Bernie Taupin will release The Sea Has No Mercy on 23 October, marking his first solo album in almost four decades and his first collection written entirely from his own perspective.
by Paul Cashmere
Bernie Taupin, the lyricist whose songwriting partnership with Elton John has produced some of popular music’s most enduring songs, will release his first solo album in 39 years when The Sea Has No Mercy is issued on 23 October. The record is Taupin’s fourth solo album and represents a rare occasion where one of rock’s most celebrated lyric writers steps away from a collaborative role to present a deeply personal body of work.
For more than half a century, Taupin has remained one half of one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in music history. Since first being paired with Elton John in 1967 after both answered the same Liberty Records advertisement in New Musical Express, Taupin has supplied the lyrics for classics including “Your Song”, “Rocket Man”, “Tiny Dancer”, “Candle in the Wind”, “Daniel”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Bennie and the Jets”, “I’m Still Standing” and many more.
While his work with Elton John has defined his career, The Sea Has No Mercy focuses on Taupin’s own voice. The album follows his 1971 spoken word debut Taupin, the 1980 release He Who Rides the Tiger and 1987’s Tribe. He also recorded two albums during the 1990s with his band Farm Dogs.
Taupin describes the new album as something that could only have been created at this stage of his life.
“I couldn’t have made this album as a younger man. I couldn’t have written any of these songs. They’re all completely indicative of Bernie Taupin at 76-years-old,” he said in a statement. “They need the life behind them.”
He added, “Everything on this record is hugely personal. Every single line, every word, means something to me, whether from a past, present or storytelling perspective.”
The project developed after Taupin completed his 2023 memoir, Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me, and worked on music connected to an upcoming documentary about his life. Reflecting on that process, he said he discovered he still had songs waiting to be written.
“I found myself just coming up with all of these ideas,” Taupin said. “In the long run, the album became a manifesto of somebody who’s 76 years old looking back, reflecting, and just a little bit p**sed off at the world.”
Speaking about the album more broadly, Taupin said age had brought a different perspective to his songwriting.
“With age comes wisdom, which is a natural progression. I don’t regret any of the records I’ve made in the past. They all had a point at the time they were made. But this is the most satisfying record I’ve ever made.”
He was careful to distinguish the project from his work with Elton John.
“I’m talking about in my own canon, not with the Elton thing, because that’s a completely different ballpark. I wanted to be able to express my own feelings on my own level in my own writing. That’s what makes it more important than anything else I’ve ever done.”
The album’s title track has already been released. Taupin said the sea became a metaphor for difficult experiences accumulated throughout his life.
“The sea is the most intimidating, frightening element on earth. But it fascinates me,” he explained. “In the song, I use the sea as a metaphor for too many past experiences that weren’t particularly positive.”
Several guest performers appear on the album, including Lee Ann Womack, Brandi Carlile and Taupin’s younger daughter, Georgey Devon Taupin. Carlile previously collaborated with Taupin and Elton John on their recent joint project Who Believes In Angels?
Although Taupin’s own recordings have been relatively infrequent, his influence as a songwriter extends well beyond Elton John. He has written with artists including Alice Cooper, Heart, Starship, Willie Nelson, Courtney Love and Brian Wilson, while his lyrics for “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” earned him an Academy Award alongside Elton John in 2020 for the film Rocketman. In recent years he has also received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Musical Excellence category.
Taupin also revealed that his longstanding partnership with Elton John continues to evolve. He confirmed he contributed lyrics to a forthcoming Elton John album expected next year. Because of Elton’s eyesight issues, the pair reversed their traditional creative process, with Elton composing instrumental tracks first before Taupin added lyrics.
“It’s a whole different ballgame for him,” Taupin said.
Unlike the lengthy gap between his previous solo releases, Taupin suggested another album may not be decades away.
“I think if and when I make another record, it won’t be so reflective. I think I might go back to storytelling,” he said. “In fact, I’ve already written five or six songs that I’ve been playing around with and going back and forth with. So I’m really enjoying the process of working in my own head with myself and nobody else.”
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