Advice To Elvis

I watched a DVD of Elvis Presley's three "Ed Sullivan" appearances, late 1956 and early 1957.

My advice to Elvis, if he's reading this, and if it's still relevant to his career in any way, is to cool it with the joking around while singing.

It really bugs me to have him goofing off while singing these great songs, even if it is over 50 years ago. It's very annoying.

As for Ed Sullivan himself, the guy was a stick in the mud. He's sort of scolding his audience for screaming, just like he did a few years later, it seems like, when he had the Beatles on.

With Elvis' first appearance on Ed's show, Ed was off, because he'd had a car accident, and so he had a few guest hosts over those weeks. The host on Elvis' week was Charles Laughton. He's not any more impressive than Ed.

Elvis For Everyone - 8 Track Tape

In packing for my big move I came across a couple of 8 track tape players. Three of them maybe. If there were three, I threw away two of them. And I kept the smallest one, a Radio Shack TR-8, I believe it's called.

I plugged it in tonight to see if it still worked and it did. It makes a lot of hissing, shushing noise, and a couple of the program LEDs don't light up. But the rest seems to work. (I didn't test out the recording features.)

I also threw away most of my 8 track tapes, a box full of them. But I kept the Elvis tapes that weren't literally moldy, as some of them were, and a few other tapes that are already packed.

This is the tape I tested the machine with tonight. "Elvis For Everyone!" by Elvis Presley, of course.

The first thing I notice is how simple the cover art is. This album had a pretty nice cover, with Elvis looking like he's standing at a stand that sells records, his own older albums. There's a cash register behind him and the Victor dog, Nipper. The definitely reduced matters for the tape!

The tape has "Stereo Effect Reprocessed from Monophonic."

The album goes fast, three songs per program. Some of the songs I don't hear much, including several: Your Cheatin' Heart, Summer Kisses, Winter Tears, Santa Lucia, Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers, etc. But listening to them, I liked them a lot, except for Santa Lucia, which is a drag.

Everything on the tape seemed OK till I got into program 4, then I was hearing some heavy bleeding from one of the other programs. That was distracting. I'm not sure what would suddenly cause that.

Elvis' Last Days

I have a book called "Elvis Up Close," subtitled, "In the words of those who knew him best." It always seems to be setting around and I pick it up once in a while.

Tonight I was sitting there, kind of depressed (about other things), and started looking through some of it. I went to the end, to the part where Elvis' friends had to deal with his death.

They had that weird sense of disbelief in many cases. I remember hearing it, sitting in my chair in the front of the TV, and feeling like crap that Elvis was dead. Which has been a long time ago.

He was only 42, and, as we were reminded earlier this year, would've been 75 in January. But he was looking terrible at the time and seemed to have other issues, including a bunch of medicine around.

It's tough to believe Elvis was so young and that had to happen. It's tough to think of Elvis being younger than me. I probably shouldn't have reminded myself he's dead.

I Started Clambake

Since it was Elvis' birthday yesterday, and since I was thinking of Elvis quite a bit, I started the movie "Clambake" this morning (for my 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening exercise sessions.)

It's a light breezy movie, the kind of Elvis movie I like. One thing I can barely stand (I can't stand it) is to see Elvis in some serious role where he's in trouble, being beat up, or threatened in any way. I want the harmless stuff where Elvis might have girl troubles, but that's it.

In "Clambake" he's trying out the life of an average poor guy, since he's very rich in the movie. He wants girls to love him for himself, not his money. So he trades lives with a poor guy. It's got a lot of good stuff in it. Plus, getting to look at Elvis ...

I'm looking forward to the next 10 minutes of it (tonight's session), because I'm going to see the Great Gildersleeve, who is like a doorman at the hotel that Elvis stays at.

Elvis On Tour

Happy 75th birthday to the King of Rock 'n' Roll!

I caught quite a bit of the film "Elvis On Tour" on TV tonight. I've heard of this film but for some unknown reason had never seen it. It was great.

It seems like there's never been anyone quite as magical as Elvis Presley.

I was just a kid when he came on the scene, but somehow -- since my parents were fans -- my first record album as youngster, 5 or so, was an Elvis album. I only had one record of my own and that was it.

Of course I've been a big fan ever since. And now he's been gone quite a while. And yet this would only be his 75th birthday. He still means a lot to me.

Elvis Presley - Guy Lambert - Adam Lambert

I was thinking Elvis' character in one of his movies was a Lambert, and it turns out that is right. In Double Trouble he was Guy Lambert. The illustration is from an Elvis Presley records and memorabilia guide (by Jerry Osborne), page 51.

I actually have the movie Double Trouble on DVD and could watch it again, but I don't think I will. The illustration's good enough. It's a pretty good movie though. Elvis is in Europe. It has something to do with secret agents and spies. And he leads a swinging rock band, at least they back him up. As the illustration indicates they're called "George and His G-Men." George is played by Monte Landis, an actor who later shows up in numerous episodes of The Monkees.

The point I'm making today -- and I do not think it is at all far-fetched -- is that Elvis playing a character named Guy Lambert was his way of endorsing Adam Lambert as the next American Idol. There's no other contestant who reminds us as much as Elvis. We could run down the list if you wanted. It's a small list at this point. Adam is the only one who fits the bill. And he's definitely the only Lambert.