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I
first heard Elton John lying on the living room floor of
the apartment of my friend Harvey Rosenberg on
West 82nd Street back in the autumn of 1970. Coincidentally
Harvey bore a resemblance
to Elton John – short in stature, compact, a dynamic physicalness
and a commanding presence. There were six of us that night, couples
– two married, and Harvey who was single and sort of “living
with” Nancy (she often spent the night – something
that was still very new to a large section of our world). Harvey
was the pacesetter,
fashion-wise (the first in bell bottoms, first in encounter therapy,
first to smoke dope). We all followed dutifully, tentatively then
enthusiastically, and so along the way he brought Elton John into
our lives.
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Last
night at Radio City Music Hall
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We lay there like
so many human cushions, lolling on the living room rug, candlelit,
passing the jays and hanging on to the gravity
of the lyrics, (lyrics by Bernie Taupin) Your
Song, (“It’s
a little bit funny, this feeling inside ...”) Take
Me To the Pilot (“Well I know he’s not old,
And I’m told, an’ I’m told he is a virgin ...”).
Nancy later married, but not to Harvey. She died about ten years
ago of a brain tumor. Harvey, whom we’d long ago lost most
contact with, was married three or four times. He died of a heart
attack
in a car on his way from the airport to Indianapolis about three
years ago. My wife and I were divorced a few years after that night,
and the other couple, Marianne and Steve Harrison,
are my friends and still spending part of the summer in Southampton,
guests of
their daughter Elizabeth and her husband (who
have two small children).
And Elton John stayed. Throughout the 70s as I was already grown
up, but coming of age, the Elton John songs served as commentary,
background, emotional reflections of that time, my age, our age.
I never tired of him, of his delivery, his style; never tired of
any of his material, especially those songs through the 1970s.
When everything went CD, I started collecting him all over again.
Last night at Radio City Hall, I saw him (playing
to a packed house) for the first time live in concert at a benefit
he did for the
Royal Academy of Music (where he was a scholarship student) and
the Juilliard School of Music at Lincoln Center. He was accompanied
by his band and the symphony orchestras of both schools. And he
played and played and played. Tirelessly, he took us through
a selection of his vast library of work. After forty-three years
of performing all over the world – 55 times at Madison Square
Garden, this is his first time at Radio City Music Hall. (He has
four more shows there through the weekend). |
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Elton
John played for a packed (and enthused) house
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Cynthia
and Dan Lufkin
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It was a rich
evening for this writer, wrapped in the memories of growing up
with Elton John’s songs. He did not disappoint. The voice
is more mature, deeper and stronger. He loves to play and now there
is the touch of the master
to his authority on the keyboard. There is a note of the teacher in his performance,
sharing generously with his audience.
Generous and dynamic; exciting. He gave us two and a half hours, stopping only
occasionally to introduce his band, the orchestras, to take a quick sip of water,
to tell us where the song fit into his chronology, or who arranged it. It all
seemed effortless for him, thick with energy, never breaking a sweat, as if someone
came into your home and just sat down and enjoyed himself at the piano. When
it seemed that he was finally finished, he exited the stage, returning a few
minutes later, to the unrelenting cheering of the crowd. This time he brought
back a special guest – his friend Renee Fleming who sang
a duet of Your Song with him. For this fan, he brought back yesterday,
rich and clear, thirty-four years later. |
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Jamie
Johnson and Amanda Hearst
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Gary
Goldstein and Jill Brooke
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James
and Joan Marcus
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Kim
Heirston and friend
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Dr.
Karl Wellner and Deborah Norville
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Christine and Stephen
Schwarzman
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Brendan
and Eva Dillon
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Mario
Buatta
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George
Farias and Bettina Zilkha
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Martin
and Audrey Gruss
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Debbie
Bancroft and Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos
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Christine
Schott with her fiancee
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Julia
Wallace
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Gerald
Tsai
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Candice
Bergen
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Yue-Sai Kan
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