i.m.

It's hard to think of Elvis Presley and not see this fat All American, pompously overdressed Las Vegas clown he had turned into in the nineteen seventies. But did that man record some great music. That's all right mama, heartbreak hotel, one night (with you), hound dog, I can't help falling in love with you, guitar man, suspicious minds... I even dig some of his movies, but that could very well be a sentimental thing. I grew up watching that stuff on german television. I thought Elvis was from Nordrhein Westfahlen until I was about ten years old. The 1968 comeback special is brilliant. The man was already a monument back than. For the summer of love generation he was a ghost from the past and you can easily understand why, but it's impressing to see just how eager a 33 year old Presley was to prove to the world that he was still The King. Maybe he was.