Elvis LIVES
Here! This is the full interview with Sonny West, who was Elvis's bodyguard between 1960 and 1976.
He has a new book out: "Elvis still taking care of business."
He came into our New York studio at 1500 BST yesterday afternoon, and as you can hear, chatted for quite a while. I haven't heard the version here - I recall at some point...it may have been once we'd stopped recording...he talked about catching a flight last night to London - due in around 6am. He's appearing in Derby this weekend.
As you'll hear, he seems an incredibly nice chap, and our office staff in New York reported he was wonderful.
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Erm - no it aint Eddie, it seems to be a recording of some people in an office waffling on about a 'Bog Prog' or something..
To quote Men In Black and HHGTTG:
"The King isn't dead. He just went home."
Wonko has left the building, thank you very much!
;o) []
Oi.....Eddie.......wotch me Blue Suede shoes mate....
C'mon Eddie, can't you get the Pixies to fix it for you? I'd like to listen to something interesting with my newly downloaded software.
Thanks Up (1) - we have fixed it. I hope.
Too many cooks, I'm afraid.
Eddie's big secret mp3 :-
For those of you who couldn't hear it - it's here :-
(not on the pm extra site)
I want to take Sonny West home with me and feed him home made soup and beer.
Isn't he just the smiliest, loveliest, most thoughtful man?
(This is not an urge I experience often, so please don't bother to form a queue...)
Fifi ;o)
The 'real' Elvis died long before 1977, sadly.
But, watching early footage on TV last night, I remembered what a huge impact he had on world culture at the time. I was tiny, but I can still remember people's reactions - it was talked about everywhere.
Then I lived through Beatlemania. That, too, was something amazing. But, Elvis, well, that was 'something else'.
Incidentally, I mentioned my grandmother yesterday, who was an Elvis fan. She told me about the hysteria there was at the time Rudolph Valentino died, with women throwing themselves off bridges and the like. So, in a way, I guess it started with him - the first media legend.
But with Elvis, the music lives on.
What a very interesting and enlightening interview, Eddie. And, by the sound of it, you enjoyed it, too.
Pranktical jokes - what a lovely slip of the tongue.
Big Sis (8) I think the public reaction to the death of Byron probably provides a precursor. Not sure if there are any earlier examples, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could turn up a Roman or medieval example or two. OK the global impact will have been smaller but it does seem to be a human rather than just a modern phenomenon.
Yes, AnneP, I was aware of the Byron moment, but that was confined to our shores, whereas Valentino was the first icon whose death sparked a worldwide reaction, I rather think.
Interesting stuff, though.
Yes, AnneP, I was aware of the Byron moment, but that was confined to our shores, as you suggest, whereas Valentino was the first icon whose death sparked a worldwide reaction, I rather think.
I agree that it's a human (or possibly female?) reaction, and therefore timeless.
The interesting point for me was hearing at first hand from my grandmother about it all. As you'll have realised, she wasn't alive when Byron died ;o)
A lovely interview! A real downhome Memphis voice with a lifetime's gravel in it, init?
Slainte
ed
13, 12. 11, 9
Delicously romantic and completely appropriate.
On the day, it was rammed home to us the state he was in. Thank goodness we don't think about that now.
And JKF had already started the war in Vietnam
And as for Queen Victoria my grandmothers tell me being on bended knees was compulsory then when she popped her clogs so that doesn't count either. Her maid Sophie was in tears of couse but she used to do that to entertain Victoria's stitching circle anyway, so that doesn't count either.
Dancing in the streets examples? In a republican (Irish) newspaper Hendrik Vervoert was obit -ed with 'He was a rotten b*s***rd. May his soul rot in eternal hell' (In its entirety)
Anyone you would have got the dancing shoes out for or that you're saving them for?
I wish not to be given a title or an appointed position. I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent at Large, and I will help best by doing it my way through my communications with people of all ages. First and Foremost I am an entertainer but all I need is the Federal Credentials.
-Elvis Presley (1935-1977), U.S. singer. Letter,
December 19, 1970, to President Nixon, offering
Presley's services as a federal agent to work to
curb drug abuse by young people.
Elvis was made an agent of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs by Nixon, receiving an enamel shield which, according to biographer Albert Goldman, became one of his most treasured possessions.
I think he wanted it so he could carry guns around.
xx
ed
Mac (15),
"And JKF had already started the war in Vietnam"
No. It was the Brits who made it inevitable, by insisting on holding it from Ho Chi Minh, who was effectively in charge when they arrived after The war ended in the East. They wanted to hand it back to the French, who were a bit poorly at the time.
When the French did come back, they couldn't hold it against the 'rebels', and called for help, but Lyndon Johnson (ironically?) prevented US being part of any bail-out at Dien ben Fu (not a big enough 'coalition'). The French continued to fail, and eventually JFK sent in 'advisors' to 'train' the favoured puppet government's troops (sound familiar?)....and the rest is......
xx
ed
Ed @ 17, I'm afraid I am not entirely convinced that declining to be involved in a nasty situation, handing the country over to the people who had been its government for quite a while rather than to an insurrection, and going away really counts as 'starting a war'.
It may have been a marginally better idea than going in with loud cries and bombing everyone into a state of real anger and misery before, erm, handing the country over to the people who'd been being an insurrection in the first place, which seems to have been the alternative on that one.
Sir (Madam),
Read "Alive, Alaska", an e-book by Leander Beatty Jr. The e-book is published by Mountain Mist Productions.
Elvis is alive. Know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Thank you.
Ooh Look! Eddie managed a self-puiblicising troll! Well done Eddie....
There's a guy at our local takaway with flowing blond hair, pointy ears and is taken to looking off into the distance meaningfully. I swear he's Elvish