Originally Posted by Mark Kaufman
Bernie Taupin is to lyricists what the Beatles were to musicians and songwritershe lived the Dream. He really wasn't that musical, not at first, not when he penned most of their best songs in the 60s and 70s. He just wrote "poems" that could be songs, maybe. This is from his recent interview in Time:



...the pair did not meet organically: In 1967, they both answered the same advertisement from Liberty Records seeking songwriters. John couldnt write lyrics; Taupin couldnt write melodies. But when John was handed an envelope of Taupins poems, he was moved by their lyricism and began cutting demos to them. The pair soon met and developed a close relationship that Taupin called a non-sexual love affair.

When we started it out it was really just me and him, Taupin said. They slept in bunk-beds in Johns mothers flat and were often broke; Taupin would write lyrics in a back bedroom while John fit his words to melodies in front of an upright piano. It was very much a sort of stream-of-consciousness, Taupin said of his own lyrical style. I would write whatever I felt, and he would jerry-rig it into a song.

Many soon-to-be classics were written in that space. A scene from Rocketman shows Taupin handing John (played by Taron Egerton) some lyrics and then going upstairs to brush his teeth. By the time he has rinsed and returned, John has formed the indelible melody of Your Song, which would be the pairs first breakout hit in the United States. Its pretty much how it happened, Taupin said of the scene. I did write the lyric to Your Song over the breakfast tableand I remember there was a coffee mug stain on the lyric. Taupin does point out a couple small discrepancies, including the fact that Johns mother and grandmother werent actually there, as well as the size of the apartment: There wasnt an upstairs. It was a one-level apartment, and very small, too.


Cool piece, I read the Elton had a crush on him but he wanted no part of Elton that way lol.

Well if not musical, certainly he had a knack for writing poetry that could be pop hits.

"Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean...those are the sweetest eyes, I've ever seen" Most lyricists dont write lines like that. Conversational and really only become alive when sung.

Bernie just had it.

Last edited by Fdemetrio; 07/01/19 12:04 PM.