WEBVTT - Icons #6: Elvis w/ Chris Crofton 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:05.359 Hello the Internet, and welcome to this spin off episode 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:09.559 of zeit Geist spin off Wish. We're calling the iconograph. 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.160 Instead of looking at the Zeitgeist through current events on 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:16.759 Monday mornings, we're looking at the zeitgeist through the powerful 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:21.920 pop cultural hork cruxes that are our icons. We use 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.079 these historical figures and famous characters to create meaning, to 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:29.920 build identity, to make our teens faint with sheer abject horniness, 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.840 to test the human body's capacity to withstand taking enough 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.960 pills to fill a large ballpit, to create a more 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.240 definitive way to object to something on TV, because why 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.520 change the channel when you can shoot the TV, as 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:48.000 our icon today did on multiple occasions our first episode 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:48.680 of the New Year. 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.199 Yeah, I thought, wow, okay, you shot the TV all 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.520 the time. That was just a thing this motherfucker did. 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.720 He didn't have a job, He didn't really. He also 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.880 recorded some of his later tracks in the jungle room 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.679 in his TV room, and you can like hear it 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:06.479 sounds like shit. 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.280 Oh no, we're talking Elvis Baby. Elvis Presley a pop 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.160 culture icon who became an almost religious figure in the 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:18.880 US after being the first person to invent the idea 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.040 that a white person could have charisma and kind of 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:29.280 go like Burger with their voice, and everyone's like, oh, 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.840 he fucking shit, where'd he get that idea? Not from 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.679 white people? We'll talk about it. No, I'm thrilled to 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.920 be joined as always by my co host, mister Miles Grab. 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:43.840 Oh my god, I'm just. 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.000 Kind of reeling from the last thing you said. Don't 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.480 tell me that Elvis Presley wasn't getting all of his 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:53.240 inspiration from the white Christian Jesus just came up, came. 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.360 Up with that whole cloth. This guy came up with 0:01:55.400 --> 0:02:00.240 these songs in our third seat. Miles Hilaire be a 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:04.560 stand up comedian, actor, and musician. You can listen to 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.720 his podcast, Colbrew Gotila Anywhere. He's got an album that 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.520 received a seven point four on Pitchfork Hell, which is 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:17.120 better than two of three Elvis albums on that Pitchfork 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.040 has reviewed two of the three. Pitchfork has reviewed three 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:26.040 Elvis albums, two of them sub Crofton. He's got a 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:28.240 new one called I'm Your Man, available on band Camp. 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:33.880 The poetry window is open because it's Chris motherfucking Craft. 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.880 My question is if I have a record higher rank 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.400 than Elvis where is. 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:46.320 My jungle room. I have one room. I have an 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:53.920 everything room. Yeah, I have all of the different ecosystems, 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:59.000 the desert room, and then cold medicine right right, mountains 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.040 of tissue. Yeah yeah, I don't even have it. I 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.120 don't even have a TV to shoot a projector. I 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:11.399 guess I could shoot my I could shoot my phone. Yeah, don't, don't. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.640 Don't do that. Don't do that. That would be one 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.240 of the things I wouldn't recommend from el Basically everything else. 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:22.240 He was pretty smart, pretty pretty on point. Let's get 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:27.280 into it. What was your first experience with Elvis Miles. 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.120 I'm gonna start with you. I don't know. 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.440 I mean, like ambiently, it's like a thing that you 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:33.760 I can't give a good answer. 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:35.400 It's like ambient all around you. 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:38.480 The one time I do remember vividly, my first real 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.680 vivid Elvis memory was when he died. I remember we 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.840 put our cat in like a boarding thing because we 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.920 went out of town, and then my cat died at 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:51.920 that boarding thing on the anniversary of Elvis' is like death. 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.520 Oh yeah, that's not good. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:57.720 Yeah yeah yeah, So what was this? He died in 0:03:57.720 --> 0:03:59.160 seventy seven, so this is ninety seven. 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.840 This is the twentieth anniversary anniversary of Elvis. Twentieth anniversary. 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:04.960 My cat is in a boarding thing because we went 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.680 out of town and then the fucking cat. My cat 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:09.360 was like nineteen at the time, so it was kind 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:11.720 of like, bro, if you leave me, I'm gonna die. 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:16.240 And so I forever will always just think of Elvis 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.919 and my wonderful cat, Casey being dead. And then my 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.440 dad always he did a lot of like he was 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.240 experimenting with a lot of art pieces, like painting Elvis 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.400 black and stuff like do it using early photoshop to 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.400 make black Elvis as like a commentary on you know, the. 