April 11, 2024 • 49 mins
In 1986, Cameron Crowe, the film director, and Nancy Wilson, of the rock group Heart, got married. They honeymooned in a little cabin in the Pacific Northwest, and while they were there decided to write a musical, about Elvis as a cab driver in Seattle. They wrote and recorded demos of all the songs, and called it “Blue Seattle.” It became a lost masterpiece that never saw the light of day. In our Development Hell season finale, Cameron joins Malcolm to share the songs and tell the story behind “Blue Seattle” for the very first time.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Hello, Hello, Malcolm Glabel here, and welcome to what
might be the final episode in our development hell series
of Revision's history. Today we're talking about Alvis Love down
on his street. That person singing is not Elvias.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
These are the people.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's Cameron Crowe. You've seen his movies. Jerry Maguire almost famous,
he wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High, so many more.
And the guitarist on this song is Nancy Wilson from
the mega nineteen seventies band Heart, who at the time
was Cameron Crowe's wife. And the story we're going to
(01:03):
talk about today starts back in the summer of nineteen
eighty six, when Cameron and Nancy were on their honeymoon.
They spent it in a little cabin in the Pacific Northwest,
a little cabin that would become the birthplace for today's
movie that Never was Blue Seattle, a loving romp about
(01:24):
two songwriters trying to write a movie for Elvis Presley,
A movie about a couple writing a movie, written by
a couple writing a movie. What's not to love? A
script so meta that it belongs on the big screen.
Only the big screen wasn't big enough to handle it
or something like that, because one of the things that
you might conclude in listening to this interview is that
(01:46):
for Cameron Crowe, it is so much fun talking about
his lost Elvis masterpiece that I think he's afraid that
if he actually makes it, he'll feel abandoned, like a
version of screenwriter empty nest syndrome. So let's tell the
story of Blue Seattle. And this interview is different from
all the other development hell stories we told on the
series because instead of giving us the script to his movie,
(02:10):
Cam and Crope gave us the songs he and Nancy
wrote forty years ago. As in every Elvis movie, the
best parts of the songs to capture a moment, that
honeymoon bursts of creative inspiration, and they tell a story
but a young couple in love. I've been looking forward
to this. Let's start from the beginning because this is
(02:33):
this is a story that needs, as you know, appropriate setup.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well, when we first talked, I went down a road
that felt very friendly and evocative and filled with memories.
Because you are an Elvis guy, your revisionist history on
Elvis was seminal, and this idea of like never made
projects from the heart and stuff. It combined with my
(03:02):
love of Elvis and a particular part of Elvis to
you just want to like put this in your lap, Malcolm.
This is this was one that got away.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, let's start with Elvis. So you your first concert
you ever attended as a kid, right, is an Elvis concert?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
That's right? I won tickets on the radio.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's your twelve Yeah, something like that. Which Elvis are
you getting in that low period?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Elvis seventy two, Elvis.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
The big, the big high Collers.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Big high Callers, karate kicks. He was a little obsessed
with Nixon. In my San Diego Sports Arena show, he
did an imitation of Nixon and at one point was
on his back kind of kicking his legs, just having fun.
The kid was having fun at my show.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Baroke, it's baro You got Barroke Elvis.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I got Baroque Elvis. But Malcolm, he did. There was
one moment where it just broke through, like his genius
really broke through. And it was a brief moment of
sunlight through the clouds, but it was bridge over trouble
water and I felt him connect and there was that
moment where it was galvanizing and giving what he wanted
(04:22):
to give, and the audience was like mid shriek and
kind of taking it in. And and that was that
was the DNA you were meant to build up from
watching the show. Okay, there he is when you were feelings,
it was kind of fun in games Elvis.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And so this is so much of your life's work
kind of grows, is growing from the tiny seed of
not the all that of that Elvis concert, right, I
mean almost famous. So this this concert had a huge
impact on you.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It did, and also also Malcolm because like I took
my mom and my mom you know, if you if
you've seen all famous.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
It's unfair that we can't listen to our music.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
It's because it is about drugs and promiscuous sex.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Simon and garfun is poetry, Yes, it's poetry. It is
a poetry of drugs and promiscuous sex. Honey, they're on POTT.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
So that week changes a lot. So this was the
door that gets cracked open where rock and of course
my future love and that combined with journalism. I was
on my way, but Elvis was there at the gates,
you know, and I still was obsessed with Elvis but
I was obsessed with the corners of Elvis's experience, and
(05:48):
one of those corners was his movies. And I loved
those B movies. Some might even call them C and
D movies. There he comes out of the box hot
with Loving You and Jail House Rock, but eventually he's
doing genre things for the money that Colonel Parker has
(06:08):
put him up for. And you know, there's a set
formula for the Elvis movies that happened. And I became
obsessed with those movies.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yes, yes, And you became obsessed with them because I mean,
one thing I was trying to figure out is I
listened to the music of the project we're going to
talk about. Was I was trying to understand your intentions
and your So are you obsessed in a kind.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Of that's so delicately put? I love it?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Is it is?
Speaker 5 (06:41):
It is it?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Are you winking at Elvis? Are you sharing in the fun?
Or are you buying it?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
All of the above? All I think you just you
just have to enjoy it for what it is, which
which is a romp. Elvis often did three of those
movies in a year. You can see he's kind of
confused by the character names they call him by. It's
like he's he's lost, He's he's brilliantly lost. It's just,
(07:11):
you know, you see so much. It's almost watching his
face in these movies. It's like a diary that he
never wrote. You can see why am I here? You
can see glimmers of oh this is good, and Margaret
Viva las Vegas. Wait a minute, she's challenging me. So
it's all there, hidden in this candy colored genre romp
(07:32):
that the Elvis movies became so all of the above.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, yeah, sir, So you developed early on, in other words,
a rich and nuanced interpretation of who Elvis was and
what he stands for. Yes, and that's that's Is there
any other artist who plays a comparable role in your
in the development of your imagination?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
No, because there's only one guy who was or artist
who was so huge that he was able to make
thirty throwaway movies that did well enough so that he
could keep doing it, perhaps against his will. Only one
person that I ever knew about, and we'll share this later,
(08:17):
did ask Elvis, like, why did you make all those movies?
And he gave this one person an answer, But mostly
he never did any interviews. He never commented on it.
He just did all those movies for fifteen years. They
squandered quite a bit, you know, as John Lennon would
would tell you in his interviews, like why is Elvis?
Why is the King? Just like you know, strolling around
(08:41):
Hollywood sound stages with B level stars singing like medium
decent songs, you know, but that's part of the mysteries
of Elvis.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, yeah, so we have this. This is the kind
of the necessary context, Yes, the story that you're gonna tell.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, okay. So it's the eighties and I had written
Fast Times at Ridgemont High which like amazingly kind of
found an audience, so I kind of had a shot
at possibly a screenwriting career. And in the middle of
(09:19):
all this, I perhaps most importantly, fell in love with
Nancy Wilson, the great Nancy Wilson, amazing guitarist, half of
the Wilson sisters who front their band Heart. So we
were together for a while and then decided to get married.
And it was a beautiful time. And Anne Wilson, Nancy's sister,
(09:39):
had a cabin in Cannon Beach, Oregon, and that was
where we wanted to go for a little honeymoon, you know,
just borrow the cabin from Ann. Now this you must
know as a setup is Ann and Nancy Wilson. To
this day, they're like the everly sisters. They sing together
and it's like, you know, there's no thought that goes
(10:00):
into it. They have the sibling voices that blend so
beautifully their musical twins in a way, and sings. Nancy
sing a little bit, but mostly plays this elegant, beautiful guitar.
They're a serious duo. So ten days into our honeymoon,
which was how long we wanted to spend at Anne's cabin,
(10:22):
we decid we want to spend two weeks. We want
to spend a little bit longer. But Anne wants to
come to her cabin. So Ann Wilson shows up on
our honeymoon, which is an interesting thing for a small cabin.
