Recently, I’ve posted a couple of remarkable songs that Elton John improvised on the spot – the first one written to dialogue handed him from the Ibsen play Peer Gynt, and the other to the text for an oven manual. I’ve come across a couple more of his improvs. Here’s the first of them. It comes from when he was a guest on Michael Parkinson show, one of the longest-running chat shows in England. Parkinson hands him a “lyric” of sorts put together by his show’s writer. It’s basically about mothers and clogged drains. And the resulting song is wonderful. And what’s fun, too, is to notice veteran Parkinson’s look of admiration after only the first couple of lines when he realizes that Elton John is not only pulling it off, but actually writing a really good “song.” (Along with his great pleasure as it continues.) On one hand, it’s not as impressive as the other two, since – being based on an actual “lyric” (no matter how odd the lyric) – it has an actual, song structure built in. On the other hand, having an actual, song structure means the music he comes up with has more of a structure to it, and further – being more like a real song – his vocal performance is great. And to add a wonderful P.S. -- I've found another of his improv videos, from long ago, about 45 years ago, and it's a hoot, so we'll get to that soon.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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