A King is born - Elvis Presley thread

Elvis' 75th birthday special: Meet the fans, artists and entrepreneurs behind the $45m Presley industry
Elvis' 75th birthday special: Meet the fans, artists and entrepreneurs behind the $45m Presley industry - Features, Music - The Independent



Next week, the King would have celebrated his 75th birthday. Fiona Sturges talks to the fans, artists and entrepreneurs keeping a legend alive

Next week Elvis Presley's family will host a little party in honour of what would have been the King's 75th birthday. Tears will be shed, toasts will be made and, on the north lawn of Graceland, a cake will be cut.


It will, one imagines, be a dignified tribute to one of the greatest icons of the 20th century. But the party plans don't stop there. There will also be an exhibition of Elvis's stage costumes, a series of live concerts in Memphis, a free Elvis Mobile iPhone app and a career-spanning 75-track CD. In Las Vegas the Canadian circus group Cirque du Soleil will open Viva Elvis, their own tribute to the King, while Elvis the Concert, the show that unites the singer's former band-mates with a video projection of the singer, will embark on a world tour. And if that's not enough, the toy manufacturer Mattel will, with the blessing of Elvis's estate, unveil its brand-spanking-new Elvis Presley Jailhouse Rock Doll. Hardly impoverished during his lifetime, Elvis is a huge posthumous earner. In 2008 he topped the Forbes list of highest-earning dead celebs – or "delebs" – for the fourth consecutive year, generating $45m (£25m). However, Elvis and his progeny aren't the only ones making a profit on the back of a career that ended, in a very physical sense, over 30 years ago. A whole worldwide industry has flourished since his death in 1977, one that takes in live entertainers, record company executives, merchandise manufacturers, memorabilia collectors, retailers, tour operators, publishers, film-makers and writers. There are around 350 official Elvis fan clubs currently in operation and countless unofficial ones, each of them feeding the fervour of fans whose enthusiasm only seems to increase with time. So whether it's those who knew him, those who wish they had, or those who have simply spotted a business opportunity, there are scores of people for whom Elvis has become a full-time occupation. The King is dead. Long live the King!
Martyn Dias, aka Elvis Shmelvis

Elvis tribute artist

I worked in electronics and computers for years before becoming a tribute artist. I was in and out of various cover bands and singing in pubs and clubs in the evenings. I didn't have any ambitions other than to have a bit of fun. I certainly wasn't doing it for the money. We'd get £35 at the end of the night which would have to be divided between the whole band. When I was growing up I was more into Slade, The Sweet and T-Rex. I used to jump up and down with a tennis racket on the bed when I was a teenager and pretend I was a rock star like any other kid.

I didn't get to know Elvis's music properly until the Nineties when I met another computer engineer who sang and played guitar and was a big Elvis fan. We formed a musical duo, and to start with he sang the Elvis songs and I did songs by other singers. I could impersonate pretty much anyone. I would do Neil Diamond, Buddy Holly, Cliff Richard, all sorts. Then I started copying him doing Elvis and it turned out that I was pretty good at it. Eventually I went solo just singing Elvis songs and discovered that I could make a living from it. So in 1992 I gave up computers and did Elvis full-time.

When I first started, I bought a wig and a jumpsuit from a fancy dress shop and thought: "I'm Elvis!" Looking back, I didn't look very good at all. After a while I gave up on the wig. All my life I'd had short blond hair but I dyed it blue-black and grew some sideburns. My wife did a hairdressing course and now she looks after my hair. And I have my own jumpsuits made by the same people who made Elvis's.

In the past 15 years I've performed in Trafalgar Square in front of a crowd of 25,000, I've played Milton Keynes Bowl to 30,000 and I've been on Holby City, The Weakest Link and The One Show. I do hotels, corporate functions, bar mitzvahs. I've even done a couple of funerals where I sang "Always on my Mind". During weekdays I do restaurant shows, mostly at curry houses. I'm a good reader of people and if I think that someone's not going to react in the right way then I keep my distance. I've come to admire Elvis hugely since doing this, and am thankful to him that I make a great living – but I'm not an Elvis nut. Other tribute artists live and breathe Elvis but I don't. When the jumpsuit comes off, I'm Martyn again.

Joe Moscheo

Singer in The Elvis Imperials and author of 'The Gospel Side of Elvis'

We started singing with Elvis in the late Sixties in the recording studios in Nashville. Then in 1969 we got the call from Colonel Parker's office telling us that Elvis was going to open in Vegas and he wanted us to be the back-up voices. Of course we said, "Yes". We already knew him pretty well, but we didn't appreciate the impact of him until the opening night. He would walk up and down the stage like a caged animal. The flashbulbs would be popping around him and people would be screaming. Some people fainted they were so overwhelmed. He really did take your breath away. It's like nothing I've seen before or since.

I published a book in 2007 about my interest in the gospel side of Elvis, because in my mind he was the greatest gospel singer that ever lived. Gospel was his first love, and when we gathered behind the scenes during tours he never wanted to sing his hits, he just wanted to sing a spiritual song.

