On Elton John: An Opinionated Guide<\/p>\n
by Matthew Restall<\/p>\n
Oxford University Press 2025<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the sake of my Bibliography\u2019s thematic coherence, I have not included in it works on the Aztecs.\u201d Delightfully, this sentence is to be found in a new book about Elton John, the latest in Oxford University Press\u2019 small \u201cOpinionated Guide\u201d series covering luminaries of pop culture. As well as being the author of this volume, Matthew Restall is an extensively published historian of early Latin American history, which is lamentably atypical for authors in this series, or authors of books about Elton John.<\/p>\n
In reality, there are only a couple of references to the Maya and the Aztecs, with Restall\u2019s expertise becoming evident from the way it is completely integrated into his approach. The historian takes a long view of his subject, notices patterns, connects dots and offers interpretations. Restall applies this to Elton John with often astounding success, giving an unprecedentedly coherent view of a remarkably varied and enduring career.<\/p>\n
Constrained by his format, Restall does not attempt to write a short biography. Instead, he organizes his treatment in roughly chronological standalone chapters around themes and people, each one building to an aspect of a theory that unifies the material presented and contributes to a complete image of the subject. If my language recalls that of science, it is in contrast to that found in the book, which consciously recalls mythology.<\/p>\n
Helped by the colossal extravagance of his subject, the author often manages to produce an illusion, the feeling that we are not reading about an Englishman in purple glasses but about some kind of elemental sprite or demigod (Elton\u2019s legally assumed middle name is Hercules). This is not an artifact of hagiography, but a literary conceit which has at its heart the various downfalls and rebirths in John\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
The book deals in very original ways with the singer\u2019s relationship with his seniors, with his peers, with younger stars and even with the Royals. Other than that of lyricist Bernie Taupin, David Bowie\u2019s name is the only one missing from the Index on account of its ubiquity in the volume, with the cool protean performer acting as an opposite to our ever uncool hero. One of Restall\u2019s major organising ideas is the generalisation of John\u2019s famous collecting habits, which he uses to explain his also famous penchant for mentorship and collaboration: <\/p>\n
\nFor many years, between the late 1970s and early 1990s, the press had been vile to John, and he was well aware of the cruelty that Spears had endured\u2026 \u201cBritney was broken. I was broken when I got sober\u2026 Now I\u2019ve got the experience to be able to advise people and help them\u2026\u201d Here we see Elton\u2019s collecting impulse from childhood, evolved into a mentoring impulse as a young man, enhanced in middle age by a post-rehab empathy (with a dab of survivor\u2019s guilt), fully developed in old age by the experience of philanthropic and paternal satisfaction.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
That is the most austere the prose gets, as Restall\u2019s affection for the subject – his fandom – is ever present, making him an energized and, at times, corny companion. He exhibits the superfan\u2019s need to defend John and to explain the longueurs of his career. Had it been called a biography we would call it toothless, but as it stands it only justifies the title of the series to which it belongs. Fellow superfans – I\u2019m speaking as a veteran one – will find nothing new here, other than a recurring sense of revelation, and the satisfaction of feeling previously disparate pieces of knowledge suddenly connect. It is an invigorating experience.<\/p>\n
It should be noted that the editing of the book feels haphazard. My finished copy, for instance, has it that Andrew Lloyd Webber co-wrote a song on the Jump Up! album, when that was actually Tim Rice. Restall is otherwise meticulous, ever the historian, although even he doesn\u2019t provide a source for the common, incredible claim that \u201cin 1975, one in fifty records sold worldwide, in all genres of music, had Elton John\u2019s name on the cover.\u201d\u00a0 Mythology claims one last feat of Hercules.<\/p>\n
Nikolas Mavreas<\/strong> is a reader living in Athens, Greece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Elton John: An Opinionated Guide by Matthew Restall Oxford University Press 2025 \u201cFor the sake of my…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-248942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114819587729703998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}