With the anniversary of Elvis Presley's passing this week, it made me do a little thinking back on the ol' King. If you grew up while he was still alive, it was impossible not to know who he was and for him to influence you in some kinda way. I never considered myself a big fan over the years, maybe nodding to his Sun Records stuff. But as I looked back, I guess I was more of a fan than I let on (even to myself). At 14, I decided (with a friend who did the same) to take the plunge and get my 6 albums for a penny (naturally, we blew off the rest of the agreement) from the RCA Record Club. 2 of the records I ordered were Elvis records, including a double greatest hits one. Not long after, Elvis passed away. Bummer but, I wasn't in mourning or anything like that. I was too busy trying to get my musical tastes and hipness on track (success at the time ranging from moderate to really? You bought that?). I did however manage to get my hands on a Elvis memorial issue of Country Music magazine from 1977 (which I still have). The Elvis portion of the record collection stopped there however, becoming an early casualty of my discovery of used record stores and the concept of the trade in (my Metal records of the time went too). Many years passed which I considered Elvis unhip for my tastes, even though respect for his place in history remained. I eventually found myself softening on the subject a bit later in life. How could you deny the stuff he did on Sun Records? Even just the guitar playing of Scotty Moore? When alla the musicians you really admire are pointing to Elvis and his music (and not just the mere image and rebellion factor), it's kinda hard to dismiss him. So, while not everything he did captures my tastes still, there's much more finding it's way into my collection than there use to. Cruising through the Elvis display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they had a screen up that played 'Elvis On Tour' from 1972. We caught part of it the first day and I was flat out mesmerized by this clip of Elvis backstage running through this song with his back up singers;
Two days later, we came back and sat on a hard metal bench for 90 minutes and watched the whole film. Treats like the above clip and seeing James Burton on stage made it worth the back pain...