I feel that there is so much trash written about him – about his life and his habits and his shortfalls – that it's time to give out the right message about Elvis, about his music and his generosity and the real person that he was.

Of course, I never imagined when I first met Elvis that he would be as important as he has become. My life would be very different if that hadn't happened. When he was alive we thought it would go on for ever. Then he died and nothing really happened for 20 years, apart from fan-club events. The Imperials didn't have a reunion until 1997, which was the 20th anniversary of his death. That was when the estate called everyone back together. Someone had this idea of Elvis the Concert, where we would perform behind a 30ft screen of Elvis. We toured with it for several years and now it's back by popular demand. It's amazing what they've done, isolating Elvis's image and voice so you get a very real sense of seeing him in concert. Apart from Elvis's voice, the music is all live – you've got the TCB Band, The Sweet Inspirations and us, and we're all actually accompanying Elvis, larger than life like he always was.

This year seems to be one of our biggest yet. We already have 50 concerts booked so far. It's a phenomenon, it really is. We're sold out, and Elvis won't even be there!

Jacqueline Raphael

President of The Elvis Show Fan Club, the official Swiss fan club

I became interested in Elvis after seeing [the televised concert] Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii in 1973. A few years later I was with my mother and her husband in the car and they played nothing but Elvis. I thought it was lots of different bands but they told me at the end of the trip that it was just one guy. I couldn't imagine that one person could sing in so many styles. After that I started learning everything about him. When he died on 16 August 1977 I cried and all my friends sent their condolences to me.

After his death I was worried that no one would talk about him any more, that Elvis would be forgotten for ever. I was in a real panic and so I started collecting anything related to him. If he came on the television I would hold up a tape recorder to the TV and try to record it. It was a lonely time for me. I wore black every 16 August. I felt like the only Elvis fan left in the world.

I got married when I was 20 and put all my memorabilia into two suitcases and gave them to a friend to keep for me. I kept my records, though, and played them when my husband wasn't home. We got divorced in 1989 and soon after I decided to go to an Elvis fan-club event in Germany. When I got there I realised that this was what I loved and needed. I saw that all these people were thinking the same way as me. So I started organising concerts and getting in touch with impersonators and fans. I went to Graceland and it was wonderful. Later on the Swiss fans asked me to set up a fan club. By 1993 it was up and running.

I remember that as a child I looked up to Elvis as a father figure and when I was a teenager I saw him as a lover. Now I'm 46 I see him as a friend who has helped to make my life better. The fan club is a labour of love for me. We now have around 70 active subscribers and over 1,000 people on our mailing list. We have monthly meetings where we talk about any Elvis developments, listen to his music and organise events. Now I take people to Memphis, Tupelo and Nashville once or twice a year. I've also opened a shop in Basel where people can buy Elvis shirts, bags, belts and little things like jewellery. I've never been so busy.

Over the years Elvis has become one of the most famous brands in the world, like Coca Cola or Mickey Mouse. This is work that the fans have done and it makes me proud.

Charlie Stanford

Senior marketing director at Sony

I've been marketing Elvis and his music for 11 years. I create the albums that different countries will release and my job is to find ways to get new audiences interested in his music. His 75th birthday is a big opportunity for us. In the UK we're releasing a 75-track, all-encompassing definitive hits collection.

We have a thing called artist DNA, which is essentially taking apart what makes an artist appealing. We use our own assumptions about what people want, and take them to focus groups to see if they are correct. Then we come back, modify the product and re-test it again and again until we get it right. Lately we discovered that Elvis in his jumpsuit is far less appealing to people than Fifties-era Elvis. We also employ a series of Elvis experts as consultants.

Colonel Parker sold RCA the rights to all Elvis's music in the Seventies, and later the catalogue came to Sony. We don't need to get the estate's approval to put out new products but we do need their co-operation. They own all the imagery and there's a mutual interest to make sure that we're marketing Elvis in the right way. We generally know what they're up to, and vice-versa.

When you market a living artist they generally come in, do some interviews and make themselves visible. With dead artists you have to use other tools and find different ways to make consumers interact with them. We try to appeal to younger audiences where possible, and the JXL remix of Elvis's "A Little Less Conversation" in 2002 was a great example of when it goes well. I would say that was 50 per cent luck and 50 per cent skill. The remix was originally created for an advert but it was so good that it was released in its own right. It was a global smash and went to number one in around 24 countries. If Radio 1 ever play an Elvis song, it's that one.

Record companies have come to realise the value of their back catalogue. It is the engine room that drives the business. Elvis is one of our best-selling catalogue artists. It's a real mark of quality that, whether we are actively marketing a new product or not, he's always in the top 10. Our job is to nurture an artist's catalogue and keep it alive. But at the end of the day, it's down to how good the music is. You can work a certain amount of magic with good marketing but if the music isn't right, it won't work.

