Elton John

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty six, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

Presenter0:30

Our castaway today is one of the legendary figures of rock and roll. In a notoriously fickle industry, he survived all the changes to remain a star for nearly 20 years. Also, he's the only chairman of Watford Football Club to have sold 80 million records. He is, of course, Elton John. Let's go right back to the very beginning. When do you first start taking piano lessons?

Elton John0:50

Well, I first started taking lessons when I was about six or seven. I can't remember exactly, but I originally started playing piano by ear because I grew up being looked after by my grandmother and mother because my father was in the Air Force. And I was born in my grandmother's house in Pinna Green in Middlesex. And we always had a piano in the house because my auntie used to play. And so when I was about five or six, my parents thought it might be a good idea that I should have some formal education in music, which of course I didn't particularly like. But I was very lucky enough, they sent me to a local woman called Mrs. Jones in Pinna, whose husband was a very good classical musician as well. And she was lovely, and so that was a good start. And I got on okay. I could read okay, but I was never that much interested actually in becoming a classical musician because ever since I can remember I've always wanted to do something in music, popular music. Winnie Flatwell was my first influence, and I mean her other piano. I used to sit as a kid and watch her on the television and see her move over to the other piano. I was so impressed.

Elton John1:43

So I could rattle off all her stuff and in Ross Comway I can still play Sidesaddle to this day.

Presenter1:49

Right, let's have them let's have a first musical choice for our desert island.

Elton John1:53

I went to Barbados in 1976 and I'd been really successful from 1970 to 76 in America and all over the world and I was really quite shattered physically and mentally and I'd never really had a long holiday in the West Indies at all and we went to Barbados and Bernie Torpin, my lyric writer and myself, we had two houses on the beach. You know they have certain records that you remember and there was a Pink Floyd album called Wish You Were Here and I always remember one day we were sitting on the beach and this lady came down in tears and said, listen, my son's dying of cancer. Can he come down and and say hello to you? And we said of course bring him down for tea. Well they brought him down for tea. They carried him down for tea. And he was like, it was just skin and bone. There was nothing of him. He came down every day and at that particular time the track from this album that we used to play was Shine on You Crazy Diamond and one night at sunset we all held hands, put the track on and I'm not particularly religious thing but we said okay let's just hope he gets better and that was it and then three years later I was playing in Philadelphia there was a knock on my door no Washington DC and knock on my hotel door and this guy said hi it's Steve and I said yes can I help you and it was the same boy who was muscular like a Sylvester Salone-soft person completely healthy and yet if you'd have seen this boy you know he was literally three months to live so I always remember this track and it's a wonderful track and it brings back happy memory.

Speaker 43:19

You were caught in the crossfire of John Star.

Speaker 43:25

Throw on the steel, please.

Speaker 43:30

Come on you target, for far away lie Come on you straight

Presenter3:38

Pink Floyd and shine on your crazy diamond.

Presenter3:41

Elton, were you bright academically as a child?

Elton John3:44

Yes, I was pretty much so. But by the time I'd reached thirteen, I actually knew that I wanted to do something in music. And so I didn't really bother that much. And I was always a child that could just about do enough works to scrape through an O level or to scrape through maybe an A level. In fact, I didn't stay long enough to take my A levels, but I got five O levels. It's the same with music lessons. When I was at Pinner County, I won a junior exhibition scholarship to the Royal Academy, which meant that you went to school Monday to Friday and you went to the Academy Saturday and you did your homework Sunday. So I was very, very much anti the Royal Academy and the fact that I had no leisure time. No, I couldn't play football or anything like that. So

Elton John4:19

I went there and I used to enjoy the choir. But I sometimes used to mostly at the end of it I used to play truer and I used to go up to Baker Street and sit on the circle line for three hours, then come home.

Presenter4:27

So you left school then before you'd really fulfilled all your academic potential. What was your first job?

Elton John4:33

As I said, I was at Pinner County and I was about two months away from my A levels, of which I had no chance of really passing.

Elton John4:39

My cousin was a footballer, Roy Twite, and he played for Nottingham Forest. And he knew this man, Dr. Pat Sherlock, who worked in Denmark Street in London at Mills Music Publishing. And even though I was in a little band then, I I just wanted to go into music, but I didn't know how to get my foot in the door. And I I was offered a job as a T-boy and sort of general runaround. I forget what wages for, but I I mean I was really excited to get the chance. And I went to see my headmaster, Mr Wetskate Smith, who I I was always quite afraid of, a very strict man.

