Review: "Elton John: I'm Still Standing--A Grammy Salute" (Airdate 4/10/18)
With Rocketman a hit in movie theaters and Elton John on his farewell tour, it's time to take a look back at Elton John: I'm Still Standing, a Grammy Tribute that aired a year ago April 10. How well did it reveal to us how influential Elton has been, and his impact on pop culture?
Nothing except a random string of cheesy performances, is the brief answer. The major purpose of a simple random selection of Elton hits by a random selection of current music-industry cash cows appeared to be glorified product placement for two Elton "tribute" albums, Revamp, featuring today's rock/pop stars performing Elton songs, and Reconstruction, which consists entirely of country singers who are supposedly paying tribute to Bernie Taupin's role in Elton's life and work. The guests and set list consisted entirely of selections from those two albums.
Despite such product placement we were well into the broadcast before anyone got around to acknowledging this is a tribute to Bernie, too--which of course automatically rules out some of Elton's greatest songs. There's no "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" or "Circle of Life" because Tim Rice wrote those lyrics. No "Elton's Song" because Tom Robinson wrote that. No Elton John hits that Gary Osborne wrote--no "Little Jeanie" or "Blue Eyes" or "Chloe." No "Pinball Wizard," that's the Who.
How cheesy and cheap was this so-called tribute? It opened with Miley Cyrus singing "The Bitch is Back" in her Southern-magnolia twang that's about as witchy as a sugar cube--and about as tuneful, too. I don't know why or how, nearly fifty years after "The Bitch is Back" was a big top-forty hit, so many people have so much trouble getting their heads around--it's a gay song. A man wrote it. A gay man sang it. It's got nothing to do with women. Stop pretending it does. Stop insulting women with it. Stop insulting yourself and your sex, Miley.
After that opening piece of sexism, the show managed a tiny taste of the direction it should have taken instead, thanks to a pair of young British stars who told personal stories of Elton's influence on them. First Ed Sheeran, with his glasses and tousled reddish hair and English charm, showed his Elton influence with "Candle in the Wind." Then Sam Smith dared speak of the LGBT community and sang "Daniel."
Like Cyrus, however, most of the guests were young women with a country following, who have about as much to do with Elton John as a drag act has to do with whatever act the drag act's impersonating. These chirpy young girls with embarrassingly weak upper and lower registers were trying to sing songs written for a man's register--songs originally sung by a piano-pounding wild-man rocker who was heavily influenced by piano-pounding wild-man rockers Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.
Lady Gaga took the drag-act flavor to its most literal extreme by performing what looked and sounded like a very poor drag-act impersonation of Elton, and on "Your Song" yet. Thanks for turning "Your Song" into a laugh-free parody, Lady. If this tribute's supposed to feature drag acts, at least have the nerve to invite some real drag acts.
Chris Martin, a contemporary British rocker and keyboardist, should have been one of the evening's brighter lights, but he inexplicably picked the obscure barely-a-song song, "We all Fall in Love Sometimes," and he wasn't even able to perform that little sonnet-like set of words correctly. He needed a bigger bolder song.
Martin's selection might have fared better if read as poetry, which some other guests tried doing with "Border Song" and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight." The problem with selecting "Border Song" as an example of Bernie's lyrics is, it may be the only such song that Elton ever actually added some lyrics to. Don't ask me why the Hell Gayle King, of all people, was cast to recite part of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" with music playing, like she was trying to rap and couldn't even do that right. I guess she worked cheap and needed a booking.
We all know Elton is an icon of the LGBT community so, with the exception of Sam Smith and Lady Gaga, and some extensive praise about Elton's work for AIDS relief, where the Hell was the LGBT community?
Elton John is one of the great British rockers, where were his fellow British rockers? He's one of the greatest pianists of the rock era, where were his fellow pianists? What about all his iconic lady friends like Diana Ross and Patti La Belle and Bette Midler and Cher and Kiki Dee and Tina Turner? What about his impact on fashion--those glasses, those platform shoes, how he was seventies' fashion and all that implies?
