"Rocketman": Every Lyric Tells the Story

The film Rocketman traces the rise of a shy singer - songwriter, born Reginald Dwight, from small clubs in England to vast American arenas he packs a few years later as the glam - rock phenom Elton John, to his crash in an orgy of cocaine, alcohol, and acrimonious break ups. The story, familiar as the myth of that original rocket man Icarus (who also wore feathers), is made fresh and resonant by the clever integration of dialogue with dance, fabulous settings, and the resonant lyrics of Elton John's collaborator, Bernie Taupin.

[Photo collage: Elton John's face on sheet music for "Your Song" 1970; and EJ on The Muppet Show, 1977, photo by David Dagley.]

Characters' singing Taupin's lyrics to each other also makes this a musical, an art form anathema to so many Americans that Paramount calls it a "fantasy." I embrace the "M" word. A year after I saw Elton John's 1973 concert in Atlanta's Braves Stadium, I fell in love with diamond - sharp dramatic lyrics of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim (see what I learned from him, 10/31/2015).

Bernie Taupin's work in comparison seemed rough - hewn, even careless. For example, inchoate ideas in "Your Song" hang awkwardly - "If I was a sculptor / But then again, no..." - and halt -- "Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean / Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen" -- while "words" and "world" end the chorus as if Taupin intends them to rhyme. "The sun has been quite kind" to the writer, but "It's for people like you / that keep it turned on."  Is the sun like a person, or like a light bulb?  Is it God who keeps it turned on, for people like you?  And what's happening during rainy days and night time?  Taupin mangled his idea, here..

But now that I've seen Rocketman, and I've had Taupin's lyrics with EJ's music replaying in my head for a week, I'm re-evaluating.

Get about as oiled as a diesel train
Gonna set this dance alight
'Cause Saturday night's the night I like
Saturday night's alright alright alright.
 - Bernie Taupin, "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" (1973)

Taupin "always has been a very cinematic storyteller in his lyrics," Elton John told Terry Gross in 2013. "There's a visual. So as soon as I look at the lyrics, visually, I can see what's going on." (Elton John interview on Fresh Air) Rocketman proves EJ's point.

The movie's writer Lee Hall and director Dexter Fletcher teach us early on how the songs will tell the story. We see a glittery Satan stalk into a group therapy session and, defensively, arrogantly, introduce himself as Elton John (Taron Egerton), addicted to you - name - it: drugs, alcohol, food, sex, and shopping. No sooner does Elton begin to tell about his childhood than his own five - year - old self (Matthew Illesley) leads him to his old neighborhood where everyone dances to "The Bitch is Back." The musical number instantly clarifies his family's social milieu and time, while the lyric states the salient fact of young Reggie Dwight's life, that his mother never wants him around, and never wanted him at all.


Like any classic Broadway show, there's an "I want" song. Reggie in his early teens (Kit Connor), his mother, his father, and his grandmother all take lines of a lyric "I Want Love," Taupin's 2002 collaboration with Elton John. This is what I first loved in Sondheim's Broadway musicals: the characters' expressions of different feelings layer on top of each other, building to a unified statement, the thesis for the movie. Young Reggie sings, "I want love," the mother adds, "But it's impossible." The icy father, a veteran of the recent war, who will bolt from the family as soon as he can, sings,

A man like me is dead in places
Other men feel liberated
I can't love...
 - "I Want Love" (2001)

Only Reggie's grandmother Ivy (Gemma Jones) encourages his musical talent, and soon the middle - school Reggie (Kit Connor) is breaking out of classical piano music into rock and roll with "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting." Taupin's lyrics have a cocky, exuberant, rough feel; but they're polished and thoughtful, too. "Oiled," "diesel" and "set[ting] the dance alight" all tie in with combustion; the internal rhymes and assonance of  night, alight, I, like and alright, sounding on accented beats propel the lyric, music just underscoring what Taupin had crafted.

My gift is my song
And this one's for you.
  - "Your Song" (music by Elton John, lyric by Bernie Taupin, 1969)

A recording company's agent hands a packet to the newly - named Elton John, containing lyrics by another aspiring songwriter, Bernie Taupin. The meeting of Elton and Bernie (Jamie Bell) at a cafe is awkward, each of them shy, each looking for affirmation from the other, and each admiring the work of the other. They bond over their love of country - western music. In a memorable moment, Elton comes close to kissing Bernie, who says, "I love you -- but not that way."


Despite all the dancing and glitter, my favorite scene in the movie takes place in the Dwights' lower - middle - class home, where Elton and Bernie work on songs. Bernie goes upstairs for a shave while Elton, below, tries to make something of the lyric for "Your Song." At the piano, Egerton as Elton tries out a chord and a falling bass line. There's a surprise, a half step fall where we expect a whole step; upstairs, Bernie pauses. Soon, Bell as Taupin stands at the entrance to the parlor, smiling in disbelief, happy as a creative artist can be to hear his words gain new life through music.


Now I see those halts and changes of direction in "Your Song," not as a sign of Taupin's limitations, but his artful authenticity, his taking on the persona of a shy, tongue - tied songwriter. Of course, the scene also serves as a statement of the characters' appreciation and gratitude for each other.

[Photo: Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin, Taron Egerton as Elton John. Inset: the real Taupin and John, ca. 1970.]

Get back, Honky Cat
Livin' in the city ain't where it's at
It's like tryin' to find gold in a silver mine
It's like tryin' to drink whiskey
Oh, from a bottle of wine
 - "Honky Cat"(1972)

Taupin's lyric for "Honky Cat" tells the pair's story: they come from the "woods" to L.A. Elton John wants love, but he tries to get it from promiscuous sex and boozy parties -- like tryin' to find gold in a silver mine.

What do you think you'll do then?
I bet that'll shoot down your plane.
It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again.
 - "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (1973)

In "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" a couple of years later, Taupin imagines how the same persona from "Honky Cat" retreats from the high city life. It's a dramatic high point when these words are sung by the Taupin character as he walks out on Elton John. The images in Taupin's lyric are in character for a country boy, referring to "the dogs of society" that "howl," hunting, and "mongrels sniffing the ground." Director Fletcher borrows the song's other images for scenes here, of vodka, and of shooting down a plane.

I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no, I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burnin' out his fuse up here alone
 - "Rocket Man" (1972)

When Elton John's fuse burns out, the music that plays is "Rocket Man." In musical fantasy sequences, we see Elton John shoot into the sky like a rocket, and also sink to the bottom of a pool where his childhood self sits in his little glass helmet, scowling in judgement at his adult self.

The Dwight family and Elton John's child self reappear at the therapy session for a cathartic confrontation. The man literally at last embraces the child. Naturally, he rides out the movie on an apt lyric by Bernie Taupin,

Don't you know I'm still standing
better than I ever did
Looking like a true survivor,
feeling like a little kid - "I'm Still Standing" (1983)