Bernie Taupin on his life in music, from the songs that inspired him to the hits he wrote with Elton John
The acclaimed songwriter and lyricist talks to Q’s Tom Power about his new memoir, Scattershot
Bernie Taupin is one of the most renowned lyricists in modern music, but he's kept his personal history close to his chest, shunning the limelight in favour of protecting his privacy — until now.
He tells his story in his new memoir, Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton and Me, which chronicles his incredible life and longtime creative partnership with Elton John.
In an interview with Q's Tom Power, Taupin looks back on his life in music by taking us through some of the songs he wrote with his "musical soul brother," as well as a few songs by other artists that inspired him along the way.
On the song that turned him onto songwriting
Growing up in England, Taupin mostly listened to American songs on the radio because he found they told stories "in ways that classic rock and basic formatted pop didn't do."
But there was only one song that made him realize that he wanted to be a songwriter: El Paso by Marty Robbins.
"I always wanted to be a storyteller," says Taupin. "The only storytelling songs were American country songs and I've always said for my entire career that the song that turned me onto songwriting was El Paso by Marty Robbins.
"When I heard that song, I went, 'Wow. You can write stories and have people sing them too.' And that was always my mantra all the way through my life: I wanted to be a storyteller. I didn't understand the process of songwriting or what really a lyricist was. I didn't like to be referred to as a poet and I loathe it still to this day, you know. I just always wanted to be a storyteller."
On the song that encouraged him to follow his instincts
In his book, Taupin writes that The Band's Tears of Rage — with lyrics written by Bob Dylan — encouraged him to follow his instincts.
"Whoa, whoa, wait a second," Taupin interjects in his conversation with Power. "Not just written by Bob Dylan, you know, give the other guys credit. They made it their own, man…. To me that's a Band song, it's not a Dylan song."
When Taupin first heard Tears of Rage, he thought it was "incredibly hip" and decided he wanted to try writing something like it.
"I was completely a sort of closet country fan," he says. "And that music was my baptism into what is now known as Americana…. Elton and I were writing songs that we were trying to fit into the status quo of the time, and I really wanted to write those songs that had inspired me in the early days — those story songs.
"When I heard [The Band's debut album] Music from Big Pink, it was like the floodgates opened. It was like manna from heaven. I went, 'Whoa, you know what? I can come out of the closet and write this stuff now….' We went from doing the Elton John black album, which was a very heavily orchestrated kind of a pastiche … to doing basically our version of a Band album."
On the first song he wrote with John that made him feel they had something special
Taupin and John have an interesting creative process, where the former writes the lyrics and the latter writes the music, often in separate rooms. But what was the first song they wrote that made Taupin think they had something together?
"That would be a song called Skyline Pigeon, which was on our very first album, Empty Sky," he says.
"In the early, early days when we first got together, we were sort of torn between two worlds because this was Reg Dwight before he became Elton John. So we were jobbing songwriters. We were signed to [Dick James Music] to write songs for middle of the road artists who were current at the time … and we were trying to do that in order to just make our paycheque every week. But at the same time, you know, we were experimenting on the side with a different kind of music."
The first single that we ever put out was an atrocious piece of middle of the road crap.- Bernie Taupin
When the producer Steve Brown came to Dick James Music, he told Taupin and John they should "forget this middle of the road crap" and to start writing for themselves.
"And then, obviously, you know, Reg Dwight became Elton John and we started making records," Taupin recalls.
"The first single that we ever put out was an atrocious piece of middle of the road crap, and then after that, we wrote a song called Lady Samantha, which the BBC kind of took to. It was our kind of blue touchpaper, it gave us some notoriety…. Then we wrote this song called Skyline Pigeon. But it was the one song that we went, 'Yeah, this is the direction we should be going in.'"
On Candle in the Wind and why Marilyn Monroe wasn't his first choice for the song
In 1973, Taupin and John wrote Candle in the Wind as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, who had died 11 years earlier. The song is also associated with the late Princess Diana, whom it was rewritten for in 1997.
But as Taupin reveals in his memoir, Monroe wasn't his first choice for Candle in the Wind. In fact, the lyricist is a little indifferent to the iconic Hollywood star.
"The title Candle in the Wind came to me first," explains Tapuin. "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote a book called Candle in the Wind about the gulags in Russia. It's a little book, tiny book, but a brilliant one. And I just thought the title was phenomenal. I thought, 'What a great title, Candle in the Wind. It sounds like something that should be written about somebody whose life was cut short in their prime.'
"At the same time, I'd seen a movie called The Misfits that John Huston directed with Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe. I'd always loved the movie because it had a sort of cowboy element to it and I liked the characters. The only character I didn't like was Marilyn Monroe's because she was always bitching about animal cruelty."
Originally, Taupin wanted to write Candle in the Wind about Clift, who he thought "was such a cool cowboy" in The Misfits, and who also died at a young age about four years after Monroe.
"After some thought, I thought maybe Montgomery Clift is not the best choice if you're going for some sort of commercial appeal," he says. "Maybe Marilyn Monroe might be a better idea because she's more iconic in the minds of the masses. And she's more of the sort of fragile flower."
But after releasing Candle in the Wind, people assumed Taupin was a big fan of Monroe's and sent him "all of this god-awful memorabilia."
"Lobby cards, posters, books, I mean, Elton himself sent me a huge dress form mannequin that all her dresses were made on," Taupin says.
"My house ended up looking like Joe DiMaggio's basement. I mean, I hate to disappoint people, but yeah, I was never a big Marilyn Monroe fan. The song worked out as a testament for, you know, live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse."
The full interview with Bernie Taupin is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power, where he talks more about his creative partnership with Elton John. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Bernie Taupin produced by Ben Edwards.
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