Sid Shaw

Owner of Elvisly Yours, the Elvis memorabilia shop

My first experience of Elvis came from listening to Radio Luxembourg. Prior to that, all you ever heard on the radio was wimp music – Perry Como, Pat Boone, Frank Sinatra. Then came Elvis, the rock'n'roller. He shook the world and changed the 20th century. He revolutionised everything from the way you dressed to the music you listened to. You couldn't even wear your hair long before he came along. People who say they don't like Elvis, don't like music. He did everything – gospel, rock'n'roll, country, ballads, the lot. I've heard "Jailhouse Rock" probably 5,000 times and it's still fresh. Today's music doesn't compare.

I've had lots of jobs, but after Elvis died I set up my shop. I only had £3,000 and that was soon gone. I ran tiny ads in Melody Maker and NME and got a little bit of business that way. Then I got a knock on the door from a German man who wanted some merchandise to take back to Germany – £7,000-worth of goods. That was a lot of money in those days, so with his money I was able to buy a huge amount of stock and get the business going. In 1980 I went to Memphis and met the senior staff at Graceland. It turned out that they wanted to buy my merchandise, since what they had over there was total rubbish. In the end I shipped over four tons of British Elvis merchandise to Graceland. It was like selling coal to Newcastle.

My first shop was in Shoreditch, east London – we were there for 17 years – and it became a landmark for fans. Then we moved to the Trocadero and then to Baker Street, where we are now. At the moment we sell around 440 different items and I've sold over 3,000 different items over the years. I say to people: "These are tomorrow's antiques today." Most of it increases in value. We've got a clock where Elvis tells you the time every hour. In years to come it'll be on the Antiques Roadshow. We've got a fabulous Elvis duvet and towel. We hope to be doing jumpsuits soon, as well. The most popular product are the Elvis glasses. What's in the shop has got to be something that I wouldn't mind having in my own home and I consider to be in good taste. I don't do tacky stuff, I do items which honour Elvis. I'm just keeping the memory alive. Elvis would never begrudge what I do.

****************

A King is born
A King is born - mirror.co.uk

By Brian Hancill 2/01/2010

Elvis Presley would have been 75 on January 8. So, as Graceland prepares for an extra wave of fans, Brian Hancill takes the tour...

The cops arrive in a blaze of flashing blue lights - four big guys in black leather on white Harley-Davidsons.

They roll in formation to the front of our coach, make a "wagons roll" signal, then lead us out of the hotel car park, stopping the traffic on US Highway 278 to let us pass.

Welcome to Tupelo, Mississippi, where our minimotorcade is making a two-mile pilgrimage to a two-room shack: the humble birthplace of Elvis Presley. Tupelo is so happy to see Elvis fans that the local police provide a VIP escort for every coachload of tourists. And the guys on the Harleys expect a busy year as they get into gear for "Elvis 75".

The town's main attraction is the Elvis Birthplace Museum, in East Tupelo, a small and peaceful place compared to Graceland. There's the shack itself - spruced up and standing where it always did. But what used to be a ramshackle street full of hand-built cabins is now a pleasant park with shady trees.

After a turn on the front-porch swing, you walk slowly through the little home, shepherded by a Tupelo matron. Take as long as you like studying the scrubbed but shabby 30s furnishings and family photos.

Sadly, none of it is original and it all looks a little too respectable. Back then there was newspaper on the walls, no indoor plumbing and no electricity. The Presleys couldn't afford to have it connected.

Across the park, past a statue of a solemn, dungaree-clad Elvis aged 13, is the Assembly of God pentecostal church where he worshipped as a boy.

Moments after you sit down at a pew, screens slide down on three sides and you're at the centre of a virtual-reality church service, with actors playing the preachers and congregation - including Vernon and Gladys Presley and their boy.

Steered to the front by his proud momma, Elvis sings a solo spot as the Reverend Frank Smith plays guitar. And that's when it hits you... This tiny clapboard building is where the world's greatest entertainer sang his first notes in public. Where he learned the gospel hymns he loved for the rest of his life. And where Frank Smith showed him his first chords on the guitar. At that moment you forget the slick technology and the hi-definition screens and you're there with these poor southern share-croppers, singing The Old Rugged Cross in their Sunday best.

The exhibit that grabs you in the museum itself (www.elvis presleybirthplace.com, tickets $12/£7.70) is a huge black-andwhite picture showing a group of schoolchildren. It takes a lot of staring before you realise that Elvis is the skinny little blond boy in wire-frame glasses. It's the only known portrait of the future King of Rock 'n' Roll wearing specs.

The photo was taken during a junior talent show at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in 1945, when 10-year-old Elvis stood on a chair in front of hundreds of people to sing Old Shep.

Elvis was placed a disappointing fifth. The winner was a pretty 12-year-old named Shirley Jones. Now 76, Shirley gives talks to tourists about her day of glory. She finishes with a chorus of her winning song, My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time, and even today she has a magnificent, soulful voice. Let's forgive her for beating Elvis.

It was around the same time that Elvis got his first guitar. It cost $7.75 (£5) from the Tupelo Hardware store (Tupelo Hardware), an old-fashioned family business still on the same street corner. Its staff are steeped in Presley history and will talk all day if you let them - telling you how the man who sold the guitar (Forrest L Bobo) suggested it as consolation for Elvis when Gladys couldn't afford the bicycle or rifle he wanted.

