AS a young dad, I was intent on sharing my musical love with my son, and we’d sit on the couch, me with remote control in hand. "The music game" was simple: I’d flick through the TV music channels, and we’d guess the song and the artist that came on. Obviously when he was seven, I was cleaning the floor with him. But as he approached teenage and his knowledge of music encroached into areas that were different from his old man’s, he began to put up a valiant fight.
Today, he works in the music business and has excellent and eclectic tastes. I like to think it is all down to “the music game”.
The most memorable afternoon was when Wham’s I’m Your Man came on. It was some years after Wham had ended and George Michael had become a stellar international recording icon.
“You know, when we were kids watching this we never realised that George was gay.” My son, now a young teenager, looked at me in disbelief.
“But Dad, look at him.”
I had to explain that homosexuality was still a best kept secret in 1985. He seemed to understand how times had changed. Wham’s exhortation of manliness faded out and Elton John’s Nikita faded in.
“And we never knew Elton was gay.”
“Dad!”
“Seriously. He had a wife and everything.”
My son got up and stormed out the room, shouting as he left:
“You knew nothing and you’re meant to be teaching me about the world.”
I’m reminded of this story ahead of I’m Still Standing, a tribute for the five-times Grammy winner’s contribution to the music industry. The start-studded event will feature tributes by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Miley Cyrus and John Legend, among many others. This “Grammy Salute” coincides with the announcement of his final flourish; a three-year long global tour which will be his last before he retires in order to spend more time with his two sons.
Reginald Kenneth Dwight, as he was born, became Elton Hercules John and, since teaming up with the enigmatic lyricist Bernie Taupin in 1967, has changed the face of music across five decades. The 70-year-old’s achievements are close to peerless: he has recorded more than 30 albums and sold close to a third of a billion records. Indeed, every year from 1970 to 2000, the US Billboard Hot 100 was populated by at least one Elton John song. That’s before you even mention Oscars, Tonys and Brit awards.
I realise that Elton John isn’t everyone’s cup of Assam but, while I may not be familiar with his entire oeuvre, he has recorded a few songs I might choose were I to be marooned on a deserted island. (Tiny Dancer is pure genius, in my humble opinion.)
Through most of his early career, however, Elton John felt compelled to hide his sexuality. It was only after his second divorce in 1988, at the age of 41, that he came out and declared openly that he was gay. In the previous decade he’d came out as a bisexual in Rolling Stone magazine, an announcement that incurred the wrath of some readers. The magazine was inundated with letters accusing the singer of being a “pervert”, with many fans refusing to buy his albums.
Life has a funny habit of telling us the stories we need to share. While hosting a Burns Night in the City of London last week, I was chatting with a young man and woman in the audience. The young man said he’d been at school with a boy that he thought might be my son. “I’m Gordon,” he said.
Upon hearing the name of my son’s old friend, the years slipped away; I knew exactly who he was. I made some unthinking joke about him and the young woman, and how good they looked as a couple; he smiled.
“We’re not a couple,” he said. “I’m gay.”
It made me smile to think how much life had changed since I sat on that couch with my teenage son, since I had been a teenager myself. In 2018 a young man feels able to talk about his sexuality without fear of being judged. What changed times. Despite having once had to lead a double life, Elton John is still standing. And his myriad achievements as well as his eventual coming out have helped make the life of young people like Gordon a great deal easier.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here