Elton John5:05

And

Elton John5:06

I was terribly afraid, knocked on his door and he said, Are you definitely sure this is what you want to do? and I said, Yeah.

Elton John5:11

And he said, Well, you have my blessing and I was I couldn't believe it because I thought he was going to say no and he was going to make me stay and do the examinations.

Elton John5:17

I thought that was a great decision on his part and a very, very lucky decision on my part because there I tripped off to Mills Music and started packing up parcels, taking the tea and everything like that. And it that was a very happy time. I think I was there for about a year and I really loved it.

Presenter5:30

Let's now have the second choice of of music, Elton, for your desert island.

Elton John5:34

Well, I've always loved black music, good soul singers, R and B singers. And Nina Simone is one of my favourite singers of all time. And this is an old record of hers, but a classic, classic record, I've Put a Spell on You.

Speaker 45:45

Put a spell on you.

Speaker 45:53

Cause you're mad.

Speaker 45:56

Do do do do do do do do do

Speaker 46:02

You better stock the things you do.

Speaker 46:09

Bye-bye.

Presenter6:16

Nina Simone, I put a spell on you.

Presenter6:18

Elton, about this time, do you have any ambitions to be a songwriter?

Elton John6:23

No, I was in a little band, local band, called Bluesology, and after about a year at Mills Music we turned had the chance to turn professional and we did.

Elton John6:31

Backing a lot of RB singers from America, rhythm of blue singers, black singers. But really, I was just an adequate organist. I was never had ambitions to write songs.

Elton John6:40

Uh when Bluesology subsequently made two records for Phillips records, I I wrote the song but they were awful. One was called Mr. Frantic and the first one was called Come Back Baby. Both I think were published by Mills Music and one can tell what

Elton John6:51

By the title, they weren't exactly works of art. And I've never been a lyric writer, I've always been a melody man, so it's it those records consisted of Come Back Baby 16 Times and a version in Chinese, and so they weren't very good. And the reason I left my band, I we ended up backing long John Baldury when he had his big hit, Let the Heartaches Begin, and we started to play cabaret. And I'm afraid cabaret is probably the one thing I refuse ever to play because it's such a nightmare for someone to play music and while people are not really interested. And so I left the band and I thought, What can I do? And I thought, well, maybe I can be a songwriter. I definitely never used to sing, and I never used to be that good an organist to get another job. But I knew as a musician, you can always get a job somewhere playing to people, it's a pub or something. So the breadline isn't too important. It's just that the ethics involved. So I answered an advertisement in the New Musical Express, and it was from Liberty Records.

Elton John7:39

And they said we're looking for new talent, songwriters and everything like that, so I sent a letter and through great quirks of fate got introduced by Bernie Tolkien.

Presenter7:47

When you s started out with Bernie Topin in the in the early seventies and you wrote those wonderful hits within our standards, of course, like Rocket Man and Yellow Brick Road, they they're all written in in pinner, were they?

Elton John7:56

No, no. Originally, see, when I met Bernie, the first two or three years when we were signed to publishers, we were told to write songs for other people. In in fact, the late sixties was uh was the last sort of great period when you had sort of songwriters turning out songs for other people. And then the age of the singer-songwriter came in and they kept them all for themselves. So initially we had to write two or three songs a week for other people like Scylla Black or Tom Jones. And nobody they were so bad nobody ever recorded them, except that when Lulu did the Eurovision Song Contest, we got one into the last six of the British Heat and it came sixth.

Elton John8:27

We didn't really have any great success until well 1970.

Presenter8:32

Let's now take your third record.

Elton John8:34

As I said earlier about classical music, and when I was at the Academy, I didn't particularly enjoy it that much, except as a pianist, you like to play Shopim because it's just beautiful. But consequently, I love English sort of classical music, and I'm a great Elgar and Vaughan Williams fan. And the Enigma variations I take everywhere in the world. If I go somewhere, I've always got a cassette of the Nimrod variations. And I just like to sit there, especially in the West Indies, where I used to I record a lot in the West Indies and sit there at sunset and play with headphones on, I just look out to see and I start crying and think that I'm terribly emotional. And so this is the Enigma variations is Nimrod.

