May 12, 2026 • 31 mins
How far would you fly for a sandwich? Decades after his death at just 42, Elvis Presley remains a global pop phenomenon. His short life was full of strange, ridiculous adventures... but how many of these stories are true, and how many are just modern folklore? In today's episode, the guys welcome the journalist Jordan Runtagh, co-creator of Too Much Information, for a special two-part series on the man, the myth, the legend: Elvis.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man,
the myth, the legend, our super producer, Max the Hound
Dog Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Max Grumpy Gump, Grumpy Gus Williams. We just we just
called him a grump off.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We just roasted.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I note everyone's I note everyone. I am actually up
in Canton, Georgia, so I'm basically in Tennessee right now.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hey, congratulations hollers. Yeah, what's it like at the top
of the map.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Or if you're in the holler at the bottom? Yeah, yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Bottom is the top. That is getting a little hermetic
for us. That's none other the legendary mister Noel Brown.
Knowl how you're.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Feeling, you know, I'm pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Nice, I am feeling pretty good myself. We're very excited
about this one. Oh, they call me Ben Bullen on
this show because Noel. Today, we are tackling one of
the biggest figures in all of American music history. This
is a larger than life son of the South. He
was known as much for his off stage eccentricities and
(01:34):
shenanigans as he was for his on stage performances and
groundbreaking or least record breaking music. That's right, we're finally
tackling the one and only Elvis Aaron Presley.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
A real iconic, class, real real, a real divisive figure
when he was first hitting the scene. Those hips don't lie.
He was deeded that way before Shakira ever ever, was
a glint in the eye of whomever birth to her. Yeah,
Elvis was it the Pelvis?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I like that had many monikers and nicknames, as so
many icons.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
King of.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well, it's it's a it's kind. He was the king
dread pirate Roberts. I would argue, different people get the
title over time. Now you may be asking yourselves, folks,
who is that providing these amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Last mellifluous cackle.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
There's so much to get into here, and luckily we
are not venturing forth alone ridiculous historians. We are thrilled
to be joined with none other than the iconic legendary
in his own right. Music journalists, writer, executive producer with
(02:52):
us at iHeart and the podcast host Jordan Run to Jordan,
thank you so much for hopping on the show with
Possesster of quite the pell this himself.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Thank you, thank you very much, so good to be here.
Oh my god, guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And while he's not in the building with us currently,
he is in a building and presumably when we conclude
this podcast, he will leave the building.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Now it's my apartment, so I guess I'm not leaving
this building.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You're not going anywhere you got today?
Speaker 4 (03:18):
This is it?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, Jordan, Jordan, you are. It's weird that you are
so humble man, because we are all friends outside of
this show, and you host things like you You've hosted
so many shows, created so many shows like Off the Record, Rivals,
Music's Greatest Feuds and of course t M I too
(03:40):
much information?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Oh thank you. No, that's a fun one.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
No.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I my In my my job as a music journalist,
my favorite stuff to write were all these like you know,
listicals ten things you didn't know about led Zeppelin, four
twenty different things you didn't know about you know, David Bowie,
station to station, things like that. And you know, a
lot of my journalist's friends would down their nose at
writing these you know, research trivia pieces basically, But I
(04:04):
just thought it was the most fun thing. I love
diving in and you know, getting paid to learn about
your favorite records and share that with other people. So
that was kind of what TMI. The podcast was more about,
just the little known, behind the scenes stories, a little
known facts about your favorite movies, music, TV shows and more.
And we never got to Elvis. Actually we were gonna
do an episode on his house Graceland. We did Paul
(04:28):
Simon's album Graceland, but we never got to his house.
I had notes for that, and honestly, my notes for
that were something like fifty pages and I was too
afraid to put it together. So that's yeah, because I'm
a huge Elvis nerd. Have you guys ever been to Graceland?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yes, I have not, but I'm a big fan of
the Paul Simon album Graceland, and I've been watching this
show on I think it's on Hulu or you know,
maybe Disney plus I guess they're all the same thing
now called Paradise, where there is a plotline surrounding Graceland
in a post of acalyptic environment where it serves as
kind of a fort, and it's pretty cool. I don't
(05:04):
know if it's the real Graceland or if they just
did a really good mock up of it. But I
know about the Jungle Room.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Mm hmm, that's uh. I did a piece for Rolling
Stone that was just a history of the Jungle Room,
which is this weird like man cave in in Elvis's home,
and it was like five thousand words. It was really ridiculous.
But it's a fascinating room. It definitely. Uh. I think
there was a one journalist called it a a taj
(05:30):
mahal to questionable aesthetic choices, which I just thought, yeah,
it's a beautiful. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And to your question there, Jordan, yes, Obviously having family
in Tennessee, we were all rely we were all required
to go to Graceland at some point. It's like our hajj,
like I had to go because if I didn't, they
will legally be allowed to destroy my birth certificate. So
(05:58):
that's part of why so many people go to Graceland.
And it's fascinating. You guys in TMI didn't get to
Elvis Presley, You didn't get to Graceland.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
No, I mean, going to Graceland was honestly the thing
I always was obviously aware of Elvis and you know
as a classic rock lover. I was always you know,
I appreciated some of his work, but it wasn't until
going to Graceland for the first time that I just
became deeply fascinated with the weirdness of Elvis Presley, because
I mean, the thing about Graceland and I hope I
(06:29):
don't offend you as a as a native Tennesseean, but
it's it's it's not that nice about.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
No why we only go because our birth certificates are
under threat.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
But that's what's about it. It's like the most American thing.
It's like you're mythologizing this, like not like like you're
like slightly upperclass aunt's house, Like this is just like
grabbed me kitchen with like an avocado. I think. Actually
he actually had the first Marcer wave in the city
of Memphis. To believe he paid six hundred dollars for it.
