I'm about three quarters of the way through Elton's "Me" biography written some twenty years later than this programme which I'm finding to be a very frank, garrulous and entertaining read. I was aware of this notorious, if that's not too strong a word, fly-on-the-wall television documentary produced by the singer's then partner, now husband, David Furnish and Elton mentions it at some length in the book.
The camera follows Elton around in the year 1995, when he was in the act of releasing his "The Big Picture" album, one, coincidentally, which his long-term songwriting partner. Bernie Taupin has since described as the worst of Elton's career. I am a fan of Elton's. But I haven't listened to much of his work beyond the mid-80's and trusting to Bernie's judgment, I don't think this is an album I'll be getting acquainted with anytime soon.
Throughout his book, Elton is very open about his mood swings, OCD and propensity to spend money any way he chooses fit. We see all of this in the documentary, where he commendably allows the all-seeing camera to access all areas of his lifestyle. One thing that surprised me in the documentary were the scenes where he sits dutifully alongside his mother, whereas in the book, he barely has a good word to say for her or his dad, come to that.
His book frankly reveals and confronts what he terms the Dwight (his real name) family temper and his various insecurities so that when he achieved huge success in the early 70's, he was able to use his new found fame and fortune to feed them. This is manifest in the documentary as we see him on holiday in France where he appears to have taken with him about a year's worth of clothes, or meticulously filing away random CD's in his huge music library or just throw a hissy-fit over a large floral display over which he disapproves. And yet these are elsewhere contrasted with the great good he does in generously and fulsomely supporting AIDS charities through his own Foundation.
The programme is dizzying at times as it follows him and his entourage, including his rather brusque, disrespectful PA, with whom the book tells me he unsurprisingly parted company some years later. We see him at his two main homes, Woodside in England and another in Atlanta, Georgia, an unusual choice I'd have said, as well as on tour, doing video shoots, press conferences and even at the Academy Award ceremony collecting the Oscar for Best Song of the year.
We've all seen backstage snippets of the stars but this 75 minute programme did so much more extensively and revealingly than before. Elton does come across as over-indulgent, moody and truculent but also as caring, open, hard-working, certainly eccentric but often funny (well, you never know when you might need a tiara or two!). Did I like him as a person, I think so, but just don't get in his way, especially when he's playing tennis.
