# Paul Buckmaster, arranger for Elton John, David Bowie, Carly Simon, Taylor Swift, etc., dies

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-buckmaster-arranger-for-elton-john-david-bowie-carly-simon-taylor-swift-etc-dies/801059>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 8, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-buckmaster-arranger-for-elton-john-david-bowie-carly-simon-taylor-swift-etc-dies/801059 "2017-11-08T16:30:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-buckmaster-arranger-for-elton-john-david-bowie-carly-simon-taylor-swift-etc-dies/801059/1 "2017-11-08T16:30:11Z")

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Paul Buckmaster, who brought those wonderful string arrangements to songs like “Space Oddity”, “Your Song”, “You’re So Vain”, and others, has passed away. His contributions cannot be minimized; those songs just would not be as legendary without them. A lot of people don’t realize, because the names we know are that of the performers, but when the writer walks into the studio with their new song, it’s really just a blueprint. They have the lyrics, they have the music, they’re playing piano or guitar or whatever, but the sound, the essence of the song, the _texture_ that gets burned onto the disc and transmits over the air waves, that all comes from the arranger. The choice of what instruments to use, how to use them, how to bring out the best of this newly created song, that’s all him.

Check out some of his work [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dERg_J4zYrQ).

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-buckmaster-arranger-for-elton-john-david-bowie-carly-simon-taylor-swift-etc-dies/801059/2 "2017-11-08T17:38:50Z")

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I was not familiar with his name, what he worked on and his rep. Thank you for sharing and thank you, Mr. Buckmaster.

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**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paul-buckmaster-arranger-for-elton-john-david-bowie-carly-simon-taylor-swift-etc-dies/801059/3 "2017-11-08T19:01:07Z")

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He also did the soundtrack for the movie 12 Monkeys, which is one of my favourites.