It's like a sitcom in a way. Here you have
the two sisters with you on your honeymoon with one
(10:43):
of them, and what are you going to do in
this in this small environment in a in a you know,
coastal town in Oregon where not much is going on. Well,
we're going to do a project, a musical project that
will involve all three of us. Whose idea was this
mine because I love watching them sing together. And Nancy
(11:07):
would later score my movies and stuff, and so we
worked really well together and AND's a lot of fun. Now,
all all of this being said, I was working loosely
on a book I wanted to do about Elvis movies,
So so that was on my mind. And like any
idea that you believe is good, it's built on the
things you love, and Elvis was one. Playing music with
(11:33):
my wife was another, and s c TV and Martin
Short was a third element. I loved Martin Short, that
great that great comedy show s c TV.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Remember I'm Canadian.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So here comes this idea for a kind of and
this is the cousin of what you're doing, Malcolm. It's
like lost masterpieces. What's What's What's something that like a
movie that almost got made? And it's built on the
burning fever inside your gut that this is the idea
(12:08):
of all time. So I started building this idea of
the great Elvis movie that never got made and what's
the story behind it? And I decided that it was
like you had Goffin and King, who are like a
great couple songwriting their legends. They'd written all these great songs.
The Beatles did some of them. I thought, like, what
(12:29):
about a much lesser Goffin and King, Like, what about
a couple who's the songwriting team They haven't gotten in
the door. And it's Parnell and Zix was their name,
Linda Parnell and Louis Zix. And Louis Zix of these
two songwriters, is obsessed with writing. He hears Elvis may
(12:50):
do one more movie, and he's gonna write with with
with his songwriting partner wife, they're gonna write this song
cycle for the ten songs of an Elvis movie that
they're gonna pitch and make. And this is the beginning
of Blue Seattle, which is their song cycle Malcolm, that
they're gonna try and sell to Elvis himself. And so
(13:15):
here on our honeymoon, I began to write these Elvis
songs that were fleshed out with Ann and Nancy Wilson
of heart and and and un ironically, really mostly we
were gonna do these songs that that captured all the
elements of the Elvis movie formula.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Now, before we get into the songs themselves, which I
have to say, are genius? I want you to define
you said all the elements of the eleph movie formula.
Break it down from before we start. What what are
the elements, the crucial.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Elements, okay, the the the Elvis elements of this. First
of all, he has to have a name that sounds
like a fist, you know, nothing too complex, just kind
of like deep Rivers was one Buck Thomas, you know,
so like we we thought, you start with a name
that's like, you know, Mike Davis something like that. And
(14:13):
and Elvis must always have workplace pride. He needs to
do a couple different things in an Elvis movie of
this era, but like they're often a strange combination of things,
like he can be a veterinarian who's also a race
car driver who also works in a county fair somehow
(14:35):
living you know, a little kid should appear at some
point looking for kind of some kind of mentorship, which
he provides, usually in the form of a song. Dancing
girls must appear.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
In the Garden of Paradise, Noble Master.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
So like that. It's worked in a fight, at least
one fight, and a thoughtful moment over a pet. Come on, Albert,
don't be a faint.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
A good album because, of course Elvis. Yeah, I mean
his dog, his love of dog. I mean the seminal
of what was the seminal dog in Elvis's life. I've
now forgotten the one that song he used to sing
over and over and over again as a teen was
a song about a dead dog, Shep.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yes, wasn't it.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I think it's Shep. Yeah. These are the kind of
stations of the Elvis cross that you've.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Us the stations of the cross. You can't say it
any better.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
There's a lot going on in these movies.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And he lined them up, man, he lined them up
and did them. But then ultimately we end up at
a place where Elvis's nobility is protected. He either gets
the girl or he doesn't get the girl, and there's
a there's a rave up song that sends you out
feeling good.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, and that's the Elvis movie.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Did you have you watched all the album Elvis movies?
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, definitely. And as long as you have these elements,
you're in the ballgame. Yeah. And of course the songs
are written outside of Elvis's experience, and usually they come
to him and at some point and they play him
the songs, and you know, legendarily he's like, no, no, okay,
I do something with that. Okay, No, okay, now I'm tired,
(16:30):
you know, Like, and they bring more songs another day.
And these are songs that the songwriters have like killed
themselves over because they know they're gonna have a session
with Elvis, you know, yeah, yeah, And this was the
songwriting couple in the story, my fictional story for lu Seattle,
Like their dream is that they will one day be
able to play these songs for Elvis and pitch this movie.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Are we going to hear some of those songs, dear listener,
Oh yes we are. After quick Break, Cameron Crowe is
going to play us some of the music from Blue Seattle.
So you sat down, you're there. How long did it
(17:16):
take to write these ten songs?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Like four or five days? Because I remember we made
this cassette that we're going to listen to mercifully a
little bit of yes, maybe a lot, but there's I
remember we listened to it on our way back from
the honeymoon. We were like, this is really pretty good.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, wait, why don't we let's play that one? I
actually I think you're being far too modest. I have
another one I want to recommend, but we'll get to
that one. Just play just to get us in the mood.
Let's listen to your favorite of the ten songs you wrote.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
It's going to be My People, My People.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Let's listen to My People.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Let me set it up. We wanted to bring Elvis
this movie in the late sixties because this is kind
of the period where post Elvis has started to develop
a little bit of a social conscience. So the idea
is Elvis plays a cab driver in this who is
a man kind of of the people. And so like
(18:17):
the idea of Elvis roaming the streets in Seattle and
like Pike Place and all that stuff. We loved it.
And so there is a moment where he realizes he
he must return to the relevance of the street where
he was once this cab driver, and he leaves this
(18:37):
relationship that has kind of belittled him in some ways.
And so he's like going back to his roots, and
he's singing this song from behind the wheel of his cab,
My People, And it's always good. I'll just add this,
It's always good when you have a little bit of
a of a Spanish kind of castinette, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Clove down in his street watching from my seat. These
are the people, my people in the city. Raid, I
(19:23):
seem to know my these are the people, my people.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
I'm just an afty.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
How did mine.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
My review?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Mar excuse me in my crime?
Speaker 4 (19:51):
I must be seeing my bride.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
For the people, the people of people people.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
A little bit.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
You're a moment in there, and now another one. He's
gonna be clapping, even though he has danse hands on
the wheel simp figure.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
It out almost.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
To the people.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
People you can. Actually, it's funny. That's like totally believable.
Wasn't Elvis song? If Alvis? Have I heard that on
an Elvis album? I'm not thinking twice about it.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I've come such a long way to hear you say that.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
No, I mean I'm not I'm not blowing smoke here.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
No, I felt that too at your time. Almost sell
that to to to Elvis. Yeah, for one of those movies.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, who's playing guitar on that?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Nancy and Ann are both playing guitar and singing, and
I'm like attempting to do an Elvis voice?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, which is it's not that the wake link for sure,
it's not your range.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Fantastic. You know, they can play anything at the drop
of a hat, and their harmonies are so cool.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Wait, let's so let's start from the view. So Blue
Seattle is set's the is the first song sets the
tone here, and we we're what are we? What are
we doing?
Speaker 8 (21:35):
What do we?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
What are what are we trying to do? Narratively with
Blue Blue Seattle.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Usher you into uh an Elvis world of time and
place and character. Yeah, where fun will perhaps abound.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, let's let's play a little, just the first half
of it, and then just to get a kind of
feel we get in the mood, Let's let's hear a
little bit of it.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Leathers always in LUs.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
Green mountains, a maple.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
This is the native influence was thing through.
Speaker 6 (22:43):
I'm going back to the place where I'm.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
A pretty little ship of warm man. Just kg.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
The sticks are rare boom. I thought the opening this
should be the theme for Seattle. First of all, Blue Seattle.
