Book review: Bernie Taupin’s “Scattershot”

If you’re going to read about a standalone lyricist – someone whose role involves ONLY writing the words for songs – you will always start, and likely finish, with Bernie Taupin’s “Scattershot”.

Taupin is famously Elton John’s go-to man for words. This makes him one half of one of the world’s most creative, enduring and successful creative partnerships. Few writing teams have proven so prolific or have lasted so long. I have to look back at the days of musicals for anything comparable, people such as Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein but also maybe Jagger and Richards. Lennon and McCartney, you say? A brilliant team, although their time together was shorter.

A scattershot sponge

What can be said about Taupin? “Scattershot” is largely the tale of an emotional sponge that spent his life people-watching, learning to grow up – at times reluctantly – while spilling out timeless and superbly crafted songs with a strong emotional core.

It’s a book that is not short of juicy details and name-dropping. The early days are inevitably hard and frustrating, until a music exec encouraged them to stop trying to write “puerile pop” for others and embrace their own voice.

I’ll skip over the details (don’t worry, they are all in the book). But when Elton John started generating attention, things became both more productive and more haywire pretty quickly.

What is amazing in this day and age is how closely they stuck together professionally, with Taupin often touring with John well beyond the time one would think he needed to absorb life on the road. The well-documented excesses are, well, documented again – notably from Taupin’s side. And they stack up.

How fickle and random success can be

Songwriters won’t really pick up all that many tips, although there are moments when he gives a view into his thinking as a writer. As the years progress, he seems to have become more aware of what they were doing together. Plus, a number of unsuccessful side projects were there to remind him how fickle and random success can be.  

Ultimately, I followed the book to the end as it is a tale of wine, women and song – how a guy blessed with everything he could wish for manages to blow everything up several times. Not wanting to spoil a good read, the ending involves a woman (singular) and his other great passion in life, painting.

Amusing, gossipy (that evening with Dali and his entourage!) and very well written.  The UK edition has a better cover.

“Scattershot” is published by Monoray

Check lyrics by Michael Leahy