Wow! eBook
Tin Pan Alley: The Rise Of Elton John
Author(s): Keith Hayward (Author)
- Publisher: Soundcheck Books LLP
- Publication Date: August 1, 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 400 pages
- ISBN-10: 0957144202
- ISBN-13: 9780957144200
Book Description
The other is Tin Pan Alley itself. Denmark Street, in London’s west end, was home to Britain’s music publishing industry. A world filled with sharp, but often surprisingly generous, publishers and the songwriters who needed to sell them their songs to survive. Elton John and Bernie Taupin found themselves in exactly this position before success came knocking.
Author and Elton John fan, Keith Hayward, seamlessly weaves these two worlds together by interviewing those that were there. Band mates in Bluesology and the Elton John Band, Tony Taupin (brother of Bernie), manager Ray Williams, lyricists Gary Osborne and Bill Martin, songwriter Tony Hatch, music publicist Tony King and many more share their thoughts and memories.
With never-before-seen photos, Tin Pan Alley: The Rise of Elton John is the first book to focus solely on the artist’s formative years. It is a must not only for Sir Elton’s army of fans but for anyone with an interest in music history.
Music business journalist, Nigel Hunter, who worked in the Alley, provides a funny and touching preface and epilogue. The jacket has been specially designed by David Larkham, who was responsible for producing many of Sir Elton’s early album covers.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Helen Piena, his piano tutor at the Academy, recalls that he was offered a Junior Exhibitionist Scholarship even though he couldn’t read music, not even a note. He was chosen, says Piena, because he had such a good ear. She taught him the rudiments of playing the piano but not composition, ‘I didn’t teach him for composition. He had lessons with a composer for that, but I don’t know how he was doing in his other classes at the time. I know his compositions were, and still are, classically based, and that was due to his education at the Academy; he learned a lot about music structure whilst he was there.’
As well as practising the piano, he was also in Harmony classes in Room 114. ‘I came to the Royal Academy as a junior Saturday morning student in the early sixties,’ recalls Skaila Kanga, a fellow student, and a then would-be principal harp player on Elton’s second album. ‘He used to always sit at the back, out of the way. We were keen and eager, sitting at the front and swotting, but Reg wasn’t like that, he was shy and hid away in this very big room, by the window. He remembers me in that class but I don’t have a huge amount of recollection of him because he was so very shy. It was quite a tussle for him. He had such a different way of listening to music, and was playing piano mostly by ear, which was, and still is, his incredible skill but which the Academy didn’t really engender in those days. It was a much more classical training, and for those students who wanted to go down the classical path, it was invaluable.’
Certainly, he didn’t seem to be comfortable doing Mozart and Haydn, continues Kanga. ‘And so, therefore, the stricture and all the classes that we had were hard for him.’ What he could do, however, was play and improvise on what he could remember, which is a phenomenal thing to do, and vital for the route into rock ‘n’ roll music.
