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Thread: Rocketman - New Elton John Movie

  1. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nearfest2 View Post
    Add Muse to that as well. They've released several stadium anthemesque songs.

    Although Muse do have a few of those type of songs, to my ears they blow Imagine Dragons out of the water. In fact I think Muse have done some a few very good albums.

  2. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Baribrotzer View Post

    One point the movie makes, and I hadn't really appreciated: what a monster musician Elton is. His piano parts, even the flashy ones, are heavily "accompanimental", very much in the R&B tradition - entirely at the service of the songs, entirely a part of those songs, and never a noticeable thing unto themselves. As a result, it was never immediately obvious (or at least, not to me) that he might very well have been able to keep up with Emerson, Wakeman, or Brian Auger.
    Having seen Elton live 4 times, the guy really is a great piano player. The last time I saw him a few years ago was at our local small hockey arena. The only seats we could get were behind the stage. I thought they would suck, but they turned out to be great. We looked right down on Elton from behind the whole night and had a clear view of his keyboard work. He did a 3 hour show with no intermission and put on one hell of a show for a man of his age. The one thing that has always kind of amazed me is that for a piano player his hands are very small. He has little sausage fingers that he must really stretch to reach an octave with on the keyboard. I used to play a little piano back in my younger days and can’t imagine how he does what he does with the size hands that he appears to have.

  3. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by SteveSly View Post
    Having seen Elton live 4 times, the guy really is a great piano player. The last time I saw him a few years ago was at our local small hockey arena. The only seats we could get were behind the stage. I thought they would suck, but they turned out to be great. We looked right down on Elton from behind the whole night and had a clear view of his keyboard work. He did a 3 hour show with no intermission and put on one hell of a show for a man of his age. The one thing that has always kind of amazed me is that for a piano player his hands are very small. He has little sausage fingers that he must really stretch to reach an octave with on the keyboard. I used to play a little piano back in my younger days and can’t imagine how he does what he does with the size hands that he appears to have.
    Elton did the introduction to a biography of Rick Wakeman, and in it he mentions Wakeman's long fingers and laments that he himself will always be referred to as 'old chipolata fingers'.

  4. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Baribrotzer View Post
    In the movie, Elton gives his stage name name as "Elton" to Dick James (his first big-time manager, depicted as a comically abrasive cigar-chomper), is stuck for a last name - apparently he hadn't thought that far - then sees a picture of the Beatles and reflexively says "John".
    I usually don't care much about historical inaccuracy in films but this one pisses me off. I skimmed through an EJ biography several years ago and he clearly stated the name came from Elton Dean and Long John Baldry. I think the adoption of that particular stage name is an important historical point and played a non-trivial role in his success. Why the film would want to misrepresent it as having come from John Lennon is beyond me.

    Quote Originally Posted by Baribrotzer View Post
    And if you've ever wondered about Baldry's R&B authenticity......



    ......crappy picture, crappy sound, but there's enough to show that he was the real deal.
    Amazing video! With Brian Auger and Rod Stewart no less!

  5. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by SteveSly View Post
    Although Muse do have a few of those type of songs, to my ears they blow Imagine Dragons out of the water. In fact I think Muse have done some a few very good albums.
    I agree.

  6. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by Sean View Post
    Yeah Lino, but was that the real life, or just fantasy?
    Ha.
    And the code is a play, a play is a song, a song is a film, a film is a dance...

  7. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by arturs View Post
    I usually don't care much about historical inaccuracy in films but this one pisses me off. I skimmed through an EJ biography several years ago and he clearly stated the name came from Elton Dean and Long John Baldry. I think the adoption of that particular stage name is an important historical point and played a non-trivial role in his success. Why the film would want to misrepresent it as having come from John Lennon is beyond me.

    Like others (I just got back from seeing the film today so it's fresh in my mind) I had always read that his name derived from Elton Dean / Long John Baldry as well.. It's my understanding Elton had input on this movie so it's confusing why he would blur this part of the story.. Of course it's being billed as a "musical fantasy".. so maybe that's part of his fantasy story..

  8. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by happytheman View Post
    Like others (I just got back from seeing the film today so it's fresh in my mind) I had always read that his name derived from Elton Dean / Long John Baldry as well.. It's my understanding Elton had input on this movie so it's confusing why he would blur this part of the story.. Of course it's being billed as a "musical fantasy".. so maybe that's part of his fantasy story..
    The only reason I can figure is that putting in Long John B. might have made the story too complicated - you know, too much like real life instead of a tight, streamlined movie.

  9. #34
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    That's a key fact. It should have been non-negotiable. Everyone under 40 who sees the movie will end up believing a falsehood.

  10. #35
    Oh ... piffle. It's factually inaccurate. In a biopic. So nu? I mean, seriously, this is a picayune detail and - without having seen it - I'm willing to lay good money that something far more significant was fabricated for the script...
    Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.

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