Elton John & other musical heroes

It seems like Elton John has been around forever.

I've been a fan since I was a kid. Some of the first albums I ever owned were Elton John albums. When I was a pre-teen teaching myself to play guitar, one of the songs I played over and over and over and over again was "Your Song." That song is so beautiful, I would often cry while I played it and imagine that someone I loved wrote it for and was singing it to me. (Okay, I know that Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics, but Elton wrote the music and sang it, okay?) I still sing along when I hear those old songs on the radio. I've never not enjoyed Elton John's music.

And yet .... and still .... everytime I hear him play, including today about a half an hour ago, hearing him play "Tiny Dancer" on the Oprah show, I am completely blown away again everytime. Every. Time.

A few years ago, they showed his Red Piano tour on TV. That was the first time recently that I was reminded of just how talented and amazing he is. Along with his typically incredible piano playing, he rephrased the line "how wonderful life is" in "Your Song" and it just floored me the way he did it. It was so simple, such a small change, yet it was so different, and it brought new life to such an old song. It started a big bubbly flood of emotion in my chest that exploded all through me. Today on Oprah, I was again blown away by his piano playing, by the (seemingly) effortless way he made the notes sound like rain, glorious rain, or twinkling stars. He makes absolutely beautiful music.

I sometimes lament that an artist like Jim Croce could never make it today. His music is too honest, too beautiful, too sincere. Most of his songs ("Operator,""Time in a Bottle,"I Got a Name," "I'll Have to say I Love You in a Song") are without the coolness and attitude that's so popular these days. Man, I sound old. "Back in my day, music was good, I tell you, it was better!" Ha, Ha, Ha, I sound like an old man!

Anyway, I like some current music, but my heart belongs to 70's singer songwriters: Jim Croce, James Taylor ("Fire and Rain" - yes please, can I have some more!), Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Harry Chapin, John Denver, and later Rickie Lee Jones, Suzanne Vega ... the list is long, and I'm not even including awesome 70's rockers like Steve Miller!

70's Singer Songwriters. Love, love, love them. Which, by the way, I am one.

:)