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John plays down the crazy flash of his in-person appearances. "Since I'm not your rangy rock idol in skinny leather pants, I wear flamboyant clothes. People shouldn't take the clothes and the dyed hair so seriously. Honestly, it's just a joke. I'm affectionately parodying the rock-'n'-roll business by saying 'Here it is, let's all have a laugh and enjoy ourselves.' " There have been no acid-rock-style riots at his concerts. Somehow, right from the stage, he manages to get across to his audiences the message that he is just kidding. A small but serious point, however, underlies the fun. Elton says, "I didn't start enjoying life until I was 21, so I'm living through my teenage period now." One imagines that the suppressed child, the introverted adolescent of not so distant former years is letting a great deal hang out onstage. There are clues in the way he lives now that he is coming to peaceable terms with a fairly difficult past. His lack of anger —and rebellious posturing of the sort that the Rolling Stones, now touring the U.S., specialize in—partly accounts the ready acceptance he has found among older audiences.
Very clearly a case for cornflakes
and classics "Two teas both with sugar please."
Reg Dwight's father Stanley was frequently away on military duty. When he was home, his son discovered there were really only a couple of things he could do to please dad. One was to accompany him to Watford, six miles away, to watch the local football (soccer) team's matches. The other was to play a little Chopin; he had started piano lessons at four. Chumship evaporated, however, when Reg tuned in pop music on the radio. His mother Sheila recalls a letter Stanley sent from overseas warning that Reg, then 16, must "get all this pop nonsense out of his head, otherwise he's going to turn into a wild boy. He should get a sensible job with either BEA or Barclays Bank."
Proud of her son for winning a Royal Academy of Music fellowship when he was eleven, Sheila Dwight arranged a trade-off with him. If he would continue studying classics at the academy, she would permit him to spend as much free time as he wanted practicing the pops. After she and Stanley Dwight were divorced she permitted Reg to take a job playing piano at a nearby hotel pub. At 17 he quit school just two weeks before final exams and joined a decent band called Bluesology, a rhythm-and-blues outfit. From 1964 to 1967 he was on perpetual tour. Typical gigs were at the South Harrow British Legion and the Nottingham Rowing Club.
Nobody expected Reg to become anything big," recalls Bluesology's leader, "Long John" Baldry.
"He was a shy person, almost introverted onstage." Also he was "quite porky. In a caftan he looked like a myopic nun." Still young Reg, unable "to chat it up with the girls," did what he could to change his unprepossessing image. He unsuccessfully tried amphetamines to cure his weight problem. He borrowed the Christian names of Saxophonist Elton Dean and Leader John Baldry to create a new stage name for himself. Then he went off to London, where he found work as an errand boy at a music company.