Elvis Week 2007

Has it really been 30 years since he died?

The '68 comeback special is on TV Land right now. Damn, he's good in it.

 

Aug, 16, 1977

Thanks for the TVLand tip, Inky

 

Reading wikipedia, my mom and I have cool ties of sorts to Elvis. Her birthday is Aug. 16, and his first Ed Sullivan appearance was Sept. 9 (my b-day) in 1956.

Favorite Elvis song?

1) Always on My Mind
2) Suspicious Minds
3) It's Now or Never

 

Since this is the Elvis thread, I read recently where they are going to remodel Graceland and move everything on to the same side of the street. They even want to make a bunch of interactive exhibits, including one where a holographic Elvis sings (like in the one video, I think by Celine Dion, but not sure on that part).

 

1. Kentucky Rain
2. Suspicious Minds
3. Amazing Grace

 

The 68 special is awesome, but to me, Elvis is at his finest during the Aloha 1972 (?) concert. I would guess TVLand is playing that.

I was a tiny little baby crappin' my pants every hour when Elvis died. We've never seen anything remotely like him before or since. No person has transformed pop culture in this country like Elvis Presley did. Like John Lennon said, "Before anyone did anything, Elvis did everything."

Oh, and my top three?
1. Burning Love
2. Kentucky Rain
3. Suspicious Minds

Special mention to King Creole.

 

A buddy of mine from college and I went to Nashville that day and on the way home that evening - about an hour's drive – we flipped on the radio at some point and EVERY radio station was playing Elvis music. Even WSM, the clear-channel country blowtorch.

We had no idea what had happened at first, but it quickly became obvious.

Elvis was slated to play some shows later that year at Middle Tennessee State's arena. They were always sellouts. The arena director had a classic quote in the college paper, something to the effect of "as soon as I learned that Elvis was dead, I went in the bathroom and threw up."

 

'Twas a Tuesday and two days before my birthday. Mom was baking my cake, because the track and field team was coming for my party the next day. I remember being in the kitchen with her and her ... dropping ... my ... cake.

 

Never forget where I was when I saw the TV news bit in '77.
Favorite? How Great Thou Art.

 

Kentucky Rain, Suspicious Minds and In The Ghetto prove Elvis could have reinvented himself in the socially-relevant country-rock-folk mold of the early 1970s, if somebody had gotten Col. Parker's tentacles unwrapped from around his neck. There probably hasn't been a musical artist in history served worse by his manager than Elvis by Parker. But Elvis himself was a pretty complicit victim.

On August 16, 1977, I was with my family on a camping trip in Missouri. When we got home, we found our family dog, who we'd had since 1964, had died at the kennel on that day. No evidence it was anything but old age, but it was still a bummer.

 

Ah yes. Elvis' Gospel music can bring a chill, and his live version of How Great Thou Art from the "There'll Be Peace in the Valley" album is possibly the most beautiful song ever.

Special mention also for You Gave Me a Mountain.

 

Which puts me, oddly, in the mind of this Warren Zevon song, "Jesus Mentioned":

I'm going down to Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
I'm going down to Graceland
Thinking about the King
Remembering him sing
About those heavenly mansions
Jesus mentioned

Can't you just imagine
Digging up the King
Begging him to sing
About those heavenly mansions
Jesus mentioned

He went walking on the water
He went walking on the water
He went walking on the water
With his pills

Can't you just imagine
Digging up the King
Begging him to sing
About those heavenly mansions
Jesus mentioned ...