POP & ROCK

Elton John has joined the Albert Goldman-bashers. In closing his Sunday concert in Worcester, Mass. (outside Boston), John urged his audience not to buy Goldman’s “The Lives of John Lennon,” the sensation-causing biography of the slain Beatle. “This is John Lennon’s birthday; think of him this evening, and not me,” John told the sold-out crowd at Worcester’s Centrum Arena after going on stage for his third encore of his show. “Always remember that John Lennon left us a legacy of wonderful music . . . but don’t buy the book,” John said, launching into “Empty Garden,” a song he and longtime colleague Bernie Taupin wrote in honor of Lennon after his murder in New York in 1980.