Seattle needs to call itself blue because everyone thinks they're
gray Seattle, so as a marketing campaign to remind us
that the skies are blue in the mountains are green
(23:18):
is like. And secondly, just those opening this place made
the town made for love. I mean, come on, why
is the city not make this just that those three
opening lines. That's the That should be the official tagline
for Seattle.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Everything takes its time. I'm realizing to come to this
crossroads with you is really meaningful. So yeah, once he did.
It happened at the World's Fair in Seattle. So this
is like a reunion with uh, with an Elvis city
that's like undervalued as an Elvis city.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
But wait, yes, Elvis. Elvis plays Seattle during the expo.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
He makes a movie. It happened at the World's Fair.
I forget who the co star is, but like the
space needle is on the poster for it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
It's a good nastic oh oh wow, a little kind
of a little a little a little phallic imagery to
add to the we then we come to pay the fair. Yeah,
and as you said earlier, in the kind of like
in the Elvis movie taxonomy that you created, he needs
to have multiple jobs, but one of them has to
(24:29):
be a kind of keeping it real, that's right. And
so the keep it real job we have here. We
understand that he's a cab driver.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
He's a cab driver, looking for love.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Looking for course. Yeah, let's do let's do it. Let's
do a minute of let's do a minute of of
pay the fair.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
We'll see the little girl.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
I'll stand a rod over there, maybe forty.
Speaker 8 (24:55):
Understand she's a watch.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
He's a watch.
Speaker 8 (25:00):
He's a watch. He's a wall.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
A fair.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yuh, that little girl a little lot of like you.
But das and they sound and Nancy sounds so good
on this, they don't.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I know that the thing that makes this genius is
because understanding that we have the Wilson sisters doing the
do do Do Do Do Do.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Do right.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Came when you when you're doing this project? Are they
what's there? They as into it as you are? There?
Speaker 3 (25:47):
I mean A we're bored, yeah, but b it's it's
a it's a great question. There was mist there's like
waves crashing on the below these little cliffs where we're staying,
and in the middle of this we're just like howling
through these Elvis songs. It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Honeymoon is there Is there a lot of weed involved
or not?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Not really? Not really. I think a lot of beers.
I think we were just like lining up beers doing
some of this stuff. Yeah, yeah, I think I think
we would have lost our hard Elvis edge if we'd
gone to the weed too much. That would be the
later Elvis movie, that's right. So Hiccups is the one's
(26:36):
there's usually a novelty song that's completely embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Oh that's what Hiccup is doing.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah, where Elvis is asked to do something that's really
kind of beneath him and he knows that. You can
always see it in the movies when he's asked to
do this, to play patty Cakes with a little kid,
or or do a move like that, he usually, if
you're really looking at it with a microscope, he has
a little fun and then it gets old because they're
(27:02):
asking him to do a number of takes you can
usually tell. And so by the end of the novelty
song in the movies, he's so ready to move on.
But but it's important that he bonds with a child
and a pet.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yeah, yeah, those are crucial.
Speaker 7 (27:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
It's just impossible not to be filled with sympathy for Elvis.
I would want no part of his life. It just said.
Everything about it just sounds he's locked up in this
gilded cage and he just sounds like he's desperately unhappy
almost all the time.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yes, and the further you go into the movies, you
see the anguish start to turn up. You can see
the anguish build and sometimes for whole movies he's annoyed,
kind of just wondering why he's there while he's doing
(27:59):
these lines.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, it's so. It's so heartbreaking, it is, but
still a little bit of hiccups, just so we understand
this the novelty because now that you say that, it
made I was puzzling. I was listening. It's like, why
is hiccups here? That's here?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Part this partlet a rhyme, the hiccup, No friend of mine,
there's no way to rid yourself.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Oh this a little scat hellup, yeah, big.
Speaker 6 (28:40):
Big.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I was humming this to myself after a mile around.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Now this year. Right, this is a heartbreak. This is
like the guy who was truly dangerous is now doing
the hiccup song.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah. Culturally, my and.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
That line at the end, my prescription is simply love.
When he goes to yeah, when he goes to all
the cures for the hiccups and then he comes as
to the only one that works for me is love,
which by the way, is like so poignant and so true.
The one thing he was lacking was love. Right, That's
a truer line has really been written of Elvis that
(29:18):
he got every other drug in quotes offered to him
and none worked. The only thing you need it was Yeah,
it was.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Super well said, and there was buried in the Hiccup song.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
But the way, what's hilarious continuing hilarious is I said
before the contrast between two of the great guitar players
of our generation. And then it's a good Elvis impression.
But as you say, you if you are the weak,
you could only be you could only be though in
this company.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
That's that's true. It's true. And and of course story wise,
which we'll we'll get to.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
It.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
These are the demos that the songwriting team within the
story are going to present to Elvis. So this would
be they're recording these themselves present to him, which which
i'll you know, we'll talk about in a second. Yeah, yeah,
I'll be brief.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I want to I want to play I want to
play One Chance to Love and then we listen, let's
talk a little bit more about about about context. This
this is this is where in this functions how.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I think this is kind of the looking over his
shoulder at the romantic landscape of Blue Seattle. He kind
of steps out and it's a single man in the
spotlight Roy Orbison kind of song. Yeah, that allows him
to uh, you know, flex his his vocal Elvis chops.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
And this time I think we should listen to the
whole song. I think it's a lovely song. Yeah, just
do the whole thing.
Speaker 8 (30:51):
H m, Dom, I've known you.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And yet I've loved you. No old as many greedy men.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
With hands and gloves.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
But I just want one.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
One chance too loud.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
What I want you to know? I am everything, yea Christ.
I don't have a lot to give, but I'm giving
it all here.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
You coming man.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
So helpless.
Speaker 8 (31:59):
Would ask for.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Chances to look what I means.
Speaker 8 (32:10):
No, I'll take my chid.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
I'll take my chance of just one.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
What chance?
Speaker 3 (32:49):
There's only one chance, There's not two, there's only one.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I just think s great. I just I just love
this one.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
We're building We're building this olf, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
We're we're we get the Wilson Sisters at the end.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
You can't beat it.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
We have real singers at.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
The end, but the situation forgot what real city is like.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
It's the least demo.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Ish mm hmmm mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
It feels like by the end of this you're your
enthusiasm for the project is increasing.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
You're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
That is the most Elvis, that's the most pure. If
you played that for anyone and said who would be
the ideal singer for that? Everyone everyone would say Elvis,
that's an Elvis song.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
I'm so close to it, you know, I'm When you're
the artist, Malcolm, it's hard to look outside the character
you're playing. Sometimes. No, that's amazing, Thank you. I still
one chance to love.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, Okay, now that you've heard the songs, I think
you understand why I needed to see this movie. We're
gonna take a short break. When we come back, we
talk about how the story of the film turns out
and what it all means. So we've we've we've got
(34:40):
our ten songs, and now we're this is the core
of a of a narrative. You want to do you
want to do this kind of tongue in cheek Elvis movie, Yes,
pretending to.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Tell the story of how it almost happened? Or yeah,
could have happened that that idea is what kind of
landed for for this.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
So to go back to the screenplay, did you actually
write a screenplay around those songs?
Speaker 3 (35:07):
I did? I did?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So how does it begin with those two characters dreaming
about writing an Elvis movie?
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Yeah, and enjoying enjoying one of the movies and trying
to be productive in their own little songwriting career. And
I got the feeling story wise that Elvis had done
the Comeback Special and just maybe he had two more
(35:35):
movies that he did after that. I think he did.
I could be wrong. I think he did. He did
a movie called let Me See Chautauqua was the name
of it, and it was kind of like a sought
after property. And he does this movie Chautauqua, but by
the time it comes out, they've changed the name to
The Trouble with Girls and how to get into it?
(35:58):
So so dashed again or his you know, dying embers
of an acting career. And then he goes into the
last one, which is Change of Habit, which he does
with Mary Tyler Moore, and of course he plays a doctor.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
In a movie with Mary Tyler Moore.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
The last one, it's the last one. So I got
the idea that our little songwriting duo gets a shot.