Was just a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And it was also it wasn't exactactly known for his
like refined taste. Yeah, you know, I mean that's kind
of a bit of the mythology surrounding him, Like dude eight,
like was it peanut butter and banana sandwiches? He carried
his humble roots into the most ostentatious lifestyle imaginable and
(07:18):
kind of was unapologetically garish.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Oh yeah, nobody ever said, you know what I love
about this Elvis guy, his subtlety understatement. Yeah, nobody was
ever like, what nuance to this man. But this is
ne excellent set up that we're getting into here, guys,
because we're talking about taste, we're talking about what some
may describe as the struggle of.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
The Novu reach.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Maybe we start with the fact that Elvis Aaron Presley
was born into the opposite of a silver spoon situation. Right,
we're talking a two room house to Blue, Mississippi. It's
nineteen thirty five January eighth, So that puts us right
in the middle of the Great Depression.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yeah, oh yeah, smack in the middle. And his h
and then you have I mean, it seems like, I know,
there's so much mythology around Elvis, but his birth really
is I mean, you can't make this stuff up. With
the death of his twin brother, Jesse, and that really
haunted him for his entire life. And he had a
very good friend. His hairdresser was this guy Larry Geller,
(08:24):
and Larry was one of these guys who he was
an LA guy and in the early sixties is one
of those people that was turning them on to like,
you know, the e ching and all these like slightly
spiritual bent things that Elvis would eventually get into. And
he would He's given some really interesting interviews about Elvis
and would talk about, you know, these late night conversations
they would have, and Elvis was haunted by the death
(08:45):
of his twin his whole life, and he would talk
about how he felt this pressure to basically live for
the both of them, and that is really one of
the motivating factors in his drive to succeed and do
what he did.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Aren't there some kind of conspiracy theories surrounding the twin brothers,
like burial site and like maybe like missing remains or
something along those lines.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Oh, I don't know about that. I know that I'm
sure we'll touch on this later. But I know that
Elvis's dad, you weren't allowed to have a burial on
a private property in Memphis, and Elvis's dad was saying, well,
he's Elvis. We can't just bury him in a public cemetery.
There's gonna be great. It was all like the lunatic fringe,
it's going to come out and so, and the Memphis
(09:31):
City Council didn't care, so they buried him in I
want to say Forest Hills Cemetery in Memphis, something like that.
And Elvis's dad, Vernon, who you know, you didn't pull
one over on Vernon. He apparently reportedly allegedly all the
disclaimers hired these like bumbling thieves through a middleman to
break into the cemetery at night and steal this I
(09:52):
want to say, like nine hundred pounds steel lined coffin
that had just been buried and hold Elvis's remains for ransom.
And these guys show up, you know, with pick axes
and shovels, under the cover of darkness, and they get
to the cemetery and there's like representatives from every major
news network there. Vernon to tipped them off, like they
got busted immediately, and so Vernon could go back to
(10:12):
the town officials to say, look, see what happened. He's
already people trying to steal them. So we got we
got to bury him at home where we can have
private security. And that's why they changed the city ordinance
so that you know, Elvis could be buried at Graceland
at his home, so maybe that's the story, but I
don't know anything.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
It's probably no, no, no, no, no, that's that's that's something to
do with it. I'm sorry. It's also like when we
say conspiracy theories, there are people out there saying that
maybe he didn't actually die, you know, maybe he actually uh.
I have a theory out you know, the remainder of
his life under an assumed name or something like that,
but not much credence to any of it.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
He's an extra.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
He shows mcaulay cooking where the lobby. That's not true.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So if if he were alive today, he would be
let me see, he died officially on August sixteenth, nineteen
seventy seven, just forty two years old, so he'd be
like ninety one years old, which is possible waiting for
that album. And Elvis, if you're here, thanks for tuning in.
(11:20):
We know he had a lot of financial hardship growing up,
similar to Dolly Pardon, we could say, and similar to
so many other musicians of the time. We also know
that he was from a deeply religious background and Jordan,
one thing you pointed out that we did not know
was that Elvis Presley was a natural blonde. Did he
(11:43):
really have blonde hair?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Natural blonde? There's some cute photos of him as a kid.
I mean, it's so weird because he still, like very
much looks like Elvis, but he's a little tow headed kid.
And the theory, I mean, this was his humble beginnings.
He apparently would color his hair black with shoe polish
when he was when he was younger, when he was
first starting out, which I mean, the logical question is
(12:05):
why would you Why would you do this? Apparently he
thought that dark hair made him look cooler and edgier
on stage when he was just starting out. And it's
believed that his look, this dark haired look, was inspired
by his love of the comic book character Captain Marvel Junior.
And if you look him up, he does have this
(12:26):
like kind of swept back Elvis style quiff and like
the sideburns. He's like a teenager. And later on in
his career when he was in his like in the
seventies era, and he had those big jumpsuits in the capes,
those capes look a lot like this. Captain Marvel Junior's
like superhero capes and even like, you know, the the
lightning bolt symbol that Elvis had later in his life
(12:48):
that he had painted on the wall of one of
the media room at Graceland. I think he had it
on one of his planes too. That was a symbol
from this Captain Marvel Junior comic book. So it hasn't
been he never really spoke about it, but it's been
theorized by fans that he borrowed us from his favorite
comic book character. And it's so cute. His comic book
collection is still in the attic at Graceland.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh, I wonder what that's worth.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yes, seriously, So to jump in real quick, we actually
did talk about that in our episode for a couple
of years back, the litigious history of Captain Marvel, which, yes,
we found that very interesting that he really liked JR.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, I'm Jenmie. Gosh, we do so many of these.
I totally spased on that aspect, and I honestly couldn't
have told you that Captain Marvel Junior was a thing.
Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Please please choose tune into that one in Also, we
talked a little bit at the top of one of
the most iconic pieces of Eddie Elvis performance live, which
was the dancing right the switch of the hips, as
Noel said pre Shakira, and this became quite controversial right
(14:18):
to the more buttoned up pearl clutching crowd. But Jordan,
you told us there is a reason for his infamous
dance moves, and it may not be the one we expect.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
It's I mean always he was a shy country boy
at heart, and the theory, the rumor is that those
you know, hip swiveling leg shakes were actually a result
of stage fright. Early in his career. He was so
nervous that he would start to shake and he could
kind of see the audience's reaction and they were into it.
So he kind of leaned into it and made those
(14:50):
weird moves his own, and he put them in future shows.
But like you said, this deeply upset the pearl clutches
of the nation, so much so that in I think
it was August of nineteen fifty six, juvenile court judge
Marion Gooding attended one of Elvis's shows in Florida, and
he was so horrified by what he saw they threatened
(15:11):
to have Elvis arrested and he insisted on only and
this is a quote limited side to side movements.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Stop looking like you were doing the air guitar version
of sex.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Is that what, yeah, Garlon was.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yes, oh wow, Yeah, you definitely could classify what he
did as gyrating. Perhaps, you know, it's funny though, Jordan
I didn't realize the nerves angle at all, and it
really makes me think of an iconic sort of stage
presence associated with Ian Curtis Joydavision. Yeah, who had I
believe epilepsy or some form of seizures, and he was
(15:49):
known for these kind of real shaky tweaky dance moves
and oftentimes it was a result of a combination of
stage fright and his condition.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Oh that's so true. Yeah, there's some amazing footage of
him on one of those Tony Wilson shows, like the
local Manchester Cable Access, where he's performing She's lost control
and it's like it's really jarring, but it's it's yeah,
arresting is the word. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
We also know another theory that often gets brought up
right by analysts and music historians, which is they're going
to argue that Elvis was appropriating right music culture and
even dance moves of the time. So if we were
to ask you, Jordan, which, uh, which of those arguments
(16:35):
you fall more in favor of, would you say stage fright,
nerves or would you say appropriation?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
I would say in terms of the dancing, I would
say nerves. I I do believe that does feel. And
it was honestly those around him that kind of are
those sort of that stood to gain from that attention
that would kind of put him up to it. I mean,
there's the famous story of when he went on the
Milton Berle Show in June of fifty six, and that
(17:03):
was like his first real big I think it was,
I can't remember it was his first national appearance, but
it was certainly is the first really truly big performance.
