Booked a room at the Hipbreak Hotel and got my tickets for today’s Big Doings.
Birthday Party Time, Rock ‘n’ AARP Style!
For me and other fans lucky enough to witness live at least some of one of the most spectacular careers in the history of American entertainment, today is as far different from “just another Wednesday” as The Godfather is from Blue Hawaii or Girls! Girls! Girls!
Today is Wednesday in its birthday suit — and top hat, for good taste.
Elvis Presley was born 90 years ago today, although I agree it seems more like 84 years ago today, 85 tops. (That’s time for you; she’s a sneaky dog.)
But the record clearly shows that on January 8, 1935, Elvis Aaron Presley was born to Vernon and Gladys in Tupelo, Mississippi. What happened over the next 42 years until his sad and sudden death at Graceland on August 16, 1977, is nothing less than a phenomenon doubled, squared, or even quadrupled.
We’re talking a lot of phenomena going on. A hunka hunka burnin’ phenomena. This Mississippi boy was a singer/entertainer the likes of which America and the world had never seen.
As anchorman David Brinkley explained in a short no-nonsense story that led the NBC Nightly News that Tuesday mid-summer evening in 1977, Elvis came along as the 1950’s swing era was dying, as big band pop music had turned into “bop or be-bop,” Brinkley said with some disgust “remote, obscure, bloodless, nobody liked it, nobody could dance to it. And then here came Elvis with a hot, stomping, steaming, sexy kind of music that turned on young people as pop music never had before.”
Brinkley with a stand-up double.
The coverage was wall-to-television-to-radio-wall the next few days. I’d been mowing grass that afternoon in Homer when daddy signaled for me to cut off the mower, which I did long enough for him to break the news that Elvis had not just left the building, he’d left the planet.
Hurt me.
That was 47 years, four months, and 23 days ago. Elvis has been dead longer than he was alive. Difficult to contemplate…
BUT … today’s about celebrating! Today in Memphis — and here we exclaim “Viva, Las Viagra!” — we’re partying like it’s 1957, the year Elvis and his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, moved into Graceland.
Sure, a lot of our blue suede shoes are orthopedic now. And if we’re gyrating our pelvises (pelvi?), it’s likely involuntary. Or the new medication.
But still, we rock. Just holding onto something is all.
What’s in store today in the “Home of the Blues” in general and in the home of the King in particular? Well, if you purchased the top-shelf Pink Cadillac Package for a few hundred bucks — the Blue Suede Package is nice but for losers — you got free coffee after spending the night at The Guest House at Graceland, a class hotel by any stretch. (With my king-sized accommodations, they threw in a Col. Tom Parker bobblebelly, complimentary.)
Then front row seats to the Birthday Pops Concert, to the Elvis Music Salute, to the Elvis in the Army Show & Tell (“Is that an M1 carbine or are you just happy to see me?”), and many more events through Saturday, including Graceland’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Birthday Bash, Conversations on Elvis, Elvis Quiz Show, and Brunch at the Movies (we’ll see G.I. Blues and if you’ll please stay quiet during the Juliet Prowse dance number I’ll thank you in advance).
Plus all the poke salad a man can eat.
Good times.
Either right before or after the Photo Op with Elvis’ Birthday Cake today is sure to be Nap Time at Graceland, whether it’s scheduled or not. Already looking forward to it.
Contact Teddy at teddy@latech.edu