The Queer Encyclopedia of Music, Dance, and Musical Theater by Claude Summers

Author:Claude Summers [CLAUDE J. SUMMERS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cleis Press
Published: 2012-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anawalt, Sasha. The Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company. New York: Scribner, 1996.

Solway, Diane. A Dance against Time: The Brief, Brilliant Life of a Joffrey Dancer. New York: Pocket Books, 1994.

SEE ALSO

Dance; Ballet; Ballets Russes; Ashton, Sir Frederick; Diaghilev, Sergei; Nijinsky, Vaslav

John, Sir Elton (b. 1947)

FOR NEARLY FOUR DECADES, ELTON JOHN HAS ACHIEVED an amazingly successful track record in the music industry. He was not only the biggest-selling pop superstar of the 1970s, but, more surprisingly, he continues to retain popularity among his fans and respect from music critics.

Elton John holds a music industry record for most consecutive singles placing in the Top 40, a string that began in 1970 and was broken only in 2000. Stephen Erlewine has noted that, although Elton John has endured temporary slumps in creativity and sales, he continues to craft contemporary pop standards that showcase his musical versatility.

John's combination of melodic skills, dynamic charisma, and raucous performance style has made him a remarkably popular musical artist. Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex, England, on March 25, 1947. He began playing piano at age four and at eleven won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London. After six years at school, he left in order to break into the music business.

In 1961, Dwight joined his first band, Bluesology, but left in 1966 because of creative differences with bandleader Long John Baldry. During this time, Dwight answered a Liberty Records advertisement for songwriters; though he failed the vocal audition, he was given a stack of lyrics written by Bernie Taupin, a young songwriter from Lincolnshire who had also answered the ad.

Dwight wrote music for Taupin's lyrics, and the two young men soon began corresponding. Six months later, after Dwight had changed his name to Elton John (taking his stage name from the first names of Bluesology members Elton Dean and John Baldry), he and Taupin finally met.

The collaboration between John and Taupin would prove to be enduring and lucrative for both men. According to Ed Decker, Taupin would write the lyrics first, and then John would compose music to them with incredible speed, sometimes in less than an hour.

By 1969, John had his first hit album, an eponymous LP that contained the touching ballad "Your Song," which climbed both the American and English record charts. Although John had a retiring personality, he hid his shyness on stage by adopting an outrageous performance style, including wearing outlandish clothes and leaping around as he played the piano.

Throughout the 1970s, John's concert attire would become more and more campy. He pranced across the stage wearing everything from huge feather boas to astronaut suits, almost always highlighted by a selection from his endless collection of bizarre eyeglasses.

From 1972 to 1976, the writing team of John and Taupin scored sixteen Top 20 hits in a row. In 1976, John, citing exhaustion, curtailed his rigorous concert and recording schedule. That year, as Colin Larkin has noted, he entered an uncomfortable phase in his life.

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