What happens when you celebrate Elvis Presley's 75th birthday in Nashville? Not much, apparently.
by Sean L. Maloney
Elvis is beside himself. Or more accurately, one Elvis impersonator is standing next to a much younger, shorter Elvis impersonator. There are also two age-appropriate, aesthetically accurate Priscilla impersonators in the lobby of the Loews Vanderbilt Plaza on Jan. 8, 2010, as well as a hound dog in a sequined jumpsuit complete with cape—and that's about it.
Maybe it's the snow. Maybe it's the fact that we're 200 miles east of Graceland. But somehow, 33 years after Elvis Aaron Presley died, there just doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm in Nashville for The King's 75th birthday.
If any Elvis excitement were to be found in Music City, presumably it would be here at Loews. The hotel sent out a press release offering itself up as Celebration Central for die-hard Elvis fans — at least those who wanted to honor the King in Nashville rather than in Memphis, either by design or confusion. Check in dressed as Elvis or Priscilla, and you'd get $75 off your bill; wear blue suede shoes, and the hotel bar would serve you a cocktail for 75 cents.
But where Elvis worshipping was concerned, it was strictly the end of Lonely Street. People ducked in out of the cold, all right, but they were headed elsewhere: off to a wedding-photography seminar, or the big NASCAR Sound & Speed fest setting up downtown. Except for the ringers in the lobby, we didn't see any ersatz Elvises or pseudonymous Priscillas. Nor did we see anybody spring for the "Elvis in Music City" package: two nights along with a recording session in Studio B (limo included), peanut-butter-and-banana-sandwich cooking lessons, an iPod loaded with Elvis songs and a plethora of King-sized amenities — all for $3,975. Hey, it includes dinner at Jack's Bar-B-Que.
Some folks were trying their best to honor the day, but the results were mixed — something you could say for most of Elvis' entanglements with our fair city. It's easy for rock 'n' roll purists to say that the moment Elvis got to the RCA Victor studio on McGavock Street, he traded his soul for a shot at pop stardom — that he traded in his cool, adventurous side for a big paycheck. But only a chump believes it. Everyone knows that Elvis didn't really start to suck until he got back from the Army, and by that point RCA had moved to the Music Row location that would eventually be bronzed and put on display to bilk tourists.
And yet even Vegas-era apologists are more likely to stick up for his soul-oriented Memphis recordings over, say, Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old), the 1971 album he recorded in our backyard. If you love the man's work as a vocalist, Elvis Country is your album — but if you're looking for the icon in black leather or white bell bottoms, the upstart who ruptured the century, that man never entered the building for those sessions, much less left it. And however much you may love that bootleg of the MTSU show in '75, you know in your heart of hearts that it doesn't really hold a candle to 1997's live LP An Afternoon at the Garden. (OK, it's better than 1972's As Recorded at Madison Square Garden — but that's some seriously nerdy hair-splitting, since both Garden shows were taped the same day in 1972.)
Sitting in Loews' lobby, we just had to wonder what the King's lasting impact really is. Just to add malaise to maladjustment, last week happened to be the 30th anniversary of The Clash's London Calling, with its Presley-parodying cover that tried literally and figuratively to smash the King's legacy. That's right: The young whippersnappers who took Elvis to task for being an old, bloated satire of his former self are now old men too — or dead, in Clash singer Joe Strummer's case. In today's pop music landscape — where technology has managed to eliminate the last vestiges of artistry — it's tough to see where Elvis ever really mattered.
Do the kids give a shit about Elvis? Does Elvis have any influence beyond the legacy of Colonel Tom's questionable business practices and their adoption as contemporary industry standards? Did Elvis in fact ruin music by being such an unstoppable force for so long, showing rockers how to become irrelevant careerists? Would he have done the same if he had kept recording in Memphis? (And while we're asking all this stuff, regarding the pair of Kings in the lobby, shouldn't you have to look or sound like Elvis to be a professional Elvis impersonator? Surely the ability to buy similar-looking clothes can't be the only qualification.)
These and other questions fill our thoughts as customers drift through the lobby of the Loews Vanderbilt hotel, obviously in town for anything but Elvis' 75th birthday. Some stop to take pictures of the young-old short-tall pair of vaguely Elvis-looking dudes. The video loop of Elvis' greatest hits starts its third cycle, and the snow keeps coming down. And so Nashville celebrates the nativity of the King of Rock 'n' Roll — with bitter cold, cheap costumes and a dog in a sequined jumpsuit. At least the dog's got a cape — for authenticity, in case that sort of thing still matters.
Email editor@nashvillescene.com.
Comments (2)
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Elvis Presley was, and remains, the Greatest Entertainer/Singer of all-time. He was the complete package - he had the talent, the voice, the looks, the charisma, the moves, could act well when given a decent script and was extremely humble with it. Further, he could, and did, sing in virtually every musical genre available to him. Of course, Elvis was more than just an entertainer but quite an historical figure. it was he alone who broke down social and cultural barriers in 1950's U.S.A. making it easier for all entertainers who followed in his footsteps. He paved the way for the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. martin Luther King in the 1960's. Elvis remains the biggest record seller of all-time worldwide and his voice and image are everywhere, apart from U.S.A. radio stations and therein lies the main problem. Radio stations are not playing Elvis' music and that, in my opinion, is extremely unfair. The U.S. Government should put a stop to the obvious bias taking place with regard to airplay. Whatever, there will never be another like him and he was truly sui generis.
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All the writer does is prove that all of the Elvis fans went to Memphis where they had one of the biggest and best birthday celebrations ever. When you can go to Graceland to celebrate the King's 75th why would you go to Nashville...duh! Really worthless and irrelevant article, but that is what passes as reporting these days. We just celebrated the birthday...I am thirty four and my friend is in her 20's...Elvis still rocks, peace out!