And he spent most of the show with a guitar,
which kind of limited his ability to move around. And
then when he started singing a hound Dog Burrow, the host,
Milton Burle, a comedian, uh, told him to take the
guitar off and said, let him see your son was
(17:24):
the advice, and he have known what he was doing.
And that was you know, the big like national.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Furor or all these good television right Yeah, Milton got it.
Uncle Milty got it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Also Milton had a hog again himself.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yes, yes, he had a hog.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yes, and you know exactly what I mean, like he
had a Lyndon Johnson level jumbo.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Oh that I did not know. I'm sorry, I didn't
know that about Uncle Milty.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
It was this story where they were at like he
was at a yurinal with like Groucho Marx and Gratcha
was just like, you better feed that thing or it's
liable to turn on you.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's very funny. No, sir, ree Bob staying in now, we're.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Actually gonna cut it from that spot for at the
very start.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, everything all right, fast forward past the foreskinting jokes
since we're talking about cutting hog.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Must if we must. You know, it's interesting though, because
we're talking about appropriation. You know, he grew up in
rural the rural South. Uh, he was directly influenced by
black culture and black music, gospel music, A lot of
stuff like that was just happening around him. So then
(18:30):
the question becomes is he the appropriateur is he? Or
is he just kind of taken in what was around him?
And then his handlers sort of pushed him to that
level that might be considered appropriation, Like what even is appropriation?
Like it's it's I don't mean to make some sort
of like gotcha question or hot button debate here, because
(18:50):
I think we kind of know what it is. It's
when you maybe unjustly take something from a culture that
doesn't get credit for it and then crink claim it
as your own. Was he doing that or was he
just sort of in turn because I believe he gave
a lot of love and respect to many of the
artists and people that he was surrounded by, but then
got so into drugs and sort of out of it
that his handlers were sort of the ones basically propping
(19:12):
him up and you know, pushing him out on stage,
and he maybe didn't have the agency to do some
of that, make some of those connections or give some
of that credit. I mean.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
And he would say, this was what I grew up with,
This was what I am, a reflection of what was
around me. That is what he would say. Was he
held to a completely different standard and had opportunities that
these other artists did not. Of course, yeah, absolutely, but
he you know, and people like Big Mama Thornton deeply
resent to the fact that you know, he covered her
(19:42):
songhound Dog and he made it, you know, made a
gazillion dollars off of it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Well she did, and she didn't get she didn't get
any any residuals for either.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Well there's this is a bad example, but they're famously
I need to check on this. I don't think in
that case that was this. This occurred, but when songwriters
would submit so to Elvis, his label insisted that he
get a writing credit on it, like that was part
of the deal when writers would.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
See even though he didn't actually write in the song.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
No, he recorded something like seven hundred songs in his
career and he he was not a songwriter, but he's
credited on songs like all Shook Up and Don't Be Cruel.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Which we also know that the largely white record industry
was infamous for taking advantage oh, you know, black artists.
So that's why I'm not trying to give Elvis a pass,
but I'm just saying it seems like was it the
kernel and all the people that were sort of handling
him in the record company, they were more of the
ones turning the screws and making those bad deals to
(20:42):
your point about the writing credit, that's hogwash. But I'm
certain that Elvis wouldn't have pushed for that himself.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
I don't think he was very involved with any of that.
I don't, I mean to be.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
He's very nicie, right, That's what I meant.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
But he wasn't a business guy. He wasn't a business
and development shark. He wasn't out there redlining contracts.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
He was frankly not super bright. No, I mean, I
don't mean to be a but like he was, he
was taking advantage of himself. Oh yeah, because he was
just all those.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Those Jordan, could you tell us a little bit about
the colonel and the so called Memphis mafia.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
The colonel was, I mean, my favorite story about the
colonel was that he he was not a colonel. That
was just the name of.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
L Rod.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
He started calling himself the admiral.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
The admiral, stolen valor in the highest he was. He
illegally came to this country from I want to say, Copenhagen.
And the reason Elvis famously never performed a concert abroad,
and the Colonel would always give him these like fictitious
business reasons why, like, oh yeah, it's a bad idea like,
you don't want to you don't want to perform anywhere
but right here.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
You will hold you hostage in Vegas the rest of
your life.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
You could go as far west as what But he
was because only in the movies.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
He couldn't leave the country. He couldn't he and so
which is so fun. So that's the level of just,
you know, Elvis, just a blind trust in this guy.
What I was talking about earlier about the writing credit
thing that I mean, it seems on the surface like
(22:17):
a good business move. Oh yeah, you want Elvis, who's
gonna make whatever song records a massive hit? To record
your song? Cool, give us a you know, fifty percent cut.
Our brill building artists are brill building songwriters, and you know,
pro songwriters out of Nashville stopped offering him their best stuff,
which is why in the sixties, I mean, one of
the several reasons why his career started tanking in the sixties,
(22:39):
he just wasn't getting good songs. And I mean, one
of the most famous examples of this is that Dolly
Parton wrote I Will Always Love You in the early
seventies and she was still kind of on the rise
as a soul artist herself, and Elvis deeply wanted to
record it, and Dolly was so thrilled, and then Colonel
Tom Parker said, well, you know, you got to you
gotta sign over the I think get a co write
(22:59):
credit and at least half of the publishing rights. And
Dolly said, you know, no, I can't. That's my you know,
those publishing rights belonged to my it's my family's financial feature.
I can't just sign that away.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And so she's and that's one of the many reasons
that Dolly is a badass, just absolutely rules. I mean,
because that in those days, you know, being a woman songwriter,
you would have already been like relegated to a certain
level of dismissed kind of attitude, you know, from the
patriarchal and white run record industry, and you wouldn't have
(23:31):
had the luxury of saying no to a thing like that.
