He’s Still Standing

Hilburn’s article provided an overall fair assessment of the pop artist’s career. Although his wide body of work contains worthwhile inclusions to this day, his first couple of albums achieved the best impact for artistic credibility.

It is true that John was the most popular artist of the ‘70s. But he lacked the sex appeal of either the Beatles or Elvis, which definitely caused him to be hurt by acknowledging his bisexuality.

But John’s career slide after 1975 was based as much in (a) the misguided release of his first flop single after an unbroken string of hits, the self-indulgent “Ego”; (b) a split from his original writing partner, Bernie Taupin, and (c) the emergence of disco and the waning public interest in the singer-songwriter era. Ironically, John’s calculated disco album, “Victim of Love,” bombed, but his resurrecting old R&B; tracks cut with producer Thom Bell yielded him a comeback hit in the single “Mama Can’t Buy You Love.”

Even at his most flamboyant, John always maintained an Everyman appeal. This may have eventually helped foster a string of faceless artists, but in his case it was often quite refreshing.

FRANK BEESON

West Los Angeles