*All photos from Google Images
|
|
On stage, John liked to dress in extravagant costumes and big, crazy glasses. The above pictures and videos show just how outrageous John dressed
for some performances. During a show in Central Park in 1980, he dressed up as Donald Duck and sang one of his hits, "Your Song," adding a
couple "quacks" to his lyrics! He came out on the stage with a big smile on his face, so the costume was definitely used for comedic effect and as a
shock factor (Welcatroika). John was also a guest on The Muppet Show, where he sang another one of his hits, "Crocodile Rock." As is shown in
the picture and video of this event above, John dressed in a flamboyant costume with multi-colored feathers, his signature big glasses, and a head
covering coated with sequins. The piano and stage were covered in vines, bushes, and rocks, and the muppets acted like they were playing
instruments along with John (Daniel Goode). John did not always wear crazy costumes during shows; sometimes he would wear a suit. He
wore his big glasses for almost every performance, but as is shown in some of the above pictures, he decorated them differently. The last picture
was during a "Rocket Man" performance. In an interview, he said, "I wasn't a sex symbol like Bowie, Marc Bolan or Freddie Mercury, so I dressed
more on the humorous side, because if I was going to be stuck at the piano for two hours, I was going to make people look at me" ("Elton John").
He used his attire and big glasses as an attention grabber since he could not dance around the stage like some of the other Glam Rock artists. John
was similar to other Glam Rock artists in the fact that his style during the performance was just as important to the success of a show as was the music.
One way he differed from other Glam Rock performers was his musical performance. He cared about the audience looking at him and understanding
the lyrics of his songs more than putting on an obscene or sexual performance to shock them. Another way he was different is that many Glam Rock
artists used acid as their drug of choice, but John was addicted to cocaine and alcohol ("Addict to Activist"). It is easy to tell that John had a big
impact on the Glam Rock movement through his bizarre attire, decorated glasses, and calmer stage presence.
*All photos from Google Images
John demonstrated all three common core themes of the Glam Rock movement, sexual exploration, drug exploration, and exploration of self,
whether it was through his music or his personal life. "Rocket Man" was a connection with drug exploration, since it was a song about getting high
and having a drug addiction. John's addiction to cocaine and alcohol became so bad that it was controlling his life and isolating him from the world.
He wrote a memoir, called Love is the Cure, where he explained how he quit abusing drugs after he met seventeen-year-old, Ryan White, who
developed AIDS through a blood transfusion. Shortly after White's death in 1990, John came in touch with reality and realized that he needed to
make a huge change in his ways. He checked into rehabilitation in 1990. After he finished rehab, he founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation, a
charity donating millions of dollars to support HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs. His addiction to drugs was obviously drug
exploration, which he was only introduced to because of the people he was working with. Deciding to go to rehabilitation after watching a teenager
die from AIDS was an exploration of self because he decided that his life was so out of whack that he needed to make changes. When asked in an
interview what drugs did for him and where they led him, John said, " I always said cocaine was the drug that made me open up. I could talk to
people. But then it became the drug that closed me down, because the last two weeks of my use of cocaine I spent in a room in London, using it and
not coming out for two weeks. And it completely shut me down. So, it started out by making me talk to everyone and then ended up by me isolating
myself alone with it, which is the end of the world, really." He realized that he needed to become a better person, and the drugs were the cause of
his problems. He was either going to die or admit that he needed help. John was devastated that because drugs were such a priority to him, he did
not do anything to help people with AIDS ("Addict to Activist"). As mentioned before, John came out as bisexual in 1976 and received a great deal
of backlash and ridicule from society. At this time, it was uncommon for public figures to openly discuss their sexuality since it was seen as wrong.
In 1988, he divorced his wife of four years, Renate Blauel, and came out as gay. In more recent years, he married his longtime partner, David
Furnish, in a civil ceremony on December 21, 2005. Since then, they have had two sons, Zachary and Elijah. Nine years after their civil ceremony,
on December 21, 2014, they were legally married after laws allowing gay marriage in Britain took effect ("Elton John"). At these points in John's
life, he demonstrated sexual exploration, since he was questioning who he was sexually attracted to and exploration of self because he had to look at
himself and see what kind of relationship he wanted. He was exploring different lifestyles to find which one fit him best. Although Elton John is
not considered one of the founding fathers of Glam Rock, he still portrayed the three common core themes in many aspects of his life.