Had a bloated, doped-up Elvis not died on his bathroom’s shag carpet, gold pajama bottoms around his ankles, face-down in his own vomit, he would’ve turned 71 this Sunday. Though Seattle is a long way from Graceland, the King rolled through town during each of his three distinct career phases: ‘50s rock ‘n’ roller, ’60 movie star, and ‘70s touring machine.
His first Seattle appearance took place on September 1, 1957 at the old Sick’s Stadium. Following an afternoon concert at Tacoma’s Lincoln Bowl, Elvis played a 45-minute evening show before a crowd of 16,200, comprised mostly of screaming girls.
After his Army stint, Elvis spent much of the next decade starring in breezy cornball musicals, including the shot-in-Seattle It Happened at the World’s Fair. “The Space Needle rocks and the monorail rolls in an eye-popping riot of explosive hilarity,” boasts the trailer. The hilarity is thin, but the vivid, colorful footage of 1962 Seattle indeed pops eyes. (As recently mentioned, an unofficial, behind-the-scenes DVD is now available too.) As for Elvis, his performance was only a bit more enthused than how he appeared when then-Washington Governor Rossellini presented him with a ham.
Mr. Presley returned to the former World’s Fair site to play a few more concerts in the ‘70s. Thanks to these two fan sites, we can read set lists from these shows and marvel at his fabulous jumpsuits. For instance, during his November 12, 1970 concert at the Coliseum (now the Key Arena), we see him decked out in a white fringe suit and green macramé belt. At two April 29, 1973 concerts at the smaller Seattle Center Arena (now the unused Mercer Arts Arena), he wore the “Blue Swirl” suit for the afternoon show, and for the evening show, his “Egyptian Pharao [sic] suit” with “Red Flower suit belt.” Controversy surrounds his final Seattle appearance, an April 26, 1976 concert back at the Coliseum: Here it says he wore his “White Prehistoric Bird suit,” but here it says he wore his “Aztec (Dark Blue) Suit.”
In any case, he’d be dead within 16 months (we were eight years old when we heard the news on the car radio). Fifteen years later, the USPS let the public vote on which Elvis would grace a commemorative stamp -- the young, svelte, “Hound Dog” Elvis, or the old, fat, “Burning Love” Elvis. We chose the latter, ‘cause that’s the only Elvis we knew.
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What a disgraceful introduction to Elvis Presley's birthday anniversary! Elvis was loved by millions during his extraordinary life and even now decades after his tragic death.
The media world-wide will honour him. A few soul less hacks will make the usual gratuitous remarks. And privately blush.
Dear Sir,
I find your remarks concerning Elvis Presley most offensive. Elvis was the Greatest Singer/Entertainer ever and to use such expletives to describe his tragic death is puerile in the extreme. Elvis will be loved in a thousand years from now because he was sui generis.
The King is Dead - Long Live The King!
The article you wrote about Elvis is probably the dumbest, most ignorant and least researched piece I've ever read. Get a clue about the greatest entertainer and biggest star the world has ever known. Find out why he is the idol to Springsteen, the Beatles, Robert Plant, Bon Jovi and countless others and is in 4 hall of fames for his music. But last but not least, how about showing some respect for the man, after all, he never hurt anybody his whole life and unlike other stars, treated everybody, rich or poor, black or white, equally!
In his lifetime ELvis recorded trite meaningless songs and made films like the one mentioned.
"Elvis swinging Higher than a Space Needle.."
The early years were good but at the end Elvis had all the style of a fat, sweaty, drunken, doped-up pig in a Liberace costume.
The most die hard fan can't deny that Elvis was unsightly when he died yet they continue with the pretence that they wished he were still alive today.
Its the early years that everyone remembers before Col Parker turned ELvis a parody of himself.
Enjoyed reading about the Elvis and Seattle connection. Hard to imagine Elvis aged 71. He'd still have rocked I reckon.
TCP
Gary
What a disgraceful introduction to Elvis Presley's birthday anniversary! Elvis was loved by millions during his extraordinary life and even now decades after his tragic death.
The media world-wide will honour him. A few soul less hacks will make the usual gratuitous remarks. And privately blush.
