48 years ago today

[waterytart]

Elvis and Buddy Holly are among the great 'What if's". I could easily see Elvis being a lounge act or making the casino/state fair circuit and I could also see him having a career renaissance with help from a guy like Springsteen, who somehow brought Gary US Bonds back to a brief level of fame back in the day.

Greil Marcus has a 30-point system for assessing rock deaths. Up to 10 points each for value of contributions to music, estimated value of the contributions lost to premature death, and manner of death. I know Buddy Holly was a 30. I would guess Presley was, too.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

So it's 1988 and the Oilers.are playing the Pats in an exhibition game in Memphis, right around now. Jerry Glanville, true to his brand, left two tickets for "Elvis" at the will call window. It's Saturday night, and I figure this is the easiest pre-game first edition column of my life. Just go to will call and see which whackos show up. Nobody, not one person, did so. Never been so pissed off in my life and it's put me off Memphis even now.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

How much longer can Graceland keep up as a cash cow?

Memphis also has the Stax Volt Museum and Beale Street. My sister and I did Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans for a musical vacation a few years ago

 

[Jake from State Farm]

So it's 1988 and the Oilers.are playing the Pats in an exhibition game in Memphis, right around now. Jerry Glanville, true to his brand, left two tickets for "Elvis" at the will call window. It's Saturday night, and I figure this is the easiest pre-game first edition column of my life. Just go to will call and see which whackos show up. Nobody, not one person, did so. Never been so pissed off in my life and it's put me off Memphis even now.

Little known fact
Jerry Glanville is a member of the Northern Michigan University Hall of Fame. He's also 83 and is the defensive coordinator at Northwestern Oklahoma State

 

[Starman]

Granville Waiters weeps.

 

[Starman]

As far as the rock death with the most lost potential, it's Buddy Holly by light-years.

At worst, he would have gone corporate and been a dependable pop music hit maker for 30 more years; at best he returns to his roots, hooks up with Dylan, the Beatles, the Byrds and CCR, then in the Seventies and Eighties he becomes the godfather to Springsteen, Seger and the whole Americana rock movement. Who knows?

At one point I punched out an alternate history story about Buddy Holly being the de facto leader of the Traveling Wilburys (as "Jiminy Wilbury") in the late Eighties.

Probably not all of it would have happened, but some of it might have, and that's the really intriguing thing.

 

[dixiehack]

Memphis also has the Stax Volt Museum and Beale Street. My sister and I did Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans for a musical vacation a few years ago

My parents are both 69, or will be at the end of the month when mom has her birthday. And while Elvis wasn’t completely uncool to their generation in high school he was most certainly a golden oldie act even then. The peak of his comeback era might have reached into their freshman year. Maybe.

The height of his popularity with the older teenagers who drive America’s music trends would have been a good 12-15 years before that. So the core of his fandom is now in their 80s, which of course means many of them aren’t around at all and the rest likely have limited endurance for long-distance trips.

There are still people who want to visit but fewer every year. And I’m guessing the bills for maintenance and climate control on that big ole house ain’t cheap. The neighborhood is too far gone to invest in spinoff tourism amenities. Somewhere in my lifetime Graceland the attraction will no longer pencil out.

 

[HanSenSE]

Also the anniversary of the deaths of Aretha Franklin and Babe Ruth. A bad day to be a king, queen or sultan.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

So it's 1988 and the Oilers.are playing the Pats in an exhibition game in Memphis, right around now. Jerry Glanville, true to his brand, left two tickets for "Elvis" at the will call window. It's Saturday night, and I figure this is the easiest pre-game first edition column of my life. Just go to will call and see which whackos show up. Nobody, not one person, did so. Never been so pissed off in my life and it's put me off Memphis even now.

Not even Elvis Costello showed?

 

[Gym Beam]

Not even Elvis Costello showed?

Not even a young Elvis Grbac!

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Elvis was scheduled to play a concert at the Hartford Civic Center on August 21. That's all I got.

 

[qtlaw]

Damn I was 14 and remember him as a huge star then; watched him in the Viva Las Vegas etc on TV AND the music was everywhere.

 

[waterytart]

Not a Priscilla fan. She has spent a long time grooming an image as Elvis' widow. She's his ex-wife

There’s an expression: Women who marry for money generally earn it. That’s pretty much how I feel about Priscilla.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Elvis was scheduled to play a concert at the Hartford Civic Center on August 21. That's all I got.

Well, he could have just pulled up stakes and moved to the Greensboro Coliseum if he really didn't want to play at the Hartford Civic Center. He didn't have to go die.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Is he still dead?!?

 

[Justin_Rice]

My best friend was born in early August, 1977. I was born in early September, 1977.

He likes to joke that he lived in the time of Elvis, and I can never appreciate what it was like to be alive in that era.

 

[qtlaw]

There's an expression: Women who marry for money generally earn it. That's pretty much how I feel about Priscilla.

Wait, that's a little revisionist history, he stalked her when she was 16 (?) right? Are you saying a 16yr old was already hunting for a money marriage/sugar daddy? That's not how I remember it.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Wait, that's a little revisionist history, he stalked her when she was 16 (?) right? Are you saying a 16yr old was already hunting for a money marriage/sugar daddy? That's not how I remember it.

Hunting is probably the wrong verb because it implies a developed plan. But how many 16 year old women could resist the allure of being the companion of the most popular entertainer on the planet with the attendant massive wealth and instead date the quarterback on her high school football team?

 

[Liut]

Someone mentioned earlier the Cronkite broadcast the day of Presley's death.
I remember watching that as an 11 year old at grandma's house just before the start of a new school year.
Presley's place in Cronkite's rundown that night is mentioned in Gary Paul Gates' book on the history of CBS News.

 

[UNCGrad]

Is he still dead?!?

Remember the cottage industry in the conspiracy theories that Elvis was alive? That was such a thing in the 1980s.