Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010
Elton John's former fiancee seeks a meeting with the famous singer
http://www.dfw.com/2010/11/09/362951/elton-johns-former-fiancee-seeks.htmlA Euless woman from Elton John's past (and musical catalog) wants to talk with her former fiance.
By Preston Jones
DFW.com
Linda Hannon was engaged to Elton John in 1970, when he was still known as Reginald Dwight
Your vote has been counted, thank you for voting.
For Linda Hannon, it's something more: a pointed reminder of a very turbulent, confusing and painful time in her life.
In the summer of 1970, Hannon (then going by her maiden name, Woodrow) was engaged to a struggling musician, sharing a flat in London's East End with him and his collaborator, supporting all three of them with secretarial work. She'd been in the relationship for nearly two years, but less than a month before the nuptials, Hannon's beau returned home late -- around 4:30 a.m. -- from a night of drinking with friends and told her it was over.
"I was devastated," Hannon says now, perched politely on the edge of her couch in her home in a quiet Euless subdivision. "My whole family was feeling for me, because they were expecting a wedding."
The musician who got away was Reginald Dwight, best known to the world now as Elton John.
Four years after his failed suicide attempt and his canceled wedding, with the release of the seminal 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, John and lyricist Bernie Taupin framed the whole episode as a harrowing near-miss.
That's Hannon being referenced in Tonight's emotionally charged chorus: "You almost had your hooks in me, didn't you dear/You nearly had me roped and tied/Altar-bound, hypnotized."
"In a way, I was disappointed," Hannon says. "It was Bernie that actually wrote the words.... Bernie has probably said more negative things than Reg has ... I mean, unbelievable things that were said. In some of the songs, I was very hurt."
Hannon says she has moved on, but upon learning that John, along with fellow '70s survivor Leon Russell, would be performing in Fort Worth on Saturday, she felt compelled to reach out to the press in an attempt to facilitate a meeting, however brief.
She says she isn't after money, or fame, or sparking romance anew or even, really, setting the record straight. (Indeed, Hannon says much of what has been written about her, by journalists and/or biographers, over the years is wildly inaccurate. For instance, she doesn't hate John's music, as has been reported: "I have all his music; my sons have all his music.")
Since he walked out of her life four decades ago, Hannon has not had any communication with the man.
"I suppose I just carried on and put it down to an experience," Hannon says. "As he got more and more famous, I thought, 'Wow.' [laughs] It was incredible. I never at that time imagined he would be who he is today."
When contacted for this story, John's representatives said he was not available for comment.
Hannon moved to the United States in 1984. The 66-year-old Scotland native has made her home in North Texas for the past 15 years, and now lives just slightly west of D/FW Airport. Retired and single, she shares her cozy, inviting home with several pets. She has three sons from a previous marriage, all of whom live in North Texas, and three grandchildren.
The portrait she paints of her brief time with Dwight, as he transitioned from being a member of Long John Baldry's band Bluesology to a solo artist, is tinged with wistfulness and nostalgia. According to Hannon, it was a joint decision to get married, even if "Reg" wasn't in the greatest financial shape.
"I even bought my own engagement ring," Hannon says. "His mother and I got on very well. She had ordered the wedding cake. We had found a flat in Mill Hill, and everything was fine."
Until it wasn't. In what long since passed into lore, Baldry was the one who convinced Reg Dwight that marriage would end his music career before it ever got going. Baldry is quoted in David Buckley's 2007 Elton: The Biography as having said: "Oh, my dear, for God's sake you're getting married, and you love Bernie more than you love this girl. This is ridiculous. Put a stop to it now." (The "sugar bear" referenced in Someone Saved My Life Tonight is a nod to Baldry.)
There would be only one other woman in John's life, a marriage to sound engineer Renate Blauel in 1984 that lasted four years. He came out as a gay man not long after they divorced; John met his current partner, David Furnish, in 1993, and the pair entered into a civil partnership in 2005.
When asked what she would say if she had the opportunity, Hannon pauses briefly.
"I would like to see him and tell him what I've been doing and about my three boys and my grandbabies ... just rekindle a friendship with him.
"There's no bitterness there."
In the summer of 1970, Hannon (then going by her maiden name, Woodrow) was engaged to a struggling musician, sharing a flat in London's East End with him and his collaborator, supporting all three of them with secretarial work. She'd been in the relationship for nearly two years, but less than a month before the nuptials, Hannon's beau returned home late -- around 4:30 a.m. -- from a night of drinking with friends and told her it was over.
"I was devastated," Hannon says now, perched politely on the edge of her couch in her home in a quiet Euless subdivision. "My whole family was feeling for me, because they were expecting a wedding."
The musician who got away was Reginald Dwight, best known to the world now as Elton John.
Four years after his failed suicide attempt and his canceled wedding, with the release of the seminal 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, John and lyricist Bernie Taupin framed the whole episode as a harrowing near-miss.
That's Hannon being referenced in Tonight's emotionally charged chorus: "You almost had your hooks in me, didn't you dear/You nearly had me roped and tied/Altar-bound, hypnotized."
