Was schreiben andere Stars über Elvis

Da ich heute frei habe, fing ich an in einem Buch zu lesen, welches Interviews mit Billy Wilder über seine Filme enthält. Überraschenderweise bin ich sogar auf eine kurzen Abschnitt gestoßen, in welchem Wilder über Elvis spricht, was mich dazu veranlasst, diesen Thread zu eröffnen, den ich lange schon mal anfangen wollte. Ich liebe Autobiographien von Künstlern, die mich interessieren und nicht selten stößt man bei der Lektüre auf Zitate über Elvis. Manche schmeichelhaft, mache weniger nett.

Lange Rede, kurzer Sinn: hier sollen Zitate über Elvis rein – am besten mit Quellenangabe.

Billy Wilder -> Regisseur

Noch ein Hinweis vorne weg: Wilder erzählt vorher, dass er weder mit Rock’n’Roll, Hip-Hop, MTV usw. etwas anfangen kann.

Frage: Did you ever meet Elvis Presley, working in those studios?

Wilder: Presley, no, Presley was working then, I think it was a picture at Paramount, but I did not like Presley. However, nowadays, I am forced to remember that great icon. [A humorous look of resignation from Mr. Wilder]

Quelle: Conversation with Wilder von Cameron Crowe


Gene Simmons -> Kiss

I was oblivious to Elvis. I never saw him on television, so in some sense he didn’t really exist for me, and while I was vaguely aware of him as a recording artist, I didn’t think much of him. He was just another one of those guys who sang, and besides “Hound dog” and “Jailhouse rock” it really wasn’t the kind of music I was interested in. It was crooning and it was too smooth.

I had read that Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, had actually banned Elvis’s hips from television. It wasn’t the network that did that – it was Parker. Because he wanted people to make a to-do about it, he manipulated the media and the audience. We were trying something similar.

Quelle: Kiss and make-up von Gene Simmons


Andy Summers -> The Police

Sometimes I go over to Carl Hollings’s house. Carl is an Elvis fan, and that is the only music he will play or listen to, anyone who doesn’t like Presley gets a bloody nose for lack of respect. I prefer to stay on Carls’s good side, and we sprawl on a fake fur rag […] and croak along with the El, singing “Teddy bear” or “Heartbreak hotel”. Other times, in a more pensive mood or depressed by homework, we get serious and play his EP “Peace in the valley”, El’s spiritual side coming through in the old-style-hymns he sings with such sincerity.

1980. Buffalo, […] Memphis. Being rock historians, we [Sting, Copeland, Summers] know that Elvis was born just down the road from Memphis in Tupelo, Mississippi, and we have to pay homage. We rent a car and drive south to Tupelo. As you enter the small township, it is as if you have come to a weird religious site. Signs, pictures, and messages line the side of the road with the kind of devotion to El that normally is reserved for Jesus. […] There are arrows pointing to the birthplace of the King just down the road apiece, and in three minutes flat we are outside the miniscule shack where he was born. […] It can truly be described as humble, but knowing that from this small patch arose greatness we are reverent. We stand in silence for a few minutes and feel the vibes – my mind drifts back to the shag rug of Carl Hollings’s mum, and the King crooning “Teddy bear” – there’s a lot of love in the shack. Sighing, we leave and begin the drive back into Memphis without speaking, just pulling over once to get burger or six in honor of the King.

Quelle: One train later von Andy Summers


George Harrison -> The Beatles

We had felt cocky and certain but when Epstein [Beatles Manager] said “you’re going to be bigger than Elvis”, we thought “[…] I doubt that”. That seemed outrageous yet he did have the right attitude.

Within music I was fortunate enough to meet […] and know Elvis and Little Richard and Fats Domino, and it’s always been a case of meeting the people who are the best in their own field […].