Presenter10:08

Nimrod from the Enigma variations.

Presenter10:10

Elton, did you always want to be a star?

Elton John10:13

No, this was again going back to when I left the band Blizzology and started writing songs.

Elton John10:19

When we started writing songs for other people, as I say, nobody wanted to record them because they weren't particularly good. And in the organisation, a man called Steve Brown arrived and took care of Bernie and I, sort of took us under his wing, and had the actual guts to go into Dick James and say, Well, listen, they're not very good at what you want them to do, but they are writing songs that they like, and I think they have a much better future. And Dick took all his credit, said, Okay, you look after them. And he did, Steve Brown. And I had to make the demos of the records, so I had to sing. And then he made me sort of make records, which I didn't ever think I would do. First record I really made was I've Been Loving You, but that doesn't count because I wrote the lyrics. First record that really got me noticed was a record called Lady Samantha. And when I say noticed, it got a lot of airplay on the BBC. And then because in those days, to sell records, you had to go out and play live.

Elton John11:06

And the last thing I wanted to do after leaving the band was go back on the rope. Why? Because I'd been on the road for three years with a band and I just I found it completely unglamorous and still to this day I don't like travelling at all. It's just really boring. But I got uh together with two musicians called Nigel Olsen and Dee Murray. Nigel played drums and Dee played bass. And I started to play in England and and and get a reputation. And that helped me a great deal because performing is one of the things that helps an artist uh sort of

Elton John11:32

Carry on his longevity as an artist. I mean, you get the experience to play live, and you look at any of the big acts that are around now, most of them are good live artists. And once I started, I really enjoyed it because I'd never been a front man before. I'd just been a piano player. So, in fact, I was in charge. You're not an actual extrovert, are you? I wasn't then, no. No, but I became an extrovert because, in my teenage years, I found that I was more or less overweight quite a bit. I had strict upbringing, and I was not really allowed to have a drop-handle by a bike or a pair of hush puppies. Can you believe it? I'm this day. No, you can't believe it. Can you believe now? This is the real problem with me, you see. I was never allowed to have a drop-handled bar bike. My success happened in my 20s, and I lived my teenage years through my 20s. I'd do exactly what I wanted to do for the first time in my life. And consequently, if I wanted to wear an outrageous piece of clothing, I did. But again, that wasn't planned. I was just enjoying myself. I was very fortunate because the way I happened.

Presenter12:01

Can you believe me?

Elton John12:22

On a large scale, I went to America and played at the Truvidor Club in 1970 when the Elton John album was released. And it was a revolutionary album as far as that strings had never been used like that on an album before. They'd been used in funky arrangements. They were done by a man called Paul Buckmaster. And it revolutionized string writing and records as far as pop music concerned. And it was a very well-produced album. It was the first album I ever did with Gus Dudgeon, who I subsequently did seventeen albums and have done my recent album with him as well.

Elton John12:48

And I went to America and played at a small club called the Troubadour Club.

Elton John12:51

And it was MCA Records who I was recording for hyped, you know, it was full of three hundred people from the business. But they'd heard the album. Neil Diamond introduced me on stage, which was a tremendous thing for him to do.

Elton John13:01

Because he liked the record. And they thought because the Elton John album cover was very dark and doomy that I was going to come out and look like Randy Newman. In fact, I came out with shorts on and flying boots and Mickey Mouse ears and played rock and roll. They went, What is this? And I had a review from Robert Hilburn in the Los Angeles Times and the music critic. It was a full-page review. And it broke me in America when I was in front of 300 people who weren't even paid to come and see me. So it was a kind of fluke.

Presenter13:23

What's been your favorite uniform over the years?

Elton John13:26

I've got them all here actually still. I've never thrown anything away. And I've got all my old stage clothes. I go and look at them and I think, my God. I'm in the Muppet doing the Muppet show a few years ago. Luckily, I was quite slim then as well, because I tend to put on wear. They said, We want all your old costumes. And I just said, No, I'm not going to wear them again. So I had to go through them all. And some of them were so heavy, and I used to wear them for three hours. And there was a one called the Giant Chicken Outfit, which is just like a torso thing with just all chicken feathers. I remember there was an outfit that was all black, but it had black elastic on it.