And she really did stand her ground and stick to
her guns and other you know, cowboy related metaphors.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I mean, two stories about Colonel Tom Parker, one that
illustrates just his viciousness and one that illustrates the fact
that he was not as smart as he thought he was.
There's a famous story that Larry Geller, guy the Elvis's
hairdresser who became his really close friend, tells the story
a lot. Where I think it was during the Elvis
residency was sometime towards the end in the seventies, and
(24:01):
Elvis was just comatose. He was not in any condition
to perform. It was maybe like an hour or two
before showtime. Yeah, And he calls the colonel and tells
him to come to helvis a suite and thinks that
he's gonna, like, you know, okay, you know, the old
(24:22):
man is here. He's gonna set everything right. He's gonna
see what's going on, and he's gonna put a stop
to it. He's gonna get Elvis the help he needs,
Like you know, Dad's here and he's gonna like fix everything.
And he sees Parker go in, and he sees him
shove Elvis's face into a champagne holder face with the
ice bucket. Yeah, shove his face in there, pull it out,
(24:43):
pull him out by the air, shove him back in,
pull him out by the hair. And Parker just looks
at this guy, Larry Galler, and says, the only thing
that matters is that bat Man gets on stage tonight,
that is the only thing that matter. It was chilling,
So that's that's the vish bousness. Parker started a. Elvis
(25:04):
was signed to RCIA Records famously, but he started the
Parker started the subsidiary label. I don't fully understand the
specific stuf. It doesn't really matter. But he wanted to
release an album on that label so that he personally
could just profit from it because he owned this label himself.
And so he thought, wait a minute, RCA owns the songs.
What if I have Elvis release a spoken word album?
(25:27):
Those are those aren't songs? And so he put just
did it even dumber. They recorded a bunch of his
live shows and then they just spliced out all of
his on.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Stage the stage speech, and.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
It's called having fun with Elvis on stage.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
And then maybe so is that a novelty record? Now?
Is that? Like they did? They not make many of them?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
No, he was gonna sell it just at concerts as
like a like a momentum. And then was like, no,
you idiot, Elvis's voice on record. We own all of that,
not just songs. He missed the boat on that, so
he wasn't as smart as he No, he was not
as smart as he thought. So he was kind of
evil and not as smart as he thought.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Now, now that does raise a question for me, Jordan,
and maybe you don't know the answer to this, but
I mean, do they own his speaking voice? Like? To
what degree does a record label own an artist? Like?
I guess their likeness, their their their whatever. Life rights?
There so many different angles of that, right, that's fascinating.
I'd love to We need to do another episode at
(26:29):
some point, Ben on something like life rights. Yeah, yeah,
I think that would be interesting.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, that's a great call because if I if I
understand correctly, you know, RCA was such a huge monopolistic
force at the time. They had the best lawyers, so
they could drag people through court, uh just making their
opinion fact. So it does make sense that a group
as litigious as RCA would say nope, everything this guy
(26:57):
says auto Yeah uhr.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Was Edison right? I mean literally the first y Yeah,
they owned the medium of like recorded music, They invented it,
and then eventually more or less right and then they
had it on lockdown. I would love to talk a
little bit about that aspect of it for a second.
I know, I know that you're into all aspects of
recorded music, but that's fascinating, always been fascinating to me.
(27:21):
You're picturing the dog listening to the Victrola, just the
branding around that, and that being literally RCA being first
to market on the concept of recorded music.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
And televisions too. I mean, of course, and Il was
famously uh he loved his TV and he had something
like fourteen TVs at his house.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Toxic relationship for television sets Georgian.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Yes, he liked to shoot them just like because he
knew that because he was with RCA, they would just
send them free ones whenever he wanted.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
A lot more TVs.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Yes, yeah, so he he he would like do it
just to like be funny, like if there's somebody like
the famous story of uh, the singer Robert Gulay was
on the TV and he was like watching it with
his friends, and I think I think there was some
like weird love triangle thing with guli I don't remember
why he hated him so much, but he just said
that guy's got no heart and shot the TV. And
(28:13):
when Ola was on.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Dude, what a what a hip hop level flex to say? Oh,
I don't turn channels. I shoot the television and then
RCA sends me a new TV. Are you so broken
that you have to change the channel? You reuse your TV?
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Heitary he was kind of the first bad behaving rock
star guy, and like TV damage and destruction became a
trope kind of further down the line. But Elvis was
the og of the unhinged, you know, megalomaniacal musician, right just.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
With his own stuff. He wasn't like Keith Moon level
trash and hotel room, but with his own stuf, he
had a He definitely had a much more cavalier relationship
to Also, it gets back to that and I say
he was a he was a lovable himbo, like like
you love that I have. You've heard about his fireworks battles.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Let's talk about the firework battles before we get back
to the Memphis Mafia, because they don't want to miss
that one. We do have to explain that on drug Well.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
So so Memphis Mafia, I mean, was his ever expanding
crew of guys. And every year on New Year's Elvis
would drop like two grand on fireworks, which in sixties
money is I don't even want to know, it's probably
like twenty thirty grand these days. And he and some
of his friends they would wear like bomber jackets, like
thick you know, motorcycle leather jackets, goggles and gloves and
(29:41):
would shoot Roman candles at each other as one does.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
I'm Southern enough to have conducted similar escapades, but uh
not with not with thousands of dollars worth of fireworks,
you know what I mean. Everybody gets one and then
we count down before it's time to run.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Bend is jump in here. I'm Southern enough to have
done the same thing, except not with the bomber jacket.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
You were just relied on your dexterity and your agility.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, I've certainly heard of like roman candle wars. You know,
people get oh yeah, it must be a Southern thing
or just it's just the height of drunken red neckery.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
You know, it's stupid, so did it?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
And fun?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
A lot of stupid things are fun, But did a
lot of fun things are stupid?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
And fellow ridiculous historians, we are going to pause the
conversation in media arrest. This is part two of our
Bizarre soaka of Elvis Presley, and we just can't thank
Jordan Runtaw enough.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
He's our pal, He's a true friend inside and outside
of the show, and we were both kind of astonished
to realize that he hasn't been on the show before.