Quelle: I – Me – Mine von George Harrison


Paul McCartney -> The Beatles

Elvis was top of the list, he was the ultimate groove. We didn’t know he was taking it off blues, we thought it was him. We just heard Elvis singing “Love me tender”, didn’t know anyone else had ever done it. Or “That’s alright mama”, or “Hound dog”. It just added to his legend: How does he think of these things! And he was a great looking guy with sideburns. We fell in love with him. Not in any sexual way, just pure…religious more than sexual. He was brilliant. Until he went in the army.[…] He went into films and I never got off on him again. But that first period is etched in my mind. I love all the records before the army

Noch ein Hinweis vorne weg: McCartney spricht hier über den Remix von Little less conversation.

I start off by digging my heels in saying: “Oh you should never do that to Elvis or the Beatles or the Stones. They’re pure and should remain like that”. But there’s an argument that the young kids coming up […] and go “Who’s that? It was Elvis? Who is he? It sounds incredible but there are young people who don’t know who Elvis is and who the Beatles are […].The point being, you could argue it’s a good thing, just to get people introduced.

Quelle: Conversations with McCartney von Paul Du Noyer


Marlon Brando -> Schauspieler

Ich finde es lächerlich, dass unsere Regierung eine Briefmarke mit dem Konterfei von Elvis Presley herausgebracht hat, obwohl er an einer Überdosis gestorben ist. Seine Fans erwähnen das nie, weil sie den Mythos nicht zerstören wollen. Sie ignorieren die Tatsache, dass er drogenabhängig war, und behaupten, er hätte den Rock’n’Roll erfunden, während er ihn in Wirklichkeit von der schwarzen Kultur übernommen hat; die Schwarzen haben schon lange so gesungen, bevor er auftauchte, ihre Musik kopierte und ein Star wurde.

Quelle: Mein Leben von Marlon Brando


Ronnie Spector -> The Ronettes

Hinweis: Ronnie Spector war mit Phil Spector verheiratet und sie beschreibt die Ehe mit ihm als eine schreckliche Erfahrung.

In 1969, Phil [Spector] flew me to Las Vegas to see Elvis Presley for my 26th birthday. Elvis was still in good shape then. He was making a comeback after doing shitty movies for about ten years, so he really cared about his stage act. I thought it was a great show, and I wanted to tell him so. But when Elvis invited us backstage afterwards, Phil hardly let me near the guy. Phil left me stranded in the hallway with his bodyguard while he pushed his way through the crowd to see Elvis. I was standing there, trying to peek through a crack in the dressing room door, when this beautiful young girl pops out […] I knew she had to be Priscilla Presley. “Oh hi,” she said, talking like we were old friends. “what are you doing out there? Come on in, Elvis is dying to meet you” She grabbed my hand and led me through the crowd. I could tell she was shy, but Priscilla didn’t seem to have any trouble talking to me. “You know,” she said […] “ you are really pretty.” I was really touched. I don’t know why she was so sweet to me, but I’ve never forgotten it. Priscilla dragged me right up past Phil to Elvis, who seemed even more shy than she was. “I’m pleased to meet you” he said, and that was all I heard before Phil grabbed my arm and started dragging me away. I guess Elvis had looked at me a second or two longer than Phil thought was proper.

I still remember the day we did that song – August 16, 1977 – because that was the day Elvis died right down the road in Memphis. […] I was in the studio with Chips Moman and a lot of other musicians who’d works with Elvis. But no one even told us what happened until after the session. […] then Steven gave me a ride back to my hotel. That’s when he told me Elvis had been found dead[…] I would have told you sooner”, he said “But a lot of those guys in the studio knew Elvis, and I wasn’t sure how the’d take the news.[…] Steve was right. Everyone was pretty shaken up – even me.

Quelle: Be my baby von Ronnie Spector

Dean Martin -> Schauspieler

Hinweis: Deana Martin, aus deren Autobiografie die folgenden Auszüge stammen, ist eine der Töchter von Dean Martin.

A few years later in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of speaking candidly with Elvis. As a young lady, I was thrilled when he told me: “I love your dad. You know, they call me the King of Rock’n’Roll, but your dad…he’s the King of cool. Some of the most precious mementos are the cute telegrams and letters that Elvis sent to dad.

