Bernie Taupin, Wannabe Rock Star: A Look Back at the 1987 Album Tribe

As the long-time lyricist for Elton John, Bernie Taupin has always maintained in the occasional interview that he prefers to remain behind the scenes and have nothing to do with the spotlight, unlike his legendary business partner of over 50 years.

Deep down, however, I believe that ol' Bern—whose tedious 2023 memoir Shattershot: Life, Music, Elton and Me is a hodgepodge of name dropping and bar hopping—has secretly yearned for a little more occasional notoriety beyond pounding out lyrics in private. 

Case in point: wannabe rock star Taupin released two solo records in the 1980s. Specifically, I'm taking a look at his second singing effort which was the album, Tribe. Released by RCA in 1987, copies of it are now pretty tough to come by. It was a commercial flop, partially due to unfortunate (OK, tremendously awful) timing: it was released around the same time as the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing on the same label and well, we all know what a monster summer hit both the movie and its soundtrack turned out to be. 

Can we blame him for trying? Back in the '80s a lot of celebrities that weren't singers by profession were releasing albums. Actors Don Johnson, Patrick Swayze, and Bruce Willis all had top 40 songs. Eddie Murphy scored a hit with "Party All the Time" and even Billy Crystal and Rodney Dangerfield got into the game with more comical tracks that received some radio airtime. 

So why not the man responsible for writing lyrics for none other than Elton John? The timing also seemed right, as Elton was recovering from vocal cord surgery in 1987 and did not release an album that year. 

This also wasn't the Brown Dirt Cowboy's first rodeo in the recording studio. His 1971 debut studio album (with the very creative title Taupin) was something only that decade could conceive: a spoken word album of his own poetry set to music. One of the tracks/poems, "Ratcatcher", disturbingly narrates the tale of a rat catcher that falls victim to the very vermin he's trying to trap, but the album also gave us "The Greatest Discovery", which Elton John turned into a song. 

Not even the musical contributions of two of John's band members, Davey Johnstone and Caleb Quaye, could get copies of Taupin to move at record stores. The peculiar cover art also features a stoned looking Taupin staring into the void as a giant red candle melts all over his hands. Needless to say, this record didn't exactly race up the charts. 

Taupin later said he wasn't "pleased" with this album, not that there's really any other way to execute a spoken poetry record. I'd like to think its failure had more to do with the fact that there's not exactly a demand for that genre. So in 1980 Taupin tried his hand at singing and released He Who Rides the Tiger on the Elektra label. Since I haven't listened to any tracks from this one yet I'll reserve judgment, but at least the album cover art is a little better: it features Taupin leaning against a pool table with a lady who happens to be his second wife at that time, Toni Lynn Russo. 

A Billboard review of the record proclaimed that Taupin wasn't a bad vocalist but that his singing becomes a "bit too stagnant". Would his 1987 Tribe album prove that the third time's a charm? 

 

 

The album's title refers not only to America's indigenous people; it's also (according to Wikipedia, anyway) the name of Taupin's backing band, which included Martin Page (who cowrote and produced the songs), Brian Fairweather, Paul Fox, and Craig Krampf. Bruce Hornsby and Fred Mandel were among the contributing musicians. Taupin, of course, wrote all of the lyrics. 

Right off the bat I find myself pondering the record's title. If Tribe is the unofficial name of the band, then why is the album not attributed to them? Instead that honor goes to Taupin. I guess someone (cough, cough) believed his name (and face) on the front would sell more copies.  

This is a very 1980s album and while I usually love '80s music, much of this record—at least to me—falls flat. Even by '80s standards several of the tracks comes across as formulaic, complete with requisite synth, saxophone, and electric drums. It may be worth pointing out here that Taupin and Martin Page are also responsible for Starship's much maligned 1985 hit "We Built This City". Oddly enough, Taupin barely gives his solo albums a passing mention in Scattershot yet speaks at length of how proud he is of "City". 

The album contains ten tracks with a total running time of just over 48 minutes. It doesn't appear that Taupin did much promotion for the record (at least, there are no interviews discussing it to be found on YouTube as of this writing) but he did film a couple of music videos for it. The singles "Citizen Jane" and "Friend of the Flag" got the MTV treatment.     

"Citizen Jane" is the clear winner of the two and one of the album's strongest tracks. It features a suited-up Taupin doing his best Robert Palmer impersonation with two female backup "singers". You may recognize one of them as Rene Russo, his sister-in-law at the time. This was also the stronger single in my opinion, and really, one of the few tracks that is worthy of some radio airtime. "Citizen Jane" (a female counterpart to John Doe) tells the tale of a woman who leaves behind farm life to seek fame and fortune only to end up being photographed in the nude for men's magazines, while her sisters are still working the family farm and bemoan her career choice. 

"Citizen Jane" was the only track from Tribe to actually chart; it reached number 35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S. 

 

"Friend of the Flag", the album's opening track, has a patriotic message behind it, but the accompanying music video is pretty cheesy. It opens with Taupin (and sis-in-law Russo again) driving into the countryside to release a hawk. Why they have a hawk in their possession is unknown (perhaps the hawk was injured, rescued, rehabbed, and now being set free) but why a hawk and not an eagle for a song that is clearly an homage to Taupin's adopted home, the U.S.A.? Well, it was the '80s where there was never an explanation for most of the stuff that happened in music videos. 

Now cut to Taupin with a wavy mullet and a guitar accompanied by his "band" playing next to a body of water. As our view is obscured by the occasional person walking by or giant lyrics scrolling across the screen, the crowd around the band grows larger and larger with each spectator joining in. Not exactly a contender for an MTV music video award. 

"Corrugated Iron" is an anti-apartheid song with a pleasing beat driving it along while "Billy Fury" is an ode to English musician Ronald Wycherley who was Liverpool's answer to Elvis Presley in the early '60s. The latter has Elton helping his buddy and songwriting partner by providing backing vocals and no surprise, this track proves to be the catchiest bop on the record, almost as if it were written by Captain Fantastic himself. 

"The New Lone Ranger" is another high point on the album. "She Sends Shivers" is a duet with Martha Davis of The Motels. 

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Tribe is that Taupin actually has a pretty decent singing voice especially on softer tracks such as "Citizen Jane" and "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" which probably could have been strengthened with some vocal training. I'm guessing more than one person pointed this out to him earlier in his life, which prompted him to try his hand at recording music. The problem is the songs can't really elevate his vocal chops. 

Many people have said that without Bernie Taupin, Elton John would never have become Elton John. While that is true, I would counter-argue that John has more than proven that he can still produce gold even if Taupin is not his lyrical co-pilot (The Lion King, anyone?) I mean, the man actually wrote a catchy off-the-cuff pub tune using the words from an oven manual for a TV special.  

Taupin, on the other hand, has worked with other musicians and bands such as Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, and Heart, but none of these collaborations have produced magic to the extent he and John have created together. He never released another solo album, but he did form a band called Farm Dogs in the '90s to scratch the performing itch. 

I wish I could say I enjoyed this album more, but even a repeat listening didn't make it grow on me. 

Copies of Tribe are pretty hard to come by, and probably only worth adding to your collection if you're a diehard fan of all things Elton John/Taupin.