And it's largely because I think we both spent time
together and separately with our boy Jordan, just chatting about
this kind of stuff. So I just sort of felt
like we'd done it before, but that was just real life.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
And to jump in here, he kind of has been
on the show as he's written episodes, but so we've
had him in a different way.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
In spirit, just like christ frasiotis.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Need to Jeff Coates and big big thanks for our
super producer, mister Max Williams. Big thanks to our composer
Alex Williams who made this slap and bop, as well
as aj Bahamas, Jacob's aka the Puzzler.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
And Jeez Louise Ben. Thanks to you you got me
all shook up.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
And big big thanks of course to Jonathan Strickland ak
The Twister, because every show like ours needs a kerdle
of its own.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Let's see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man,
the myth, the legend, our super producer, Max the Hound
Dog Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Max Grumpy Gump, Grumpy Gus Williams. We just we just
called him a grump off.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We just roasted.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I note everyone's I note everyone. I am actually up
in Canton, Georgia, so I'm basically in Tennessee right now.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hey, congratulations hollers. Yeah, what's it like at the top
of the map.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Or if you're in the holler at the bottom? Yeah, yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Bottom is the top. That is getting a little hermetic
for us. That's none other the legendary mister Noel Brown.
Knowl how you're.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Feeling, you know, I'm pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Nice, I am feeling pretty good myself. We're very excited
about this one. Oh, they call me Ben Bullen on
this show because Noel. Today, we are tackling one of
the biggest figures in all of American music history. This
is a larger than life son of the South. He
was known as much for his off stage eccentricities and
(01:34):
shenanigans as he was for his on stage performances and
groundbreaking or least record breaking music. That's right, we're finally
tackling the one and only Elvis Aaron Presley.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
A real iconic, class, real real, a real divisive figure
when he was first hitting the scene. Those hips don't lie.
He was deeded that way before Shakira ever ever, was
a glint in the eye of whomever birth to her. Yeah,
Elvis was it the Pelvis?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I like that had many monikers and nicknames, as so
many icons.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
King of.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well, it's it's a it's kind. He was the king
dread pirate Roberts. I would argue, different people get the
title over time. Now you may be asking yourselves, folks,
who is that providing these amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Last mellifluous cackle.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
There's so much to get into here, and luckily we
are not venturing forth alone ridiculous historians. We are thrilled
to be joined with none other than the iconic legendary
in his own right. Music journalists, writer, executive producer with
(02:52):
us at iHeart and the podcast host Jordan Run to Jordan,
thank you so much for hopping on the show with
Possesster of quite the pell this himself.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Thank you, thank you very much, so good to be here.
Oh my god, guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And while he's not in the building with us currently,
he is in a building and presumably when we conclude
this podcast, he will leave the building.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Now it's my apartment, so I guess I'm not leaving
this building.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You're not going anywhere you got today?
Speaker 4 (03:18):
This is it?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, Jordan, Jordan, you are. It's weird that you are
so humble man, because we are all friends outside of
this show, and you host things like you You've hosted
so many shows, created so many shows like Off the Record, Rivals,
Music's Greatest Feuds and of course t M I too
(03:40):
much information?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Oh thank you. No, that's a fun one.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
No.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I my In my my job as a music journalist,
my favorite stuff to write were all these like you know,
listicals ten things you didn't know about led Zeppelin, four
twenty different things you didn't know about you know, David Bowie,
station to station, things like that. And you know, a
lot of my journalist's friends would down their nose at
writing these you know, research trivia pieces basically, But I
(04:04):
just thought it was the most fun thing. I love
diving in and you know, getting paid to learn about
your favorite records and share that with other people. So
that was kind of what TMI. The podcast was more about,
just the little known, behind the scenes stories, a little
known facts about your favorite movies, music, TV shows and more.
And we never got to Elvis. Actually we were gonna
do an episode on his house Graceland. We did Paul
(04:28):
Simon's album Graceland, but we never got to his house.
I had notes for that, and honestly, my notes for
that were something like fifty pages and I was too
afraid to put it together. So that's yeah, because I'm
a huge Elvis nerd. Have you guys ever been to Graceland?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yes, I have not, but I'm a big fan of
the Paul Simon album Graceland, and I've been watching this
show on I think it's on Hulu or you know,
maybe Disney plus I guess they're all the same thing
now called Paradise, where there is a plotline surrounding Graceland
in a post of acalyptic environment where it serves as
kind of a fort, and it's pretty cool. I don't
(05:04):
know if it's the real Graceland or if they just
did a really good mock up of it. But I
know about the Jungle Room.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Mm hmm, that's uh. I did a piece for Rolling
Stone that was just a history of the Jungle Room,
which is this weird like man cave in in Elvis's home,
and it was like five thousand words. It was really ridiculous.
But it's a fascinating room. It definitely. Uh. I think
there was a one journalist called it a a taj
(05:30):
mahal to questionable aesthetic choices, which I just thought, yeah,
it's a beautiful. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And to your question there, Jordan, yes, Obviously having family
in Tennessee, we were all rely we were all required
to go to Graceland at some point. It's like our hajj,
like I had to go because if I didn't, they
will legally be allowed to destroy my birth certificate. So
(05:58):
that's part of why so many people go to Graceland.
And it's fascinating. You guys in TMI didn't get to
Elvis Presley, You didn't get to Graceland.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
No, I mean, going to Graceland was honestly the thing
I always was obviously aware of Elvis and you know
as a classic rock lover. I was always you know,
I appreciated some of his work, but it wasn't until
going to Graceland for the first time that I just
became deeply fascinated with the weirdness of Elvis Presley, because
I mean, the thing about Graceland and I hope I
(06:29):
don't offend you as a as a native Tennesseean, but
it's it's it's not that nice about.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
No why we only go because our birth certificates are
under threat.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
But that's what's about it. It's like the most American thing.
It's like you're mythologizing this, like not like like you're
like slightly upperclass aunt's house, Like this is just like
grabbed me kitchen with like an avocado. I think. Actually
he actually had the first Marcer wave in the city
of Memphis. To believe he paid six hundred dollars for it.
