Some of my favorite Elvis arcana from Peter Guralnick's great two volume bio, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love: In 1957, when Elvis was first making movies in Hollywood, he invited legendary Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips to visit him. Phillips had been the first one to play Elvis on the radio. In Hollywood, Elvis took Dewey around the soundstages and introduced him to Yul Brynner. Dewey said to Yul, "You're a short little mother, aren't you?"
In the mid-60s (while "the Jester" was "stealing his thorny crown"), Elvis was fond of saying, "My mouth feels like Bob Dylan's been sleeping in it." Though listen below to how Elvis concludes his impromtu version of Bob's "I Shall Be Released," by saying, "Dylan," with what I hear as respect and maybe even some awe or jealousy.
While Elvis was preparing his famous "comeback" TV special in 1968, the producer, Steve Binder stood with him outside the studio on Sunset strip. Supposedly none of the passersby took any notice of Elvis. Maybe that was when he decided to don the leather suit.
More Elvis tomorrow.
Elvis Presley-I Shall Be Released (informal recording)
No comments:
Post a Comment