The Myth of Fat Elvis

History has been merciless to Elvis Presley. Last impressions are typically the long-lasting ones, and our remaining influence of Elvis is the “Fat Elvis” of the Seventies: a sweaty, blubbery shell of his former self, spaced out on capsules in his gaudy Elvis match as he butchers his tune catalog on a Las Vegas degree. This influence is correct for the latter years of his life, however it isn’t always a whole one.

The Elvis of the Seventies — mainly the early Seventies — became an innovator onstage. Invigorated with the aid of using his lovely 1968 TV special, Elvis had again to stay acting after a prolonged layoff, even as he churned out terrible films for maximum of the 1960s. He became hungry. He desired to experience the warmth and thrill of connecting with an target target market in character. In Las Vegas, he located what he became searching for. But Elvis didn’t simply play Las Vegas. He modified Las Vegas.

By the time Elvis got here along, Las Vegas became suffering for relevance with more youthful audiences. The town became too rectangular for current rock stars. And being too rectangular for rock and roll became a huge hassle withinside the post-Beatles era. Sure, Las Vegas might usually appeal to hard-middle gamblers. But the old-defend stars consisting of Frank Sinatra, who supplied important amusement for the gamblers, have been fading.

And then Elvis hit town. Talk approximately proper location and proper time. Elvis rescued Las Vegas as a holiday vacation spot and an epicenter for amusement. He didn’t simply parachute out of the sky and play songs like a rustic rube that many humans notion he became, either. He hand-picked his band right all the way down to his back-up singers (along with Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mother).

Elvis being Elvis, he additionally imported an orchestra to fill out the massive degree he became approximately to name his domestic for 2 performances for weeks at a stretch on the International Hotel (which might end up the Las Vegas Hilton). He instructed them what sound he desired, organized the display the manner he desired it, and rehearsed the band till they sounded as electric powered as he felt. As he rehearsed, he wore weights round his ankles and wrists to construct his stamina.

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Elvis additionally did his homework. He studied Tom Jones — with the aid of using now a dynamic big name of the Strip — and discovered a few hints for prevailing over Las Vegas, consisting of the use of his frame like a weapon. In the 1950s, Elvis had taught the arena the energy of swiveling your hips onstage, however it became a protracted manner from the Louisiana Hayride to Las Vegas, a degree in which he’d in reality flopped while he performed the New Frontier Hotel in 1956. He’d in no way finished night time after night time on a degree as massive as the only he became going to play on the International.

He didn’t need to take his target target market down reminiscence lane, either. Now in his 30s, he became getting on in years with the aid of using rock requirements of the time. His musical instincts instructed him he’d want to play current songs to be relevant — however they had to sound like Elvis songs. He wasn’t going to make a idiot of himself as Frank Sinatra had performed withinside the past due 1960s, seeking to adapt his voice to rock songs that made him sound even greater out of contact and a chunk desperate.

He accurately selected clean songs that sounded undying, consisting of the swamp funk of “Polk Salad Annie” and “Proud Mary,” in addition to songs he’d simply recorded in Memphis, consisting of “Suspicious Minds” and “In the Ghetto” (which might, of course, end up hits).

In August 1969, he went onstage and absolutely modified everything — perhaps now no longer on the size he as soon as did withinside the 1950s, however in a huge sufficient manner to form the destiny of a town. No one had added a rock-and-roll display to Las Vegas like he did. And the critics cherished what they noticed and heard.

Richard Goldstein, writing in The New York Times, stated that seeing Elvis “felt like getting hit withinside the face with a bucket of melted ice. He regarded so undying up there, so constant.” Ellen Willis wrote withinside the New Yorker, “Presley got here on and right away shook up all my expectancies and preconceived categories.” Their reactions have been typical. Elvis became a smash.

