{"id":582,"date":"2013-03-15T14:24:22","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T22:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/?p=582"},"modified":"2023-03-07T12:34:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T20:34:26","slug":"elton-john-still-standing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/elton-john-still-standing\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Analysis: Elton John’s I’m Still Standing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let\u2019s shake things up a bit here and move slightly<\/em> away from Duran Duran for a second to examine one of the most cheerful, colorful, glorious videos of the 1980s. I speak, of course, of Elton John\u2019s 1983 video for \u201cI\u2019m Still Standing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m Still Standing\u201d was directed by Russell Mulcahy, and stylistically, it\u2019s very similar to the work Mulcahy did on\u00a0Duran Duran\u2019s \u201cRio,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0what with all the body paint and brightly-colored pop-art imagery. And, like, \u201cRio,\u201d it doesn\u2019t have much of a plot. Here we go:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Elton drives along the French Riviera in his flashy convertible, singing up a storm and looking like a million bucks. Throughout the course of this video, he\u2019ll undergo multiple wardrobe changes and don a gazillion different pairs of sunglasses. I would expect no less from the man who famously packs two tiaras whenever he travels: one formal, one casual. In honor of Elton, I\u2019m wearing my own tiara while writing this. And I may or may not* be sipping champagne to get in the proper spirit of things.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

*I\u2019m not. I\u2019m sipping a super-healthy and virtuous pureed blend of spinach and vegetable broth, served in a champagne flute to make it seem festive. It\u2019s a little sad, actually. I am<\/em> wearing a tiara, though. That part is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elton pulls up to the Carlton Hotel, where he\u2019s greeted by dancing shirtless bellboys and a bunch of seminude dancers slathered in body paint. I have never been to Cannes. But when I go, I will be staying at the Carlton. And I will be very, very disappointed if the bellboys are wearing shirts.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Or pants, for that matter: At the door, Elton encounters a fetching pantsless bellboy, whom he tips in gold dust. Hey, it\u2019s\u00a0Dancing with the Stars\u00a0<\/em>judgeBruno Tonioli!\u00a0 Confession: I have never watched\u00a0Dancing with the Stars<\/em>, nor have I watched the BBC\u2019s\u00a0Strictly Come Dancing<\/em>, or any other program upon which Tonioli has made his name. But just from this video? I kind of love him. Here\u2019s Bruno telling\u00a0The Sun<\/em>\u00a0about his part in this divine madness:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy role was to play a variety of dancing characters, including the campest hotel bellboy you could imagine, complete with cap, black Y-fronts and a studded belt. The motivation for this role was to gyrate my crotch in just about every shot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And you gyrate it well, Bruno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution<\/em>, Russell Mulcahy describes this video, with affection and obvious pride, as being \u201csuper, super gay.\u201d Yep. It is. And it is glorious<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Not that straights should feel excluded: The video flirts with sexuality of the hetero variety as well. Here are a bunch of happy beachgoers engaging in synchronized humping on the sand.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And that\u2019d be Sir Elton himself going in for a quick grope of that nice lady\u2019s swimsuit-clad ass. Remember, this was made back when Elton still publicly identified as bisexual. He\u2019d marry Renate Blauel the following year and wouldn\u2019t officially declare himself gay until after their divorce in 1988.  So\u2026 yeah, he\u2019s groping some woman\u2019s ass in this video.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You know what I said about how this stylistically echoes Duran Duran\u2019s Mulcahy-directed \u201cRio\u201d video? This is a shot that, save for the presence of Bruno in his studded underwear, would not be out of place in \u201cRio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Discussion topic: Would the \u201cRio\u201d video\u2014which routinely (and deservedly) pops up on lists of the greatest music videos of all time\u2014have been made even better<\/em> with the inclusion of Bruno and his studded underwear? I\u2019m going to go ahead and say yes.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Hey, speaking of the Durans: David Buckley\u2019s\u00a0Elton: The Biography<\/em>\u00a0recounts how Elton met up with Duran Duran in Cannes in the middle of filming this video. Several martinis later, chaos ensued. Per Marcelo Anciano, Mulcahy\u2019s assistant director (who would also later direct\u00a0Arcadia\u2019s excellent \u201cGoodbye is Forever\u201d video<\/a>), here\u2019s what went down:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we got there, Simon (Le Bon) went off with Elton for a chat and got him absolutely pissed\u2014this was when Elton was a complete fiend. \u2026 The next time I saw Russell he said, \u2018What the fuck did you do to Elton?\u2019 Apparently Elton had come back from the bar and then proceeded to do these elaborate stripteases in front of the camera, rolling around on the floor naked, then running off, changing into the most outlandish costumes, coming back and doing another extraordinary striptease. All the time he was demanding that the camera continued to run on\u2014and it was all Simon\u2019s fault.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s Elton\u2019s version of events: \u201cI woke up the next morning and I had all these cuts and bruises all over me. I had destroyed one of the rooms and completely blacked out. Thank you, Duran Duran.\u201d He goes on to say, perhaps unnecessarily, \u201cI can\u2019t really remember the rest of the video.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Russell Mulcahy episode of the series Music Video Exposed<\/em>, Mulcahy says of the making of this video, \u201cIf you sit down with Elton, it\u2019s more of an event<\/em>.\u201d Indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The leg warmers really make the outfit, Bruno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crazy thing: This entire video was more or less a happy accident. Here\u2019s Bruno again: \u201c(Russell) told me he was making a spectacular video which would involve cars crashing through windows in the south of France\u2026 for Elton John. Oh, the glamour! We started filming but then a very expensive camera fell off Cannes pier. It was a disaster and threw a massive spanner in the works for the I\u2019m Still Standing <\/em>video.\u201d Filming stopped for the day, and by the time it resumed, Mulcahy had scrapped his elaborate original plan (\u201ccars crashing through windows\u201d) <\/em>and improvised the entire production.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Elton<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m Still Standing\u201d reached number twelve on the Billboard<\/em> chart and remains one of my all-time favorite songs (\u201cLooking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid\u2026<\/em>\u201d). Outstanding stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s shake things up a bit here and move slightly away from Duran Duran for a second to examine one of the most cheerful, colorful, glorious videos of the 1980s. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eighties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1589,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions\/1589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganrichter.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}