Not to mention that for all the airtime this "tribute" gave to Elton's relationship to country music (which is by courtesy, if you want the truth) there wasn't a word about his much stronger relationship with soul and the African-American side of pop music, how he worked as a back-up musician for people like the Supremes and Patti LaBell in the sixties, how he made Sleeping With the Past, an entire album of Motown-influenced music in the eighties.
This show's strange and long side trip into country--loading the show with people like Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town--may have had a very cynical marketing ploy behind it. When Elton came out, first as bisexual and later as gay, he lost the American heartland. Frankly I doubt Little Big Town singing "Rocket Man" or Miranda Lambert singing "My Father's Gun" (another time the show lapsed into unintentional drag-act parody) is going to make the MAGA crowd buy any more Elton records than they've been buying for the past generation or so.
Yeah, Tumbleweed Connection was, way back around 1971, marketed as Elton's and Bernie's mediation on country-and-western themes, with songs referencing outlaws and guns--but it was a British meditation on country, and especially on the more iconic pop-culture aspects of country living and the American West, not so much on country music itself. Being influenced by the original isn't the same as being the original.
In the show's final moments we get to the other reason why the Grammys wanted to do this tribute. Besides being an extended infomercial for the two tribute albums, it marked an occasion to present Elton--and Bernie, I guess--with the Grammys' "President's Merit Award." Elton made a speech about all the years he and Bernie have been together, like celebrating some still-the-one anniversary, ignoring the fact that there have actually been major gaps in their professional time together.
Then Elton sang three songs, including the everybody-out-on-the-stage finale, "I'm Still Standing." It served as a demonstration of, just let Elton be his own tribute. He's better at it than anyone else.
Here's the link to the imdb.com page:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8264268/
To the Grammy page:
https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/kesha-ed-sheeran-sza-more-honor-elton-john-grammy-salute
Billboard review:
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8299926/elton-john-grammy-salute-ed-sheeran-sam-smith
Variety review:
https://variety.com/2018/music/news/inside-the-elton-john-post-grammys-tribute-concert-with-ed-sheeran-lady-gaga-miley-cyrus-sza-and-more-watch-1202725695/
Nothing except a random string of cheesy performances, is the brief answer. The major purpose of a simple random selection of Elton hits by a random selection of current music-industry cash cows appeared to be glorified product placement for two Elton "tribute" albums, Revamp, featuring today's rock/pop stars performing Elton songs, and Reconstruction, which consists entirely of country singers who are supposedly paying tribute to Bernie Taupin's role in Elton's life and work. The guests and set list consisted entirely of selections from those two albums.
Despite such product placement we were well into the broadcast before anyone got around to acknowledging this is a tribute to Bernie, too--which of course automatically rules out some of Elton's greatest songs. There's no "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" or "Circle of Life" because Tim Rice wrote those lyrics. No "Elton's Song" because Tom Robinson wrote that. No Elton John hits that Gary Osborne wrote--no "Little Jeanie" or "Blue Eyes" or "Chloe." No "Pinball Wizard," that's the Who.
How cheesy and cheap was this so-called tribute? It opened with Miley Cyrus singing "The Bitch is Back" in her Southern-magnolia twang that's about as witchy as a sugar cube--and about as tuneful, too. I don't know why or how, nearly fifty years after "The Bitch is Back" was a big top-forty hit, so many people have so much trouble getting their heads around--it's a gay song. A man wrote it. A gay man sang it. It's got nothing to do with women. Stop pretending it does. Stop insulting women with it. Stop insulting yourself and your sex, Miley.
After that opening piece of sexism, the show managed a tiny taste of the direction it should have taken instead, thanks to a pair of young British stars who told personal stories of Elton's influence on them. First Ed Sheeran, with his glasses and tousled reddish hair and English charm, showed his Elton influence with "Candle in the Wind." Then Sam Smith dared speak of the LGBT community and sang "Daniel."