There's a lot more Elvis history in Tupelo and visitors can get a self-drive tour leaflet from the birthplace museum or the town's Convention and Visitor's Bureau (Tupelo, MS - Elvis' birthplace features hotels, restaurants, shopping, parks & more family attractions). It takes you to the site of his long-gone second home, his first school, the drive-in where he bought cheeseburgers and cola, and the site of Mayhorn's grocery store.

This was the focal point of a poor negro neighbourhood and Elvis would sit on the step with his black friend Sam Bell and listen to bluesmen play.

PRISON

Sam is still around to share his memories, too. "Me and Elvis didn't know nothing about black and white back then," he says. "We just had a lot of fun runnin' around."

The great thing about Tupelo is that people who really knew the young Elvis are still here, and they're happy to talk to tourists.

But the Presleys had to move 100 miles to Memphis when Elvis was 13.

It's rumoured that his dad, who had already been in prison for forging cheques, was on the run from the law again. From 1949 to 1953, they lived in a two-bedroom apartment in a housing project called Lauderdale Courts. Apartment 328 was a big step up for a dirt-poor family and today it's part of a well-heeled, gated community.

But twice a year (January 6-11 and August 10-17) visitors can tour the apartment, lingering in Elvis' bedroom to strum a guitar kept by the bed or add to a wall full of lipstick kisses.

Outside by the front steps, grown men try to recreate a famous picture of teenage Elvis posing with a pistol. There's a blue footprint to show you where to stand.

The apartment's open from 10am-5pm. For the rest of the year, up to four visitors at a time can actually rent it out for $250 (£160) a night - it's the only place in the world that lets you stay where Elvis lived (www.lauderdale courts.com, tickets $10/£6.50).

There's one more must-see stop before Graceland for Elvis fans in Memphis. Sun Studio (Welcome. The Official Site for Sun Studio. The Birthplace of Rock N' Roll and Home to the "Million Dollar Quartet" - Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins., tickets $12/£7.70) was a small outfit best known for capturing the raw sound of the blues until 18-year-old Elvis, by now a truck driver, walked in and paid $4 (£2.60) to record two songs for his mother's birthday.


Receptionist Marion Keisker asked him who he sounded like and his answer was both truthful and prophetic. "I don't sound like nobody," he said. As he recorded two numbers by black vocal group The Ink Spots, Marion remembered what her boss Sam Phillips had told her: "If I could find a white man who has the negro sound I could make a million dollars."

SENSATIONAL

Marion thought this polite young man with the long sideburns and flashy clothes might be what Sam was looking for. She made a taped copy, played it for her boss, and lit the touch-paper on the most sensational music career the world has known.

A guided tour of Sun Studio takes just over an hour and if you love Elvis, rock 'n' roll, blues or country music, it's an experience you cannot miss.

This is my second visit and I still get the shivers listening to Elvis sing That's All Right on the spot (marked with an X) where he recorded it on July 5, 1954. Within three years Elvis was the biggest name in American showbusiness and had moved with his family to a mansion south of town: Graceland. He lived there until his tragic early death in 1977.

With more than 600,000 visitors each year, to visit Graceland (Elvis Presley - Official web site for Elvis Presley) is to experience tourism on an industrial scale. A constant stream of buses ferries visitors through the wrought-iron guitar gates and up the drive from US Highway 51 (renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard in 1972).

There's a museum just for Elvis' cars, his two private jets and so many 70s jumpsuits and gold records your eyes start to swim. But these are just sideshows. The main attraction is a slow shuffle with a long line of fellow-fans through the Presley family's living and dining rooms, their kitchen, pool room, TV room, the famous Jungle Room and, finally, the Presley graveside.

The first thing that strikes you is Graceland is a surprisingly modest home for such a huge star. The second is that none of it is anything like as tasteless as the sniffy critics always claim - though the TV room and Jungle Room are shrines to 70s kitsch.

But it's the commentary on the headphones which creates a moment of pure emotion that stops me in my tracks. As I pause to watch a clip from an Elvis concert, his daughter Lisa Marie talks about the day he died. As she lapses into silence, her father's voice starts to sing these poignant lines from the song American Trilogy.

"So hush little baby, don't you cry /You know your Daddy is bound to die /But all my trials, Lord, will soon be over."

Get your Elvis albums and put the song on now. And shed a tear for the man who never lived to see how much the world still loves him.

WIN THE BEST OF THE KING

Elvis 75 is the ultimate career-spanning collection that celebrates the 75th birthday of The King and the life and music of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll star.

Every song in the collection was a top-20 hit and the anthology runs from Heartbreak Hotel, the classic that first made Elvis' name in the UK back in 1956, to the hugely popular A Little Less Conversation remix that was released in 2002.

The three CD, 75-song collection will be released on Monday - and Mirror Travel has 20 copies to give away.

