LAST CALL: My Happiness
Macomber, Shawn
l a s t c a l l My Happiness by Shawn Macomber he lamented. “I’ve never done anything last- Afew months before Elvis Aaron Presley shuffled off this mortal coil, he admitted to a close...
...You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away...
...The waiting area where the polite young man matteroffactly announced to receptionist Marion Keisker, “I don’t sound like nobody,” has been meticulously re- created...
...Visit Memphis on any given August 16, though, and you’ll see even suspicious minds relent against the power of that dream...
...The gauche sequin-and-tassel 1970s Elvises made up the largest contingent, perhaps because the requirements—chubby, pasty, self- consciously awkward—best fit the impersonating demographic...
...My wife and I briefly considered trekking toward Graceland, about a mile away, but waves of converging humanity provided a gauntlet insurmountable for two middling fans...
...Reflecting on Elvis’s legacy Bruce Springsteen once said, “It was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody’s ear, and somehow we all dreamed it...
...Cameras flashed...
...The cold postmodern intellect yearned to scoff at the mutton chop sideburns bouncing in unison as carefully comb-constructed ducktail hairdos went awry...
...Projected Elvis appeared and broke into “C.C...
...Ten raucous men three rows down raised plastic cups of beer and bellowed back like Vikings...
...l a s t c a l l My Happiness by Shawn Macomber he lamented...
...First things first: Yes, of course there were Elvis impersonators...
...it may as well have been Tokyo...
...In the face of the audience’s pure collective joy, my sarcastic ironic detachment suddenly wore like an out-of-style party hat...
...Lisa Marie and Priscilla were greeted as princess and queen...
...Norway...
...This past August I walked down Memphis, Tennessee’s famous Beale Street among the 75,000 who had turned out in a summer heat thick as warm water to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of a never-deposed King...
...Truth is, Presley had been profoundly wrong about his staying power...
...I’ve never done anything last- Afew months before Elvis Aaron Presley shuffled off this mortal coil, he admitted to a close friend fears of ultimate insignificance in the eyes of his fans...
...So we engaged the zeitgeist, first touring the packed-to-the-rafters Sun Studio, where in 1953 a painfully shy 18-year-old machinist named Elvis Presley paid $3.98 to cut a record of himself singing “My Happiness” for his momma— doubtless hoping to be discovered by Sun Records’ (no pun intended) kingmaker Sam Phillips as well...
...Finally the lights went down...
...During the segment dedicated to Elvis’s gospel recordings people held hands and wept in the aisles...
...The emcee insisted, “We’re all citizens of Elvis World...
...Songs from the early years had the audience hand-jiving and sock-hopping furiously...
...Yet colorfully photogenic as these extreme devotees may have been, the crowd was far more diverse than a costume party...
...At their turn Americans loudly proclaimed their rightful overrepresentation, but from the cacophony that arose when the emcee said, “Japan...
...To the uninitiated, the statement must reek of hyperbole...
...Rider,” enjoying a rapturous reception few living performers could likely elicit...
...They’re not going to remember me,” ing...
...1 0 2 t H e a M e R I c a n s P e c t a t o R J u l y / a u g u s t 2 0 0 8...
...the emcee shouted at the capacity crowd of 17,000...
...Truth is like the sun,” Presley once remarked...
...Young neo-rockabilly enthusiasts— cigarettes dangling with painstaking carelessness, white T-shirt sleeves rolled up to display King-themed tattoos—convivially cavorted with Southern belles in designer apparel and middle-aged salt-of-the-earth working-class folks sporting double-XL commemorative Elvis Week T-shirts and wide smiles...
...Giddy fans posed...
...The heart, however, swelled at the beauty of the intimate connection this man was able to forge, even from beyond the grave...
...Australians, Brits, Dutch, Koreans all responded similarly...
...Later we bought scalped tickets to Elvis in Concert, a show featuring projected images of Elvis performing on stage with live musicians from his old touring band...
...They fanned out like members of rival gangs—the young, dapper 1950s hep cat Elvises swaggered about while the ’68 comebackers hung back, struggling to look cool encased in that stifling black leather...
...The audience exchanged knowing smiles as Elvis barreled through songs from his movies, perhaps recalling his self-deprecating adage, “Only thing worse than watching a bad movie is being in one...
Vol. 41 • July 2008 • No. 6
