Henry Holt & Company Me: Elton John Official Autobiography

Amazing ❤️

For someone my age, Elton John became a star way before my time – though I grew up and he was still a big star, it was quite some time after his appearance onto the scene. I knew about him, in terms of him being a huge rock star but nothing about him as a person or his stories.Since reading this I have become more of a fan of him, it is a brilliant read and is so funny and brutally honest at times. He speaks about so many different aspects of his life, and in particular some great stories of him and Rod Stewart trying to upset each other even though they are friends, that was a cracking read.This book covers it all from his years in rehabilitation to when he had prostate cancer, his childhood, his parents’ rushed wartime marriage and much more, everything is laid out bare here for all to see.This is a fantastic read and is very moving at times as well as being hilarious at times, I thoroughly recommend this even if you aren’t a fan of his music.Please take a second to hit the helpful button, as it really helps and makes reviewing worthwhile!

This is a really easy read and both moving and laugh out loud funny at times. The honesty is disarming and commendable. Found it a real page turner and read it inside a day. Highly recommended even if you're not a fan of Elton's music. I can't believe how cheap the asking price is for this thick hardback book which also includes pages of glossy photos.

I don’t quite know why I ordered this book, as while recognising his talent I’m not a particular fan of Elton John.I don’t know if he wrote it or commissioned a ghost writer, but it is well written & easy to read. The opening chapters, about his childhood are a real eye opener; while he had a relatively comfortable working class life, his mother seems to have been unstable in some way, prone to furious, even cruel outbursts. His father was away a lot being in the RAF, but he wasn’t much better than the mother. And yet he wasn’t deprived of material necessities & comforts.I found some of the detail about his early years trying to succeed rather tedious, but it will be fascinating for those with a particular interest & knowledge about music, pop especially.But if anybody’s life merited a memoir Elton’s certainly does, being jam- packed with incident. It certainly conveys superbly this larger than life character: to coin a phrase, you couldn’t make it up.It seems a very honest book, although as it moves towards the present his version of certain elements struck me as rather disingenuous. I have, after all, read the papers, & read between the lines.There’s no denying though, he has been a huge & colourful presence in our lives, a great talent who has written some beautiful music. And considering his phenomenal success he’s come out of it relatively unspoilt. I wish him well.

I bought this for my daughter's birthday last year and picked it up to read last week. It's an entralling account of a larger-than-life person which is in turn hilarious, moving and shocking - for example, in a fond look back at his lengthy career, he says, "I've played with people who were so hopeless they had no business being onstage and I've played with a group of male strippers dressed as Cub Scouts" [p332]. Elsewhere, he quotes the account of one of his days in the mid-70s from his diary: "Got up. Tidied house. Watched football on TV. Wrote 'Candle In The Wind'. Went to London. Bought Rolls-Royce. Ringo Starr came to dinner." [p354].Elton (and/or his ghostwriter Alexis Petridis) writes vividly (an early memory is of a school friend whose winkle-picker shoes had "pointed toes so long the ends of them seemed to arrive in class several minutes before he did" [p22]), and has cultivated a self-deprecating style which gives the impression of not taking himself too seriously. This is quite a feat because there's a lot of himself: before there was the chart-topping superstardom (seven consecutive US #1 albums in four years), the shopping on an industrial scale (including a tram which had to be shipped from Australia and airlifted into his garden by two Chinook helicopters) and the tantrums, there was a difficult childhood and unhappy relationships with his parents. The latter reminded me of the problems which Mike Oldfield (whose autobiography I read a few weeks ago) had with his family; it could be said that both individuals turned to music as an escape from personal issues but, of the two, Elton manages to make this sound less traumatic (of course, in spite of their shared backgrounds and music, they're very different people).Before (and after) he was a star, Elton was a fan: he describes touring with the Ink Spots and marvelling at how nobody seemed to know who they were, until they got to The Twisted Wheel in Manchester, where the adoring audience carried them from the stage on their shoulders. Later on, after his big success at The Troubador in 1970, he was invited to a party at Cass Elliot's house in Laurel Canyon, where it was "like the record sleeves in [his bedroom in England] had come to life" [p87] and at which Bob Dylan introduced himself and told him how much he liked "My Father's Gun" off "Tumbleweed Connection".Later on, it seems as if it's more than record sleeves which have come to life - for example, there's a story about Richard Gere and Sylvester Stallone aggressively vying for the attention of Princess Diana at one of his dinner parties. This often means that there's little time to talk about his music in detail (many of the thirty-odd albums that he's made barely get a mention) but there's a nice story of how Davey Johnstone came down to breakfast on the first day of recording "Honky Chateau" to discover Elton had already written three songs, including "Rocket Man", and how he then picked up his guitar and added the "odd, lonely notes that drifted around and away from the melody".And there's a very pleasing account of Elton's relationship with Leon Russell, who graciously congratulated him after that Troubador debut; an honour which Elton repaid many years later (when their fortunes were very different) by asking him to collaborate on a record and a tour. The record revived Russell's career (as for Elton, it came out in between yet another greatest hits compilation and the Gnomeo & Juliet soundtrack), to Elton's delight: he says simply: "If you didn't see him, I'm sorry; you missed out. Leon Russell was the greatest." [p312]. Great stuff.

This book had some very good reviews when it was published and I was keen to read it when available in paperback.There are 376 pages, split into 18 chapters plus a prologue and epilogue. This version also promised a "New chapter" which I guess updates his story to take in the current pandemic.In the prologue, Elton John talks about the start of his career, is when he decided on his stage name and when he met Bernie Taupin. This was in 1967, the year I was born, so I was looking forward to being able to relate to the passing of time and the nostalgia associated with that.I haven't particularly followed EJs career but he has always been in my world and I did see him live about 20 years ago. You can't help but have as general view of his character and I was amazed by the humble way this book was written from the start which hooked me immediately.EJ seems to be very honest about what is going on in his head but also tells us a lot about those around him - being very generous to those who helped him and believed in his work.The whole book is a wonderful peek into the music industry in such an easy to read format. The writing flows really well and there is a temptation to just keep reading.EJs memories will be very nostalgic for anyone living through this era - I had to smile at the memory of "Top of the Pops" albums, full of cover versions and always with scantily clad women on the album cover!The account of hard work at the start of EJs career is phenomenal - 4 albums were released in one year alone - how times have changed....Most of all his gratitude comes across in the writing with the overwhelming impression of how fortunate he considers himself to have been. He was lucky with the people around him at the start of his career, he had good advice and some of the gambles paid off.Reading this book had given me great admiration for it's author. He has faced up to a lot of problems in his life and he doesn't shirk away from describing them. It's clear he has had a lot of theory over the years and it is pleasing to see it seems to have had a positive effect.