That's the dream to get the shot with Elvis. They're
they're ushered in and they have a moment in his
trailer where he's in his doctor uniform. There's a guitar
in his trailer. He's on a break doing you know,
(36:37):
change of habit, and he and he ushers them in
and they're kind of nervous. Our guy, the main guy
who's who's like an Elvis fanatic and has like really
studied Louis Zix has studied Elvis. But anyway, they run
through the songs. But before they do, Elvis says, you know,
(37:00):
not real talkative, totally charismatic, bronze in his doctor outfit.
He says, I always wanted to be in a good movie.
I don't know I'm gonna I'm gonna do this very
much anymore, maybe never go ahead. So with having led
with I'm not really doing this stuff anymore. These guys
(37:24):
earnestly run through the songs, and Elvis listens and he says,
let me, let me, let me, let me have the
sheet music for the the Cab Driver my People song.
And there's one guy that's written the songs, plays the
guitar his Elvis's guitar and accompanies him, and Elvis sings
(37:46):
My People in that little trailer, and then a guy
comes to get him to do a scene and he's leaving,
and our guy, Louis says, Elvis, why'd you do all
those movies? And I used the line that I had
heard from the actual story where somebody asked him that,
(38:07):
and he said, hey, man, last thing I remember I
was driving a truck. And he laughs and leaves, and
we're left with the songwriting couple, and the wife of
Louis says, I think he said no. And Louis says, yeah,
(38:27):
but what a no? That's like the greatest no ever.
And she says, sometimes a no is maybe even better
than a yes. And that's that's the end of Lost Masterpieces,
the movie that never gets made. Elvis never makes another movie,
but they have that moment in the trailer that that
(38:52):
where it all came to life for one minute while
he sang the.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Song, yeah that truck. Last thing I remember, I was
driving a truck.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Yeah, I'll tell you where it came from. Leon Russell,
the great you know, pianist and member of the Wrecking
Crew and stuff. Besides being you know, genius solo artists,
he played on so many records, and he played on
a bunch of Elvis records. And he was in the
RCA studios in the hallway and he sees Elvis coming
(39:21):
down the hallway and they hadn't seen each other since
playing on a session, and Leon Russell described it as
he kind of like developed Elvis Turett's you know, he
just like, what do you say to him? And he
ended up blurting out, Elvis, why'd you make all those
shitty movies? Just yucking it up in a studio hallway,
and Elvis said, last thing I remember, I was driving
(39:43):
a truck and like walks on, you know, driving a
truck in Tupelo basically, and then the hurricane.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
His whole life is just a blur.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
That's what he means.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Oh, that's what he means.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
But yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Cameron, well, once again, it's just it's so heartbreaking.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
It is heartbreaking the idea that.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
He would confess. He's essentially confessing to the fact he's
had no agency over his own career, which we know
is the truth of his own career. Yeah, that he
just completely surrendered all decision making to somebody out to
this kind of bad surrogate father.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Yeah, and clearly, in what little research I've been able
to do in the years passed our little novelty project here,
he didn't appreciate his movies. He never apparently had the
moment of watching him at two or three in the
morning and saying, like, shit, it's kind of good. I
(40:46):
think he mostly became ashamed of them.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Yeah, But also the idea of doing this kind of
bittersweet Elvis, who's aware of his own kind of loss
and failure in some sense, and who you know, they're
coming to him and they're confronting him with more of
(41:09):
the kind of falsehood, you know, like a kind of act,
and like that's and he just he can't do it anymore.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Driscilla Pressley said, there's a version of Elvis that few
people ever saw. And they would go to the outskirts
of town to like gospel festivals, and Elvis would sit
at a piano with with like a gospel group who
was just like kind of an amateurish gospel group, and
he'd sing at this piano and she would say that
was the purest Elvis that was him just connected to
(41:42):
his own heaven. That was it. And she said, like,
if you're going to do something about Elvis and not
have that in, you're not seeing the real guy. So
I felt like that moment in the trailer he actually
there was. There was just a love of music and
there was something in that song that like touched him
(42:02):
enough to want to sing it. And he who is
he if not a singer? And so he takes a spin.
He takes it for a spin, and that was his goodbye.
It's like.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
In the screenplay, how much of Alvis had we seen
prior to the trailer?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Oh? Nothing, He's like Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti or something.
It's like, so we have a brief.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
That he has that cameo right at the very end.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Yeah, they're just jamming like we're on the honeymoon. They're
trying to like it's the joy of their creation that
the songwriters the whole story really is. They're living in
it and experiencing it like we did on our honeymoon.
But but I think that line is is cool because
maybe maybe his partner realizes that the act of actually
(42:55):
doing it and pulling el of us back into a
place that he was obviously leaving, and like, how will
the songs really turn out? And are they out of
step with the times? Like these are all challenges that
they don't have to face. They got to see it,
and damn it was good.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah yeah, oh man, Cameron, Why have why have we
been denied this? This is so much more interesting than
I imagined I thought what you were doing because all
I had was the songs you sent me, the songs.
I didn't have the story, and I thought, oh, this
is like a goof I just thought, oh, you're just
(43:38):
like someone loves Elvis is doing a little goofy Elvis.
But now I understand, as is the case with so
many of your movies, when we get to the core
of it, there's there's something really emotionally resonant there, like painfully,
painfully emotionally.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
So it's that happy sad feeling that you know, like
the songs we love so often tap into the happy
sad feeling of you know, the ying and yang, and
you get to feel it all.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
So did you pitch this script anywhere?
Speaker 7 (44:17):
No?
Speaker 3 (44:17):
I kind of wrote it and enjoyed it and moved
on to something else.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Why didn't you pitch it?
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I hadn't started directing yet really, and by the time
by the time that I did, I was already off
on another journey. But I mean, I always loved the
idea of the dream that almost happened. And this, this
is what you're digging into right now. There's there's an
incredible kind of like happy said, melancholy about you know,
(44:49):
some of some of the Christopher Guests stuff in the
way that that it was influencing me around this time
and later too, Like I just loved the humanity and
the humor and the mix of that. I don't know
it just maybe someday I'll circle back to some version
of this. But I did love the idea of a
portrait of these artists, just like scraping for something true
(45:11):
and a different truth comes out of it.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
On this season's development Hell series, we've heard stories about
my brush with Hollywood Glory science fiction tales never were
chimped forward Michael Jackson biopics. But I wanted to tell
you about Blue Seattle at the end of it all,
because this conversation was my ticket out of development. Hell
Crow and Nancy Wilson got divorced some time ago. We
(45:40):
didn't talk about that, but I think it was part
of the happy sad feeling I got listening to these
songs they made together right when they got married. Crow
is the king of happy sad on film, the kind
of instant nostalgia. It's all about feeling joy while knowing
it will pass, that all things fade, but not if
they never exist in the first place. That's the beauty
(46:02):
of development. Hell I thought it was all about missing
out on projects the world deserves to see, and for
some films, like say Bubbles, it really is. But it's
also about ideas so perfect that realizing them on screen
might do them a disservice. Will anyone's elbows be better
than Cameron Crowe singing with Nancy Wilson ten days after
they got married? How could you even shoot the scene
(46:23):
with the songwriters run through all the songs they've written
in a trailer? How's Elvis gonna clap his hands while
driving his cab? Would it look ridiculous? Maybe that's not
the point. Does it sound amazing? Absolutely? And does it
come to life in our imagination? Yes?
Speaker 4 (46:42):
It does.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
It's like Louis's wife says, sometimes a no is better
than a yes. This episode of Revision's History was produced
(47:04):
by Nina Bird Lawrence and Ben and Alfhaffrey, with Talian
editing Sarah Nix, original scoring by Lubiskarra engineering by Echo Mountain.
Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Thanks to the Pushkin Crew,
Greta Cone, Christina Sullivan, Sarah Nix, Nicole upten Bosch, Eric Sandler,
Sarah Bruger and Kerry Brody. An extra special thanks of
(47:26):
course to Camera Crow. I'm Malcolm Glappa.
Speaker 4 (47:29):
One too loud?
Speaker 8 (47:36):
What I love?
Speaker 4 (47:51):
Ye man, There's so.
Speaker 8 (48:01):
Many of us who that's what one.
Speaker 6 (48:10):
Whatever?
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Let the chances to look, but not me.
Speaker 8 (48:14):
Donald. No, I'll take my shot.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
I'll take my chances.
Speaker 8 (48:21):
Just what chance? It's true?
Speaker 4 (48:31):
What's it?
Speaker 6 (48:52):
Chimes one sends to
Speaker 8 (49:24):
Chans to
Pushkin. Hello, Hello, Malcolm Glabel here, and welcome to what
might be the final episode in our development hell series
of Revision's history. Today we're talking about Alvis Love down
on his street. That person singing is not Elvias.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
These are the people.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's Cameron Crowe. You've seen his movies. Jerry Maguire almost famous,
he wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High, so many more.
And the guitarist on this song is Nancy Wilson from
the mega nineteen seventies band Heart, who at the time
was Cameron Crowe's wife. And the story we're going to
(01:03):
talk about today starts back in the summer of nineteen
eighty six, when Cameron and Nancy were on their honeymoon.
They spent it in a little cabin in the Pacific Northwest,
a little cabin that would become the birthplace for today's
movie that Never was Blue Seattle, a loving romp about
(01:24):
two songwriters trying to write a movie for Elvis Presley,
A movie about a couple writing a movie, written by
a couple writing a movie. What's not to love? A
script so meta that it belongs on the big screen.
Only the big screen wasn't big enough to handle it
or something like that, because one of the things that
you might conclude in listening to this interview is that
(01:46):
for Cameron Crowe, it is so much fun talking about
his lost Elvis masterpiece that I think he's afraid that
if he actually makes it, he'll feel abandoned, like a
version of screenwriter empty nest syndrome. So let's tell the
story of Blue Seattle. And this interview is different from
all the other development hell stories we told on the
series because instead of giving us the script to his movie,
(02:10):
Cam and Crope gave us the songs he and Nancy
wrote forty years ago. As in every Elvis movie, the
best parts of the songs to capture a moment, that
honeymoon bursts of creative inspiration, and they tell a story
but a young couple in love. I've been looking forward
to this. Let's start from the beginning because this is
(02:33):
this is a story that needs, as you know, appropriate setup.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well, when we first talked, I went down a road
that felt very friendly and evocative and filled with memories.
Because you are an Elvis guy, your revisionist history on
Elvis was seminal, and this idea of like never made
projects from the heart and stuff. It combined with my
(03:02):
love of Elvis and a particular part of Elvis to
you just want to like put this in your lap, Malcolm.
This is this was one that got away.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, let's start with Elvis. So you your first concert
you ever attended as a kid, right, is an Elvis concert?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
That's right? I won tickets on the radio.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's your twelve Yeah, something like that. Which Elvis are
you getting in that low period?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Elvis seventy two, Elvis.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
The big, the big high Collers.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Big high Callers, karate kicks. He was a little obsessed
with Nixon. In my San Diego Sports Arena show, he
did an imitation of Nixon and at one point was
on his back kind of kicking his legs, just having fun.
The kid was having fun at my show.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Baroke, it's baro You got Barroke Elvis.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I got Baroque Elvis. But Malcolm, he did. There was
one moment where it just broke through, like his genius
really broke through. And it was a brief moment of
sunlight through the clouds, but it was bridge over trouble
water and I felt him connect and there was that
moment where it was galvanizing and giving what he wanted
(04:22):
to give, and the audience was like mid shriek and
kind of taking it in. And and that was that
was the DNA you were meant to build up from
watching the show. Okay, there he is when you were feelings,
it was kind of fun in games Elvis.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And so this is so much of your life's work
kind of grows, is growing from the tiny seed of
not the all that of that Elvis concert, right, I
mean almost famous. So this this concert had a huge
impact on you.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It did, and also also Malcolm because like I took
my mom and my mom you know, if you if
you've seen all famous.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
It's unfair that we can't listen to our music.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
It's because it is about drugs and promiscuous sex.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Simon and garfun is poetry, Yes, it's poetry. It is
a poetry of drugs and promiscuous sex. Honey, they're on POTT.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
So that week changes a lot. So this was the
door that gets cracked open where rock and of course
my future love and that combined with journalism. I was
on my way, but Elvis was there at the gates,
you know, and I still was obsessed with Elvis but
I was obsessed with the corners of Elvis's experience, and
(05:48):
one of those corners was his movies. And I loved
those B movies. Some might even call them C and
D movies. There he comes out of the box hot
with Loving You and Jail House Rock, but eventually he's
doing genre things for the money that Colonel Parker has
(06:08):
put him up for. And you know, there's a set
formula for the Elvis movies that happened. And I became
obsessed with those movies.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yes, yes, And you became obsessed with them because I mean,
one thing I was trying to figure out is I
listened to the music of the project we're going to
talk about. Was I was trying to understand your intentions
and your So are you obsessed in a kind.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Of that's so delicately put? I love it?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Is it is?
Speaker 5 (06:41):
It is it?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Are you winking at Elvis? Are you sharing in the fun?
Or are you buying it?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
All of the above? All I think you just you
just have to enjoy it for what it is, which
which is a romp. Elvis often did three of those
movies in a year. You can see he's kind of
confused by the character names they call him by. It's
like he's he's lost, He's he's brilliantly lost. It's just,
(07:11):
you know, you see so much. It's almost watching his
face in these movies. It's like a diary that he
never wrote. You can see why am I here? You
can see glimmers of oh this is good, and Margaret
Viva las Vegas. Wait a minute, she's challenging me. So
it's all there, hidden in this candy colored genre romp
(07:32):
that the Elvis movies became so all of the above.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, yeah, sir, So you developed early on, in other words,
a rich and nuanced interpretation of who Elvis was and
what he stands for. Yes, and that's that's Is there
any other artist who plays a comparable role in your
in the development of your imagination?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
No, because there's only one guy who was or artist
who was so huge that he was able to make
thirty throwaway movies that did well enough so that he
could keep doing it, perhaps against his will. Only one
person that I ever knew about, and we'll share this later,
(08:17):
did ask Elvis, like, why did you make all those movies?
And he gave this one person an answer, But mostly
he never did any interviews. He never commented on it.
He just did all those movies for fifteen years. They
squandered quite a bit, you know, as John Lennon would
would tell you in his interviews, like why is Elvis?
Why is the King? Just like you know, strolling around
(08:41):
Hollywood sound stages with B level stars singing like medium
decent songs, you know, but that's part of the mysteries
of Elvis.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, yeah, so we have this. This is the kind
of the necessary context, Yes, the story that you're gonna tell.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, okay. So it's the eighties and I had written
Fast Times at Ridgemont High which like amazingly kind of
found an audience, so I kind of had a shot
at possibly a screenwriting career. And in the middle of
(09:19):
all this, I perhaps most importantly, fell in love with
Nancy Wilson, the great Nancy Wilson, amazing guitarist, half of
the Wilson sisters who front their band Heart. So we
were together for a while and then decided to get married.
And it was a beautiful time. And Anne Wilson, Nancy's sister,
(09:39):
had a cabin in Cannon Beach, Oregon, and that was
where we wanted to go for a little honeymoon, you know,
just borrow the cabin from Ann. Now this you must
know as a setup is Ann and Nancy Wilson. To
this day, they're like the everly sisters. They sing together
and it's like, you know, there's no thought that goes
(10:00):
into it. They have the sibling voices that blend so
beautifully their musical twins in a way, and sings. Nancy
sing a little bit, but mostly plays this elegant, beautiful guitar.
