25th Anniversary Box Set. As for his singing, that is the only thing that always knocks me out in an artist, simply because it's so very pure and unvarnished. I found his music to be very simplistic and clean and almost, of the most remarkable virtues you can hear. In other words, there's never been a better place to be than right here, right now. An artist never fails to please, at least for a while.
But he's not strictly a singer, and he's very limited as one. He's a guitarist, the best I've heard, although he isn't a virtuoso. It's as if he's playing some sort of melancholy minor keys, and each one carries his message better than the last, ever so faintly. He's something of a songwriter. I haven't heard his stuff as a songwriter yet, but he's fantastic at expressing himself.
I've found him to be a perfect example of what music should be, and the English language is lucky to have him. It has had only one great songwriter, and he isn't from England. He's from the U.S. and he's one of the best. When he was young he was going to be a singer like Sinatra, and then he changed his mind and became a musician. But he was a very good singer, too. He sang in the style of someone who liked Little Richard and the Beatles, not something you'd say about Elton John. But he's perfect because he's modest and he's always been able to put himself in a place that everybody can get along with.
As I've said, I really think he's a songwriter more than a singer, and the guitar is his real instrument. Sometimes I get up and play the stuff he sings, just to hear how wonderful he is on that instrument. He has an incredible voice, and it has nothing to do with the vocal lessons that he took. He just has a very, very special way of singing. A great singer can never be taught, of course.
Elton John is the only artist to have written all his own material, although he did collaborate on a couple of tracks, including "Crocodile Rock," which he co-wrote with Bernie Taupin. They met at the time when John was the lead singer of the 1970s British group the Pilgrims, and Taupin was their lyricist. John and Taupin spent an afternoon on the
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