Scattershot: Music, Life, Elton, and Me

Lyricist Taupin, best known for his long-standing collaboration with Elton John, bounces jauntily from anecdote to anecdote in his whirlwind debut memoir. Taupin was born in Lincolnshire, England, where he “learned nothing in school. My education came through my mother, her father, and in the grooves of vinyl albums.” At 17, he met Reg Dwight (who would soon change his name to Elton John) and shared the “fanciful” and “whimsical” songs he’d written. When John asked if he had more, the now-famous partnership was born. Taupin provides intimate glimpses into the genesis of some of his and John’s most well-known hits: he wrote “Your Song” in 10 minutes as John’s mother cooked breakfast, while “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” was inspired by his first night in New York City. Taupin wends his way through his artistic influences, several marriages, and drug use, but the clear highlights are the reflections about his craft—he sometimes wonders if he’s “just a messenger, delivering whimsical propositions,” adding that “what I became was, and always has been, an enigma to me.” Despite a tendency to ramble, Taupin’s candor and imagistic writing (“a cubicle the color of sick”) hold the reader’s attention. It’s an appealing complement to Elton John’s 2019 memoir Me. (Sept.)