Music: Handstands and Fluent Fusion

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In 1968 he and a lad named Bernie Taupin both answered an ad in a British pop weekly; a record company was looking for composers and lyricists. They didn't get the job but they have been together ever since, Bernie writing lyrics, Elton music.

Holy Moses. Their current songs defy categorization because of Taupin's almost cinematic imagery and John's fluent, original fusion of recent pop forms. Border Song ("Holy Moses let us live in peace/Let us strive to find a way to make all hatred cease") is more authentically gospel than anything Anglican has a right to be. Imported or not, it has quickly been picked up and recorded by blacks like Dorothy Morrison and Aretha Franklin.

In a graceful love ballad, I Need You to Turn To, John plays the harpsichord with a delicate touch that creates just the right pinch of pink-cheeked, Highland-flavored romance. Songs like My Father's Gun and Talking Old Soldiers show the clear influence of The Band in their concern, respectively, for the history of the old American South and the ever-present pain of growing old. It is an influence freely and proudly conceded by the composers. One thing most of the songs have in common is a relentless rhythmic build-up from a quiet beginning. Burn Down the Mission, for example, starts out like' a country stroll and ends like a hell-bent Georgia stagecoach.

Beyond his music and potential as a major singing star, Elton John also symbolizes a subtle but highly significant change in a field where once no composer worth his suede jacket would be caught dead without a guitar. Slowly, surely, the piano is gaining ground. Partly, this reflects rock's recent absorption of jazz and the blues, in which the piano has always played a predominant role. More important, many of today's leading rock composers find the range and nuance of the piano more suitable for the personal, diverse and poetic turn rock is taking.