PHOTOS: SHAWN MILLER/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS | The sheer appeal and influence of Elton John’s music can be seen in the wide-ranging top-name artists who came to pay tribute and perform his songs last week at the 2024 Library of Congress Gershwin Awards Prize for Popular Song.
From the jolting opening strains of Metallica, of all people, at the DAR Constitution Hall slashing and burning through “Funeral for a Friend / Loves Lies Bleeding” (that may have left some Congressional ears bleeding) to the frailer tones of 80-year-old Joni Mitchell, declaring “I’m Still Standing,” albeit aided by cane and high profile backup singers in Annie Lennox and Brandi Carlile.
Mitchell, who won the Gershwin Prize last year (an event whose subsequent broadcast earned an Emmy) wasn’t the only past winner in the mix. Garth Brooks, the 2020 prizewinner, doffed his black hat and crooned two tunes, “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” and “Daniel.”
Few of the artists seemed willing to stray far from the original arrangements of the songs by John, 76, and lyricist Bernie Taupin, 73, who was sharing the award. In winning the prize named after George and Ira Gershwin, John and Taupin were the third team to be so honored, after Bacharach and David in 2012 and Emilio and Gloria Estefan in 2019; and only the second and third Brits—after Paul McCartney in 2010.
Still, both effusively praised the American music that inspired them both. “It’s been responsible for everything that I love in my musical life,” John said. “Everything I do emanates from the American songbook, which is the fountainhead,” Taupin said.
For most of the evening the two got to sit in the front row and bask in the performances of their songs by others. Of them, Lennox gave a strong gospel undergirding to “Border Song”; Maren Morris gave a reverent reading of “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues.” Juilliard grad and Elton neighbor Charlie Puth approached “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” like a recital, pausing dramatically before it began to take the moment in.
It was left to Carlile, who had been omnipresent at last year’s event, as part enabler of Mitchell’s impressive comeback from a stroke, to pick the deepest cuts—from the “Daniel” B-side “Skyline Pigeon” to the title track to 1973’s Madman Across the Water. The least well-known performer, Jacob Lusk of the group Gabriels, a 2011 American Idol finalist, had an elaborate gospel start to “Benny and the Jets” that had the lugubrious crowd on its feet throughout.
And while Broadway’s Billy Porter, plagued with technical difficulties, tended to stumble as a host—having to start over most of his introductions for the subsequent broadcast, he succeeded in blazing through “The Bitch is Back” in dress and heels as if it were his own.
Except for Metallica, each of the acts were backed by Elton John’s own band, led by a pair of 50-year members in guitarist Davey Johnstone and drummer Nigel Olsson. “This is the first time in my life where I have sat in the audience and listened to my band,” John said. “And I know they’re good, but they’re amazing.” Indeed, keyboardist Kim Bullard had to learn accordion to accompany a couple of songs.
“It’s great seeing people play your songs, because you’re so used to singing them yourself,” said John. “And you listen to Metallica and you think, Christ that’s not easy and they’re playing it so well.” What exactly was the Metallica connection? Well, John had contributed to a version of their “Nothing Else Matters” for a 2021 Metallica tribute album and effusively praised the song since.
“It’s great that he’s a fan, because we’re all huge fans ourselves,” Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett told The Vinyl District on the red carpet. “To get that kind of mutual appreciation going, it’s huge, bro.” Plus, for all his balladry, Elton has always been a rocker, Hammett said. “Ever since I was a kid I’ve rocked out to his music.”
As for Mitchell’s performance, it didn’t have the magic or precision of last year’s event. But it was heartening to think that after her performance at the Grammys this year, she may be performing more frequently. She was the only artist to switch some of Taupin’s lyrics in a song for the occasion—“the most Joni Mitchell thing you can do,” Carlisle admired. Still, there was some mismatch through the chorus’s “Yeah yeah yeah” refrain.
As is the event tradition, the honoree capped the night with a few songs, showing everyone how it’s done. Hobbling because of a recent knee replacement, he made his way to his own red lacquered grand piano (or a very good facsimile) like stepping into his own race car after seeing other people drive it all night—and delivered a few final songs with the kind of mastery that belied the kind of career capping event these shows can be, with a strong voice and playing “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” and the closing “Your Song,” with Taupin standing piano-side to consider the wistful, innocent words he had written more than a half century earlier.
One measure of the team’s deserving to win were all the songs that weren’t performed, from “Rocket Man” and “Crocodile Rock” to “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Candle In the Wind.” There was no mention of songs John had written with others like “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” or that Taupin had—including the notorious “We Built This City,” on some lists as the worst song of all time.
The Gershwin Prize for Popular Song can be an odd duck—it doesn’t seem like it will ever make sense until Bob Dylan is in, frankly. But these things are dependent on availability and acceptance of the honorees. Still, as clips were shown of past events to fill time for stage changes, you have to wonder what John was thinking, seeing Lionel Richie get in before he did. On the other hand, he was deeply in his own farewell tour at the time and now has feigned retirement (though a new record is hinted).
If the Gershwin Prize event truly is “bipartisan karaoke” that brings together a fractured capital, as Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden opined, it wasn’t showing. There was a touching moment when the sister of Ryan White, the young AIDS victim John had befriended, read a letter the rock star had written decades after the boy’s death that all could applaud. But when Congressional representatives took to the stage for the award ceremony, as is tradition, Democrats and Republicans couldn’t even stand on the same side of the stage with each other, lest they contract cooties.
In his acceptance speech, John overlooked all that in favor of the cultural significance the country has had on him. “When I grew up as a little boy in suburban London, the only good music I heard was American music,” he said. “British music sucked. “And I grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy May and his Orchestra—all the wonderful people in the ’50s. And then all of a sudden, I heard “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley, my whole world changed. Thank God it did.
“I remember my mother bringing the 78 home and that’s what I wanted to do after hearing that. And then of course Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, all great piano players came along, and they changed my life too.” He praised his partnership with Taupin and their unusual working relationship—never sitting together in the same room. “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here. He gives me the lyrics, and I write the song,” John said of Taupin. “Without the lyrics I’d be working in Walmart or something like that. Except we don’t have Walmart in England.”
“No,” he added, “I’d be working in a record store. As long as there are records, I can go to any record store in the world and come out with something that I haven’t got, and that’s the magic of music. Every sort of music that I heard tonight fills my soul with fantastic feeling and emotion. There’s something about rock ’n’ roll, blues, r&b, gospel, country, jazz that fills your soul with emotion. It pounds your soul.”
SETLIST
“Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding” Metallica
“Border Song” Annie Lennox
“Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” Garth Brooks
“Madman Across the Water” Brandi Carlile
“Benny & the Jets” Jacob Lusk
“I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” Maren Morris
“The Bitch is Back” Billy Porter
“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” Charlie Puth
“Skyline Pigeon” Brandi Carlile
“Daniel” Garth Brooks
“I’m Still Standing” Joni Mitchell
“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” Elton John
“Saturday Night’s Allright for Fighting” Elton John
“Your Song” Elton John
Elton John and Bernie Taupin: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song will be broadcast on PBS April 8 at 8 p.m. EDT, check local listings.