Sanda, are you aware of the fact that Elvis is inducted into the Rock&roll, gospel and country hall of fames, so how you in your right mind make a statement like you did. It's people like you and that of the "journalist" who have no clue. Of course I wish he were alive today, why not. Did he ever do anything to hurt anybody? Why should he be victim of anybody's wrath given what he did for this world, just because of how he died. Didn't Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and countless of others self-destruct after just a couple of years at the top, our guy lasted twenty-two years and had nobody before him to learn from, so he wouldn't make the mistakes he made. Elvis himself used a famous saying when reading about other people who had personal troubles, "never criticize what you don't understand son, you've never walked a mile in that man's shoes". Perhaps, some people in this world should heed his advice before attacking him.
Sanda is like the Schmelvisers. Vultures that feed on the dead. Musicologists are studying Elvis. The International Conference on Elvis Presley at Mississippi University hosted by Dr Vernon Chadwick was the most publicised conference ever.
http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200601/1136567945.html
Dear Mr. Mandich,
Hi!! Happy New Year!! I hadn't had such a great time reading an article on Elvis Presley, for many years actually, until I read yours. Of course part of the "great fun" was derived from the non surprising fact that, with every detail you provided, my brain was already racking up so many ideas as to how to make you feel like the real loser you are.
I mean, only a loser - think about this Steve-, only a true loser would go out of his way to "study" ( your directing us to the various sites, without really doing the proper research, refers...) the so-called Elvis-Seattle connexion, or the connexion of anyone with any city, for that matter, by writing a an article whose opening sentences had little, or nothing to do with the subject matter which is, ater all, the anniversary of someone's birth.
The unvarnished truth is that most people, even the ones suffering from an inferiority complex similar to yours', would have saved all those nasty comments ( dying on the toilet, on top of his own vomit, etc...), for the anniversary of say, the death of someone they really despised, envied, knew little about, or a combination of any, or all of the above.
You referred us to a newspaper review of Elvis' Sick's Stadium concert in 1957, yet failed to mention that another person who also passed away similarily was drawn to rock ( the medium you admit being a fan of...), and provided an immense contribution to its development by just being there, that night.
That he was a 12 year old African-american, almost totally surrounded by the best of 16,000 white american females, also around his age, is neither here nor there. That someone with such an ear for music was in total awe at the sight and sound, as well as at the mercy of the total enrapturing musical power that was one Elvis Presley, is also not so unusual.
What is unusual, and unacceptable, is that you knew nothing about it yet you wrote about that concert. Have you ever visited, like hundreds of thousands of americans, Paul Allen's high-tech rock 'n' roll museum in Seattle? You may find some of its memorabilia enlightening, like Jimi Hendrix's drawings whilst attending the concert. Not only did he spend the entire evening looking, and drawing at his subject, as well as absorbing each and every song he heard, in his tool precision brain, but then he went on to write the entire set list in his school pad, for posterity...Posterity of the real kind, Steve
That is why, in part, Presley changed people, then the world of music and, to a certain extent, the world itself (after all, what on earth are you doing writing about someone who, 28 years ago, died "on his own vomit"), whilst people like Hendrix, who were trying to build upon the art of others, and expand on it, also end up being noted for their outstanding contributions, and make a mark on life, again, no matter how they face their maker.
By looking at your picture, and after reading your website, let alone after observing the kind of deplorable writing you immerse yourself into, I know you are one of those people who would continue going through life making little of yourself, at whatever you try to achieve.
People like you, frankly, will not ever become anyone, in any field of endeavour they choose, regardless of where, and how, they meet their maker.
Regards from Brazil
Jim Burrows
Hi Steve,
I take you're not an Elvis fan. Nor are you a very well informed, intelligent journalist. Let's just say your artical on Elvis would get most people fired from their jobs if they had performed in the same way. You are so typical of todays media....no substance, just around to get a reaction and be controversial. Everyone knows how Elvis died, give it a rest...it's boring. Good job attacking someone no longer around to defend himself, you are gutless (and clueless). By-the-way, the Elvis '70's stamp was from his 1973 concert in Hawaii, when he weighed 168 lbs. But, you wouldn't know that, would you. I demand you write a retraction...TODAY.
Fight the power by Public Enemy
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother **** him and John Wayne
Take a bow Steve. Only, you're not the first one who has "used" Elvis to get some attention and you won't be the last. Where's the creativity?
On behalf of Elvis Presley and his fans,who have a little more class:
Sincerely Yours,
To Whom It May Concern:
Walk a mile in my shoes.
Take the time to learn your crime.
History don’t ever lie,
Unless you see it with a blind eye.