[Everybody loves somebody sometimes] went straight to the top of the charts, knocking the Beatles “A hard days night” off the number one spot. When dad heard the news of its success, he sent Elvis Presley a telegram that read, “If you can’t handle the Beatles, I’ll do it for you, pally”

Quelle: Dean Martin through his daughters eyes von Deana Martin

Schöne Thread-Idee.

Es war Parker nicht Ed, der Elvis im TV von der Hüfte aufwärts filmen ließ?

Gewiss konnte Parker den TV Verantwortlichen nichts vorschreiben, aber nur weil ein Prominenter irgend etwas glaubt, muss es ja auch nicht stimmen, zumal die Informationen nicht selten aus Zeitungen von bescheidener Qualität stammen dürften oder man hat irgend etwas falsch in Erinnerung. Die hier aufgeführten Stars kannten Elvis nicht persönlich oder nur oberflächlich.

Ich glaube nicht, dass es Parker war. Ich meine, mich zu erinnern, dass die Auflage von den TV-Verantwortlichen kam und zur Bedingung gemacht wurde. Wahrscheinlich war Parker damit einverstanden und hat es unterstützt, weil der ganze Auftritt sonst gecancelt worden wäre. Aber der erste Anstoß kam von Sullivan.

Weiterhin finde ich das Zitat von Brando shice. Elvis hat ihn so verehrt. Er ist vor Ehrfurcht fast ohnmächtig geworden, als er ihm in Hollywood persönlich begegnete - in einer Kantine zum Mittagessen. Und Brando hat sich dort auch anerkennend und höflich gezeigt.
Im Nachhinein sich an so einem Blödsinn hoch zu ziehen, das hat schon was.

Ich bewerte solche Aussagen nicht über, denn letztendlich sind die Wertungen, die diese Stars vornehmen auch nicht mehr wert als meine Meinung.

Das stimmt schon, aber die Meinung eines Promis wird in der Öffentlichkeit eher wahrgenommen. Und ein Marlon Brando war sicherlich in der Lage, Meinungen zu machen. Promis sollten ihren Einfluss nicht unterschätzen.

Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass Komplimente zwischen Künstlern auch heute noch nicht zwingend der tatsächlichen Meinung entsprechen. Im Film "This Is Elvis" hören wir, Elvis und der Col. hätten den Beatles für die US-Tour alles Gute gewünscht. Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass unser Mann nicht frei von Eifersucht auf den Beatles-Erfolg war. Und Ringo macht sich über Elvis lustig wie auch schon Johnny Cash.

Keith Richards und Elvis

Diese Zeile, „since my baby left me“, diese paar Takte – das war die Initialzündung. Der erste Rock’n’Roll meines Lebens. Eine radikal neue Art, einen Song zu singen und zu spielen, ein radikal neuer Sound. Ein karger, roher Klang ohne Kinkerlitzchen, ohne Geigen und Damenchor und Schmalz. Absolut beispiellos. Hier gab es nichts Überflüssiges, hier lagen die Wurzeln offen, die man immer irgendwie gespürt, aber nie gehört hatte. Dafür ziehe ich den Hut vor Elvis.
Zitat aus: Keith Richards: Life. Aus dem Englischen von Willi Winkler, Ulrich Thiele und Wolfgang Müller. Heyne Verlag, München. 736 Seiten

Jerry Lewis -> Schauspieler

About ten days later [nachdem Lewis und Dean ihre Partnerschaft beendet hatten], Elvis Presley started shooting his first movie, Love me tender, at Paramount Studios. In April, he’d signed a seven year deal with Hal Wallis, who knew as much about rock and roll as he did about comedy. Much like Martin and Lewis, Elvis – whom I got to know later when we were making movies on the same lot, and who was one of the nicest young men I ever met – would have a career that boomed because of – and in spite of – the lousy but very popular movies he made with Wallis.