Presenter13:49

Is it like a

Elton John13:56

And coloured fluorescent balls that shine under white light. And I had a head huge headdress with spikes coming up. So that when I came on, all you could see were these balls on this headdress,'cause I used to come on in black. And I used to s be moving, and you see all these coloured balls going like this white. And people think, What is this? And they're a load of old balls, you know.

Elton John14:15

And the hat. You know, I still open with a song called Final Friend Love Lives Bleeding, which is for quite long.

Elton John14:21

And by the time I finished, um I had these hats on and also a pair of glasses. There was one electric pair of glasses, the first I think that I can remember that anyone using on stage. But they were so heavy that my nose is quite small. So at the end of the song I was singing like this. And my ears were down here. Um, quite honestly, I just considered them normal things at the time, but looking back at it, I must have been out of my mind.

Presenter14:43

You're a colourful masochist, I think that's probably.

Elton John14:44

I think that's probably

Presenter14:45

Uh

Presenter14:46

Right, let's have a another choice of record, the five record.

Elton John14:48

I originally chose eight of the saddest pieces of music. I thought, no, I've really got to choose some uptempo ones. And I do love good rock and roll music. This is the Rolling Stones. They write great um rock and roll songs. This is called Let It Rock. And that's just me on the beach going crazy after getting up from Nimrod.

Presenter15:33

Rolling Stones and Planet Rock.

Presenter15:35

Elton, can I talk a little bit now about soccer? Because I know it's one of the great passions of your life.

Elton John15:40

Yes, I always supported Watford Football Club as a child, even though my cousin Roy Dwight, who I mentioned earlier, initially played for Fulham and I can remember going sitting on the touchline at Craven Cottage and seeing Johnny Haynes toss Chamberlain and people like that, which was a great experience. And then he went to Forrest and scored the first goal in the fifty-nine cup final. But I was always a Watford supporter. I remember standing on the terraces with my dad. I was doing a musical interview with Newman's Express in the early seventies with a little girl called Julie Webb.

Elton John16:05

And she said, You're a Watford supporter. I live in Watford. Why don't you approach them and do a concert? And this was at the time when I was wearing, you know, eight-inch high-heeled shoes. You know, more platforms than anyone ever dared. None of them I saw pop group on television with six inches. I went for eight. And I had pink hair. So I approached the board of directors, and this is the point I'm trying to make. When I've had the initial meeting with them, although they must have probably laughed their heads off when I walked out the door, the thing that got me interested in Watford Club was the people, just more than the football, because I hadn't seen him much for years. But they treated me so much more differently than people in my business would. I mean, there was, for example, the washing lady, Molly.

Presenter16:32

Yeah.

Elton John16:40

It was a lovely lady. I used to say to me, I don't like your new record. Why don't you make something like Daniel again? and she'd been it was there's no holds bar they were very very protective of me and very very loving and I remember I turned up one boxing day for a Luton game and it was a time when I was drinking very heavily I wasn't particularly very happy I knew I was in a state and Graham Taylor said I want to see you for lunch

Elton John17:02

And I s thought I know what he was gonna say he's gonna give me a lecture, so I went to his house for lunch.

Elton John17:07

He was very nice. He said, Here you are, put a bottle of brandy on the table. He said, Have that, that's what you want, isn't it?

Elton John17:11

I needed someone to lecture me and they've always done that. I never can get one over. I can maybe get one s over on some people because of who I am. But with Watford they won't. They'll tell you in some sort of way that, you know, you're being a fool.

Presenter17:22

What's pulled you back before that as well? Because I mean, you know, you've been twenty years in this in this loony business and you've survived. I mean, here you are today. I mean, you're looking good. You're you're happy. You're enjoying yourself. There must have been times, of course, when you went to the brink. I mean, most people do it in that situation.

Elton John17:27

Yeah.

Elton John17:36

Well, I think, yes. In six years I made, God knows, about seventeen albums.

