Bernie Taupin Quotes

This book is entirely dedicated to my wife, Robin Sullivan. Some have asked how it is I write such strong women without resorting to putting swords in their hands. It is because of her. She is Arista. She is Thrace. She is Modina. She is Amilia. And she is my Gwen. This series has been a tribute to her. This is your book, Robin. I hope you don't mind that I put down in words How wonderful life is while you're in the world. --ELTON JOHN, BERNIE TAUPIN

Until you've seen this trash can dream come true. You stand at the edge while people run you through. And I thank the Lord there's people out there like you. I thank the Lord there's people out there like you.

If you ask how I am then I’ll just say inspired

At least at the Isle of Wight show you could actually discern what song he was singing, unlike in later years when he turned it into a guessing game.

On Monday morning, October 27, 1969, Sheila fried up a couple of eggs slotted in some toast and brewed three cups of tea while I wrote something called “Your Song.” I don’t think it took me more than ten minutes, but it’s eventual melodic accompaniment and release would traverse decades, becoming our signature song and, in the minds of many, our first bona fide classic.

What you leave behind is not what is engraved on monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. —PERICLES

I’M JUST A country kid who got lucky. I got the best friend the world had to offer and a world that offered us everything; the parental backbone that never wavered in its support, a mother who invested me with her dreams and through whom I have lived vicariously; and a God who allowed me to make mistakes and redeem myself.

I was either deemed too introspective, bumpkinesque, or ignored completely due to my lack of hands-on musicality. Reg saw my capabilities, understood my worth, and guarded it. I learned fast, didn’t need to make a spectacle of myself, soaked in my surroundings, and eventually had the last laugh.

1966

There was something exotic about these releases winging their way across the waves like intoxicating sirens whispering in our ears and luring us onto a different kind of rock.

Fly away, skyline pigeon fly Towards the dreams You’ve left so very So very far behind —ELTON JOHN AND BERNIE TAUPIN

Bennie, as in the Jets, was based on the Maschinenmensch in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and “All the Girls Love Alice” was inspired by the 1968 black comedy The Killing of Sister George.

In a restaurant, I can’t sit with my back to the door. Not sure if I’m OCD, but I excel at organizational skills. Slightly claustrophobic, not crazy about heights. Love martinis but one is enough. Tend to be opinionated at times but good at reigning it in. Love long-legged women, clueless about cars, love trucks. I read several dozen books a year, cook every night, and am uncomfortable if music isn’t playing. Don’t like scat singing or modulation, jazz is my preferred music, and my favorite colors are black and dark blue. Have no problem eating on my own in a restaurant, have to have a dog, and hate clowns and circuses. I’d never heard a Pink Floyd album until 2015, Penderecki’s “Polish Requiem” can make me cry, love trains, and am a confirmed sushi snob. I’ve never wanted to be anyone else, but if I had to choose I’d be Michael Caine.

hope you don’t mind I hope you don’t mind That I put down in words How wonderful life is while you’re in the world —ELTON JOHN AND BERNIE TAUPIN

Five years previously, Janice had embroidered the album cover of Madman Across the Water and was the main inspiration for the seamstress for the band in “Tiny Dancer,” a song inhabited by fragments of a handful of LA females: a Whisky a Go Go waitress, a girl who worked in a Beverly Hills shoe store, and a hitchhiker in cutoffs on Pacific Coast Highway.

There is a faction of individuals inhabiting Australia’s remotest outposts, places like the Kiwirrkurra Community in the Gibson Desert west of Alice Springs, that make the redneck element in Deliverance look like Amish doily embroiders.

One of its greatest attributes was the night manager, Steve Rowland. Steve became like an extra wheel in our touring party due not only to his sublime affability, but his prowess in making over-padded bills go away and seeing that anyone in our tribe knew how to find anyone else at any given time. This latter quality got him christened “Reuters” by Elton, a man who felt everyone needed a sobriquet. Rod Stewart was Phyllis, Freddie Mercury was Melina as in Mercouri, and I for unknown reasons was briefly christened Mavis!

In the early to mid-’70s, a small loft located up a short set of wooden stairs in the Rainbow led to the lair of the Hollywood Vampires. In short, the Vampires were a celebrity drinking club. Formed by my friend Alice Cooper, it consisted of a rotating cast of characters depending on who was in town at any given time. The principles were, aside from Alice and myself, Ringo Starr, Micky Dolenz, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, and on occasion, John Lennon. Outside of these gatherings I didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the Rainbow; it just wasn’t my sort of place.

There were two more cover versions. “One, believe it or not, is a noise-core reinterpretation of ‘Candle in the Wind’.” “By Elton John?” “By Elton John and Bernie Taupin.” “What is noise-core?” said Nevada. “You don’t want to know.” “Is it noisy and hardcore?” “Exactly right.