Was just a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And it was also it wasn't exactactly known for his
like refined taste. Yeah, you know, I mean that's kind
of a bit of the mythology surrounding him, Like dude eight,
like was it peanut butter and banana sandwiches? He carried
his humble roots into the most ostentatious lifestyle imaginable and
(07:18):
kind of was unapologetically garish.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Oh yeah, nobody ever said, you know what I love
about this Elvis guy, his subtlety understatement. Yeah, nobody was
ever like, what nuance to this man. But this is
ne excellent set up that we're getting into here, guys,
because we're talking about taste, we're talking about what some
may describe as the struggle of.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
The Novu reach.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Maybe we start with the fact that Elvis Aaron Presley
was born into the opposite of a silver spoon situation. Right,
we're talking a two room house to Blue, Mississippi. It's
nineteen thirty five January eighth, So that puts us right
in the middle of the Great Depression.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Yeah, oh yeah, smack in the middle. And his h
and then you have I mean, it seems like, I know,
there's so much mythology around Elvis, but his birth really
is I mean, you can't make this stuff up. With
the death of his twin brother, Jesse, and that really
haunted him for his entire life. And he had a
very good friend. His hairdresser was this guy Larry Geller,
(08:24):
and Larry was one of these guys who he was
an LA guy and in the early sixties is one
of those people that was turning them on to like,
you know, the e ching and all these like slightly
spiritual bent things that Elvis would eventually get into. And
he would He's given some really interesting interviews about Elvis
and would talk about, you know, these late night conversations
they would have, and Elvis was haunted by the death
(08:45):
of his twin his whole life, and he would talk
about how he felt this pressure to basically live for
the both of them, and that is really one of
the motivating factors in his drive to succeed and do
what he did.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Aren't there some kind of conspiracy theories surrounding the twin brothers,
like burial site and like maybe like missing remains or
something along those lines.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Oh, I don't know about that. I know that I'm
sure we'll touch on this later. But I know that
Elvis's dad, you weren't allowed to have a burial on
a private property in Memphis, and Elvis's dad was saying, well,
he's Elvis. We can't just bury him in a public cemetery.
There's gonna be great. It was all like the lunatic fringe,
it's going to come out and so, and the Memphis
(09:31):
City Council didn't care, so they buried him in I
want to say Forest Hills Cemetery in Memphis, something like that.
And Elvis's dad, Vernon, who you know, you didn't pull
one over on Vernon. He apparently reportedly allegedly all the
disclaimers hired these like bumbling thieves through a middleman to
break into the cemetery at night and steal this I
(09:52):
want to say, like nine hundred pounds steel lined coffin
that had just been buried and hold Elvis's remains for ransom.
And these guys show up, you know, with pick axes
and shovels, under the cover of darkness, and they get
to the cemetery and there's like representatives from every major
news network there. Vernon to tipped them off, like they
got busted immediately, and so Vernon could go back to
(10:12):
the town officials to say, look, see what happened. He's
already people trying to steal them. So we got we
got to bury him at home where we can have
private security. And that's why they changed the city ordinance
so that you know, Elvis could be buried at Graceland
at his home, so maybe that's the story, but I
don't know anything.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
It's probably no, no, no, no, no, that's that's that's something to
do with it. I'm sorry. It's also like when we
say conspiracy theories, there are people out there saying that
maybe he didn't actually die, you know, maybe he actually uh.
I have a theory out you know, the remainder of
his life under an assumed name or something like that,
but not much credence to any of it.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
He's an extra.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
He shows mcaulay cooking where the lobby. That's not true.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So if if he were alive today, he would be
let me see, he died officially on August sixteenth, nineteen
seventy seven, just forty two years old, so he'd be
like ninety one years old, which is possible waiting for
that album. And Elvis, if you're here, thanks for tuning in.
(11:20):
We know he had a lot of financial hardship growing up,
similar to Dolly Pardon, we could say, and similar to
so many other musicians of the time. We also know
that he was from a deeply religious background and Jordan,
one thing you pointed out that we did not know
was that Elvis Presley was a natural blonde. Did he
(11:43):
really have blonde hair?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Natural blonde? There's some cute photos of him as a kid.
I mean, it's so weird because he still, like very
much looks like Elvis, but he's a little tow headed kid.
And the theory, I mean, this was his humble beginnings.
He apparently would color his hair black with shoe polish
when he was when he was younger, when he was
first starting out, which I mean, the logical question is
(12:05):
why would you Why would you do this? Apparently he
thought that dark hair made him look cooler and edgier
on stage when he was just starting out. And it's
believed that his look, this dark haired look, was inspired
by his love of the comic book character Captain Marvel Junior.
And if you look him up, he does have this
(12:26):
like kind of swept back Elvis style quiff and like
the sideburns. He's like a teenager. And later on in
his career when he was in his like in the
seventies era, and he had those big jumpsuits in the capes,
those capes look a lot like this. Captain Marvel Junior's
like superhero capes and even like, you know, the the
lightning bolt symbol that Elvis had later in his life
(12:48):
that he had painted on the wall of one of
the media room at Graceland. I think he had it
on one of his planes too. That was a symbol
from this Captain Marvel Junior comic book. So it hasn't
been he never really spoke about it, but it's been
theorized by fans that he borrowed us from his favorite
comic book character. And it's so cute. His comic book
collection is still in the attic at Graceland.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Oh, I wonder what that's worth.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yes, seriously, So to jump in real quick, we actually
did talk about that in our episode for a couple
of years back, the litigious history of Captain Marvel, which, yes,
we found that very interesting that he really liked JR.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, I'm Jenmie. Gosh, we do so many of these.
I totally spased on that aspect, and I honestly couldn't
have told you that Captain Marvel Junior was a thing.
Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Please please choose tune into that one in Also, we
talked a little bit at the top of one of
the most iconic pieces of Eddie Elvis performance live, which
was the dancing right the switch of the hips, as
Noel said pre Shakira, and this became quite controversial right
(14:18):
to the more buttoned up pearl clutching crowd. But Jordan,
you told us there is a reason for his infamous
dance moves, and it may not be the one we expect.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
It's I mean always he was a shy country boy
at heart, and the theory, the rumor is that those
you know, hip swiveling leg shakes were actually a result
of stage fright. Early in his career. He was so
nervous that he would start to shake and he could
kind of see the audience's reaction and they were into it.
So he kind of leaned into it and made those
(14:50):
weird moves his own, and he put them in future shows.
But like you said, this deeply upset the pearl clutches
of the nation, so much so that in I think
it was August of nineteen fifty six, juvenile court judge
Marion Gooding attended one of Elvis's shows in Florida, and
he was so horrified by what he saw they threatened
(15:11):
to have Elvis arrested and he insisted on only and
this is a quote limited side to side movements.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Stop looking like you were doing the air guitar version
of sex.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Is that what, yeah, Garlon was.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yes, oh wow, Yeah, you definitely could classify what he
did as gyrating. Perhaps, you know, it's funny though, Jordan
I didn't realize the nerves angle at all, and it
really makes me think of an iconic sort of stage
presence associated with Ian Curtis Joydavision. Yeah, who had I
believe epilepsy or some form of seizures, and he was
(15:49):
known for these kind of real shaky tweaky dance moves
and oftentimes it was a result of a combination of
stage fright and his condition.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Oh that's so true. Yeah, there's some amazing footage of
him on one of those Tony Wilson shows, like the
local Manchester Cable Access, where he's performing She's lost control
and it's like it's really jarring, but it's it's yeah,
arresting is the word. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
We also know another theory that often gets brought up
right by analysts and music historians, which is they're going
to argue that Elvis was appropriating right music culture and
even dance moves of the time. So if we were
to ask you, Jordan, which, uh, which of those arguments
(16:35):
you fall more in favor of, would you say stage fright,
nerves or would you say appropriation?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
I would say in terms of the dancing, I would
say nerves. I I do believe that does feel. And
it was honestly those around him that kind of are
those sort of that stood to gain from that attention
that would kind of put him up to it. I mean,
there's the famous story of when he went on the
Milton Berle Show in June of fifty six, and that
(17:03):
was like his first real big I think it was,
I can't remember it was his first national appearance, but
it was certainly is the first really truly big performance.
