My mother's father taught English literature. When I was about ten or eleven, I could recite Macaulay's 'Lays of Ancient Rome.' While other kids were playing pedestrian war games, I'd be Horatius keeping the bridge.

Taupin's unique blend of influences gave his early lyrics a nostalgic romanticism that fit perfectly with the hippie sensibilities of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Birth and childhood
Much of Taupin's childhood is reflected in his lyrics and poetry. Of French ancestry his father was educated in Dijon and was employed as a stockman by a large farm estate near the town of Market Rasen and his mother worked as a nanny having previously lived in Switzerland.

Around the same time Elton John submitted samples of his work to the paper and the pair were brought together collaborating on many projects since. In 1967 Taupin answered an advertisement in the UK's music paper New Musical Express that was seeking new songwriters.