I enjoyed the first part of Scattershot far more than the remainder. Later on the "scattershot" technique of pulling stories from different times was confusing and mainly boring. Bernie was born in 1950 and we first hear something about his childhood in Lincolnshire. He mentions his grandfather Poppy "most notably caring for the quality of words and the stimulation of verse" ..... "the teacher I was never going to encounter in the classroom". So not a model student by any means. We hear about his early musical tastes and that it was the first album he bought in 1959 by Marty Robbins called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs" that fired his imagination. "I knew I wanted to write stories".
At fifteen Bernie was working in a print works (but not for long) and then a poultry farm. One of his records at the time was by Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry. But their names should be the other way round. He might have been jealous of me seeing them at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1965. It was at RAF Faldingworth that he found very different American country music. Then at seventeen he arrives in London to stay with some extended family in a big house in Putney. What does he find but a very large old cabinet that had not been used for a long time. It actually housed a record player and a pile of old records. At the bottom of which was one by Lonnie Donegan. "It's immeasurable how much I owe him". Me too.
It was in the offices of his Uncle Henri's wine importing business that an old typewriter became the instrument of his early compositions. But it's at the beginning of the book that we hear of his first meeting with Elton John (or Reg Dwight at the time). Late 1967, Elton is 20 and Bernie 17. Thrown together by a record producer to see what they could do. Bernie moves in with Reg in his mother's house in Pinner. We hear about the Dick James HQ, their early terrible compositions. It was Steve Brown at the record company who was key to their success. He liked their "Skyline Pigeon", their first song to have two cover versions. Then their "Empty Sky" album that was completed in April 1969.
It's only then that the narrative gets confused. In the chapter "Turning Left at Greenland" Bernie tells us about their first trip to America. He is twenty. He extols the virtues of the first band, Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums. "A rhythm section of orchestral proportions". But so far we have heard nothing about his composing songs with Elton. Apart from when he wrote "Your Song" in ten minutes back in October 1969.
Then suddenly we are in France where "Elton and I made three good albums". Nothing about how they materialised. Troublesome days spill over into San Tropez and Barbados. Lots of anecdotes which I did not find at all interesting. A new band is formed with Davy Johnstone and Ray Cooper, but it's only when we get to page 200 that there is a long piece about the composition of "Candle in the Wind". I skipped a section on the descent into drugs only to suddenly hear about "Daniel", "I'm Still Standing" and "Sacrifice".
Out of the blue, a lovely story about writing "We Built This City" with Martin Page of Jefferson Starship and how the royalties have been "good to me and my family". Then "These Dreams" was a big hit for Heart. I liked the chapter "A Bad Day in Montserrat". Recording three albums in the 1980's. But I was not interested in the band Farm Dogs that he started. But his rewrite for "Candle in the Wind" for Diana's funeral sold 33 million copies. "Christies sold my original manuscript for for charity for $400,000". There is then lots of personal stuff as we head towards the end before he is writing again with Elton for "Songs from the West Coast" that did very well and often said to be a return to form. But, of course, nothing about composing the songs!
The albums that followed were all new to me, and of course they get a lot more detail. But the concluding section is about his taking up art. Who wants to know, who cares? He mentions "the stigma of celebrity art". Yeah, right! As pretentious as is much of this book.
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