And he spent most of the show with a guitar,
which kind of limited his ability to move around. And
then when he started singing a hound Dog Burrow, the host,
Milton Burle, a comedian, uh, told him to take the
guitar off and said, let him see your son was
(17:24):
the advice, and he have known what he was doing.
And that was you know, the big like national.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Furor or all these good television right Yeah, Milton got it.
Uncle Milty got it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Also Milton had a hog again himself.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yes, yes, he had a hog.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yes, and you know exactly what I mean, like he
had a Lyndon Johnson level jumbo.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Oh that I did not know. I'm sorry, I didn't
know that about Uncle Milty.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
It was this story where they were at like he
was at a yurinal with like Groucho Marx and Gratcha
was just like, you better feed that thing or it's
liable to turn on you.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
That's very funny. No, sir, ree Bob staying in now, we're.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Actually gonna cut it from that spot for at the
very start.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, everything all right, fast forward past the foreskinting jokes
since we're talking about cutting hog.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Must if we must. You know, it's interesting though, because
we're talking about appropriation. You know, he grew up in
rural the rural South. Uh, he was directly influenced by
black culture and black music, gospel music, A lot of
stuff like that was just happening around him. So then
(18:30):
the question becomes is he the appropriateur is he? Or
is he just kind of taken in what was around him?
And then his handlers sort of pushed him to that
level that might be considered appropriation, Like what even is appropriation?
Like it's it's I don't mean to make some sort
of like gotcha question or hot button debate here, because
(18:50):
I think we kind of know what it is. It's
when you maybe unjustly take something from a culture that
doesn't get credit for it and then crink claim it
as your own. Was he doing that or was he
just sort of in turn because I believe he gave
a lot of love and respect to many of the
artists and people that he was surrounded by, but then
got so into drugs and sort of out of it
that his handlers were sort of the ones basically propping
(19:12):
him up and you know, pushing him out on stage,
and he maybe didn't have the agency to do some
of that, make some of those connections or give some
of that credit. I mean.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
And he would say, this was what I grew up with,
This was what I am, a reflection of what was
around me. That is what he would say. Was he
held to a completely different standard and had opportunities that
these other artists did not. Of course, yeah, absolutely, but
he you know, and people like Big Mama Thornton deeply
resent to the fact that you know, he covered her
(19:42):
songhound Dog and he made it, you know, made a
gazillion dollars off of it.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Well she did, and she didn't get she didn't get
any any residuals for either.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Well there's this is a bad example, but they're famously
I need to check on this. I don't think in
that case that was this. This occurred, but when songwriters
would submit so to Elvis, his label insisted that he
get a writing credit on it, like that was part
of the deal when writers would.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
See even though he didn't actually write in the song.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
No, he recorded something like seven hundred songs in his
career and he he was not a songwriter, but he's
credited on songs like all Shook Up and Don't Be Cruel.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Which we also know that the largely white record industry
was infamous for taking advantage oh, you know, black artists.
So that's why I'm not trying to give Elvis a pass,
but I'm just saying it seems like was it the
kernel and all the people that were sort of handling
him in the record company, they were more of the
ones turning the screws and making those bad deals to
(20:42):
your point about the writing credit, that's hogwash. But I'm
certain that Elvis wouldn't have pushed for that himself.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
I don't think he was very involved with any of that.
I don't, I mean to be.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
He's very nicie, right, That's what I meant.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
But he wasn't a business guy. He wasn't a business
and development shark. He wasn't out there redlining contracts.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
He was frankly not super bright. No, I mean, I
don't mean to be a but like he was, he
was taking advantage of himself. Oh yeah, because he was
just all those.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Those Jordan, could you tell us a little bit about
the colonel and the so called Memphis mafia.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
The colonel was, I mean, my favorite story about the
colonel was that he he was not a colonel. That
was just the name of.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
L Rod.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
He started calling himself the admiral.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
The admiral, stolen valor in the highest he was. He
illegally came to this country from I want to say, Copenhagen.
And the reason Elvis famously never performed a concert abroad,
and the Colonel would always give him these like fictitious
business reasons why, like, oh yeah, it's a bad idea like,
you don't want to you don't want to perform anywhere
but right here.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
You will hold you hostage in Vegas the rest of
your life.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
You could go as far west as what But he
was because only in the movies.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
He couldn't leave the country. He couldn't he and so
which is so fun. So that's the level of just,
you know, Elvis, just a blind trust in this guy.
What I was talking about earlier about the writing credit
thing that I mean, it seems on the surface like
(22:17):
a good business move. Oh yeah, you want Elvis, who's
gonna make whatever song records a massive hit? To record
your song? Cool, give us a you know, fifty percent cut.
Our brill building artists are brill building songwriters, and you know,
pro songwriters out of Nashville stopped offering him their best stuff,
which is why in the sixties, I mean, one of
the several reasons why his career started tanking in the sixties,
(22:39):
he just wasn't getting good songs. And I mean, one
of the most famous examples of this is that Dolly
Parton wrote I Will Always Love You in the early
seventies and she was still kind of on the rise
as a soul artist herself, and Elvis deeply wanted to
record it, and Dolly was so thrilled, and then Colonel
Tom Parker said, well, you know, you got to you
gotta sign over the I think get a co write
(22:59):
credit and at least half of the publishing rights. And
Dolly said, you know, no, I can't. That's my you know,
those publishing rights belonged to my it's my family's financial feature.
I can't just sign that away.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And so she's and that's one of the many reasons
that Dolly is a badass, just absolutely rules. I mean,
because that in those days, you know, being a woman songwriter,
you would have already been like relegated to a certain
level of dismissed kind of attitude, you know, from the
patriarchal and white run record industry, and you wouldn't have
(23:31):
had the luxury of saying no to a thing like that.
And she really did stand her ground and stick to
her guns and other you know, cowboy related metaphors.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I mean, two stories about Colonel Tom Parker, one that
illustrates just his viciousness and one that illustrates the fact
that he was not as smart as he thought he was.
