It seems inevitable that Rocketman, released in May, would be pitted against last November’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Both films celebrate musical legends — Elton John and Queen’s Freddie Mercury, respectively — in largely biographical fashion. Both films use their subjects’ music to help convey their stories. Both films star young actors with a passing resemblance to the men they’re portraying, neither one known for their singing chops. And they even share a director, sort of; Dexter Fletcher helmed Rocketman, and he replaced Bohemian Rhapsody’s Bryan Singer on that project after Singer was infamously fired.
But while the films’ similarities are striking offscreen, onscreen, their differences are stark. Where Bohemian Rhapsody takes its story beats from Mercury’s life — albeit with some dismaying alterations — to paint a straightforward portrait of the artist, Rocketman does away with the cinematic conventions of a more typical biopic, forgoing restaged, famous performances to instead reimagine and recontextualize John’s catalog. It’s unlikely that a young Elton John (née Reggie Dwight) broke out into song in the middle of the street as a child, and he surely never lifted off the ground mid-“Crocodile Rock,” ascending toward the heavens. In Rocketman, though, the point is not verisimilitude. The point is to transport viewers into the singer’s vibrant inner life, unmoored by reality.
That’s not to say the movie makes fiction out of John’s facts. But for Fletcher and Rocketman music director Giles Martin, the chance to create a visually stunning, fantasy-tinged jukebox musical was more interesting. Songs like “I’m Still Standing” and “Tiny Dancer” are immediately familiar, then veer into new territory of glossy flourishes, updated instrumentation, and a fuller sound to grant John’s solo act a renewed sense of grandeur. Elton John himself signed off on Martin’s involvement, giving Martin carte blanche to reconstruct his music at will.
I recently spoke to Martin about how he transformed John’s music for the film to establish Rocketman’s overall unique tone, and how the movie is different from Bohemian Rhapsody. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.
Allegra Frank
I imagine it’s pretty challenging to reinterpret such recognizable songs. What kind of pressure do you feel taking these songs by Elton John that people know very well and transforming them for a movie like this?
Giles Martin
I think obviously you feel pressure. The first thing on my mind is, I just think about how many people would love to do this. ... I think, gosh, man, this is an honor, and I better get this right. The pressure has more to do with, in Rocketman, making sure we got the movie right. Making sure that the songs fit the movie, the songs fit the scenes, and that Taron [Egerton, who stars as Elton John] looks natural, and that there’s a good flow to it. It becomes bigger than the songs themselves, if that makes any sense.
When they asked me to do this film, Matthew Vaughn, one of the producers, said, “Listen, we want the songs to start and for Elton to be taken somewhere else.” They wanted them to be part of the journey that he goes on, and they wanted to do interesting things to show that journey.
And then I sat down with Dexter and we went through the script, and I came up with ideas about how musically we could show walking around and being underwater, or “Crocodile Rock” suddenly having Elton lift off in the middle section. Any of these things that happened in the movie that are slightly crazy. But then, that’s like a musical challenge. And they did give me time to get things wrong. And I was close to getting it wrong at times — but they did shoot to my arrangements, which is kind of when the pressure’s on, because you think, this is costing millions of dollars to shoot this film and they’re basing the beats around the music.
[I’m not thinking that] I’m going to destroy the songs forever, because people can go and listen to the original. It’s the same with the Beatles’ stuff — when I remix the Beatles’ stuff, my attitude is that I’m getting paid by people to do something interesting. And so you have to throw yourself off the plane and do it. You can’t just sit and be safe. That’s not my job.
Allegra Frank
When you’re describing the process, it sort of sounds akin to composing new songs, even though you’re obviously working with existing ones. How does your process compare to starting from scratch? Or is it completely different?
Giles Martin
It’s similar in some ways. It’s nuanced. I already have an incredibly strong melody that Elton writes to his songs. He writes the melody and [John’s longtime collaborator] Bernie Taupin writes the lyrics, and in a funny way, it helps to have them split out like that. It makes my life easier. So you know, for instance, “[Goodbye,] Yellow Brick Road,” which Bernie starts in a restaurant when he’s arguing with Elton, coming out of an argument. He doesn’t sing the melody, but he sings the words. I use [...] sort of stabby, stabby strings. You just get inspired.
Really, what music is, it’s just a bunch of notes and frequencies. It evokes so many emotions for us. And my job was to try to evoke those emotions out of these songs. So if it was just straight covers, you wouldn’t have had that connection. You need to add a bit of dirt in there; you need to add a bit of sweetness. You need something else to enhance that mood and feeling, because it’s so important that people stay with the drama and stay with the action, and stay with Taron the whole time.
I suppose it’s a bit like scoring a film, but I already have a template of Elton songs there. You know, there’s quite a good template to start with.
Allegra Frank
I think that template is often a big part of the initial interest in musical biopics like this one. But then you are taking these songs and matching them to these emotional moments, like what you just said about the “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road” scene. Scenes like that are kind of fun to watch as a fan — like, “Oh, I know where he’s going. He’s getting to that song.”