Like Cyrus, however, most of the guests were young women with a country following, who have about as much to do with Elton John as a drag act has to do with whatever act the drag act's impersonating. These chirpy young girls with embarrassingly weak upper and lower registers were trying to sing songs written for a man's register--songs originally sung by a piano-pounding wild-man rocker who was heavily influenced by piano-pounding wild-man rockers Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.
Lady Gaga took the drag-act flavor to its most literal extreme by performing what looked and sounded like a very poor drag-act impersonation of Elton, and on "Your Song" yet. Thanks for turning "Your Song" into a laugh-free parody, Lady. If this tribute's supposed to feature drag acts, at least have the nerve to invite some real drag acts.
Chris Martin, a contemporary British rocker and keyboardist, should have been one of the evening's brighter lights, but he inexplicably picked the obscure barely-a-song song, "We all Fall in Love Sometimes," and he wasn't even able to perform that little sonnet-like set of words correctly. He needed a bigger bolder song.
Martin's selection might have fared better if read as poetry, which some other guests tried doing with "Border Song" and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight." The problem with selecting "Border Song" as an example of Bernie's lyrics is, it may be the only such song that Elton ever actually added some lyrics to. Don't ask me why the Hell Gayle King, of all people, was cast to recite part of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" with music playing, like she was trying to rap and couldn't even do that right. I guess she worked cheap and needed a booking.
We all know Elton is an icon of the LGBT community so, with the exception of Sam Smith and Lady Gaga, and some extensive praise about Elton's work for AIDS relief, where the Hell was the LGBT community?
Elton John is one of the great British rockers, where were his fellow British rockers? He's one of the greatest pianists of the rock era, where were his fellow pianists? What about all his iconic lady friends like Diana Ross and Patti La Belle and Bette Midler and Cher and Kiki Dee and Tina Turner? What about his impact on fashion--those glasses, those platform shoes, how he was seventies' fashion and all that implies?
Not to mention that for all the airtime this "tribute" gave to Elton's relationship to country music (which is by courtesy, if you want the truth) there wasn't a word about his much stronger relationship with soul and the African-American side of pop music, how he worked as a back-up musician for people like the Supremes and Patti LaBell in the sixties, how he made Sleeping With the Past, an entire album of Motown-influenced music in the eighties.
This show's strange and long side trip into country--loading the show with people like Miranda Lambert and Little Big Town--may have had a very cynical marketing ploy behind it. When Elton came out, first as bisexual and later as gay, he lost the American heartland. Frankly I doubt Little Big Town singing "Rocket Man" or Miranda Lambert singing "My Father's Gun" (another time the show lapsed into unintentional drag-act parody) is going to make the MAGA crowd buy any more Elton records than they've been buying for the past generation or so.
Yeah, Tumbleweed Connection was, way back around 1971, marketed as Elton's and Bernie's mediation on country-and-western themes, with songs referencing outlaws and guns--but it was a British meditation on country, and especially on the more iconic pop-culture aspects of country living and the American West, not so much on country music itself. Being influenced by the original isn't the same as being the original.
In the show's final moments we get to the other reason why the Grammys wanted to do this tribute. Besides being an extended infomercial for the two tribute albums, it marked an occasion to present Elton--and Bernie, I guess--with the Grammys' "President's Merit Award." Elton made a speech about all the years he and Bernie have been together, like celebrating some still-the-one anniversary, ignoring the fact that there have actually been major gaps in their professional time together.
Then Elton sang three songs, including the everybody-out-on-the-stage finale, "I'm Still Standing." It served as a demonstration of, just let Elton be his own tribute. He's better at it than anyone else.
Here's the link to the imdb.com page:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8264268/
To the Grammy page:
https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/kesha-ed-sheeran-sza-more-honor-elton-john-grammy-salute
Billboard review:
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8299926/elton-john-grammy-salute-ed-sheeran-sam-smith
Variety review:
https://variety.com/2018/music/news/inside-the-elton-john-post-grammys-tribute-concert-with-ed-sheeran-lady-gaga-miley-cyrus-sza-and-more-watch-1202725695/
posted by Lyn Jensen | 11:32 AM
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