Listening to some rockabilly last night, I dug up on YouTube one of Elvis’ performances, a rendition of “Trying to Get to You.”
There’s a feeling one has, from time to time, that might be phrased, “How come X got to be X?” How come Dickens got to be Dickens, the dominant novelist of the nineteenth century? How come Auden got to be Auden, his generation’s most visible poet? And, especially, how come Elvis got to be Elvis?
I mean, the man was a joke: So high on drug cocktails he walked like a scarcrow, his complexion plastic as he fumbled his way through this movies, his stage moves stolen from Tom Jones—Tom Jones, of all the hackneyed lounge singers—for his Las Vegas act.
And then, one stumbles across the answer. Oh, yeah, that’s why he gets to be who he was. The 1968 NBC special for Elvis was an odd event in many ways—perhaps most of all in how drugged-up nervous Elvis was: jumpy in his skin, needing the crowd to give him energy even while he hated being in front of them, uneasy with his stagey moves but incapable of not doing them. An utterly riveting, and disturbing, combination of stratospheric arrogance and titanic self-doubt.
But, still, when he did it right, he suddenly explodes as the best there ever was at those sorts of songs. His performance of “Trying to Get to You” is simply electrifying. Oh, yeah, that’s why he gets to be Elvis.
February 2nd, 2010 | 7:50 am
So… does this mean your an avid music lover?
February 2nd, 2010 | 12:13 pm
If you have not already done so, take a trip to Memphis. Go to the Mud Island Museum. Walk Beale St. and got to Sun Studios. Get a sense of the music that has traveled up and down the river, and how that confluence of music coming down out of Appalachia and up the river mixed and swirled in that time and place. There had to be an Elvis. If not him, than someone like him. And the tour of Graceland just completes it.
February 2nd, 2010 | 5:37 pm
All this matter of Elvis copying Tom Jones for his 1969 stage act is urban legend. He did attend a show in 1968, to get a feeling of how audiences were reacting in night clubs, in late 1968, and loved Jones’ delivery, and his guts, but there’s not a single of those early Vegas shows in which Elvis acts. or is in any way reminiscent of Jones. Besides, he had influenced Jones in the first place, 13 years earlier, so what he got from Jones was how crowds could be made to react to a particular performer, in the late sixties, as he had not performed live since 1961. All one has to do to be convinced is to see, and hear, Presley’s shows in 1969, of which there are scores of bootlegs, and even 8 mm clips, all available on youtube, to come to the realization that Presley was his own man, even in 1969, and all the way till his tragic end.
February 2nd, 2010 | 7:05 pm
Mr. Barrows, what you say about Elvis not copying Tom Jones may be true. I have no opinion on the matter. But when you say “Elvis was his own man” surely you mean to say “Elvis was his own man except when he was being dominated by Col. Parker.” No?
February 2nd, 2010 | 7:31 pm
Elvis got to be Elvis because he had every single ingrediant that ended up defining what rock ‘n’ roll was. It wasn’t just about the music, if that wasn’t enough. It was about having the coolest look, the coolest clothes, the cars, the charm the influence, and the charisma. That was what made up rock ‘n’ roll and Elvis just happened to have every single one of those ingrediants in abundance. Others had one or two, but Elvis had them all.
February 3rd, 2010 | 12:43 pm
It is a pretty well-known fact Tom and Elvis became friends as soon as Tom hit these shores. It was an ongoing friendship, with each singer admiring the singing traits of the other. When Elvis decided to go to Vegas, he did go to see Tom quite often and really liked his onstage charisma. Each singer has their own fantastic singing styles, and no doubt each of them took on some similar qualities of the other. I am sure Elvis acquired some new moves when he came to Vegas as he was trying to bring something different to his performances.
February 5th, 2010 | 8:44 am
I always thought that Elvis had a good, indeed charming, voice but lacked one key ingredient, e.g. rhythm.
For me he never, ever, even when singing beautifully (and he could do that…at times), looked like he was in sync with the rhythm of the music.
That’s something that just comes naturally, like playing guitar by ear, and Elvis just lacked it.
I always felt sorry for him…all that money and not a clue.
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