Elton John17:41

And I made separate singles as well. And I did tours. And those six years I worked and worked and worked. I couldn't believe initially it was happening to me. I'm glad I was didn't want to become a singer. I'm glad I didn't ever ever envisage being a star because it really happened so quickly and so stupid. And I was suddenly from nowhere. I was there. And I just couldn't believe it. I was in the same room as George Harris and people like that. And I really, really enjoyed it. And I think that was the key to success. After six years, I burnt myself out musically. And indeed, I hadn't had much time to myself in my private life. And so I just, for two years, I said, I've got to stop. I've got to stop, because I was just I was going on sta I love performing, but if you go on stage and you perform and you suddenly start thinking, Well, what time's the plane tomorrow? What am I gonna wear? And you're halfway through a song and then you panic think, Oh, what's the next word? Then it's time for you to stop because you can't cheat on a live performance. You can cheat when you make a record because you can go over and over and over and do it again. But with a live performance, you can't cheat. And I think that's why people like

Speaker 318:29

The f

Elton John18:34

Live performances. But playing live, I was very bored with playing live and so I thought I've got to stop for two years. But the ego is such that you think, well, someone's going to take over my crown. In fact, my crown had already slipped. You can only have the crown for two years, tops, probably. And then you, you know, there are always bridges to cross. And as a musician, I think there's always other fields to conquer. But you just have to refresh yourself. You have to stop and build out your passion again. And luckily enough, I think you create your own luck. When I did that, I moved into this house in Windsor, which is a very big house.

Elton John19:01

Big gates at the end of it. And I thought, well, what am I going to do here? Sit here for two years? And I was already a director of Waffle Football Club. And because I'd made that decision, the former chairman, the late chairman said, Why don't you become chairman? And I thought, My God, one I never thought of becoming chairman and I accepted. And so that gave me another thing to do. And if I hadn't have had an I don't know what would have happened to me.

Presenter19:21

And of course, having talked about Water Football Club, this next record is just a reminder of football generally, isn't it? It's the anthem.

Elton John19:27

Yes, and

Elton John19:28

The success at Watford Football Club happened so quick, you know, we we got from the fourth to the first and into the cup final within about seven years.

Elton John19:35

The reason we did it is because we worked as a team of people, Graham Tony, the manager, Eddie Plumley, Bertie Me, the people that work there, and the team and the people. There's great discipline there from the manager. I never interfere. The board of director never interferes with managerial decisions or anything because Graham is a one-off person. He really is. He got that club going more than I. I provided the money and the capital and I provided, I think, a lot of his enthusiasm and a helping hand. But he did a hell of a lot of work.

Elton John20:00

Graeme thought it might take five years to get to the second, and we got there much quicker. And the spirit within the club has always, as I say, been very dear to me. And when we got to the cup final it was the first cup final for a long time that I'd heard a bye with me without anybody singing obscenities over it.

Speaker 420:14

Yeah.

Elton John20:14

And Everton it was kind of weird and that day Everton won it and I wasn't that dis I was disappointed, but I know next time I I'd love to win it, I wouldn't want to lose next time. But just to stand there in the royal box and seeing twenty-five thousand of usaballies at one end and going on the pitch, you know, it was just wonderful. I think and I can honestly say that apart from my ma getting married, that's probably the happiest day of my life.

Speaker 420:40

Live all thy closing heart.

Presenter21:30

And Buy With Me, which is of course the I suppose the anthem, isn't it, of soccer? Yeah, it's a lovely song. You've altn had this capacity always to enjoy your success. I mean, a lot of people in your business don't seem to enjoy it, do they?

Elton John21:35

Love you.

Elton John21:43

They don't seem to enjoy it. No. I only speak for myself and and I say that I really have enjoyed it. And I've always everywhere I go I try and pick up a memento somewhere or where I've been. I'm a terrible hoarder. I've never thrown any stage clothes away. We've had the flaws reinforced here. No, it's not serious. But I mean, if a fan sends me something, I find it very hard and I usually keep it.

Presenter22:02

Well also too I mean you mentioned there about buying things when you're on tour. I mean outside here you're surrounded by huge Chinese lions.

Elton John22:08

Yeah, well I went to China with a football club and I I saw these lions. We went to a sort of antique dealer. We got this woman who was the mother of our interpreter, who's a very, very

Elton John22:17

I can't remember which. But anyway, she took us to these sort of antique wholesalers. And um but I bought these lions, they had to make them. They're six tons each and come um you know I don't think I bought a a tram in Melbourne in Australia. Only I could buy a tram in Melbourne. And you buy the tram and you think, well this is a wonderful piece of work because I love old when I say old things I love good you know craftsmanship'cause I buy it and then I think how am I going to get it back? And then how am I going to get it back? How do I get it from the docks to here? That was the main thing. I mean it was put on a boat from Australia to Southampton and then when it was from Southampton we had two alternatives to get it up by road which meant that one would have to go across the field over there and take my hedge down but close the roads for about two days which I'm afraid the locals wouldn't particularly like or fly it in by two Chinook helicopters.