Respect? Must give to get.
Don’t you know your manners yet?
Music is neither black nor white,
Philosophy don’t stick with Plato,
I add, you add, just mix it up good ,
Nobody owns the air to the neighborhood.
He sings, we dance, the passion touches our soul.
It moves us, soothes us, forever to pursue us.
Listen if you will, just stand still, let it fill your heart. Surrender.
Pause, because his song is just insinuating,
The reason for rejuvenating.
Elvis is King, forget antagonizing,
You cannot win, with all your criticizin’,
Your attacks just swing a loop and storm your way,
But then again who are you anyway?
Sincerely Yours,
I now address Mr. Chuck D,
Who the heck is he?
No baby! You! Mean absolutely nothing to me,
Just a little nuisance Public Enemy…..
But who’s the real racist? You? Me? Or Elvis Presley?
Pot shots at colour, culture, gender, it’s all slander,
It’s all the same, you play a sad game.
Go ahead, ruin reputations to make yourself gracious,
He’s at the top, you’re at the bottom,
Not just by music, but of things that matter.
In your street, do you speak of brotherhood?
Really? You’re kiddin’ me? Enough of this dissin’me!
It’s not a black and white deal but an issue of truth,
Not an interpretation of your generation.
You stirred the pot and
Then went your way,
You took a drive to the lost highway,
To join the rest who took a stab and failed, to prevail,
Man! Without avail.
Elvis is King, forget antagonizing,
You cannot win, with all your criticizin’,
Your attacks just swing a loop and storm your way,
But then again who are you anyway?
Sincerely Yours,
Walk a mile in my shoes.
If you don’t, you lose.
The reason for my song is to spread love and joy,
No hidden and corrupt agenda, no political ploy.
Just sing it from the heart and make the words come alive!
No insults needed here, no cheap shots from the big shots,
Vegas slots give much more change then a twisted message with a selfish gain.
My success was counted one smile at a time,
There’s more reason to life than a rusted dime.
Give lots, take little and collect your due,
Sing a song from your heart and they’ll feel it too!
Sincerely Yours,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building!
No wait, just another rumour!
Some of you "commentators" should follow this guy's example:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060109/ap_on_fe_st/elvis_memorabilia
Matt Silvie.............Elvis:-) Schmeviser
The media in 2006 is very interested in Roy Turner's "Elvis's Homecoming to Tupelo 1956" Documentary. That's the lingering power Elvis's voice has!
Matt Silvie.............Elvis:-) Schmelviser
The media in 2006 is very interested in Roy Turner's "Elvis's Homecoming to Tupelo 1956" Documentary. That's the lingering power Elvis's voice has! Even here in Irelandtoo
If I knew what a Schmelviser was I'd happily admit to being one. As far as I can see its just a childish label that you stick on anyone who doesn't think the sun shines out of Elvis's ass.
If its supposed to be an insult I'll take it and wear it with pride.
"Sanda, are you aware of the fact that Elvis is inducted into the Rock&roll, gospel and country hall of fames"
Elvis was famous so hes in a meaningless hall of shame. Are you aware that Halls of fame mean nothing to no one?
Had Elvis physically died when he signed up and served his moronic country he'd still be in these halls of fame and we wouldn't have all the crap that came afterwards.
How can fans say they wish he were still alive today when they can't bear the spectacle of the drunken burger eating drug crazed wreck at the end? If he were alive today he'd be even fatter and more out of it than he was in 1978 or whenever it was he tried to eat his own tongue.
"It's people like you and that of the "journalist" who have no clue. Of course I wish he were alive today, why not. Did he ever do anything to hurt anybody? Why should he be victim of anybody's wrath given what he did for this world, just because of how he died. Didn't Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and countless of others self-destruct after just a couple of years at the top, our guy lasted twenty-two years and had nobody before him to learn from, so he wouldn't make the mistakes he made. Elvis himself used a famous saying when reading about other people who had personal troubles, "never criticize what you don't understand son, you've never walked a mile in that man's shoes". Perhaps, some people in this world should heed his advice before attacking him."
Clearly you do not have eyes and ears. You are so blind that you cannot see the truth thats in front of you.
Wear the Schmelviser label with pride then. Your need to try and put Elvis down is now soooooo apparent to everyone. You of course in comparison have had a stupendous career:-) This will make you even more famous/infamous :-)
Just search Schmelviser on google.com interest in the word grows apace.