OT sort of-more Elvis for you
leeharrisonline.com
During Elvis' wake at Graceland, a distraught James Brown appeared, asked for,
and was granted a private audience with Elvis' body. He stayed alone with the
body for 20 or so minutes. He was the only 'celebrity' that asked to do so.
Where was I? I had been to the hardware store on Forest Hill Avenue in Bon Air
here in Richmond with my dad, when we pulled up in our driveway one of my
neighbor friends was walking down the street and told us Elvis had died. My
Elvis 8-track tape of "Elvis' Gold records" had broken earlier in the day. I
remember watching the evening news, remember a specific shot of a DJ on a New
York station slip-cuing "Hound Dog" and thought that was cool. I also remember
thinking, for some odd reason, that it would be neat when Fats Domino died
because he was my favorite singer and seeing him on the news would be great.
When I was about 20 years old, my dad told me it wasn't a good idea to go into
music, because "look what happened to Elvis." I always thought that was funny.
It's easy to be flippant, ridicule Elvis, think of him as an image, icon, or
"cultural thief," but he was just a truck-driver who hit it big, couldn't
handle it, and killed himself with fried-banana sandwiches and pills. For a
few years scattered throughout his life he was fucking cool, and I doubt he'd
appreciate the way his family has continued to market his corpse.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/today/features_d335d443e0
91b01b00e7.html
THE DAY ELVIS DIED
Fans and nonfans alike remember how they heard the fateful news
Sonja Lewis - Staff
Friday, August 9, 2002
Some weren't even fans. Not then. Not really now. But they remember where they
were and what they were doing the day Elvis Presley died.
Life was interrupted for them that day, Aug. 16, 1977. The radio announcer cut
in during ''Dancing Queen" or ''Hotel California" to announce his death. The
images of fans racked with sobs and scaling the fence outside Graceland, the
singer's home in Memphis, were repeated over and over on television. Newspapers
put out special editions.
For Presley's truest fans, vacations ended. Children were left to scrounge up
their own dinners. Those who loved him wanted only to be with others who did.
And a whole new set of Elvis fans was born that day. They began to pay more
attention to the man known as the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Because for some
children and teenagers, it was the first time they saw their mothers, fathers,
cousins, aunts and uncles cry.
''I will always remember the day Elvis died, thanks to my mother. Mom and one
of her close friends had taken myself, my little brother and two little sisters
to the beach for our once-a-year vacation. . . . When Mom turned on the news
prior to bed and learned of Elvis' death, the tears started to flow. As the
oldest, I was 8 at the time, I really didn't get it. After a long night of TV
reports, and memories of past concerts shared by my mother and her friend,
decisions were made. When we kids awoke in the morning, our bags were packed
and we were going home several days early. Mom just couldn't stay at the beach
at a time like this. My brother and I were not just a little angry about the
whole situation. My sisters, age 3 and 2 at the time, just started crying. I
think they thought our pet had died.''
Ron Russell, 33, Decatur
''I was dishing out fries and wings at Kentucky Fried Chicken on Roswell Road.
I was working the window, which was just becoming popular. I was asking,
'regular or extra crispy?' Someone came through the window all distraught. All
of us inside had no idea what was going on. That's when we learned Elvis had
died. All the rest of the day the customers were somber."
Stacey Hader Epstein, 42, Sandy Springs
"I was 15 years old, vacationing in a small seaside town in New Brunswick,
Canada. . . . My two sisters (ages 16 and 14) and myself were quite bewildered
as we watched our mother cry when she heard the news. Elvis was the music of
her generation. Mum and her girlfriend sat around the radio all afternoon,
talking, remembering and boo-hooing. Her reaction to Elvis' death started a
lifelong love for me."
Adwynna MacKenzie, 40, Alpharetta
"I was 19 years old when Elvis died. I was driving to Encino in the San
Fernando Valley [in California\\] to pick up tickets for a Boz Scaggs concert.
It was raining lightly and overcast. I heard the announcement on the radio, and
I remember thinking it was a joke. Elvis had always been there for me from
childhood. He was the first man in my life. A little black girl in Detroit,
Mich., in love with Elvis Presley seems unlikely, but it was true. When I
arrived at Columbia Records to pick up the tickets, I asked, was it true? A
receptionist told me it was, and she looked away like she was embarrassed to
have such feeling for a man she would never know. I knew how she felt. A big
part of my childhood left me that day when that invincible, forever young,
girl-loving, bar-brawling-one-minute-singing-the-next country boy died."
Marilynn McNair, 44, Atlanta
"I was in Jacksonville, Fla., the day he died. I was working at Barnett Bank.
We came out for lunch about 1:30 p.m. and the Florida Times-Union had come out
with an extra, 'The King Is Dead.' It hit like very few things have hit me in
my life. Elvis had just done a show in Jacksonville six or seven weeks before.
He looked very bad, very heavy, but the voice was still there. He made a
special effort to sing to the fans seated above and behind him. . . . He ended
the show singing Paul Anka's 'My Way.' . . . The day Elvis died, a little bit
of me died also."
Jim Goodwin, 67, Atlanta
"I'll never forget that day. It was like the first member of my family dying.