But sometimes I just kind of want to sit and hear the song that I like, performed straight as I remember it. What do you think the key appeal is of biopics like Rocketman or, for example, Bohemian Rhapsody? Is it hearing these familiar songs in new contexts, or is it the jukebox musical aspect?
Giles Martin
Well, I think Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman are very different in their approach, because Bohemian Rhapsody essentially used the original tracks. So by that nature, most biopic musicals — or rock musicals, if you like — they’re oriented around studio or live performance. So the songs are evoked on a stage or in the studios. Bohemian Rhapsody is a classic example of that, where in Rocketman, there’s only one live performance, and that only lasts for half a song. [It’s going to] start live on stage and then go somewhere else. So “Your Song” finishes in the studio, but there’s a lot of songs which are part of the dialogue.
I think there’s no right or wrong. You just have to be careful that you don’t end up shooting a music video. I think you need to add some rawness and emotion in there, and the songs need to make sense [in the context of the scene]. And I guess it depends on the weight of the song and the songwriting that does that.
So I think you’re right, that it’s about getting the balance right between, “I just want to sit back and enjoy ‘Your Song,’” which you do get to do in this movie. At the same time, I wonder why [Elton] is singing “Rocket Man” in the bottom of a swimming pool. You know, what the hell’s going on here? “Rocket Man” starts at the bottom of a pool and ends up at the Dodgers stadium. Musically, I have to treat that differently. I have to have a different approach to that. I have to be more creative with it, because otherwise the picture wouldn’t make any sense.
It would have to be fantastical. And the great thing you could do with film and sound is that you can be three-dimensional. You can be deep and you can do things, you can test the process. And if you want to listen to “Rocket Man” by Elton John, you could do that anytime you want. I’m not diluting it by doing this version, I just need to make sure that it works in the context of the movie. And by doing that, you come up with sometimes interesting and new ideas and arrangements that you would never have thought of because you’re being tasked in the biggest way by having unusual situations where someone’s singing the songs.
Allegra Frank
It’s also unique that Rocketman is a biopic that does focus on someone who is still alive. The central figure of many of biopics, like Bohemian Rhapsody — Freddie Mercury is dead. Half of the Beatles aren’t around anymore. Obviously we still have Paul and Ringo, hopefully forever. But it’s quite different with a biopic of a living, still pretty active musician. Elton John is still kicking it; he’s still around. So how does that change your working relationship on a project like this, with the musician still in some sense involved, even if he did give you his blessing to do as you need?
Giles Martin
I don’t think it changed it at all, funny enough. ... You can’t think, “Now is around [when Elton John is] touring, so I’m going to have to change the way I work,” in any way. Having [John] very active — I know I’m not second-guessing what he would think, but at the same time, I don’t really work like that anyway. I’m not being arrogant, but you have to kind of go with what your instincts are, and then hopefully the person likes it. If you end up second-guessing all the time, it’s difficult to get the work done.
If the movie were hyper-real, [it would be different]. The most challenging versions to do were the ones where we were doing takes on his original songs. It’s funny, actually, that that would be more testing for me than doing a completely new version.
Allegra Frank
I would imagine that it’s also crucial to the success of a project like this to be able to work with the lead actor. I think of Taron Egerton as mostly an actor, not a singer. But Taron is the frontman here — it’s not like it’s a band like the Beatles or, to a much lesser extent with Bohemian Rhapsody, like Queen. Elton John is pretty much a solo act.
Were there concerns of, “Okay, we have an actor here whose singing skills are untested, and he has to be the star of the entire movie?” With Bohemian Rhapsody, it’s the same thing with Rami Malek. I don’t think of him as a singer either. But that’s not Rami Malek singing, whereas here it is Taron singing.
Giles Martin
Definitely. The strain on Taron was bigger [than on Malek] because he has to attend to his scenes as well — just the workload of me saying to him, “You need to come in and sing the song as well,” or, “You need to catch up, and we changed stuff.” It was a lot of work. And also it was hard for us if he had to do other stuff in the day. There were some days he would come in and he would have to do a clothes fitting at 5 in the morning before coming to the studio ... he’s carrying the film. There’s nothing to hide behind. And there’s nothing to hide behind with his vocals either — he has to sing everything and does it. That takes immense power.
Allegra Frank
I want to ask about the decision to actually make Taron sing the songs as opposed to going the Bohemian Rhapsody route of just playing the original tracks, even with your rearrangements. How did you and Dexter Fletcher come to the decision to have Taron singing?
Giles Martin
It was never going to be a question because of the way the film’s written. ... The film is not a musical; that’s why we rearranged [the songs]. It’s not just, “Oh, I got some mass media and we can show them a version of this.” It wouldn’t have made sense to have Elton’s voice with Taron’s mouth. There’s lots of times where he performs songs as part of the drama, so you couldn’t suddenly switch to Elton’s voice. When you see the film, that becomes clear. It’s a very different film than Bohemian Rhapsody.
For more on how Elton John’s music takes on a new life in Rocketman, listen to Giles Martin discuss the film on Vox’s Switched on Pop podcast.