audience - Freddie Mercury was also a larger than life frontman but quiet and reserved in his private life. Elton met his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin - I love Bernie, I think that's what I really learned! - in 1967, when they both answered an ad in the NME from a new record company. Elton could write music but not lyrics, and didn't think he could sing (even though he was in a band at the time, Bluesology), and Bernie could write poetry but not set his words to music. Magic happened and the two were paired up, even though 'we wrote our first 20 songs together before we even met', Elton recalled. Their partnership and friendship has endured for over 50 years, bar a small blip in the 70s, and I love how Elton describes his feelings for Bernie: 'I did [love him]. But it was never a sexual thing. I would never leap on him. I just adored him, like a brother. I was in love with him, but not in a physical way. He was the soulmate I'd been looking for all my life'.

Whereas I knew that Elton is gay (like Freddie, ahem), I didn't know that he'd been engaged to a woman in the 70s until Long John Baldry, who was also gay, talked him out of 'ruining two lives'. HIs former fiancee, Linda Woodrow, said, 'Looking back, I realised that something was not right with that side of things ... He didn't show much interest in me sexually, and he didn't pay me much attention'. (Again, like Freddie and Mary Austin.) Elton then moved in and started a long relationship with his manager, John Reid, who also managed Queen for a while (Brian May binned him off because he was only interested in Freddie), but I was surprised to learn that he then married a woman, Renate Blauel, in the 1980s! Elton was openly gay, so I don't know how he expected that to work, and it didn't. As David Buckley writes, Elton wasn't bisexual like he claimed in the early days - 'in the early days, an admission of bisexuality was a halfway house', a 'code' used by gay men to admit their sexuality in public.

Again, from reading Love Is The Cure, I knew that Elton nearly killed himself with various addictions and disorders - alcohol, drugs, bulimia - and that he was saved by the death of a young boy in America, Ryan White, who was also the reason Elton started his AIDS charity. What we get here is simply more details about how out of control Elton was, and a reinforcement of the miracle that he actually survived. Elton was just as promiscuous as Freddie Mercury, but Freddie died in 1991 from AIDS-related complications (there's a nice story, not told here, about how Freddie gifted a painting by Elton's favourite artist to his friend 'Sharon' after his death, and reduced Elton to tears), and Elton lived to start an AIDS foundation.

What I mainly took from David Buckley's biography, however, is MUSIC, which is how it should be. I was scribbling down recommended album titles and then hunting them down on eBay - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 17/11/70, Honky Chateau, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. I didn't know just how successful Elton was in the 1970s, and how quickly success happened for him - by the mid-70s, he was a pop icon with 10 studio albums and his own record company, performing with the former Beatles and friends with Marc Bolan. I mean, what? But I can definitely say I'm well on my way to being a fan now. Thank you, Mr Buckley!… (more)

David Buckley really knows his stuff and has interesting, and new - to me, a reasonably knowledgeable fan - observations to make about the myriad twists and turns of David's career.

As a teenage Bowie freak I finally lost interest during the 1980s when David seemed more interest in making money than art. Reading this book stimulated me to revisit his 1970s glory years, and to better understand how and why his career played out the way it did. I enjoyed reading the book with my iPod on, and listening to each track/album as David Buckley brought his expert analysis to bear. If you're reading this, you probably don't need me to tell you that David has enjoyed a musical renaissance since the mid-1990s which - his heart attack aside - gives the book an upbeat ending and a certain symmetry.

Some very random highlights:

- the impact of the Ziggy era and its contribution to Punk a few years down the line
- Mike Garson - keyboard maestro - who is asked at least once a week (1973-present) about his keyboard solo on Aladdin Sane
- David's prodigious mid-70s cocaine intake not getting in the way of creating the majestic Station To Station
- David's more bizarre duets
- how Glam kicked the crap out of the hippy dream
- and oh so much more

I think David Buckley is to be congratulated on a great achievement: a fascinating book that does its subject justice. Weighing in at nearly 700 pages it's more for the fan than the casual reader. And you don't need me to tell you that David Bowie is one of the late 20th century's most significant musical figures.… (more)