America had someone new to scream over.

Quelle: Dean and me (A love story) von Jerry Lewis


Frank Sinatra -> Sänger

Hinweis: Zugegeben, das Zitat hier hat nur am Rande mit Elvis zu tun, aber ich finde es irgendwie schön und frage mich, wie würdevoll die Vermarktung von Elvis und seinem Image in den 80ern gewesen sein muss, dass Sinatra das als qualitativ hochwertig betrachtete.

When Dad established Sheffield in 1988, he cared relatively little about marketing revenue, though some added cash flow wouldn’t have hurt. In the tradition of John Wayne and Elvis Presley estates, the pioneers in celebrity licensing, he most wanted Sheffield to exert control over the use of is image and likeness. As he’d say to me more than once, “Please don’t let me wind up on a coffee mug”

Quelle: My father’s daughter von Tina Sinatra

Hat offensichtlich nicht geklappt





Pete Townshend -> The Who

I only liked Bill Halley for a few months. […] Jimpy […] and Elaine – with whom we had both fallen in love – started singing Elvis songs together. They lost me there. To my ear Elvis sounded corny, a drawling dope singing about dogs. I just didn’t get it. Unfortunately I had missed his first masterful releases like “That’s alright mama” and “Heartbreak hotel” and had come in directly on “Hound dog” and “Love me tender”, a song that made me want to vomit, especially when Jimpy and Elaine crooned it at on another. In his movies (apart from Jailhouse rock) Elvis confirmed my view of him as a chump.

Elvis was OK, but he was no Sinatra.

Quelle: Who I am von Pete Townshend


Don Felder -> The Eagles

I remember seeing Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday night in 1957 and going wild. He sang “Hound dog”, Heartbreak hotel”, and “Love me tender” and I was completely blown away. […] I’d never seen anybody move like that before.

We [The Eagles] were in Memphis in the summer of 1977 when […] We were supposed to be going over to Graceland to meet Elvis Presley. Someone had set it all up for us, and we were just waiting on a call. When it came, at almost midnight, it wasn’t what we’d hoped for. “The King isn’t feeling so good tonight”, one of his handlers told us. “He’d love to meet you next time you’re in town”[…]. Within a few weeks Elvis was dead. His years of drug abuse were finally too much for his heart. He was forty-two years old.

Quelle: Heaven and hell von Don Felder

Bruce Springsteen -> Sänger

Dieser Auszug ist länger, aber ich denke, dass er es wert ist, in seiner vollen Länge hier wiedergegeben zu werden. Selten hat jemand sinnlicher, aufregender und poetischer Elvis Wirkung in jenem magischen Jahr 1956 beschrieben als Springsteen.

In the beginning there was a great darkness upon the Earth. There was Christ­mas and your birthday but beyond that all was a black endless authoritarian void. There was nothing to look forward to, nothing to look back upon, no future, no history. lt was all a kid could do to make it to summer vacation.
Then, in a moment of light, blinding as a universe birthing a billion new suns, there was hope, sex, rhythm, excitement, possibility, a new way of seeing, of feeling, of thinking, of looking at your body, of combing your hair, of wearing your clothes, of moving and of living. There was a joy­ous demand made, a challenge, a way out of this dead-to-life world, this small-town grave with all the people I dearly loved and feared buried in it alongside of me.