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.200 Cultural Wait, I can't. I've done this research and I 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:38.120 can't imagine what that would be a commentary. So those 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.600 are mine. Yeah, I think my first was like old 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.200 fat Elvis as a signifier of like tag Like I 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.200 remember the first thing I saw with Elvis, I think 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.880 was a commemorative plate commercial when I was a kid 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.080 of like be you know, them selling old shitty looking 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:58.400 like gold plated plates with like they'd be like multiple 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.920 Elvis that you had the young Elvis and then old 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:06.600 kind of chunky Elvis. And I remember hearing the phrase 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:11.080 fifty million Elvis fans can't be wrong, and just it 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.000 was like sort of at a distance, like observing the 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.760 phenomenon of Elvis fandom more than it was like any 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.720 direct experience with Elvis. But Chris, you are a musician, 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:28.960 a troubadour, an Elvis in your own right. What was 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:30.159 your O? Man? 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.719 I got a story for you. So nineteen seventy seven, 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:40.680 I'm eight, you know, and I am watching watching the 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:43.320 whole world go crazy that Elvis has passed. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:45.200 Yeah, and up until. 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:48.120 Then, my parents probably thought I was maybe kind of normal, 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.560 like maybe they didn't know that I needed a lot 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:52.960 of attention or maybe not. Maybe they didn't maybe they 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.080 didn't know I needed this much attention. But I decided that. 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.440 I was like, oh my god, like I'm taking this. 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.200 Elvis has always meant so much to me. 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.479 I couldn't. I wanted a piece of the action. So 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.760 I was like, I always loved Elvis since I was eight. 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.920 So my family was like, no, you have it, you 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:14.520 talk about it? How could you guy? 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.840 I was like, no, no, one song. The worst thing 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:24.080 has ever happened to me? Yeah, Chrim talking about and 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.600 I was relent. I did not give up. I was like, 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.599 I've always loved him. This is the hardest thing for me. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.080 And and then I was like, ohso everybody's got to 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:40.920 get me Elvis albums as fast as possible. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:38.360 To back this up. 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.680 You guys know I'm crazy, but not everybody else has 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:42.719 to know. So let's get some Elvis albums in this 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:43.960 house on the double. 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:47.000 Right, why am I wearing all black? Because I'm still 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:48.599 in mourning over Elvis Presle. 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.640 So I fucking all my friends gave me Elvis albums 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.880 for my birthday and then I became a huge Elvis 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.200 fan in reverse. 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.800 And I did a lot of people are with like 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:05.160 you you notice the artists like streams of artists once 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.320 they die, like explode. I feel like there's something in 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:11.600 us that is just like, yeah, well we'll wait until 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.880 they're they're gone and then we'll truly like appreciate that. 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.760 But now you can do that, you can just I mean, 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.320 as an adult, it's not as easy to find out 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:23.680 if someone really you know what I mean. Someone could 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.280 say like, oh, I've always loved the band, television or whatever, 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:27.480 and you have to take their word for it. 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:28.280 I mean you can't really. 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:32.200 But my as an eight year old with no car 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.680 and you know, no internet or anything, and you damn well, 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:40.000 I you know, I wasn't. I didn't have any big 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.280 relationship with Elvis, but I didn't care because I was 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.440 not going to miss this opportunity to get in on 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:45.880 the action. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:47.760 So that was my first. 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.080 And it reminds me of like that same period when 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.560 I was at some girl's house, you know, visiting just 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:54.760 you know whatever, just going. 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.000 Visiting with a frang out. Yeah, like a hang out 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.280 with this third sitting or something, and like like. 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.680 She had horses and like my mom came to pick 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.600 me up, and the lady, her mother said, like when 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:08.480 when my mom pulled up, she was like, oh I 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:13.560 didn't know Chris Road. Oh I didn't know Chris rides, okay, 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.600 because my mom was like doesn't Yeah, like I said, 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.760 I had a horse. Your mom belew you up like that. 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:20.640 Oh yeah, oh my mom was. 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.200 She was ruthless. She was like in the car, like, 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:24.600 what the hell's the matter with you? You don't know 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.920 doesn't have a horse. And he also doesn't like Elvis. 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.400 I know he probably told you that too. He's still 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.200 got he still got the tags on his Elvis shirt. 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:35.840 There's nothing that makes me sadder than when I'm riding 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.240 at night and I think of Elvis. 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:46.240 In the moonlight lantern. This just crushes me. Another early thing, 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.000 and this was like real big in the nineties. It 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:53.720 was Elvis impersonators, which I do think in retrospect, like 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.559 I think in one hundred years, if I like looked 0:08:56.600 --> 0:09:00.640 at everything that has happened in pop culture with fresh eyes, 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.200 that would be something I'd be like, what the fuck? 