For a chance to win a copy, simply email your name, address and a contact phone number to traveldesk@mirror.co.uk with ELVIS 75 in the subject line. Twenty names will be chosen at random and will each receive a copy of ELVIS 75 by post. Usual MGN rules apply.

Elvis 75 is released by Sony Music on Monday.

GETTING THERE

Info: Arena Travel offers guided Elvis tours of Tupelo and Memphis from £1,448 for eight days. :: ARENA TRAVEL :: or 0147 366 0800.

If you prefer to go it alone, you'll find good hotel deals in Memphis at www.premierholi days.co.uk/hotels and hotels.trail finders.com - incl Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel opposite Graceland, with rooms sleeping four from £27.50pp per night in January. To stay in Tupelo, view deals on Travel deals: cheap flights, hotels, holidays, city breaks - travel cheaper with Expedia! including the downtown Days Inn from £12pp per night in January.

Heathrow to Memphis flights in January with KLM/Northwest via Amsterdam and Detroit start at £411 return, including taxes. Visit Travel deals: cheap flights, hotels, holidays, city breaks - travel cheaper with Expedia! for info.

For more details, see www.memphistravel.com and Welcome to Mississippi.

Time zone: GMT -6hrs Currency: dollar £1 =1.54

Best time to go: Pay homage year round

Ouzounian: Elvis Presley at 75: The King is dead, again
On the eve of what should be a momentous milestone, it appears the icon's crown is slipping


Elvis’ 75th birthday is eclipsed by the death of the "King of Pop" Michael Jackson.

I know you're going to say "Don't be cruel," but people, I'm afraid that Elvis is starting to look his age.

"The King," had he lived, would have been 75 years old this Friday, but at a moment when his posthumous fame ought to be peaking, it's actually being eclipsed by the recent death of someone with an even more impressive title than Presley's.

For Michael Jackson wasn't just "The King" but "The King of Pop," and therein lies the tale.

Money never lies (although it's been known to fib on occasion) and the famous necrological balance sheet that Forbes rolls out every year called its "Top-Earning Dead Celebrities List" shows Jackson's 2009 financial worth at $90 million US, while Presley came in a poor second at $55 million.

You might argue that Jackson's amount for the year was inflated by the events immediately following his death, but the Forbes analysts predict his strong upward curve will continue for years to come.

Of course, those blinded by love are the last to see the truth and the admittedly giant horde of Elvis admirers have put together an assortment of events for his 75th birthday and the year following it, that may initially look impressive, but ultimately lack – how can I put this? – a certain freshness.

Sure, Turner Classic Movies has an Elvis marathon scheduled on Friday, Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley will be cutting a cake (undoubtedly guitar-shaped) on the North lawn of Graceland, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra will be playing a concert called "Elvis Birthday Pops" and you can even share a conversation with Barbara Hearn-Smith.

You don't know who she was? For shame! According to the info available at elvis.com, she "met Elvis in 1954, later dated him and would spend lots of time with him whenever he was home in Memphis. Barbara also traveled with Elvis to his performance at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in Tupelo in 1956."

In fact, if you're in the vicinity of Memphis, you can probably rub elbows with anyone who every spoke to, slept with, or made Elvis a peanut butter and banana sandwich during his lifetime.

For the rest of the year, it's business pretty much as usual, only kicked up a couple of notches. There will be the usual Elvis cruises, Elvis tributes and Elvis imitators. Here in Ontario, the city of Collingwood is planning larger-than-usual celebrations this July in honour of the birthday boy.

Don't have the cash to pay for all of this? Fear not, Visa has launched the "Elvis Presley Affinity Platinum Rewards Credit Card" for those in need.

And here's the cherry in the Dr. Pepper! Cirque du Soleil is launching their seventh show in Las Vegas this year, a tribute called Viva Elvis! It was originally supposed to open on the anniversary of The King's birth, but ... well, we'll get to that story later.

But, with the possible exception of the Cirque show and a new Facebook Presley Fan Club app, everything being planned could have happened decades ago, and that's exactly what's wrong.

As Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC Radio's popular arts and culture program Q, told the Star in an email interview, "The iconic prominence of Elvis Presley is on the wane but it's largely due to generational turnover. The reality is that even 30-year-olds today (let alone teenagers) were not born when Elvis died. It's only natural that the newer heroes like Michael Jackson, Radiohead or, say, Jay-Z are going to resonate more directly with younger music fans. Elvis has become an historical figure like Louis Armstrong or Hank Williams that you know was significant but you're unlikely to hear on commercial radio."

The operative word in Ghomeshi's last sentence is "commercial." Yes, there's still a weekly radio show called Elvis Only which is heard on 50 stations across America, but not in any of the more profitable markets.

And with all his catalogue of material to draw on, not to mention the movies, the images, the franchising, etc., it's interesting that Presley, dead, made only $5 million dollars more than Jon Bon Jovi, alive, in 2009.

Wait until the rocker goes and Joviland opens in New Jersey. Imagine the figures then!

But Ghomeshi has another valid point which will lead us shortly to the events surrounding Cirque du Soleil and Elvis.