THE BARRICADES HAVE BEEN STORMED!! A FREE­DOM SONG HAS BEEN SUNG!! THE BELLS OF LIBERTY HAVE RUNG!! AHERO HAS COME. THE OLD ORDER HAS BEEN OVER­THROWN! The teachers, the parents, the fools so sure they knew THE WAY-THE ONLY WAY-to build a life, to have an impact on things and to make a man or woman out of yourself, have been challenged. A HUMAN ATOM HAS JUST SPLIT THE WORLD IN TWO!
The small part of the world I inhabit has stumbled upon an irre­versible moment. Somewhere in between the mundane variety acts on a routine Sunday night in the year of our Lord 1956 ... THE REVO­LUTION HAS BEEN TELEVISED!! Right underneath the nose of the guardians of all that "IS," who, if they were aware of the powers they were about to unleash, would call out the national gestapo to SHUT THIS SHIT DOWN!! ... or ... SIGN IT UP QUICK!! As a matter of fact, the arbiter of public taste in circa-1950s USA, "MC'' ED SULLIVAN, was not initially going to let this Southern, sexually depraved hick sully the Ameri­can consciousness and his stage. Once the genie had been !et out of the bottle on national television ... IT WOULD BE OVER! THE NATION WOULD FOLD! And we the great unwashed, the powerless, the mar­ginalized, THE KIDS! ... would want ... MORE. More life, more love, more sex, more faith, more hope, more action, more truth, more power, more "get down in the gutter, spit on me, Jesus, teach my blind eyes to SEE" REAL-LIFE RELIGION!! Most of all, we would want more ROCK 'N' ROLL!!
The polite charade, the half-assed circus acts, the anemic singers, the bloodless (and often highly enjoyable) shit that passed for entertainment would be revealed for what it was.
In the end, ratings and money did the talking and Ed (actually, on El­vis's first appearance, Charles Laughton, covering for Ed, who'd been way­laid by a car accident) did the walking, right out to the center of his stage to cough out, "Ladies and gentlemen ... Elvis Presley." Seventy million 40 Americans that night were exposed to this hip-shaking human earthquake. A fearful nation was protected from itself by the CBS cameramen, who were told to shoot "the kid" only from the waist up. No money shots! No shifting, grinding, joyfully thrusting crotch shots. lt didn't matter. lt was all there in his eyes, his face, the face of a Saturday night jukebox Dionysus, the shimmying eyebrows and rocking band. A riot ensued. Women, young girls and many men, screaming for what the cameras refused to show, for what their very timidity confirmed and promised ... ANOTHER WORLD ... the one below your waist and above your heart ... a world that had been previously and rigorously denied was being PROVEN TO EXIST! lt was a world with all of us in it ... together ... all of us. HE HAD TO BE STOPPED!

And of course, in the end, he was stopped. But not before the money got made and the secret slipped out from between his lips and his hips that this, this life, this "everything" you know is a mere paper construction. You, my TV dinner-sucking, glazed-eyed friends, are living in: .. THE MATRIX ... and all you have to do to see the real world, God and Satan's glorious kingdom on Earth, all you have to do to taste real life is to risk being your true self ... to dare ... to watch ... to listen ... to all the late­night staticky-voiced deejays playing "race" records blowing in under the radar, shouting their tinny AM radio manifesto, their stations filled with poets, geniuses, rockers, bluesmen, preachers, philosopher kings, speak­ing to YOU from deep in the heart of your own soul. Their voices sing, "Listen ... listen to what this world is telling you, for it is calling for your love, your rage, your beauty, your sex, your energy, your rebellion ... because it needs YOU in order to remake itself. In order to be reborn into something else, something maybe better, more godly, more wonderful, it needs US."

This new world is a world of black and white. A place of freedom where the two most culturally powerful tribes in American society find common ground, pleasure and joy in each other's presence. Where they use a common language to speak with ... to BE with one another.

A "human being" proposed this, helped bring it to pass, a "boy," a nobody, a national disgrace, a joke, a gimmick, a down, a magician, a guitar man, a prophet, a visionary? Visionaries are a dime a dozen ... This was a man who didn'tsee it coming ... he WAS it coming, and without him, white America, you would not look or act or think the way you do.

A precursor of vast cultural change, a new kind of man, of modern human, blurring racial lines and gender lines and having ... FUN! ... FUN! ... the real kind. The life-blessing, wall-destroying, heart-changing, mind-opening bliss of a freer, more liberated existence. FUN ... it is waiting for you, Mr. and Mrs. Everyday American, and guess what? lt is your birthright.