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.439 Why are like? Why are there? Why is there a 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.880 cottage industry coming up on fifty years after his death? 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.320 Why is there a cottage industry full of people who 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.920 like dress up like him and pretend to be him 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:20.080 and treat it as like a borderline religious calling. Okay, 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.720 my brain had just accepted that because I it was 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.840 like one of the first pop culture references, you know. 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.760 It was just like a thing that people would be like. 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:33.360 There's an episode the first time I ever saw Quentin Tarantino, 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.800 by the way, I didn't realize it at the time, 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.000 a Golden Girls episode where Sophia's wedding there's like a 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.640 mix up in the invites, and Sofia's wedding is like 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:48.319 inundated with Elvis impersonators and he's one of the eldest impersonators, 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.640 but it's just a wee like I think. I just 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.440 was like, yeah, that's something people do with famous people, 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.880 and then doing the research for this, I was like, no, 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.400 they don't don't do that. They do that for Elvis 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.559 and Santa, and that's true. 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.240 I feel like the people that otherwise they're like Michael jacks, 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.520 Marilyn Monroe, Mike Jackson and him are like so linked 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:12.800 in so many weird ways. 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.800 But yeah, there were impersonators when he was alive, but 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.920 much like a Chris Croft, and it really their affinity 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.440 really exploded once he passed away and everyone was just like, 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.520 this is my ship now, this is my whole shit. 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:28.720 I mean, it's kind of like sort of like how 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:30.520 you if you want to be like an annoying kid 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:32.840 in the nineties and you had like an ace Ventura impression, 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:33.959 like you said, to be able to do like a 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.000 Jim Carrey thing for like Elvis, like and you get 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.240 your lip or a wig and you're like, like you 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.120 very much JOm wan Elvis impersonator and you had a 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:42.760 fucking gig. 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.560 Elvis almost seems like because it is a voice that 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.480 he did. We're going to talk about like how he 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.079 was discovered and like became Elvis and he was doing 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.000 a bit. He was like doing a voice when he 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.480 like he he had two straight days of the head 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.800 of Sun Records being like this fucking sucks. I thought 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.480 this guy wouldn be good. And then he started sucking 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.440 around and doing a voice and they were like that, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:12.040 and it was like it was exactly like the scene 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.640 and like walk the line where U or or the 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.719 the Bones are their money scene from I think you 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.880 should leave where like the guys on the guitar just 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.760 like immediately like come in behind him. As he's like starts. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.680 He goes from like being his normal self to being 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:31.080 like and like he thinks he's doing a bit, and 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.560 they're like that, keep doing that, that's great. Up. I 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.440 didn't know that. I did not know that. I know 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.480 a lot about Elvis. I thought you're his biggest fan, 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.320 Chris oh Man. I did not no, I didn't know. 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:46.000 He was like pressed over his dad expert over here, 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.320 doesn't even know. I got more. 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.760 Interested in just like his like line, you know, and 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:54.600 the guys his entourage. 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.640 Yeah, I want to hear more about the Memphis Mafia. 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.319 But ye know that he was like that he stumbled 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.640 into some character in front of what's his name, Old 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:05.839 Sam Phillips. 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:07.360 Yeah, Sam Phillips. It was it was almost like the 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.240 Lauren You know how Lorne Michaels has that theory of 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.520 like the realpses of Lorne Michaels in nineteen fifty five 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:15.880 or whatever. I don't know if you did this on purpose, 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.360 but I mean he probably did because he like had 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.600 them trying to record for like two days. Phillips. Sam 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:26.040 Phillis is the head of Sun Records, explicitly was like, 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.960 I'm making all these records with black artists. What if 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.960 I had a white artist to do that instead? And 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.320 like that was explicitly what he was doing when he 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:37.839 went after Elvis. He was like, could you do some 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:41.079 of these records that are very popular when black artists 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.160 do them? But what if he was white? If you 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:50.160 make it? But anyway, he was like so hot. That 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.880 was another thing like I hadn't fully appreciated, Like I 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.880 watched for the first time, like some of the early recordings, 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:02.040 his first appearances on television, and it is really striking. 