"The fact that Elvis was not ultimately a creator but rather an interpreter may mean he has less longevity than others. Unlike the Beatles or Michael Jackson, who authored a new sound and were at the forefront of creating musical change, Elvis was more significant for his outstanding self-taught vocal sound and his risqué style in his era. This, along with his good looks and brilliant pop songs, made him a massive crossover star but not a musical creator with a legacy of inspiration."

Exactly. And this is where Cirque du Soleil is running into trouble.

Back in 2006, they had an enormous success with Love, their transformation of the catalogue of songs by The Beatles into a magical work of entertainment.

But the important thing to remember is that The Beatles had something to interpret: a world view, a philosophy, a poetic way of looking at the world that was unique. It was easy to use that as a prism through which Cirque could work its customary magic.

Now when they announced they would be doing a similar show with Elvis, most people thought it was a no-brainer. Elvis, Cirque, Vegas. A ménage à trois made in heaven.

But things aren't going so smoothly. A 20-minute preview of Viva Elvis! was shown to the press in December and revealed a show that didn't know if it wanted to be a biography, a tribute, or a music video.

A giant blue suede shoe served as a centrepiece for some frenetic dancing, two young aerialists did a pas de deux on a giant guitar and skeleton-thin Elvis on stilts (looking a lot like Michael Jackson, by the way) moved around frenetically, but what did it all mean?

Cirque has admitted they were barking up the wrong tree and announced a six-week delay to the opening, in order to retool. Maybe they will find the essence inside Elvis that will enable him to connect with a generation for whom he is now just a catchphrase about having left the building, or a bad imitation made up of mumbling "thankyouthankyouverymuch."

Yes, it would be nice to see a massive act of creative re-vitalization occur.

But, as Elvis himself once sang, "It's now or never."

********


Cirque du Soleil, capitalizing on the success of Beatles tribute "Love," was to launch "Viva Elvis!" on the anniversary of the King's birth but it has been delayed. Its vision of Presley, above, owes something to Michael Jackson, too. (Dec. 15, 2009)

Elvis at 75: Can we ever again see the performer, not the punch line?

Boston.com


Unplugged and uninhibited, Elvis Presley showed he still had it in his 90-minute comeback special on NBC in December 1968. He died less than nine years later. (Courtesy of Bmg/Elvis Presley Enterprises)

The King in pictures - gallery

First, he was once beautiful, astonishingly beautiful, and that fact contributed so much both to the rapidity of his rise and the awfulness of his decline. Beauty was almost as important to his success as race was. Same voice, same talent, same songs sung by a white Fats Domino? The impact would have been nothing like what it was. Music created and drove the phenomenon that was Elvis, but it was only part of what made that phenomenon so overwhelming.

Of course he did end up looking like a white Fats Domino (worse, actually - Fats has never looked swollen or appeared glum), and that’s the second fact: He became - he remains in some measure - a joke.

By the time of his death, Elvis had already proven himself the ultimate Elvis impersonator. He stays encased, liposuction-resistant, within the bombast, the karate chops, the jumpsuits, the dying on the toilet. Beauty and the beast, that at least has a track record. But beauty and the punch line? As always, Elvis Aron Presley was a category of one.

He would have been 75 on Friday. This culture is as crazy for birthdays and anniversaries as it is for awards. It’s all the same principle: Any excuse for a high-profile party, especially one with lucrative commercial prospects. And who, even 30 years after his death, might offer better commercial prospects than the one figure who’s been on a first-name basis with the planet for the past half century? Popes and monarchs require numerals. Mao Zedong, Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan: They have to settle for a surname. With all due respect to Mssrs. Costello, Stojko, Peacock, and Mitchell, there is only one Elvis.

Yet there’s a detectable hesitation about observing - let alone celebrating - Elvis’s reaching three score and 15. It’s an event, but certainly not an . . . Event. One reason, of course, is that parties are more popular with a guest of honor, and Elvis left the building 32 years ago. Beyond that, there’s the matter of those two facts, the beauty and the joke it became. They go a long way toward accounting for the relative lack of fuss.

There’s some fuss, to be sure. The most notable birthday tie-in is RCA/Legacy’s four-disc “Elvis 75: Good Rockin’ Tonight.’’ The 100 tracks include all the greatest hits (and Elvis, don’t forget, had a lot of greatest hits), as well as album cuts, live performances, and rarities, including his very first recording, “My Happiness,’’ which he cut for his mother, Gladys, as a pay-to-record-yourself session back where it all began, at Sun Records, in Memphis.

It’s hard to imagine a better musical introduction to Elvis than “Elvis 75.’’ Completists and connoisseurs of the incongruous have another option: “Elvis: The Complete Masters,’’ consisting of all 711 recordings by Elvis released during his lifetime. Incongruity comes courtesy of the label, the Franklin Mint. That’s right, Elvis as somewhat dubious investment-quality collectible - and yours for just $489 (plus $10 shipping and handling). Somewhere Colonel Parker is all smiles.