Presenter22:31

Yeah.

Elton John23:01

Which was the first alternative, but I mean we live so near to the airport, as you probably hear on some of these you know, planes going over all the time. I could see the Daily Mirror headline, Jumbo in mid-air collision with Tram, you know? We we signed it down

Presenter23:11

We decided uh

Elton John23:14

We decided not to do that. And we go eventually we had to bring it up. But I mean, there's I I tend to go and say, Oh, yes, I'll have that, it's wonderful.

Speaker 423:14

We decided not to

Elton John23:21

The consequences involved tend to be a little farcical. But no, I I've always bought stuff. I've always had a child. Um people say, Well, you know, you're into material things. But as a child, I never had a brother and sister or anything. I never had really somebody regular to play with or anything like that, and don't say ah. But I mean, I grew up with inanimate objects. And so I I always treated things very well, always looked after things, books and stuff like that. And so I suppose that's carried on. But I do collect things, especially things that are old and twenties and thirties and forties or even fifties, there's Bentley Bentley cars and designs and actual workmanship. And yes, I do collect them because I think they should be preserved.

Elton John23:54

Let's now have another choice of record. This one is extraordinary piece of music by a jazz musician called Theolonius Monk, who has a of all the jazz musicians, has the most wonderful sense of humour in his music. And this is from an album, a double album that was actually a compilation album of other people playing his tracks that was released a couple of years ago. And it's a track called Mysteriosa, performed by Carl LeBlay with an array of great musicians, including a piano solo, which I think for me is one of the most beautiful piano solos I've ever heard because it's it's got ferocity touch. Uh it's just an incredible voice. By a guy called Kenny Kirkland playing the piano, who now plays with Sting. This always cheers me up and makes me think, well, perhaps one day I'll be able to play like that.

Presenter25:30

Calablé and Mysterioso.

Presenter25:33

Elton, the next record up I know is a John Lennon record. I also happen to know that uh you were a friend and and a great admirer of the of the late John Lennon. Uh first of all, why the admiration? What what particularly about John was it that you liked?

Elton John25:46

Well, obviously his music, but uh the f the real admiration stem of the fact that when I met him in the mid seventies that I used to wear dark glasses and I used to use them as a real sort of shield because I was very shy and you think, My God, he gets to go on stage and wear all those things. How could he be shy? But I was the other side of me and still is to a certain extent very shy.

Elton John26:04

And John had the wonderful ability to go into a room full of people.

Elton John26:07

That he didn't know or had nothing to do with music and could come from any background in the world and be nice to everybody and just take a general interest and be genuine about it. And I thought, oh my god, I wish I could be like that. And I really knew him well for a year, and then he met Yoko and got married, and they had Sean. And I sort of left him alone. You don't have to be good friends with someone and see them all the time. He was just so nice to people. I mean, he could be crazy and very mean, but he was never that to me. I never really saw that side of him. For example, in New York, he would take my mum and dad out for dinner, or he would take my band to the airport. There was something about him which was incredibly kind. I've only ever seen his kindness. I never really saw him being nasty or anything. Why this particular record that you've chosen? Well, I didn't want to sit there and hear one of his songs because they were all such personal songs of his, and the lyrics were very, very personal. So I thought, right, I'm going to choose a learning track for someone else. So this is Stand By Me.

Speaker 426:53

Do I won't?

Speaker 426:55

To your friend?

Speaker 426:57

No, I I won't.

Speaker 427:00

Don't be afraid.

Speaker 427:02

Just a lone

Speaker 427:04

It's just name

Speaker 427:07

Stand by the

Speaker 427:10

Door and dollar and stay.

Speaker 427:14

I mean a bad man, stand by me.

Speaker 427:22

Uh

Presenter27:24

Stand by Me and John Lennon. Elton, you once said, I can't see myself playing rock and roll when I'm thirty-five. Well, you're over thirty-five now and you're still playing rock and roll.

Elton John27:33

Yeah. So, uh Why?

