elton

back in the 70s when elton john was the man he gave an interview with the rolling stone where he admitted that he was bisexual but that he drew “the line with goats”.
while i have never been a fan there has always been something charming about elton and his music – he never seemed pompous about it and he never seemed to set out to shock, but in the early 70s he was held in high regard mentioned in the same tones as bowie.
his career stalled in the midst of punk (punks never quite got the joy of concept albums… more fool them!) and in that great rock star tradition he retired, and only to, again in that great rock star tradition, come back again. the come back years saw him as a bit of joke, until such time as diana let it be known that she liked him. then suddenly he was the favourite of all those diana lovers out there.
in his sing-a-long with the boy band blue he not only appeared to be more talented than them all, but he was more butch than them all (admittedly this is damning with faint praise!)
recently he has been in the news for a series of events – none of which have much to do with his music. he has thrown tantrums at various paparazzi, he has attacked madonna for being nothing more than a fake and has appeared on national radio during the breakfast slot to let fly with a number of four letter word expletives! in short elton has decided to live his life like he is in spinal tap.
so not only has there been the music and drug excesses, there have been the gaudy clothes, the chairmanship of a football club, the marrying of his sound engineer and of course the many terrible hair transplants that never seem to work.
elton john is obviously a man who has long since stopped taking himself seriously and has long since stopped caring what we think of him and good luck to him for that.
elton john is the celebrities’ celebrity. he is what we want from our celebrities there is enough of the ordinary in him that we can recognise his foibles as ones we share, and there is enough extra ordinariness to remind us that we really don’t want to be like him at all.
so after all these years elton is, to quote the man, still standing. and for that i hope you join me in raising a glass and giving three cheers to a podgy, badly dressed queen with a terrible hair transplant. to you elton i doff my cap you restore my faith in celebrities. i give you elton john, a national treasure, long may he reign.