On Sunday 12th November, when tributes were being paid in British towns and villages to fallen servicemen, the BBC website featured an article from the Observer Newspaper by Reginald Dwight. In case you were not aware, Reg Dwight changed his name to Elton John many years ago and has since made and spent many fortunes and acquired a CBE. He is now known as Sir Elton Hercules John and was recently reported to have a bank overdraft of about 27 million pounds. Reggie’s – sorry Sir Elton’s – most recent musical work has just bombed after 30 something performances and as he is also currently subject to enquiries by the UK Inland Revenue for anomalies in his company’s accounts, one might expect him to be pre-occupied with his financial affairs. Recently he has found a second source of income by suing newspapers for defamation of his character, so I shall be very careful in what I write about him here.
Like so many media people, and especially those at the Showbiz end, Sir Elton Hercules John has received income far beyond what most business men and workers can dream of. I suppose his royalties will take care of his debts. That is if he can manage to curb his spending habits just a little. He has been a great spender on flowers over the years and admits to a weakness for shopping in general. In the past he has also had a weakness for cocaine and other innocent Showbiz vices.
I always think that people who change their names from the ordinary (and Reginald Dwight is very ordinary) to the exotic have an identity problem. Reggie once admitted to being a bisexual, though later married a German lady who was also involved in Showbiz. The marriage did not last too long and Sir Elton is now a very proud homosexual. He was one of the first to enjoy a same-sex marriage under new UK laws. He seems preoccupied with AIDS as well as with flowers and shopping.
The musical establishment regards Sir Elton as a great talent, if not the most talented of the rock pop era. I would not turn a dial or press a key to hear him or his music, which I would describe as limp and vapid, but millions the world over continue buying his output of recordings and keeping him in the manner to which he has become accustomed. In case anyone thinks that I dismiss his musical genius because of homophobia let me hasten to add that I consider Cole Porter to be the greatest song and lyrics writer ever and John not fit to polish Porter’s piano. Porter was a predatory homosexual and most of his lyrics have a homoerotic subtext, but his writing is pure talent. I don’t think he ever changed his name!
We must never under estimate the Media Class and all who sail in her. Sir Elton’s literary piece popping up in the special edition of the Observer Music Monthly Magazine and then being propelled onto the BBC website, has to have some significance. It is reported that Sir Elton was interviewed for the Observer Magazine by Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. I assume this is a man from the cutting edge of the pop world, though it appears that he has wielded no editing shears or scissors on Sir Elton’s deepest reflections on organized religion. This is a pity, for the words attributed to Sir Elton seem to reveal a pathetic inability to live in the real world or to put any coherent ideas together. Cole Porter would surely never have written such tripe even on lavatory walls.
According to the BBC website Sir Elton, formerly Reggie, “would like to see all organized religion banned” and accused it of trying to “turn hatred towards gay people”. Organized religion lacked compassion and turned people into “hateful lemmings”. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays. His solution would be to “ban religion completely”. He called on the leaders of major religions to hold a “conclave” to discuss the fate of the world which he said was “near escalating to World War Three”. “I said this after 9/11 and people thought I was nuts. It’s all got to be dialogue – that’s the only way. Get everybody from each religion together and say Listen! This can’t go on. Why do we have all this hatred? They’re not going to do it and it’s left to musicians or to someone else to deal with it”.
He also said he would continue to campaign for gay rights. “I’m going to fight for them, whether I do it silently behind the scenes or so vocally that I get locked up”. Sir Elton Hercules John is not going to get locked up for espousing homosexuality, of course, and he knows it. These days in New Labour’s Britain people only get locked up for criticizing sodomy or for joining the BNP. We often point out on this website that the new politicos of the Media Class live in their own world of drug-induced fantasy where all the world is their stage. They believe in wish fulfillment and they love dramatic gesture politics and symbolism. Quite who is going to get all the world’s religious leaders together in a conclave for dialogue is something Reggie – sorry, Sir Elton does not tell us though there is a hint that musicians or someone else might. We shall wait with bated breath.
This drivel is significant however. Sir Elton is given a platform in the Observer and then amplified by the BBC. He reveals what most members of the Media Class are thinking and wishing for and that is to silence those churches that will not bend to the Media Class’ agenda regarding sexual behavior. Just as they intend to throttle the BNP, so they intend to throttle or disembowel traditional religious organizations. Someone once said that “the thought is father to the deed”, or something similar to that. Sir Elton Hercules John is a wealthy and influential member of the new ruling class and that class has politicians at its beck and call. Sooner or later we shall see legislation going through Parliament that will silence those churches that do not enthusiastically endorse sodomy and same-sex marriage and after that who knows what will be the next new frontier of sexual behavior?