As might be expected, Birthday Central this weekend will be at Graceland, with Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley presiding. Other Memphis events include a Grizzlies game on Friday night against the Utah Jazz, with the home team wearing blue suede sneakers, and on Saturday the Memphis Symphony Orchestra performing an Elvis pops concert. Las Vegas has already gotten into the act, with Cirque du Soleil’s “Viva Elvis,’’ which opened there last month.

TCM will air an Elvis movie marathon on Friday. An exhibition on Elvis and the media opens at the Newseum, in Washington, D.C., in March. A recent DVD, “Elvis: ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ - The Classic Performances,’’ reminds us of what all the original fuss was about. And remember to get your Elvis iPhone app, which has been released in time for his birthday.

Imagine Elvis with an iPhone. That’s impossible, of course. It’s not just because, obviously, he belongs to a low-tech past (and he’s definitely PC rather than Mac, the same way he was Cadillac rather than Porsche or BMW). We bump up against the joke factor. It almost sounds like a punch line, “And then Elvis took out his iPhone’’ (rimshot)!

The what-ifs and unanswerable questions about John Lennon, say, are tantalizing. They’re also, other than the Yoko factor, primarily musical in nature. Those about Elvis are likely to be at least slightly absurd and about meta-Elvis. He was only 42 when he died, just two years older than Lennon, but his artistry seemed pretty much exhausted. Lennon consciously spent the last few years of his life, not that he knew they would be the last years, shrinking his persona. By the time of his death, Elvis was almost all persona.

That’s the toughest challenge Elvis would have faced, the evolution of that persona. There would have been many options available to him. Go a bit feral and nuts, like Jerry Lee Lewis. Get cuddly, like Little Richard. (Years before Richard flourished in the kid market with “Itsy-Bitsy Spider,’’ a resigned-looking Elvis sang “Old MacDonald’’ in one of his worst movies - which is really saying something - “Double Trouble.’’) Become simultaneously august and spare, like Johnny Cash. Fade away and grow bitter, like Chuck Berry. Or some combination of them all; that would have been only his right, since Elvis was bigger than all of his contemporaries combined.

Some of the might-have-been questions about a living Elvis are mundane. Which cape would he have worn for his Kennedy Center Honors? Would there have been a bidding war among Subway, Jenny Craig, and WeightWatchers for his services as spokesman? Which son-in-law would Elvis have favored, Michael Jackson or Nicolas Cage?

The smart money’s on the King of Pop. Elvis always had an appreciation for other talent. Recall, for example, his marveling to Lewis, Cash, and Carl Perkins about Jackie Wilson’s imitation of him. Also, even if he’d managed to make it to 75, we have to assume Elvis wouldn’t have wholly shed his baggage of weirdness. How could he not have recognized an affinity with Jackson. He might even have asked for the number of his tailor.

The fun in speculating about these questions comes from our inability to jump to conclusions. Part of what made Elvis Elvis was his capacity to surprise. He was a huge Monty Python fan. He memorized both Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream’’ speech and Douglas MacArthur’s West Point farewell address. He supported Adlai Stevenson over Dwight Eisenhower.

How would he have taken to Al Gore invoking his name at the 1992 Democratic National Convention: “It’s always been my dream to come to Madison Square Garden and be the warm-up act for Elvis,’’ with its implication that Gore’s running mate was campaigning to be King as well as president? Would he have gone to Richard Nixon’s funeral? Would he have been invited? It would have been a good career move for both of them. Year after year, the most-requested item for reproduction from the National Archives is the photograph of Elvis shaking hands with Nixon in the Oval Office.

One question, at least, is strictly musical. Would Elvis have gone “Unplugged’’? That one’s been answered actually. Elvis invented the concept, on his 1968 broadcast on NBC, the “comeback special,’’ where he plays in the round with Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana. Those numbers are among the finest rock ’n’ roll ever filmed.

The comeback special is the great hinge in Elvis’s career. Those 90 minutes on NBC proved he could still do it, and then some - even as they also made plain what even his most fervent fans knew to be true but might not care to admit: He couldn’t do it forever. He still looked gorgeous, panther-sleek, the voice in excellent shape. But the eyes had hardened and begun to dull. Were those dollar signs occluding them, or simply the looming lights of Las Vegas?

In a few more years, artistic exhaustion had set in. You can hear the increasingly sad evidence on disc four of “Elvis 75.’’ He’d become a cover artist, a glorified lounge singer. Since he’s Elvis, the lounge singer can surprise you sometimes. His “Only the Strong Survive,’’ on disc three, rivals Jerry Butler’s original. But to hear Elvis sing a “Steamroller Blues’’ that’s a very pale version of James Taylor’s already-pallid original is to know the truth of the title of another cover on “Elvis 75,’’ “Funny How Time Slips Away.’’

Yes, it certainly is funny - though not funny ha-ha, like Elvis the joke. Time slipping away - the beauty fading, as it had already started to do; the youthfulness gone - is the other, more powerful reason for a muted response to Elvis’s 75th. An elderly Elvis subverts the very idea of Elvis. In one of his most moving lines, W.B. Yeats wrote of a young friend killed in World War II, “What made us dream that he could comb gray hair?’’ The thought of Elvis combing gray hair is unthinkable - and not just because he’d started dying black from the very beginning. Hard as it is to confront Elvis the joke, it’s far harder to surrender a belief in Elvis the beautiful and young.

