In the eighth grade I was voted "Person Most Likely to Succeed Elvis". In part this great honour was given because I had all the girls' (moms) swooning with "Can't Help Falling In Love" at the year-end concert in the gym at my small farming community elementary school.
In part it was the sideburns. They weren't really sideburns, I just had really shaggy seventies-kid hair and the kids in my class hated me (because their moms loved me). To retaliate and establish my coolness for all time I tormented the foreign kid about his unholy relationship with his sister until he was driven insane and attacked me. It was completely unfair of me, and I deserved the shots he got in on me before the teachers broke it up. I just needed someone else to be weirder than I was for the little redneck kids' amusement; I wanted to be a big fish, even if it was in the world's smallest pond.
Anyway, in my own head for a while I was all about the King, his music, his movies, biopics, fictionalizations of his life. I've seen "Heartbreak Hotel". Twice. And right now what stands out for me is the scene in "Great Balls of Fire" in which a newly-enlisted Elvis stops by Sun Records where Jerry Lee Lewis is recording hits and he says: "Take it all."
While I'm on vacation this week please don't let Jerry Lee take it all. He is the foreign kid.
I'll be back, with a leather jacket and a tousled look.
19 comments:
Hopefully you won't be like Elvis, and kick the bucket while sitting on the toilet.
last fourth of july we went to a party on the military base in town. they had a turkish elvis impersonator who had to be the worst elvis i have ever seen. and i am including my mom's cousin, marion, who has bedazzled all his undershirts with fake gemstones and now wears them everywhere he goes and still lives with his mom in that comparison. i'm just saying...
"Can't Help Falling In Love" is like crack for women. I swear to God. I almost married a stranger at a U2 concert when, during the encore, he leaned over and sang it in my ear. I'm sure we would have been very happy together.
Also, I would have come here and fawned all over you in your absence. Alas...
Where are you and BHJ going? I hear Graceland is nice this time of year.
Dont know of you read a post I wrote the other week, but seriosuly I was at an Elvis Rest stop in middel of the Israeli Desert. An elvis diner, 20 foot elvis statue and all. What it was doing there- we will never know.
oh, and I'm not the worst speller in the world, I just never pay attention to what I write after hitting send.
hopefully you will not o.d like Elvis. It would be a shame if Erin grew up like Lisa Marie.
lay off the biscuits and gravy while your at it...
Leather jackets are hot.
Literally.
Elvis had the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich thing right; they are delicious.
I always wondered how Ann Margaret knew her part in the duet she sings with Elvis in "Viva Las Vegas". She only just met him and spends half the scene on the other side of the door.
I still remember the first time I played an Elvis cd for my daughter and she asked me if we could go see him in concert. =D I have nearly every Elvis movie he's ever made.
Have a great vacation!
My husband's mom speaks of Elvis with this sort of sad reverence..like he was a member of the family that passed or something. JfK..not so much, but Elvis! Oh, THAT was beyond tragic. My husband remembers coming home and her laying on floor balling and sobbing for days.
I can only wonder if Elvis' appeal would have increased or decreased with the addition of a baby backpack. And I suspect you're inclined to believe it's the former. :)
As long as we are making embarrassing sideburn disclosures I will fess up to rockin' very realistic 90210 burns in the early nineties.
If you were most likely to be Elvis, then I was most likely to be...hmmm....Buckethead? Or Chubby Checker.
As long as you don't come back in a white jumpsuit.
Unless it's a Speed Racer jumpsuit.
Did you know that Speed Racer was modeled after Elvis in Viva Las Vegas?
True.
Have a good one!
Just don't be mean to the foreign kids anymore, K? You're a flashy enough fishy! We'll come back. Have fun wherever you roam.
Where you goin , Graceland ? I'm happy to say I've been there and that place is frightening.
Ah, back from vacation, and time to catch up on these faithful comments....
badass geek: Step one, enjoy PB&B sandwiches, check. Uh-oh.
natalie: that is awesome. pure awesome.
FADKOG: Ah, you'll make it up to me somehow.
whit: ah, he's not invited on this one.
gemini girl: Israeli-Elvis is going to be the name of my new band.
swirl girl: I love me some biscuits and gravy...
mamatulip: ah, noted. I'm going to go with polyester then.
trooper thorn: that's very astute. It's like when all the townspeople in "The Music Man" know all the words to "Trouble". I don't believe that for a second.
heather: I caught my daughter rapt at the Wiggles; I'm going to start blasting the King ASAP.
that girl: that's very sad.
bretcb: totally. Backpacking Elvis? Look out girls...
mike: I don't know if I can forgive that one.
aunt becky: I'm embarassed: I have no idea who Buckethead is.
jozet: wow. that comment was fantastic. Like, I can have a jumpsuit, as long as it's based on Elvis and not worn by Elvis...that blows my mind a little.
womaninawindow: yeah, I need to stop picking on people. It usually just backfires. I've never been a good fighter.
worker mommy: we went to San Diego and it was awesome. Except for the attempt to leave.
All this vacation ain't vacationin' me. Are you at least staying in the Heartbreak Hotel?
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