They're a serious duo. So ten days into our honeymoon,
which was how long we wanted to spend at Anne's cabin,
(10:22):
we decid we want to spend two weeks. We want
to spend a little bit longer. But Anne wants to
come to her cabin. So Ann Wilson shows up on
our honeymoon, which is an interesting thing for a small cabin.
It's like a sitcom in a way. Here you have
the two sisters with you on your honeymoon with one
(10:43):
of them, and what are you going to do in
this in this small environment in a in a you know,
coastal town in Oregon where not much is going on. Well,
we're going to do a project, a musical project that
will involve all three of us. Whose idea was this
mine because I love watching them sing together. And Nancy
(11:07):
would later score my movies and stuff, and so we
worked really well together and AND's a lot of fun. Now,
all all of this being said, I was working loosely
on a book I wanted to do about Elvis movies,
So so that was on my mind. And like any
idea that you believe is good, it's built on the
things you love, and Elvis was one. Playing music with
(11:33):
my wife was another, and s c TV and Martin
Short was a third element. I loved Martin Short, that
great that great comedy show s c TV.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Remember I'm Canadian.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So here comes this idea for a kind of and
this is the cousin of what you're doing, Malcolm. It's
like lost masterpieces. What's What's What's something that like a
movie that almost got made? And it's built on the
burning fever inside your gut that this is the idea
(12:08):
of all time. So I started building this idea of
the great Elvis movie that never got made and what's
the story behind it? And I decided that it was
like you had Goffin and King, who are like a
great couple songwriting their legends. They'd written all these great songs.
The Beatles did some of them. I thought, like, what
(12:29):
about a much lesser Goffin and King, Like, what about
a couple who's the songwriting team They haven't gotten in
the door. And it's Parnell and Zix was their name,
Linda Parnell and Louis Zix. And Louis Zix of these
two songwriters, is obsessed with writing. He hears Elvis may
(12:50):
do one more movie, and he's gonna write with with
with his songwriting partner wife, they're gonna write this song
cycle for the ten songs of an Elvis movie that
they're gonna pitch and make. And this is the beginning
of Blue Seattle, which is their song cycle Malcolm, that
they're gonna try and sell to Elvis himself. And so
(13:15):
here on our honeymoon, I began to write these Elvis
songs that were fleshed out with Ann and Nancy Wilson
of heart and and and un ironically, really mostly we
were gonna do these songs that that captured all the
elements of the Elvis movie formula.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Now, before we get into the songs themselves, which I
have to say, are genius? I want you to define
you said all the elements of the eleph movie formula.
Break it down from before we start. What what are
the elements, the crucial.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Elements, okay, the the the Elvis elements of this. First
of all, he has to have a name that sounds
like a fist, you know, nothing too complex, just kind
of like deep Rivers was one Buck Thomas, you know,
so like we we thought, you start with a name
that's like, you know, Mike Davis something like that. And
(14:13):
and Elvis must always have workplace pride. He needs to
do a couple different things in an Elvis movie of
this era, but like they're often a strange combination of things,
like he can be a veterinarian who's also a race
car driver who also works in a county fair somehow
(14:35):
living you know, a little kid should appear at some
point looking for kind of some kind of mentorship, which
he provides, usually in the form of a song. Dancing
girls must appear.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
In the Garden of Paradise, Noble Master.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
So like that. It's worked in a fight, at least
one fight, and a thoughtful moment over a pet. Come on, Albert,
don't be a faint.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
A good album because, of course Elvis. Yeah, I mean
his dog, his love of dog. I mean the seminal
of what was the seminal dog in Elvis's life. I've
now forgotten the one that song he used to sing
over and over and over again as a teen was
a song about a dead dog, Shep.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yes, wasn't it.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
I think it's Shep. Yeah. These are the kind of
stations of the Elvis cross that you've.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Us the stations of the cross. You can't say it
any better.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
There's a lot going on in these movies.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
And he lined them up, man, he lined them up
and did them. But then ultimately we end up at
a place where Elvis's nobility is protected. He either gets
the girl or he doesn't get the girl, and there's
a there's a rave up song that sends you out
feeling good.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, and that's the Elvis movie.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Did you have you watched all the album Elvis movies?
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, definitely. And as long as you have these elements,
you're in the ballgame. Yeah. And of course the songs
are written outside of Elvis's experience, and usually they come
to him and at some point and they play him
the songs, and you know, legendarily he's like, no, no, okay,
I do something with that. Okay, No, okay, now I'm tired,
(16:30):
you know, Like, and they bring more songs another day.
And these are songs that the songwriters have like killed
themselves over because they know they're gonna have a session
with Elvis, you know, yeah, yeah, And this was the
songwriting couple in the story, my fictional story for lu Seattle,
Like their dream is that they will one day be
able to play these songs for Elvis and pitch this movie.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Are we going to hear some of those songs, dear listener,
Oh yes we are. After quick Break, Cameron Crowe is
going to play us some of the music from Blue Seattle.
So you sat down, you're there. How long did it
(17:16):
take to write these ten songs?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Like four or five days? Because I remember we made
this cassette that we're going to listen to mercifully a
little bit of yes, maybe a lot, but there's I
remember we listened to it on our way back from
the honeymoon. We were like, this is really pretty good.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, wait, why don't we let's play that one? I
actually I think you're being far too modest. I have
another one I want to recommend, but we'll get to
that one. Just play just to get us in the mood.
Let's listen to your favorite of the ten songs you wrote.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
It's going to be My People, My People.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Let's listen to My People.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Let me set it up. We wanted to bring Elvis
this movie in the late sixties because this is kind
of the period where post Elvis has started to develop
a little bit of a social conscience. So the idea
is Elvis plays a cab driver in this who is
a man kind of of the people. And so like
(18:17):
the idea of Elvis roaming the streets in Seattle and
like Pike Place and all that stuff. We loved it.
And so there is a moment where he realizes he
he must return to the relevance of the street where
he was once this cab driver, and he leaves this
(18:37):
relationship that has kind of belittled him in some ways.
And so he's like going back to his roots, and
he's singing this song from behind the wheel of his cab,
My People, And it's always good. I'll just add this,
It's always good when you have a little bit of
a of a Spanish kind of castinette, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Clove down in his street watching from my seat. These
are the people, my people in the city. Raid, I
(19:23):
seem to know my these are the people, my people.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
I'm just an afty.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
How did mine.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
My review?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Mar excuse me in my crime?
Speaker 4 (19:51):
I must be seeing my bride.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
For the people, the people of people people.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
A little bit.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
You're a moment in there, and now another one. He's
gonna be clapping, even though he has danse hands on
the wheel simp figure.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
It out almost.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
To the people.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
People you can. Actually, it's funny. That's like totally believable.
Wasn't Elvis song? If Alvis? Have I heard that on
an Elvis album? I'm not thinking twice about it.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
I've come such a long way to hear you say that.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
No, I mean I'm not I'm not blowing smoke here.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
No, I felt that too at your time. Almost sell
that to to to Elvis. Yeah, for one of those movies.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, who's playing guitar on that?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Nancy and Ann are both playing guitar and singing, and
I'm like attempting to do an Elvis voice?
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, which is it's not that the wake link for sure,
it's not your range.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Fantastic. You know, they can play anything at the drop
of a hat, and their harmonies are so cool.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Wait, let's so let's start from the view. So Blue
Seattle is set's the is the first song sets the
tone here, and we we're what are we? What are
we doing?
Speaker 8 (21:35):
What do we?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
What are what are we trying to do? Narratively with
Blue Blue Seattle.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Usher you into uh an Elvis world of time and
place and character. Yeah, where fun will perhaps abound.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, let's let's play a little, just the first half
of it, and then just to get a kind of
feel we get in the mood, Let's let's hear a
little bit of it.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Leathers always in LUs.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
Green mountains, a maple.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
This is the native influence was thing through.