"In a way, I was disappointed," Hannon says. "It was Bernie that actually wrote the words.... Bernie has probably said more negative things than Reg has ... I mean, unbelievable things that were said. In some of the songs, I was very hurt."
Hannon says she has moved on, but upon learning that John, along with fellow '70s survivor Leon Russell, would be performing in Fort Worth on Saturday, she felt compelled to reach out to the press in an attempt to facilitate a meeting, however brief.
She says she isn't after money, or fame, or sparking romance anew or even, really, setting the record straight. (Indeed, Hannon says much of what has been written about her, by journalists and/or biographers, over the years is wildly inaccurate. For instance, she doesn't hate John's music, as has been reported: "I have all his music; my sons have all his music.")
Since he walked out of her life four decades ago, Hannon has not had any communication with the man.
"I suppose I just carried on and put it down to an experience," Hannon says. "As he got more and more famous, I thought, 'Wow.' [laughs] It was incredible. I never at that time imagined he would be who he is today."
When contacted for this story, John's representatives said he was not available for comment.
Hannon moved to the United States in 1984. The 66-year-old Scotland native has made her home in North Texas for the past 15 years, and now lives just slightly west of D/FW Airport. Retired and single, she shares her cozy, inviting home with several pets. She has three sons from a previous marriage, all of whom live in North Texas, and three grandchildren.
The portrait she paints of her brief time with Dwight, as he transitioned from being a member of Long John Baldry's band Bluesology to a solo artist, is tinged with wistfulness and nostalgia. According to Hannon, it was a joint decision to get married, even if "Reg" wasn't in the greatest financial shape.
"I even bought my own engagement ring," Hannon says. "His mother and I got on very well. She had ordered the wedding cake. We had found a flat in Mill Hill, and everything was fine."
Until it wasn't. In what long since passed into lore, Baldry was the one who convinced Reg Dwight that marriage would end his music career before it ever got going. Baldry is quoted in David Buckley's 2007 Elton: The Biography as having said: "Oh, my dear, for God's sake you're getting married, and you love Bernie more than you love this girl. This is ridiculous. Put a stop to it now." (The "sugar bear" referenced in Someone Saved My Life Tonight is a nod to Baldry.)
There would be only one other woman in John's life, a marriage to sound engineer Renate Blauel in 1984 that lasted four years. He came out as a gay man not long after they divorced; John met his current partner, David Furnish, in 1993, and the pair entered into a civil partnership in 2005.
When asked what she would say if she had the opportunity, Hannon pauses briefly.
"I would like to see him and tell him what I've been doing and about my three boys and my grandbabies ... just rekindle a friendship with him.
"There's no bitterness there."
Elton John, other guy rock Ontario arena
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_16564966Created: 11/09/2010 12:29:43 PM PST
2. Wait...Leon who?
Undeterred by the second question, I plunked down $66 for a ticket based on the first question (which was more of an exclamation). For Ontario to get the Eagles, Bob Dylan and Elton John in 2010 probably exceeds our most optimistic expectations for the arena.
John isn't among my favorites, but I own most of his 1970s albums. You have to be well-versed in rock lore to know much about Russell, who worked with Joe Cocker and George Harrison but has languished in obscurity since the 1970s.
The unusual pairing promised a focus on John's early work, a plus for me. After buying a ticket - $66 qualified as a cheap seat, up on the second deck - I read that John and Russell were releasing an album together.
John said in interviews that he considered Russell something of a mentor. They reconnected recently and John suggested they cut an album. Russell, blissfully unaware this would lead to him playing an arena in Ontario, agreed.
Like most in the audience, I didn't know quite what to expect from Friday's concert. But we showed up anyway.
Boy did we show up. My only other experience at Citizens Business Bank Arena was the Dylan show in August. The place was probably half full and parking was a breeze.
This time, they were using overflow lots
At 8 p.m., the lights arena dimmed and Elton came out, to huge cheers, to do something unusual: introduce Leon Russell.
"Forty years ago, I toured America with this man, one of my heroes. Forty years later, we're touring again," Elton said.
He left the stage to Russell, who played seven songs on piano in a kind of honkytonk style with a full band backing him. "Tight Rope," "A Song for You" and "Delta Lady" were among them.
Russell, who went prematurely gray during his heyday, has always looked hirsute and ancient. Now his long hair and chest-length beard are white. Rather than a Father Time robe and hourglass, he wore sunglasses and a cowboy hat.
Basically, the only part of his face visible was the tip of his nose. He didn't say a word other than a lone "thank you" and his reedy voice was almost impossible to understand.
In other words, he baffled me as much as Bob Dylan must have baffled the unconverted at his show.
Russell left the stage and John came out - uttering those thrilling words, "Good evening, Ontario!" - for a 45-minute solo set of seven classics, six of them from the 1970s.
They included "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Bennie and the Jets," "Rocket Man" and, perhaps in a nod to the impending arrival of daylight saving time, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me." (The evening's full set list can be viewed on my blog.)
