Sorry folks, don't want to be controversial here but I'll do my best.
Maybe some people aren't aware of this but Elton's in the process of winding down. Not winding up, but readjusting the old priorities in life. Family is now phrase nobody would have ever associated with Elton in the past. Yet that's the new current. The recent health scare has also rejigged his take on life. A minor repair, but major in repercussion if not sorted in time. The recent interview as detailed above gives more background, but this leads to what my point is.
There are going to be less shows from now on. Longer gaps between dates, less countries, towns, cities covered etc. Opportunity awaits with less frequency. For people at this time to be hollering for this, that and the other to be performed had better readjust their sets. Their aerials are pointing in the wrong direction. I would like Elton to do a whole myriad of songs...but I don't run the show. And I most certainly don't perform it. The great and the good do that...we are merely the lucky ones on the receiving end. His graciousness to do so and want to do so and our good fortune to be able to do so in 2013 and to still be having these chances in life are a godsend. But one day it'll stop. And there will be no comeback or restart or reboot. And then the wailing will start, if only etc. Blah, blah, boring boring...that's all well and good at the time, but it's the here and now that should be appreciated more.
To be more exact, the moment. The moment when Elton is onstage and you're watching and listening. What links you and Elton at that moment is that you're both guests. He's a guest in your town and you're a guest in his creation and hence the performance of it. So what do guests usually do in each others company? Act with the up most respect. Dinner is served and you nip out for a quick slug. Leaving the piping hot meal freezing quicker than a Titanic sinker. The after dinner speech starts and everyone head to the little boys or girls rooms. And all he has is cobwebs in the corner to bear down on. Or bore as the case maybe...Or from the side, if the dinner host nips put for a quickie...of whatever they want to be quickie about...then hungry people siting with open mouths isn't a good look. Or rumbling tums...or the speaker looking at empty chairs. And listening to the sound of water flowing.
In decades from now you won't get the chance to see Elton, so plenty of time then to hark back to days that will never return, moments lost etc. Enjoy the now, enjoy the sensation. Some people wait years, decades even to hear him sing those songs. The songs being the hits. Trying to find consensus among Elton fans is like trying to inflate a fishing net. It's Elton's gig and he'll do what he wants. For Elton to have the ability, the wherewithal and graciousness to pitch up in your town and perform those songs for you is an honour. Both for you and no doubt Elton. Since Elton's illness and his statement of cutting back on touring, I have, as he has with his outlook on life, changed my view 100% on the setlist argument etc. I think the moment now matters more than the content. If the best way to repay his offer to perform for you is by getting up and guzzling beer or spending a penny then maybe you should put yourself in Elton's shoes at that moment and see how that feels for him...
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