Speaker 6 (22:43):
I'm going back to the place where I'm.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
A pretty little ship of warm man. Just kg.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
The sticks are rare boom. I thought the opening this
should be the theme for Seattle. First of all, Blue Seattle.
Seattle needs to call itself blue because everyone thinks they're
gray Seattle, so as a marketing campaign to remind us
that the skies are blue in the mountains are green
(23:18):
is like. And secondly, just those opening this place made
the town made for love. I mean, come on, why
is the city not make this just that those three
opening lines. That's the That should be the official tagline
for Seattle.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Everything takes its time. I'm realizing to come to this
crossroads with you is really meaningful. So yeah, once he did.
It happened at the World's Fair in Seattle. So this
is like a reunion with uh, with an Elvis city
that's like undervalued as an Elvis city.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
But wait, yes, Elvis. Elvis plays Seattle during the expo.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
He makes a movie. It happened at the World's Fair.
I forget who the co star is, but like the
space needle is on the poster for it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
It's a good nastic oh oh wow, a little kind
of a little a little a little phallic imagery to
add to the we then we come to pay the fair. Yeah,
and as you said earlier, in the kind of like
in the Elvis movie taxonomy that you created, he needs
to have multiple jobs, but one of them has to
(24:29):
be a kind of keeping it real, that's right. And
so the keep it real job we have here. We
understand that he's a cab driver.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
He's a cab driver, looking for love.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Looking for course. Yeah, let's do let's do it. Let's
do a minute of let's do a minute of of
pay the fair.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
We'll see the little girl.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
I'll stand a rod over there, maybe forty.
Speaker 8 (24:55):
Understand she's a watch.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
He's a watch.
Speaker 8 (25:00):
He's a watch. He's a wall.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
A fair.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yuh, that little girl a little lot of like you.
But das and they sound and Nancy sounds so good
on this, they don't.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I know that the thing that makes this genius is
because understanding that we have the Wilson sisters doing the
do do Do Do Do Do.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Do right.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Came when you when you're doing this project? Are they
what's there? They as into it as you are? There?
Speaker 3 (25:47):
I mean A we're bored, yeah, but b it's it's
a it's a great question. There was mist there's like
waves crashing on the below these little cliffs where we're staying,
and in the middle of this we're just like howling
through these Elvis songs. It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Honeymoon is there Is there a lot of weed involved
or not?
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Not really? Not really. I think a lot of beers.
I think we were just like lining up beers doing
some of this stuff. Yeah, yeah, I think I think
we would have lost our hard Elvis edge if we'd
gone to the weed too much. That would be the
later Elvis movie, that's right. So Hiccups is the one's
(26:36):
there's usually a novelty song that's completely embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Oh that's what Hiccup is doing.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah, where Elvis is asked to do something that's really
kind of beneath him and he knows that. You can
always see it in the movies when he's asked to
do this, to play patty Cakes with a little kid,
or or do a move like that, he usually, if
you're really looking at it with a microscope, he has
a little fun and then it gets old because they're
(27:02):
asking him to do a number of takes you can
usually tell. And so by the end of the novelty
song in the movies, he's so ready to move on.
But but it's important that he bonds with a child
and a pet.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yeah, yeah, those are crucial.
Speaker 7 (27:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
It's just impossible not to be filled with sympathy for Elvis.
I would want no part of his life. It just said.
Everything about it just sounds he's locked up in this
gilded cage and he just sounds like he's desperately unhappy
almost all the time.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yes, and the further you go into the movies, you
see the anguish start to turn up. You can see
the anguish build and sometimes for whole movies he's annoyed,
kind of just wondering why he's there while he's doing
(27:59):
these lines.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, it's so. It's so heartbreaking, it is, but
still a little bit of hiccups, just so we understand
this the novelty because now that you say that, it
made I was puzzling. I was listening. It's like, why
is hiccups here? That's here?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Part this partlet a rhyme, the hiccup, No friend of mine,
there's no way to rid yourself.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Oh this a little scat hellup, yeah, big.
Speaker 6 (28:40):
Big.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I was humming this to myself after a mile around.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Now this year. Right, this is a heartbreak. This is
like the guy who was truly dangerous is now doing
the hiccup song.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah. Culturally, my and.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
That line at the end, my prescription is simply love.
When he goes to yeah, when he goes to all
the cures for the hiccups and then he comes as
to the only one that works for me is love,
which by the way, is like so poignant and so true.
The one thing he was lacking was love. Right, That's
a truer line has really been written of Elvis that
(29:18):
he got every other drug in quotes offered to him
and none worked. The only thing you need it was Yeah,
it was.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Super well said, and there was buried in the Hiccup song.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
But the way, what's hilarious continuing hilarious is I said
before the contrast between two of the great guitar players
of our generation. And then it's a good Elvis impression.
But as you say, you if you are the weak,
you could only be you could only be though in
this company.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
That's that's true. It's true. And and of course story wise,
which we'll we'll get to.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
It.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
These are the demos that the songwriting team within the
story are going to present to Elvis. So this would
be they're recording these themselves present to him, which which
i'll you know, we'll talk about in a second. Yeah, yeah,
I'll be brief.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I want to I want to play I want to
play One Chance to Love and then we listen, let's
talk a little bit more about about about context. This
this is this is where in this functions how.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I think this is kind of the looking over his
shoulder at the romantic landscape of Blue Seattle. He kind
of steps out and it's a single man in the
spotlight Roy Orbison kind of song. Yeah, that allows him
to uh, you know, flex his his vocal Elvis chops.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
And this time I think we should listen to the
whole song. I think it's a lovely song. Yeah, just
do the whole thing.
Speaker 8 (30:51):
H m, Dom, I've known you.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And yet I've loved you. No old as many greedy men.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
With hands and gloves.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
But I just want one.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
One chance too loud.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
What I want you to know? I am everything, yea Christ.
I don't have a lot to give, but I'm giving
it all here.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
You coming man.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
So helpless.
Speaker 8 (31:59):
Would ask for.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Chances to look what I means.
Speaker 8 (32:10):
No, I'll take my chid.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
I'll take my chance of just one.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
What chance?
Speaker 3 (32:49):
There's only one chance, There's not two, there's only one.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I just think s great. I just I just love
this one.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
We're building We're building this olf, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
We're we're we get the Wilson Sisters at the end.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
You can't beat it.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
We have real singers at.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
The end, but the situation forgot what real city is like.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
It's the least demo.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Ish mm hmmm mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
It feels like by the end of this you're your
enthusiasm for the project is increasing.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
You're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
That is the most Elvis, that's the most pure. If
you played that for anyone and said who would be
the ideal singer for that? Everyone everyone would say Elvis,
that's an Elvis song.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
I'm so close to it, you know, I'm When you're
the artist, Malcolm, it's hard to look outside the character
you're playing. Sometimes. No, that's amazing, Thank you. I still
one chance to love.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, Okay, now that you've heard the songs, I think
you understand why I needed to see this movie. We're
gonna take a short break. When we come back, we
talk about how the story of the film turns out
and what it all means. So we've we've we've got
(34:40):
our ten songs, and now we're this is the core
of a of a narrative. You want to do you
want to do this kind of tongue in cheek Elvis movie, Yes,
pretending to.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Tell the story of how it almost happened? Or yeah,
could have happened that that idea is what kind of
landed for for this.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
So to go back to the screenplay, did you actually
write a screenplay around those songs?
Speaker 3 (35:07):
I did? I did?
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So how does it begin with those two characters dreaming
about writing an Elvis movie?
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Yeah, and enjoying enjoying one of the movies and trying
to be productive in their own little songwriting career. And
I got the feeling story wise that Elvis had done
the Comeback Special and just maybe he had two more
(35:35):
movies that he did after that. I think he did.