Elton John27:36

And good question. I still like performing, that's why. And I really haven't taken the time off in my life as a musician to really try and do the important things I want to do because they really it's not the right time to do that. I think you really know that the time, things fall into place eventually. And when I was making the new album this year, Ice on Fire, I met some musicians that I'd never played with before, English musicians. And I thought, my God, I've really got to go out and play with these people after only nine months ago saying I can't physically go on the road again because I was just... It's the same as 1976. I felt burnt out. But you get a new injection of other people's ideas. And I started the British Tour last year, and I really had such a great time going on to Europe and America. Because it's a different injection of life and different people. But there are things which I want to do. I want to make an instrumental album. I want to do the musical, which we are working on. To do a musical? Yes. But I only want to write one. I'm not a great fan of musicals that are written today, but I would love to write one of a kind of a West Side story, which to me is the finest musical ever written because it's just, you know, it's faultless. But that will take time. It'll take a couple of years and also will have to... A, you've got to have a good subject matter. And B, you have to have someone who helped you with it because I'd like to put it on stage first rather than film it. But I'm 39 and there's plenty of time left to do that. But it's something I would like to do. Just to show everybody else that everything else has been written more or less ever since. It's quite mediocre. Final record. Final record. Well, I've tried to choose the records because of the people involved or because they had some special effect or memory that I had in my life. And this, I've chosen a record by Wham, and people are going to say, oh my God. Well, that's my reaction, first of all. I just happen to love this record, Wake Me Up Before I Go, Go, because it sounds like an old Motown record. And all those wonderful old Motown records by the Supremes of Four Tops, Marvin Gaye. I've been in the studio time and time again trying to recreate a Motown sound and get that sound. You can't do it. And when I first heard this record, I didn't know it was George singing. I thought it was an old Motown, oh, someone, the nearest they'd come. And the bass player, and the musicianship on this record, is quite astonishing. The bass player, Dion Estes, on this record, who I got to play on my new record, because I'd heard this record. So to hell with everybody else. George Michael will be around a long time. This is Wake Me Up Before I Go Go.

Presenter29:05

Well, that's my reaction, first of all.

Speaker 429:38

That's not fine.

Speaker 429:41

I said everything will be alright. Wake me up before you go, go. Don't leave me hang on like the yo-yo. Wake me up.

Speaker 429:52

Before you go, go, I don't wanna miss it when you hear that. Wake me up, before you go, go. Cause I'm not planning, I'm going solo. Wake me up, before you go, go.

Presenter30:08

That was one, and wake me up before you go, go.

Presenter30:11

Ultimate now, we've come to the choice of of things on this desert island. What first of all would be the book that you would want on the island? You've already got the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.

Elton John30:21

Well, I probably wouldn't have taken those either, but um don't want to stir up a hornet's nest. I've got one book, so I'm going to choose a novel. I nearly took the Art of Rubenstein autobiography because it's so wonderful, but I've chosen a novel by Anne Rice called Interview with a Vampire, which lets your imagination run riot. It's a story of a vampire who does an interview, present-day interview with a man from Rolling Stone, and just tells about his life. In fact, as a vehicle, it would be the ideal thing to write a musical too. Unfortunately, the rights have been sold. But it would be a great vehicle for sort of writing 300 years of music. You could start off with classical music and come right up today. It's a wonderful book. And I'm not, I don't really like novels very much. I've always been an autobiographer.

Presenter30:57

But now what about the with the one record? They've got to assume that seven records have been wiped off by a wiped out. Which one?

Elton John31:02

Really? Yes, because of England and because it's just the most wonderful piece of music.

Presenter31:08

And finally the one luxury object you're

Elton John31:10

Because I'd still be the lost chairman of Watford Football Club. I'd have to take a telephone and find out for the squad. But I wouldn't know the matches and I didn't know whether they'd be playing or at home and I wouldn't know the time difference, but I'm sure I could work that out eventually. So I'd have to keep in touch with the club, obviously. Solar-powered telephone. A solar powered telephone, yes. So I could keep up on the gossip. Gephone up and say, well, you don't know where I am, I'm still alive, but and who's doing what to who and what's happening? Because everybody likes a good gossip. So yes, I think a telephone.

Presenter31:38

Owen John, thank you very much indeed.

Presenter31:40

By the way, would you play us out?

Speaker 331:54

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.