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.480 First of all, like every like he's introduced by these 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.400 talk show hosts who are like these fifty year old 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.920 like grotesques who are like, gone, next we have Elvis, 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.839 and like they're just like frozen and like not able 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.040 to like do anything with her. And then Elvis comes 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.280 out and it's just like he's both very like charismatic 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.080 and able to dance and move like he's backed by 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.760 white backup singers who are like doing like little side 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.520 to side things, like you know, dancing like shit. And 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.520 then he is actually, you know, he just looks fucking awesome, 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:39.680 but he the other thing you're struck by is he's 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.839 so fucking hot. It's crazy how hot he is. Yeah, 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:46.000 I mean he showed up on TV. He's probably the 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.680 hottest man ever shown on television. And that by itself 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:51.400 was like, I guess see it up to that point, 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:52.320 like who was bringing it? 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:54.920 Like like in terms of the white guys on TV's 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:55.400 that was it. 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.600 Damn Oh. They were supposed to look more like, yeah, 0:13:58.600 --> 0:13:59.880 like Edward g. Robinson or. 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.840 See every exactly, like everybody was supposed to look like 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:12.840 a union boss or something back then Nowhere Cutie, because 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.440 the rock stars of the early twentieth century were union 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.920 unionizers and stuff and like listen to me go I said, 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:22.600 I just had a big zip of coffee. So anyway, 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.560 but yeah, so like you know, like that was the aesthetic, 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.280 like you know, like the hottest even well even fucking yeah, 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.600 hottest dock worker or whatever. And now now Elvis is 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:35.480 like yeah, like and his parents aren't that hot. Like 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.920 he was just like a freak of fucking nature. Even 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.800 if he was, like what if he had a regular job. 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.840 Imagine if he was, like he couldn't. There's no way 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.000 he could be as hot as Elvis and just work 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.640 at a store because someone would come and say, we 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:50.480 got to teach you to dance or something. 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:52.000 Because he's even such money. 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:54.840 I'm looking at a baby picture of him, and he's 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.360 he's got so much as a little baby. 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.600 Yeah, he has insane or Ryan Gossly looked like a 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:05.960 warted Yes, truly, he truly does. But I will say, 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:07.800 just the thing getting back to him doing it as 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.040 a bit and like this voice of like the whooo 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.400 and like just the whole Elvis vibe. Like I think 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.600 that it's almost like we talked on our Halloween episode 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.520 with Jack Wagner about like this idea of like like 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.760 I don't believe in ghosts necessarily, but like there's like 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.720 this energy that can just like get released into the 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.800 collective unconscious and like suddenly like that thing takes over. 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.960 I feel like Elvis, like the character of Elvis is 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.160 kind of like that. Like people, it's almost like a 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.800 mental illness that you can't shake. Like Kurt Russell played 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.480 Elvis when he was young in a movie and then 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.760 like couldn't shake it and like forced it into this 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.600 disastrous movie called three Thousand Miles of Grace. Lamb Austin 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:54.920 Butler did his press tour like you know, after wrapping 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.560 the Elvis movie and like just did the whole thing 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.520 in an Elvis accent. Like it feels like Nick Cage 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:07.360 had it. Like everybody Erkele when he gets super Intelligence, 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:12.000 one of our past icons, Erkele in Family Matters when 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.160 he gets super intelligence. They're like, this is Einstein Erkele, 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.920 but he is doing an Elvis in President Andy cos 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.520 Andy Kaufman did it while Elvis elbing. Yeah, it's not 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.240 hard and it's like fun and it's just this like 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.920 character that is just I don't know, infectious and people 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.600 just can't not do it. Yeah. Meanwhile, I was out 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.440 here acting like the mask and shit. Yeah, well I 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.800 think Jim Carrey is similar, but he wasn't like incredibly hot, 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:41.920 and he didn't die like at the perfect moment for 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:42.640 it too, Like. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.520 He gave like an easy thing for people to tap 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:46.800 into and be like, you're. 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:48.360 Doing the thing right. Yeah. 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.400 Yeah, it was like a meme back then. I mean, 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.560 like impersonating Elvis. This is pre internet, so it was 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.160 like kind of like saying, where's the Beefer or like saying, like, 0:16:58.080 --> 0:16:59.840 I don't know what kids say today, you know, brats 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.440 or whatever. It was like, Oh, here comes Elvis or whatever, 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:03.720 you know, Like, oh, what's going on? 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.879 It's boring. Somebody say brat summer. They haven't invented that. 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.000 How about we Somebody goes, hey, you're Elvis, I'm Elvis, 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:12.400 goes we're a good day. 