I'd been to see 'Orca the Killer Whale' with Lee, my nephew, who was 12. We
drove back to the house and my dad was sitting there and had real bloodshot
eyes. I said, 'What's going on here?' Dad said, 'Don't you know? It's a
disaster.' I said, 'What, the president's been shot?' Dad said, 'No, worse than
that. Elvis.' My knees just buckled. I grabbed the counter. I went straight to
my room and closed the door and listened to Elvis music."
Russell Brock, 46, Atlanta
(Brock's e-mail address is Kingelvis76 --- the last time Brock saw him in
concert.)
"I was working my first on-air radio job at a station in Columbus, Ga., WDAK.
We had the old-fashioned Teletype machines hooked to the AP and UPI wires, and
occasionally an important story would move and bells would go off. I was used
to the bells, but not the explosion of bells that erupted at the announcement
that the King was gone. An important story rated three or four bells. If memory
serves, Elvis' death got 10. Hands shaking, I ripped off the wire copy, went
into the air studio and relayed the news. Calls of disbelief, then grief, began
pouring in and continued through the afternoon and evening."
Sandy (Weaver) Carmen, 44, Marietta
(Carmen is now the afternoon personality on Peach 94.9 radio.)
The late Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Lewis Grizzard, in his book
''Elvis Is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself," on the day Elvis died:
"I have never forgotten that day at the [Hilton Head, S.C.\\] beach. It was
like the day John Kennedy was killed. Like the day Martin Luther King was
killed. Like the day Robert Kennedy was killed. Like the day Nixon resigned.
"You never forget days like that, and you're never quite the same after them.
There have been so many days like that, it seems, for my generation --- the
Baby Boomers who were minding to our business of growing up when all hell broke
loose in the early sixties."
"I had just gotten the kids off to school. I was drinking a cup of coffee and
some Elvis music came on. Then the announcer came on and said he had died. I
just sat there. My life flashed in front of my face, my teen years, my 20s, my
30s. When he died, that was the first time --- even though my children were
growing older --- that I felt old. I guess I felt my age. You know that phrase,
'You can grow older, but never grow up?' Well, that was the day I grew up."
Frani Dawson, 58, Rome
AUG. 16, 1977
> Flags in Memphis were lowered to half-staff.
> Columnist Molly Ivins, then a reporter for The New York Times, hastily wrote
a front-page obituary. The paper had no canned obituary ready --- a common
practice for famous people. It could have been his age: Presley was only 42.
> Record stores all over the country were jammed as fans and collectors raced
to buy Presley albums. Eight million of his records would be sold over the next
five days.
> On a flight to Memphis, an airline captain announced over the public address
system, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now approaching Memphis. I don't know if
you have heard the bad news. Elvis Presley has passed away. Elvis Presley has
passed away."
> "CBS Evening News," then the highest-rated of the big three network news
programs, led with a story about the Panama Canal treaty instead of Presley'
death. It was crushed in the ratings.
> In Japan, music critics reportedly sobbed as they discussed Elvis.
> An untold number of fans from all over the country got into their cars,
hitched rides or flew to Memphis when they heard the news.
> Doctors and a medical examiner immediately denied that the singer's death was
drug-related. (It turned out that he died of an overdose of cocaine and
barbiturates, though it was officially claimed that he suffered from an
"irregular heartbeat.'')
> Florists were overwhelmed by people wanting to send flowers. Five tons of
flowers were flown in to fill the orders.
Sources: newspaper accounts and Internet research.
The Hundred Song Album Project: http://www.mp3.com/leeharris100
Online Diary, yada yada: http://www.leeharrisonline.com
JeePee
:-)
On 10 Aug 2002 06:51:12 GMT, juven...@aol.compople
(leeharrisonline.com) decided to surprise everyone by saying:
--
JeePee
See no evil, Hear no evil. Just be evil.
Favorite boots of the moment: 1999 Revisited, Did U Miss Me, ONA Buffalo
My Prince, Queen and Nirvana pages:
bootlegs, complete live overview and other stuff (last update 28-07-2002 mass update)
http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/jp.pluijgers/main.html
Posted by news://news.nb.nu
Sinistra
33 yr-old sayign that 25 years ago they were dishing out fries at a knetucky
fried chicken..a 43 yr0old that was 15 (how does 25 and 15 equal 43? i
udnerstand some others may havebee nquoted years ago.but if i was 15 25 years
ago todya.i oculdn't possibly be over 40 lol)
-Emani
"Seems to me that most people get along at a basic level. The exceptions seem
to be politicians, corporations and people on UseNet." -Gavin Smith
JeePee
decided to surprise everyone by saying:
>funny how these poel were talkign about where they were etc.but yet there are
>33 yr-old sayign that 25 years ago they were dishing out fries at a knetucky
>fried chicken..a 43 yr0old that was 15 (how does 25 and 15 equal 43? i
>udnerstand some others may havebee nquoted years ago.but if i was 15 25 years
>ago todya.i oculdn't possibly be over 40 lol)
Well, sometimes people lie about their age, and remove a few years. So
why not add them.