Beauty and youth have lesser, far more common incarnations in prettiness and immaturity. Elvis’ faintly louche features - the sleepy eyes, the lopsided grin - kept his looks from mere prettiness. As for immaturity, his artistry - what ultimately matters the most about him - provided unassailable protection. From the very beginning, he displayed uncanny assurance. It’s there in that first recording for Gladys. Listening to her son sing “My Happiness,’’ she wasn’t just hearing a natural. She was hearing a singer who knew he was a natural.

The contrast with Frank Sinatra is instructive. We think of him as being so assured - he was the Chairman of the Board, after all, Rat Pack roisterer-in-chief. But that came later. Sinatra didn’t attain full and unmistakable command of his instrument until the early ’50s, with his Capitol recordings. For the first dozen years of his career, he was still finding his way vocally. A slight sense of insecurity was, if anything, part of Sinatra’s appeal - an artistic skinniness to go with his physical skinniness.

In precisely the opposite way, Elvis’s assurance was so much of his appeal. It was what kept his sneer from seeming an affectation. His assurance was also part of what made him seem so threatening (which, depending on how old you were, was part of his appeal, too). The hip-shaking that drew so much condemnation was the visible and outward sign of his absolute confidence as a performer.

Why shouldn’t he be confident? Elvis had an incalculable advantage over Sinatra. Sinatra perfected a tradition. Elvis created one. He is a nexus of 20th-century popular music: blues and R&B and country and gospel and Tin Pan Alley (he loved Dean Martin, and one of the first songs he recorded was Rodgers and Hart’s “Blue Moon.’’) With so many predecessors to draw on, Elvis had none to compete with. There’s a kind of logic, actually, to Elvis becoming a joke. With no competition (sure, the Beatles supplanted him, but it took four of them to do it), what was left for him to do? Self-mockery was the only way to up the ante on himself.

A few weeks ago I was walking down an aisle in a Rite Aid and noticed something odd about the music being piped in. It was an Elvis song, but not one you’d expect. It wasn’t “Love Me Tender’’ or “Can’t Help Falling in Love’’ or something more uptempo, like “Return to Sender’’ or “All Shook Up.’’ It was “That’s All Right,’’ the first song Elvis recorded commercially, the start of what we now know as “The Sun Sessions.’’

It’s been more than five decades, but there’s still such freshness to the recording, such unexpectedness bursting through the familiarity. Scotty Moore and Bill Black, on guitar and upright bass, hang on for all they’re worth, trying to keep up with this crazy kid as Elvis’s voice - urgent, insinuating - floats out over the beat, a croon that joins joy and nerves and arrogance (already you can hear his sneer), and that voice turns almost spectral as it slides into its upper register whenever it comes to allll ri-iiiiii-ght. (Forget “E pluribus unum’’ or “In God we trust.’’ The words that should appear on our currency are “That’s all right.’’) What I was hearing transcended beauty - it most definitely transcended joke - except that it had this in common with a joke: Filled with delight, I wanted to laugh.

Mark Feeney

So I'm sure Michael's family will be getting ideas of what they'll be doing in the future.

I totally need to get into Elvis! My parents are watching some programs about him now

those article writers still can get away with what they write? that one writer said that Elvis was required to be the race that he was, in order to succeed, like he did.

I just finished reading a book about Elvis, Last train to Memphis. The book ended in 1958 when he left to Germany so I need to read the second part too

The One - is there in the book something detailed about the (close/intimate) relationship/dating with Priscilla?

He was a soldier, and she was 14-16 years old girl..., I am interested only in that part of his life for now..., you know... could an adult man sleep in one bed with an underage girl?

Moonwalker.Fan said:

The One - is there in the book something detailed about the (close/intimate) relationship/dating with Priscilla?

He was a soldier, and she was 14-16 years old girl..., I am interested only in that part of his life for now..., you know... could an adult man sleep in one bed with an underage girl?

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Sorry, the first part ended when he left there, it didn't include the time in Germany, so the Priscilla part is on the second book (Graceland). So I can't answer But I would assume that there is quite much talk about them, at least the first part described very closely Elvis' relationships.

I thought that the book that Priscilla wrote was called "Elvis and Me". Although I think there was another book somewhere from a person that worked with Elvis (the one that includes the allegations that he slept with an underage Priscilla.) The title somewhere in my head, and I think Priscilla sued the author for that.

MarielovesMJ said:

I thought that the book that Priscilla wrote was called "Elvis and Me". Although I think there was another book somewhere from a person that worked with Elvis (the one that includes the allegations that he slept with an underage Priscilla.) The title somewhere in my head, and I think Priscilla sued the author for that.

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I'm not talking about that book The book I read is written by Peter Guralnick and is called Last train to Memphis (years 1935-58) and the second part is called Graceland (1960-77).