There's a famous story that Larry Geller, guy the Elvis's
hairdresser who became his really close friend, tells the story
a lot. Where I think it was during the Elvis
residency was sometime towards the end in the seventies, and
(24:01):
Elvis was just comatose. He was not in any condition
to perform. It was maybe like an hour or two
before showtime. Yeah, And he calls the colonel and tells
him to come to helvis a suite and thinks that
he's gonna, like, you know, okay, you know, the old
(24:22):
man is here. He's gonna set everything right. He's gonna
see what's going on, and he's gonna put a stop
to it. He's gonna get Elvis the help he needs,
Like you know, Dad's here and he's gonna like fix everything.
And he sees Parker go in, and he sees him
shove Elvis's face into a champagne holder face with the
ice bucket. Yeah, shove his face in there, pull it out,
(24:43):
pull him out by the air, shove him back in,
pull him out by the hair. And Parker just looks
at this guy, Larry Galler, and says, the only thing
that matters is that bat Man gets on stage tonight,
that is the only thing that matter. It was chilling,
So that's that's the vish bousness. Parker started a. Elvis
(25:04):
was signed to RCIA Records famously, but he started the
Parker started the subsidiary label. I don't fully understand the
specific stuf. It doesn't really matter. But he wanted to
release an album on that label so that he personally
could just profit from it because he owned this label himself.
And so he thought, wait a minute, RCA owns the songs.
What if I have Elvis release a spoken word album?
(25:27):
Those are those aren't songs? And so he put just
did it even dumber. They recorded a bunch of his
live shows and then they just spliced out all of
his on.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Stage the stage speech, and.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
It's called having fun with Elvis on stage.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
And then maybe so is that a novelty record? Now?
Is that? Like they did? They not make many of them?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
No, he was gonna sell it just at concerts as
like a like a momentum. And then was like, no,
you idiot, Elvis's voice on record. We own all of that,
not just songs. He missed the boat on that, so
he wasn't as smart as he No, he was not
as smart as he thought. So he was kind of
evil and not as smart as he thought.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Now, now that does raise a question for me, Jordan,
and maybe you don't know the answer to this, but
I mean, do they own his speaking voice? Like? To
what degree does a record label own an artist? Like?
I guess their likeness, their their their whatever. Life rights?
There so many different angles of that, right, that's fascinating.
I'd love to We need to do another episode at
(26:29):
some point, Ben on something like life rights. Yeah, yeah,
I think that would be interesting.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, that's a great call because if I if I
understand correctly, you know, RCA was such a huge monopolistic
force at the time. They had the best lawyers, so
they could drag people through court, uh just making their
opinion fact. So it does make sense that a group
as litigious as RCA would say nope, everything this guy
(26:57):
says auto Yeah uhr.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Was Edison right? I mean literally the first y Yeah,
they owned the medium of like recorded music, They invented it,
and then eventually more or less right and then they
had it on lockdown. I would love to talk a
little bit about that aspect of it for a second.
I know, I know that you're into all aspects of
recorded music, but that's fascinating, always been fascinating to me.
(27:21):
You're picturing the dog listening to the Victrola, just the
branding around that, and that being literally RCA being first
to market on the concept of recorded music.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
And televisions too. I mean, of course, and Il was
famously uh he loved his TV and he had something
like fourteen TVs at his house.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Toxic relationship for television sets Georgian.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Yes, he liked to shoot them just like because he
knew that because he was with RCA, they would just
send them free ones whenever he wanted.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
A lot more TVs.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Yes, yeah, so he he he would like do it
just to like be funny, like if there's somebody like
the famous story of uh, the singer Robert Gulay was
on the TV and he was like watching it with
his friends, and I think I think there was some
like weird love triangle thing with guli I don't remember
why he hated him so much, but he just said
that guy's got no heart and shot the TV. And
(28:13):
when Ola was on.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Dude, what a what a hip hop level flex to say? Oh,
I don't turn channels. I shoot the television and then
RCA sends me a new TV. Are you so broken
that you have to change the channel? You reuse your TV?
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Heitary he was kind of the first bad behaving rock
star guy, and like TV damage and destruction became a
trope kind of further down the line. But Elvis was
the og of the unhinged, you know, megalomaniacal musician, right just.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
With his own stuff. He wasn't like Keith Moon level
trash and hotel room, but with his own stuf, he
had a He definitely had a much more cavalier relationship
to Also, it gets back to that and I say
he was a he was a lovable himbo, like like
you love that I have. You've heard about his fireworks battles.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Let's talk about the firework battles before we get back
to the Memphis Mafia, because they don't want to miss
that one. We do have to explain that on drug Well.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
So so Memphis Mafia, I mean, was his ever expanding
crew of guys. And every year on New Year's Elvis
would drop like two grand on fireworks, which in sixties
money is I don't even want to know, it's probably
like twenty thirty grand these days. And he and some
of his friends they would wear like bomber jackets, like
thick you know, motorcycle leather jackets, goggles and gloves and
(29:41):
would shoot Roman candles at each other as one does.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
I'm Southern enough to have conducted similar escapades, but uh
not with not with thousands of dollars worth of fireworks,
you know what I mean. Everybody gets one and then
we count down before it's time to run.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Bend is jump in here. I'm Southern enough to have
done the same thing, except not with the bomber jacket.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
You were just relied on your dexterity and your agility.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yeah, I've certainly heard of like roman candle wars. You know,
people get oh yeah, it must be a Southern thing
or just it's just the height of drunken red neckery.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
You know, it's stupid, so did it?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
And fun?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
A lot of stupid things are fun, But did a
lot of fun things are stupid?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
And fellow ridiculous historians, we are going to pause the
conversation in media arrest. This is part two of our
Bizarre soaka of Elvis Presley, and we just can't thank
Jordan Runtaw enough.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
He's our pal, He's a true friend inside and outside
of the show, and we were both kind of astonished
to realize that he hasn't been on the show before.
And it's largely because I think we both spent time
together and separately with our boy Jordan, just chatting about
this kind of stuff. So I just sort of felt
like we'd done it before, but that was just real life.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
And to jump in here, he kind of has been
on the show as he's written episodes, but so we've
had him in a different way.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
In spirit, just like christ frasiotis.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Need to Jeff Coates and big big thanks for our
super producer, mister Max Williams. Big thanks to our composer
Alex Williams who made this slap and bop, as well
as aj Bahamas, Jacob's aka the Puzzler.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
And Jeez Louise Ben. Thanks to you you got me
all shook up.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
And big big thanks of course to Jonathan Strickland ak
The Twister, because every show like ours needs a kerdle
of its own.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Let's see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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