{"id":486555,"date":"2019-06-01T13:15:46","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T19:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=842902"},"modified":"2019-06-01T13:15:46","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T19:15:46","slug":"rocketman-fact-checking-the-elton-john-biopic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/rocketman-fact-checking-the-elton-john-biopic\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rocketman\u2019: Fact-Checking the Elton John Biopic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The new Elton John<\/a> movie Rocketman<\/em> never pretends to be a traditional biopic. It\u2019s a fantasy musical told from the perspective of a burned-out, drug-addled Elton reflecting on his wild life from a rehab facility in the early 1990s. Characters frequently burst into elaborately choreographed song and dance routines, songs are played long before he wrote them, the timeline is off much of the time and facts are disregarded in favor of creating a compelling narrative and capturing the emotional truth of Elton\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I care about is capturing moments cinematically and musically,\u201d Rocketman<\/em> director Dexter Fletcher told Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cI have to take artistic license, which is what Elton said I should do. He\u2019s a creative, artistic person and that\u2019s the way we approached it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all that in mind, fact-checking the movie may seem like an unfair exercise. But a lot of people are going to see it with only a passing knowledge of Elton\u2019s life and will emerge from the theater curious as to what was real and what was fictionalized. So here\u2019s a very incomplete list of moments from the movie that aren\u2019t quite historically accurate.<\/p>\n

1. Bernie Taupin didn\u2019t write the \u201cBorder Song\u201d lyrics in 1967
<\/strong>In real life and the movie, Liberty Records executive Ray Williams introduced John to his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin. But the movie shows Williams passing along Taupin\u2019s lyrics to \u201cBorder Song\u201d before the two even met. That song wouldn\u2019t would be created for another two years. You do briefly see a manuscript for \u201cA Dandelion Dies in the Wind,\u201d which is indeed a tune from 1967.<\/p>\n