Bernie Taupin, Elton John's lyricist, would like to have a word

If you’re thinking of checking out the new memoir by Elton John’s lyricist to learn more about the Rocket Man, you’re out of luck. This is Bernie Taupin’s song to sing. “Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton & Me” is a fascinating read for the pictures it paints of the music scene of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s but if it is John you're after, he writes, he is “in absentia for much of this narrative.” “Scattershot” is the story of an Englishman bewitched by country music and the American West who grows up to supply lyrics to one of rock n ’roll’s all-time superstars and later in life embraces art and becomes a bona fide cowboy.