A "man" did this. A "man" searching for something new. He willed it into existence. Elvis's great act of love rocked the country and was an early echo of the coming civil rights movement. He was the kind of new American whose "desires" would bring his goals to fruition. He was a singer, a guitar player who loved black musical culture, recognized its artistry, its mastery, its power, and yearned for intimacy with it. He served his nation in the army. He made some bad movies and a few good ones, threw away his talent, found it again, had a great comeback and, in true American fashion, died an untimely and garish death. He was not an "activist," not a John Brown, not a Martin Luther King Jr., not a Malcolm X. He was a showman, an entertainer, an imaginer of worlds, an unbelievable success, an embarrassing failure and a fount of modern action and ideas. Ideas that would soon change the shape and future of the nation. Ideas whose time had come, that challenged us to decide if we would all be attending a funeral of national destruction and decline or dancing while birthing the next part of the American story.

I don't know what his thoughts were on race. I don't know whether he thought about the broader implications of his actions. I do know this is what he did: lived a life he was driven to live and brought forth the truth that was within him and the possibilities within us. How many of us can say that?

Quelle: Born to run von Bruce Springsteen

Johnny Marr -> The Smiths

When I thought about the possibility of getting one from Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis Presley, I wasn’t goin to miss the opportunity. I set off to find Elvis’s old house and get me a jag. […] I got an old 1962 jaguar […] before going to find 306 Elvis Presley drive to pay my respects and cosmically seal the deal. I came to the little white house where Elvis had been born, and there was not a soul around. There was a swinging chair on the porch which I couldn’t resist. I sat on the porch and thought about where I was and I had to call Angie [seine Frau] to share the moment. I just hoped she would answer. She picked up the phone an in my best Elvis voice I started to sing, “Are you lonesome tonight?” She let me sing the whole song, and then Angie, who it has to be said is not an Elvis fan, replied, “You are such a dick”.

Quelle: Set the boy free von Johnny Marr

Der Text von Springsteen ist wirklich extrem kraftvoll. Irre gut.

Der erste Abschnitt der Aussage von Springsteen:

Ich wüsste so gerne, wie Elvis selbst das empfunden hat. Hatte er als Jugendlicher auch die Empfindung, in einer trostlosen Welt zu leben? Hat er bewusst in dieser damaligen Gesellschaft eine Bombe nach der anderen hoch gehen lassen? Hatte er insgeheim Freude an der Revolution?

So wie es immer wieder beschrieben wird, wäre die Antwort eher Nein. Es war alles ein Zufall. Seine Musik, seine Inszenierung, seine Wirkung - alles Zufall, womit er zur richtigen Zeit am richtigen Ort war. Er war viel zu brav für eine Revolte.
Aber war das wirklich so? Oder hatte er insgeheim diesen rebellischen Gedanken und hat sich erfreut an den Diskussionen, an dem Umbruch, an der Lawine, die er ausgelöst hat.

Wenn er doch einmal ungeschminkt erzählt hätte.... Wir haben leider nur glattpolierte Interviews, in denen dieser Eindruck von Unschuld bestätigt wird. Auch seine damalige Freundin June Juanico erzählt diesbezüglich nur, dass Elvis unter der schlechten Presse gelitten habe. Er kommt immer als ein eher wenig nachdenklicher Mensch herüber, der sich einfach nur gefreut hat, wenn er geliebt wird während er das tut, was er mag. Gottgläubig und naiv hat er die Welt revolutioniert. Stimmt das?

Angeblich war auch Priscilla bereits 1959 enttäuscht, dass Elvis überhaupt kein bisschen rebellisch war und seinem Image nicht gerecht wurde. Dass er einfach nur wollte, dass ihn alle lieb haben. Stimmt das? War er wirklich naiv und ist auf der Erfolgswelle weiter geschwommen und hat sich treiben lassen?
Leider deutet vieles darauf hin. Aber ich wüsste es gern von ihm selber.