The King is Dead
16/08/07 03:19 PM
Long live the King!!!!
So, THEY say that Elvis Presley went to that big concert in the sky 30 years ago today. I am not sure I believe it yet but will go along with the joke for the sake of getting along.
Unlike the Kennedy assasination or the still fresh events of 911, I don't remember precisely where I was when I heard this news, but I do remember the day. As I sit here listening to Blue Suede Shoes I can still see the television stations trying hard to react to this news. A good friend of ours, Ed Wideman, had backed up Elvis as part of the Toronto based Laurie Bower Singers at the famous Aloha from Hawaii concert in 1973. This concert was the very first ever broadcast around the world via satellite, another first for the King. So when I turned on the TV to catch the news here was Ed Wideman, along with Toronto's most famous adopted Arkansan, Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins being challenged to come up with fresh stories every 60 seconds to feed the voracious appetite of Live TV.
Ed didn't look too comfortable but Ronnie is old soft shoes enough for ten people so the words and one liners flowed like mustard down your fave tie just before your sales meeting. They managed to do a good job while the news sunk in that the guy who really started it all may actually have assumed room temperature sitting (fittingly) on the throne in Graceland. Elvis wasn't just a great singer and a great performer. Long before Paris Hilton stained a diaper or a reputation the King invented star power and celebrity. I know he wasn't first with just about anything and a tip of the hat to Bill Haley ( of The Comets) and all of those black singers whose style Elvis covered but he put it all together in one package, stardom, movie star, rock and roll god, trophy wife, he practically invented bling, and along with all of this came the inevitable entourage and it's attendant sychophants bearing booze, broads and edge enhancing pharmecuticals.
It ended badly for the King but turned out pretty good for his heirs and anyone else who circled planet Elvis during the good times. Priscilla made out OK, I still don't want to talk about the whole grandaughter Micael Jackson thing and I think his dad made a pretty good living out of the estate. The King is always right up there in record sales every year. It is hard not to weep however when you listen to yet another radio interview with some schmuck who "sang with Elvis" and was his "close personal friend", and is appearing at the local Jack in The Box every Thursday evening. These things can make you hit the old RCA Victor a smack at times.
Good old Ed Wideman didn't last much longer then Elvis himself, not surviving a late night car crash that would have made Cronenberg spit up his milk. I like to think that Ed wouldn't have sullied his or Elvis's legacy with any tell all stories but we will never know. Ronnie generally has too much of the gentleman in him to be so foolish and is currently in yet another come back as spokesman for some flooring outfit opening a plant in Bolton this year, so I guess he will be too busy and in the chips enough to take part in the annual rite of remorse that takes place every year on this anniversary.
The Collingwood people have it right, Elvis lives there every summer and a lot of tinkers, tailors, bankers, bikers and soccer moms let it all hang out to Lawdy Miss Clawdy with abandon.
This is a good thing.
Wherever he is, I hope he is looking down at all of this while munching on a peanut butter and banana sandwich and giggling.
The King is Dead, and I miss him.
So, THEY say that Elvis Presley went to that big concert in the sky 30 years ago today. I am not sure I believe it yet but will go along with the joke for the sake of getting along.
Unlike the Kennedy assasination or the still fresh events of 911, I don't remember precisely where I was when I heard this news, but I do remember the day. As I sit here listening to Blue Suede Shoes I can still see the television stations trying hard to react to this news. A good friend of ours, Ed Wideman, had backed up Elvis as part of the Toronto based Laurie Bower Singers at the famous Aloha from Hawaii concert in 1973. This concert was the very first ever broadcast around the world via satellite, another first for the King. So when I turned on the TV to catch the news here was Ed Wideman, along with Toronto's most famous adopted Arkansan, Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins being challenged to come up with fresh stories every 60 seconds to feed the voracious appetite of Live TV.
Ed didn't look too comfortable but Ronnie is old soft shoes enough for ten people so the words and one liners flowed like mustard down your fave tie just before your sales meeting. They managed to do a good job while the news sunk in that the guy who really started it all may actually have assumed room temperature sitting (fittingly) on the throne in Graceland. Elvis wasn't just a great singer and a great performer. Long before Paris Hilton stained a diaper or a reputation the King invented star power and celebrity. I know he wasn't first with just about anything and a tip of the hat to Bill Haley ( of The Comets) and all of those black singers whose style Elvis covered but he put it all together in one package, stardom, movie star, rock and roll god, trophy wife, he practically invented bling, and along with all of this came the inevitable entourage and it's attendant sychophants bearing booze, broads and edge enhancing pharmecuticals.
It ended badly for the King but turned out pretty good for his heirs and anyone else who circled planet Elvis during the good times. Priscilla made out OK, I still don't want to talk about the whole grandaughter Micael Jackson thing and I think his dad made a pretty good living out of the estate. The King is always right up there in record sales every year. It is hard not to weep however when you listen to yet another radio interview with some schmuck who "sang with Elvis" and was his "close personal friend", and is appearing at the local Jack in The Box every Thursday evening. These things can make you hit the old RCA Victor a smack at times.
Good old Ed Wideman didn't last much longer then Elvis himself, not surviving a late night car crash that would have made Cronenberg spit up his milk. I like to think that Ed wouldn't have sullied his or Elvis's legacy with any tell all stories but we will never know. Ronnie generally has too much of the gentleman in him to be so foolish and is currently in yet another come back as spokesman for some flooring outfit opening a plant in Bolton this year, so I guess he will be too busy and in the chips enough to take part in the annual rite of remorse that takes place every year on this anniversary.
The Collingwood people have it right, Elvis lives there every summer and a lot of tinkers, tailors, bankers, bikers and soccer moms let it all hang out to Lawdy Miss Clawdy with abandon.
This is a good thing.
Wherever he is, I hope he is looking down at all of this while munching on a peanut butter and banana sandwich and giggling.
The King is Dead, and I miss him.
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