Elvis caught round for plenty years, and into the early Seventies, he delicate his act, incorporating greater degree actions (consisting of karate chops) and songs. But he didn’t simply play Las Vegas. He transcended it. Frank Sinatra have been a legend in Las Vegas, however he became for the gamblers. Elvis became so huge he attracted folks that got here to look him first and foremost. The amusement enterprise noticed: in place of touring, a celebrity ought to live installed one place and carry out for lovers who got here to the big name. And so, the present day residency became born. Over the years, artists consisting of Elton John and Lady Gaga might make fortunes off residencies.

Elvis paved the manner for them. He opened the door for Paula Abdul, Aerosmith, Christina Aguilera, Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, Cher, Foreigner, Billy Idol, Journey, the Righteous Brothers, David Lee Roth, Santana, Gwen Stefani, Sting, Shania Twain, and Keith Urban, all whom, along side Lady Gaga, are marketing and marketing Las Vegas residencies as of this writing. These getting old stars, like Elvis earlier than them, are searching for relevance with the aid of using the use of Las Vegas residencies to make a grand announcement approximately their with the aid of using-now widely known and storied careers.

They might not be growing new tune, however they are able to draw upon deep catalogs to remind lovers why they mattered withinside the first location (not like Elvis, who became growing new tune at some stage in his Las Vegas years). In addition, Elvis additionally arguably opened the door for highly famous indicates consisting of the Cirque du Soleil “Love” tribute to the Beatles, which might end up sights in and of themselves in place of a second-tier opportunity to gambling.

As Richard Zoglin, creator of Elvis in Vegas, wrote in The New York Times, “Elvis added some thing new to Las Vegas: now no longer an intimate, Rat Pack-fashion nightclub display, however a huge rock-live performance extravaganza. He confirmed that rock ’n’ roll (and usa and R&B too) ought to paintings at the huge Vegas degree. And he added in a brand new sort of target target market: now no longer the Vegas regulars and excessive rollers, however a broader, greater middle-American crowd: lady lovers who had screamed for Elvis as teenagers, households who made Elvis the center piece in their summer time season vacation.”

You can get a flavor of Elvis at his early Seventies top with the aid of using looking a video clip of “Polk Salad Annie.” Before he even sings a note, he’s in overall command of the degree. First off, he looks as if he owns the room: lean, tan, and confident, his trim body nearly a touch too narrow for the tasseled white match he wears. He smiles and introduces the southern-fried track with a brief creation that transports you to the usa fields of the Deep South. And then he launches into the tune, now no longer most effective together along with his smoldering voice however together along with his lithesome frame.

He gyrates, shakes his legs, punches the air, and actions his shoulders like a making a song gyroscope. Watch him closely, mainly his proper arm. He’s doing greater than dancing and crouching: he’s the use of his frame to manipulate the pace of his backing band. He’s strolling that display together along with his voice and his frame.

Throughout the Seventies, he additionally recorded compelling tune — the excellent Back in Memphis in 1970, the superb Elvis Country in 1971, and the superb Promised Land and Good Times some years later. Even a decent-however-now no longer excellent attempt like Moody Blue, launched the yr he died, contained moments of brilliance. Fortunately, a number of his stay performances from this term have been recorded, too, along with Elvis in Person on the International Hotel, On Stage, and That’s the Way It Is.

Unfortunately, the magic wouldn’t remaining. The stress of acting twice-nightly indicates for weeks were given to him. He took drugs to live unsleeping and get to sleep (however in equity to Elvis, he took drugs that harm him due to the fact he relied on the medical doctors who prescribed them, as Americans might hold to do en masse for years). He ate to excess — horrific meals that made his weight balloon. His indicates have become sloppy. And you recognize the relaxation of the story. But he in no way misplaced his voice. Regardless of the way out of form he have become, his voice retained that energy. And the energy of that voice endures for me.

The fable of Fat Elvis isn’t always that he have become grossly obese — he did — however that his self-indulgent conduct described him. Elvis became a complicated character to the end. During a time while he supposedly did now no longer rely anymore, he became converting the face of stay amusement for many years to come.