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:18.520 Superducer Victor says that in Fallout New Vegas, people like 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.680 it's a post apocalyptic Vegas and everyone assumes Elvis was 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:23.720 a god and would dress up like him, and I don't. 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.080 I don't think that's far from the truth of the situation. 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.400 Like there's this whole controversy in the Lower East Side 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:34.040 where a chalk bust of Elvis got stolen and everyone 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.960 treated it like it was the theft of the Crown Jewels. 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.600 Like it really is, like when was that recent? That 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.879 was like a few years back. Yeah, it ended up 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.800 being like the person who had bought it years before, 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:48.959 and it ended up being like this whole controversy of 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.440 like gentrification and stuff like that. But it just does 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:56.000 feel like if you don't know who Elvis is and 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.440 you just came down and like looked at the culture fresh, 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.560 you'd be like, oh, this is like a powerful religious 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:05.879 figure that everybody is not admitting is a powerful religious figure. 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:07.920 All right, let's take a quick bray, we'll be right 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:21.080 path and we're back. Let's get into his biography. Born 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.479 in nineteen thirty five, I think an important part of 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.600 who he is and his appeal by the time he 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:29.199 came around to me is he was like this like 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.720 tacky joke is that they were very poor, Like he 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.720 they lived in a two room shack that was built 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.119 by his dad. He'd taken out a loan for one 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.199 hundred and eighty dollars to buy the materials for the 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.480 house and it was like repossessed three years later. And 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:49.040 I feel like there's some element where he resonated hard 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:53.240 with sort of low culture like that. That's like part 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:58.160 of his appeal was that, you know, pop culture just rigorously, 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.480 inconsistently ign or is people who aren't rich. And then 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:07.320 having this person who was poor and also like his 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:12.239 taste was kind of like packy, you know, and like 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:16.000 not that like high culture bullshit right that people are 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.399 used to seeing like really helped him resonate in a 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.680 way that he wouldn't have otherwise. Was he open about 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:24.720 being poor? I really don't know. I think he was 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:26.639 a big part. Yeah, that was a big part of 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.920 his story originally, was like at first, like he's this 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:35.239 like rags to riches guy who like came from the 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.200 middle of the South. I'm like made good. 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.040 Right, and he wasn't pretentious, he was he went straight 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.840 to things yeah, like I'm gonna get a push button phone, 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:47.600 like you know what I mean, like ahead of everybody, 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:49.359 and that's gonna be my you know, like I'm not 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.040 I want the fucking new blender with the extra button 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.480 on it. All these sort of things that were not, yeah, 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.000 not classy, but I think other people could relate other 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:00.439 people who didn't have that stuff. Like me growing up 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.440 without a refrigerator that has the ice come out of 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.960 the front, right, you know, you're like. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:06.600 That's holy shit. Like we had cars. 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:08.080 He used cars when I grew up, and we didn't 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:10.600 have a third break light well into when cars started 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:12.720 having a third break light, you know, and I was like, 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:14.960 if I get rich, I was like sixteen, you know, yeah, 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:16.639 I'm gonna have a third break light, you know, and 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:17.600 that would sound insane. 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:19.560 I'm gonna wear a seat belt. 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:21.600 Yeah, and it's cute and it's kind of fun, you know, 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:23.440 like I want all the new stuff. 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.560 And he was like like the way saying not pretentious, 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:29.679 Like he would have Elvis impersonators like come up on 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.239 stage with him, like he thought they were cool. You know. 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:35.240 He was just like down for whatever he was. He 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.520 didn't really give a fuck about that stuff. Other things 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:42.160 from his early childhood that were important. According to biographers, 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.800 he had a twin brother who was still born. And 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:51.520 it's it's weird, they're they're like he was like powered 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.679 by his twin Like he had like dreams throughout his 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.560 life about his twin brother. It was like this mystical 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.679 connection where it doesn't really make sense. They were probably 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.840 wise to like edit this out of the biopic, but 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.600 like it doesn't matter how goofy the central personal myth 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:13.800 is to us, Like he fucking believed that he was 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.240 like powered by the ghost of the dead baby that 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.360 was in his mom's womb with him, Like he really like. 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:22.800 Did he say, like you would articulate that idea like 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.639 a yeah, wow, like that's giving him an edge or 0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:28.439