POP MUSIC : Goodby to Elton John’s Yellow Brick Road

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

Elton John is standing in his Beverly Hills hotel suite, looking at a photograph of the outlandish stage costumes that he has worn over the last 18 years.

“Every time I look at this, I see something new . . . the memory of another show or tour,” he says, pointing to a blue Donald Duck costume and then a heavily jeweled matador outfit.

The memories are mostly pleasant: the glory years of the ‘70s when John was the biggest act in pop music--more than 60 million records sold in that decade alone--and his concerts, which seemed to lift the entire spirit of pop. The costumes in the photo played an important part in the celebration that has continued to be a prized part of his live shows.

But there are also dark memories as John stares at that that orgy of outfits--times when the 41-year-old singer and pianist had to rebuild his career after an enormous backlash that followed his enormous success.

That career strain has frequently been accompanied by personal difficulties.

The last 18 months were a time of special and much-publicized trial: throat operation . . . tabloid scandal . . . marriage separation . . . even a losing season for Watford, the English football club he owns.

Now, there’s the news that John is selling hundreds of possessions--stage costumes, cases of expensive jewelry, designer furniture and his massive art collection--this fall at Sotheby’s auction house in London. Initial estimates from Sotheby’s is that the loot will bring in more than $5 million.

Can it be that the most successful, the most flamboyant, the most outrageous, the most colorful pop artist of the ‘70s needs m-o-n-e-y?

“Oh, heavens no,” John says, laughing at the suggestion. “If I needed money, I’d just go back on the road and do some shows. The reason I’m selling all my stuff is I felt like getting rid of all the things I’ve accumulated over the last 20 years and starting again.

“All the possessions in the house made me feel like Citizen Kane. I’ve enjoyed it, but they had begun to sort of take over. There were boxes around the house that I had never even opened.”

About the costumes, he added, “I’m 41 and wearing those outfits on stage just doesn’t feel natural anymore. I have no regrets about wearing them, but at a certain point it just gets to where it doesn’t seem graceful anymore. I still want to play music, but I don’t want to be Donald Duck while I’m doing it.”

There’s a story behind why Elton John--who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight--is calling his upcoming album “Reg Strikes Back.”

The message of his early shows in the United States was that rock could be fun as well as musically inventive--and he underscored the point by donning zany costumes and glasses (one pair even had wipers in case it rained outdoors). For John, who was reared in a strict family environment, the colorful garb was also a way of acting out his fantasies.

Pop music was such a liberating experience that he even changed his name legally to Elton Hercules John. He was simply captivated by his new identity.

The events of recent months, however, have made John think increasingly of poor ol’ Reg. The album is a tip of the hat to John’s quieter alter ego and a declaration of his own rejuvenation.

“In a way, getting rid of all these things is a way of saying, ‘I’ve got to get Elton out of my life and start being a little of Reg again.’ I used to hate Reg quite a lot, especially the name. But I think I got a little carried away with Elton, as you can see from that photograph. I may have been a little unfair to Reg. He never had the chance to emerge properly.”

John may be the only performer in rock who is more active off stage than on stage. He is constantly moving during interviews--sitting on a sofa briefly, then up pacing the room, going over to a battery of sound equipment to play a track from his album or a favorite record by someone else. Besides his own new MCA single--the up-tempo “I Don’t Wanna Go on With You Like That,” John was interested this day in the 12-inch remix of Natalie Cole’s “Pink Cadillac.”

Finally returning to the sofa, John, dressed in a subdued warm-up suit, said he decided to sell the possessions during the time away from touring.

“It was a hard decision to make because I really like all those things,” he said, shaking his head as if still anxious about letting them go. “While I was away, Sotheby’s came in and more or less stripped the house.

“I had to be away because if I would have been there, I know I would have been trying to keep all sorts of things. I’d have seen them picking up something and I would have said, ‘Ah, pardon, can you please just leave that one?’ and ‘Oh, maybe that one too.’ ”

Pieces from the collection will be displayed at Sotheby’s in Los Angeles July 29 to Aug. 3 as part of an international tour to attract buyers. Other cities to be visited: New York, Tokyo and Sydney. The sale will be in September in London.

John plans to stay away from the auction--partly to make sure he doesn’t end up bidding on some of the items as they are paraded out. But he may watch part of the action on closed-circuit TV monitors.

“It’s kind of eerie isn’t it? . . . Like watching your own death,” he said, bemused. “Someone said it was the first time they’ve had one of these for someone who is still alive. I’m sure there are artworks I won’t even remember. I had so much. . . . They said Warhol and I had more stuff than anybody. It took them two weeks to take inventory.”

John experienced difficulty with his voice during his 1986 U.S. tour, but was so excited about a series of shows in Australia with a symphony orchestra that he pressed on. The voice, however, gave out and John underwent surgery in January, 1987, to remove a non-malignant lesion from his throat. The operation was a success, but the singer had to stop doing concerts for at least a year.

He didn’t, however, stop making news.

In February, the Sun, a British tabloid, claimed John was involved in a sex-and-drugs scandal. Two months later, a spokesman for the singer said that John and his wife, former recording engineer Renate Blauel, had been separated for “many” months.

The only public good news, it appeared, was the success of the live album that John had recorded in Australia. The album was released last summer by MCA Records and became John’s biggest U.S. seller in years, thanks in part to extensive air play for “Candle in the Wind,” a tribute to Marilyn Monroe.

The single--taken from the album--was already headed to the Top 10 when John entered the recording studio last October in England with producer Chris Thomas to make the new LP.

“The album was an important turning point for me,” John recalled. “I had gone through so much crap with the tabloids in England. . . . My voice . . . splitting up with my wife for a while. I needed to dig myself out of a hole and get back to work. The funny thing is I thought I was going to write so many gloomy songs, but it turned out it was a very happy album to make.

“For one thing, I was happy to be back on MCA Records after all those years at Geffen. Thank God I was on Phonogram for the rest of the world because my career in the rest of the world has been doing great. Being on Geffen in the U.S. was not happy experience. I think it was mutual when I finally left. They were glad to get rid of me and I was glad to get rid of them.”

John has filed a series of libel suits against the Sun stories, but doesn’t expect the case to be resolved until next year.

On the matter, he says, “I got very bitter, but, ironically, the tabloid thing helped Renate and I get back together. She handled last year with so much dignity. She’s an incredible lady.

“At some times I was my own worst enemy. I’d just brood inside . . . until I suddenly became a volcano. Finally, you have to tell yourself to snap out of it. That’s what happened with the album. I feel great now. I’m working out every day, taking vitamins, up at 7:30 in the morning. . . .”

John smiles playfully when reminded he once said he didn’t want to still be getting up on stage when he was 40.

“Well, I’m not the only one who said something like that,” John replies. “Didn’t Mick (Jagger) and Pete (Townshend) say the same thing?”

Pacing the room once more, John walks over to the table and looked again at the photo of his costumes.

“I remember when I was starting out, how the Stones and Beatles and Who all seemed like part of another generation . . . a generation ahead of us. It’s kinda funny now because we all seem so close.

“I guess it’s because we’ve all gone through so much--and we’ve survived. Now, we look out and see a new crop coming up and you wonder which ones of them will join us.”