I was invited to a party at a friend’s house on the night the ’68 Comeback Special was due to air on British TV. I asked if it would be possible to watch the programme during the party (this was before video recorders and repeats), and the host assured me it would. Then I found myself worrying that it would turn out to be as embarrassing as all those dreadful, crappy movies and that Elvis would be duetting with Rat Pack sleazoids in tuxedos or trying to get down with the young folk by doing some embarrassing pseudo-hippie rubbish. Of course, what we got was the greatest popular entertainer of the 20th Century at his raw, magnificent, thrilling best – his voice was never better, and his sheer presence was IMMENSE. By the end of the sequence from which the above performance of Lawdy Miss Clawdy was taken, I was practically hyperventilating, and so were my co-watchers, even those who had come to jeer. I couldn’t stand most of the drug-addled Vegas nonsense that followed (yes, I know there was some great stuff in there and his backing band was sublime), but it didn’t really matter – the great man had proved once and for all that he was genuinely and definitively the greatest of all time.
The Liverpudlian writer, Alan Bleasdale, accepting an award for “Are You Lonesome Tonight” his hit West End musical about Elvis, summed up his appeal perfectly: “Whenever he smiled, we all smiled.”
I too have an image of Elvis on my office wall – a framed copy of the “For LP Fans Only” compilation album released by RCA 1959 to plug the gap while he was in the army. Cheers me up no end.
He just burned it down. I defy anybody who takes a mocking stance toward Elvis to deny that moment. The poetry of Lawdy Miss Clawdy being a Southern exclamation is not lost on me at least :).
My picture is actually a trading card from the 70's...I've got a younger one somewhere too. A local publication had some really fantastic pictures in it lately...I may post some of those.
Needs more Elvis.
ReplyDeleteLawdy Miss Clawdy is all you need to know about rocknroll...all you need to know about why Elvis is Elvis.
DeleteI was invited to a party at a friend’s house on the night the ’68 Comeback Special was due to air on British TV. I asked if it would be possible to watch the programme during the party (this was before video recorders and repeats), and the host assured me it would. Then I found myself worrying that it would turn out to be as embarrassing as all those dreadful, crappy movies and that Elvis would be duetting with Rat Pack sleazoids in tuxedos or trying to get down with the young folk by doing some embarrassing pseudo-hippie rubbish. Of course, what we got was the greatest popular entertainer of the 20th Century at his raw, magnificent, thrilling best – his voice was never better, and his sheer presence was IMMENSE. By the end of the sequence from which the above performance of Lawdy Miss Clawdy was taken, I was practically hyperventilating, and so were my co-watchers, even those who had come to jeer. I couldn’t stand most of the drug-addled Vegas nonsense that followed (yes, I know there was some great stuff in there and his backing band was sublime), but it didn’t really matter – the great man had proved once and for all that he was genuinely and definitively the greatest of all time.
ReplyDeleteThe Liverpudlian writer, Alan Bleasdale, accepting an award for “Are You Lonesome Tonight” his hit West End musical about Elvis, summed up his appeal perfectly: “Whenever he smiled, we all smiled.”
I too have an image of Elvis on my office wall – a framed copy of the “For LP Fans Only” compilation album released by RCA 1959 to plug the gap while he was in the army. Cheers me up no end.
Excellent.
DeleteHe just burned it down. I defy anybody who takes a mocking stance toward Elvis to deny that moment. The poetry of Lawdy Miss Clawdy being a Southern exclamation is not lost on me at least :).
My picture is actually a trading card from the 70's...I've got a younger one somewhere too. A local publication had some really fantastic pictures in it lately...I may post some of those.