When did that start? Watching him thinging tonight on BBC4. I like him but it's getting worse and worse. McCartney gets absolutely savaged for a voice that is only really shattered by touring these days non-stop, but Elton's goes from pub bass to croaky alto these days, and he's acquired a weird lisp that was certainly never there during his pomp. Unless they painstakingly removed it from every recording he did. It's an emperor's new clothes scenario, I guess. They must all say, 'Crystal clear, Elton, brilliant!'

I watched that. He doesn't seem to bother to form his words properly, as if he's tired. Very strange.

Anyone else noticed the American twang he's adopted? Where did that come from?

I wonder if his recent very serious health problems have something to do with it. A minor stroke perhaps?

JK2006 wrote:
I wonder if his recent very serious health problems have something to do with it. A minor stroke perhaps?

I don't think so. You can hear it very clearly on certain songs, alas, on his otherwise very nice Live in Australia album from the mid-1980s. I've often wondered where on earth it came from, because it certainly wasn't there during his pomp.