Elton can't hit the high notes anymore, but he was in fine voice, and the songs, with their eccentric lyrics about hunting horny-back toads, wearing mohair suits and raising children on Mars, remain enduringly bizarre, not to mention insanely catchy.
Russell then re-entered and, seated at twin pianos, the duo performed 12 of the 14 songs on their album, "The Union."
The evening's concept was brilliant, I think: Give the audience an all-hits opener, so they can brag that they saw Elton sing "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," and also let Leon Russell do his thing.
Then, when they do an hour of new material, nobody's going to complain. In fact, the usual rush to the bar when aging rockers trot out new (groan) material didn't occur. People mostly stuck around.
The new stuff wasn't bad, either. My friends and I were surprised how good a piano player John is, maybe in part because the pairing with Russell brings out his earthier, relaxed side. Russell has rubbed the gloss off of him.
Elton, by the way, wore sunglasses (undersized) and a frock coat. He did not sport platform boots or feathers.
He was enthusiastic and energetic, chatting between songs and appearing to be having the time of his life. Russell kept mum, but why compete with Elton?
The effect was one of generosity. There's no commercial reason Elton John would team up with Leon Russell, only kindness and respect.
Russell appears to be serving as a lodestone for John, pulling him back to a purer, less corrupted version of himself, like Charles Foster Kane's boyhood sled.
Or something like that. Elton has made comments about wanting to play "real music" again, so this low-key tour is an intriguing step.
When Russell left the stage at 10:15 p.m., we'd had more than two hours of music. But John stuck around for another 45 minutes, performing another seven songs, five of them from the 1970s. (The most recent song in his solo sets was from 1984.)
Continuing to reconnect with his rootsier side, he ran through some "Tumbleweed Connection"-era material, from hits like "Levon" to relative obscurities like "Take Me to the Pilot" and "Burn Down the Mission."
Friends on the other side of the upper deck later reported that a fistfight broke out when a beefy guy who danced through much of the show offered a punch to the face of a man who asked him to sit down. Unlikely backdrop to the giant dancer's violence: "Tiny Dancer."
It was now 11 p.m., but John returned for an encore. He performed his classic bit of self-mockery, "The Bitch is Back," bringing us to our feet, and then shook hands with people in the front row.
Halfway in his journey across the stage, people started handing him stuff to sign, so he did that for probably 30 fans. I've never seen that before.
John sat down at the piano and concluded the night with his first major hit, "Your Song," dedicating it to everyone who's supported him for the past 40 years.
The concert ended at 11:15, three and a quarter hours after it began. Elton John can bring anyone he wants next time, even a Wall Street banker or a mime, and I just might go.
David Allen ("who?") writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail david.allen@inlandnewspapers.com, call 909-483-9339 or write 2041 E. Fourth St., Ontario 91764. Read his blog at dailybulletin.com/davidallenblog
http://theeltonjohntapes.blogspot.com/2010/11/audio-elton-john-pays-back-musical-hero.html
INTERVIEW
AUDIO: Elton John pays back a musical hero
For British singer-songwriter Elton John, it's payback time for a man who had a powerful influence on his early career — U.S. songwriter and pianist Leon Russell.
Russell, 68, an Oklahoma-born musician whose early Americana sound blended country, folk and rhythm and blues, had a following in the 1970s for songs such as Tight Rope and Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms. But he fell out of the pop music sphere and recently has suffered health problems.
John is now touring with the man he calls an early musical hero and they have recorded an album together, The Union.
In an interview with Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC's cultural affairs show Q, John recalled meeting Russell in 1970 at the Troubador Club in Los Angeles, just before his own big career breakthrough.
"He for me encapsulated everything I loved about piano playing. He had an element of rock 'n' roll, an element of rhythm and blues and an element of gospel, and he just had his own kind of style," John recalls.
"He met me afterwards and he was so sweet to me and we did gigs together."
John said he remembered those days vividly earlier this year, when he heard the Russell song Back to the Island on his partner David Furnish's iPod while on a trip to South Africa.
"It just had a wonderful effect on me. It took me back to a wonderful period of my life, the early 1970s and when I became successful in North America," he recalled. "It also made me feel angry that he'd been forgotten about."
John called Russell and proposed a collaboration, seeking out the help of T-Bone Burnett, whom he'd never worked with before as a producer. Burnett assembled a funky 15-piece studio band to back them up.
John said he found it gratifying to help Russell both financially and personally.
One song on The Union, titled The Hands of Angels, Russell wrote as a thank you to the pianist who had emulated his piano style 40 years ago.
"He came back into the room after that song and said 'Thanks for saving my life.' When someone says that to you it has an immense effect on you," John said.
John also spoke about his recent statements that pop music is in trouble.
"Everything sounds the same, it's all recorded on computer, it's missing the human element," he said.
But he did give a shout-out to Montreal indie band Arcade Fire, saying he tries to spread the word when he hears great new music being made.
"If I can, if I like something that's really great, something like an Arcade Fire," John said. "It's great to hear that music being made by new bands, it's great music, it will stand the test of time."
audio in:
http://theeltonjohntapes.blogspot.com/2010/11/audio-elton-john-pays-back-musical-hero.html
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