I could be wrong. I think he did. He did
a movie called let Me See Chautauqua was the name
of it, and it was kind of like a sought
after property. And he does this movie Chautauqua, but by
the time it comes out, they've changed the name to
The Trouble with Girls and how to get into it?
(35:58):
So so dashed again or his you know, dying embers
of an acting career. And then he goes into the
last one, which is Change of Habit, which he does
with Mary Tyler Moore, and of course he plays a doctor.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
In a movie with Mary Tyler Moore.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
The last one, it's the last one. So I got
the idea that our little songwriting duo gets a shot.
That's the dream to get the shot with Elvis. They're
they're ushered in and they have a moment in his
trailer where he's in his doctor uniform. There's a guitar
in his trailer. He's on a break doing you know,
(36:37):
change of habit, and he and he ushers them in
and they're kind of nervous. Our guy, the main guy
who's who's like an Elvis fanatic and has like really
studied Louis Zix has studied Elvis. But anyway, they run
through the songs. But before they do, Elvis says, you know,
(37:00):
not real talkative, totally charismatic, bronze in his doctor outfit.
He says, I always wanted to be in a good movie.
I don't know I'm gonna I'm gonna do this very
much anymore, maybe never go ahead. So with having led
with I'm not really doing this stuff anymore. These guys
(37:24):
earnestly run through the songs, and Elvis listens and he says,
let me, let me, let me, let me have the
sheet music for the the Cab Driver my People song.
And there's one guy that's written the songs, plays the
guitar his Elvis's guitar and accompanies him, and Elvis sings
(37:46):
My People in that little trailer, and then a guy
comes to get him to do a scene and he's leaving,
and our guy, Louis says, Elvis, why'd you do all
those movies? And I used the line that I had
heard from the actual story where somebody asked him that,
(38:07):
and he said, hey, man, last thing I remember I
was driving a truck. And he laughs and leaves, and
we're left with the songwriting couple, and the wife of
Louis says, I think he said no. And Louis says, yeah,
(38:27):
but what a no? That's like the greatest no ever.
And she says, sometimes a no is maybe even better
than a yes. And that's that's the end of Lost Masterpieces,
the movie that never gets made. Elvis never makes another movie,
but they have that moment in the trailer that that
(38:52):
where it all came to life for one minute while
he sang the.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Song, yeah that truck. Last thing I remember, I was
driving a truck.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Yeah, I'll tell you where it came from. Leon Russell,
the great you know, pianist and member of the Wrecking
Crew and stuff. Besides being you know, genius solo artists,
he played on so many records, and he played on
a bunch of Elvis records. And he was in the
RCA studios in the hallway and he sees Elvis coming
(39:21):
down the hallway and they hadn't seen each other since
playing on a session, and Leon Russell described it as
he kind of like developed Elvis Turett's you know, he
just like, what do you say to him? And he
ended up blurting out, Elvis, why'd you make all those
shitty movies? Just yucking it up in a studio hallway,
and Elvis said, last thing I remember, I was driving
(39:43):
a truck and like walks on, you know, driving a
truck in Tupelo basically, and then the hurricane.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
His whole life is just a blur.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
That's what he means.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Oh, that's what he means.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
But yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Cameron, well, once again, it's just it's so heartbreaking.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
It is heartbreaking the idea that.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
He would confess. He's essentially confessing to the fact he's
had no agency over his own career, which we know
is the truth of his own career. Yeah, that he
just completely surrendered all decision making to somebody out to
this kind of bad surrogate father.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Yeah, and clearly, in what little research I've been able
to do in the years passed our little novelty project here,
he didn't appreciate his movies. He never apparently had the
moment of watching him at two or three in the
morning and saying, like, shit, it's kind of good. I
(40:46):
think he mostly became ashamed of them.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Yeah, But also the idea of doing this kind of
bittersweet Elvis, who's aware of his own kind of loss
and failure in some sense, and who you know, they're
coming to him and they're confronting him with more of
(41:09):
the kind of falsehood, you know, like a kind of act,
and like that's and he just he can't do it anymore.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Driscilla Pressley said, there's a version of Elvis that few
people ever saw. And they would go to the outskirts
of town to like gospel festivals, and Elvis would sit
at a piano with with like a gospel group who
was just like kind of an amateurish gospel group, and
he'd sing at this piano and she would say that
was the purest Elvis that was him just connected to
(41:42):
his own heaven. That was it. And she said, like,
if you're going to do something about Elvis and not
have that in, you're not seeing the real guy. So
I felt like that moment in the trailer he actually
there was. There was just a love of music and
there was something in that song that like touched him
(42:02):
enough to want to sing it. And he who is
he if not a singer? And so he takes a spin.
He takes it for a spin, and that was his goodbye.
It's like.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
In the screenplay, how much of Alvis had we seen
prior to the trailer?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Oh? Nothing, He's like Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti or something.
It's like, so we have a brief.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
That he has that cameo right at the very end.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Yeah, they're just jamming like we're on the honeymoon. They're
trying to like it's the joy of their creation that
the songwriters the whole story really is. They're living in
it and experiencing it like we did on our honeymoon.
But but I think that line is is cool because
maybe maybe his partner realizes that the act of actually
(42:55):
doing it and pulling el of us back into a
place that he was obviously leaving, and like, how will
the songs really turn out? And are they out of
step with the times? Like these are all challenges that
they don't have to face. They got to see it,
and damn it was good.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Yeah yeah, oh man, Cameron, Why have why have we
been denied this? This is so much more interesting than
I imagined I thought what you were doing because all
I had was the songs you sent me, the songs.
I didn't have the story, and I thought, oh, this
is like a goof I just thought, oh, you're just
(43:38):
like someone loves Elvis is doing a little goofy Elvis.
But now I understand, as is the case with so
many of your movies, when we get to the core
of it, there's there's something really emotionally resonant there, like painfully,
painfully emotionally.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
So it's that happy sad feeling that you know, like
the songs we love so often tap into the happy
sad feeling of you know, the ying and yang, and
you get to feel it all.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
So did you pitch this script anywhere?
Speaker 7 (44:17):
No?
Speaker 3 (44:17):
I kind of wrote it and enjoyed it and moved
on to something else.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Why didn't you pitch it?
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I hadn't started directing yet really, and by the time
by the time that I did, I was already off
on another journey. But I mean, I always loved the
idea of the dream that almost happened. And this, this
is what you're digging into right now. There's there's an
incredible kind of like happy said, melancholy about you know,
(44:49):
some of some of the Christopher Guests stuff in the
way that that it was influencing me around this time
and later too, Like I just loved the humanity and
the humor and the mix of that. I don't know
it just maybe someday I'll circle back to some version
of this. But I did love the idea of a
portrait of these artists, just like scraping for something true
(45:11):
and a different truth comes out of it.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
On this season's development Hell series, we've heard stories about
my brush with Hollywood Glory science fiction tales never were
chimped forward Michael Jackson biopics. But I wanted to tell
you about Blue Seattle at the end of it all,
because this conversation was my ticket out of development. Hell
Crow and Nancy Wilson got divorced some time ago. We
(45:40):
didn't talk about that, but I think it was part
of the happy sad feeling I got listening to these
songs they made together right when they got married. Crow
is the king of happy sad on film, the kind
of instant nostalgia. It's all about feeling joy while knowing
it will pass, that all things fade, but not if
they never exist in the first place. That's the beauty
(46:02):
of development. Hell I thought it was all about missing
out on projects the world deserves to see, and for
some films, like say Bubbles, it really is. But it's
also about ideas so perfect that realizing them on screen
might do them a disservice. Will anyone's elbows be better
than Cameron Crowe singing with Nancy Wilson ten days after
they got married? How could you even shoot the scene
(46:23):
with the songwriters run through all the songs they've written
in a trailer? How's Elvis gonna clap his hands while
driving his cab? Would it look ridiculous? Maybe that's not
the point. Does it sound amazing? Absolutely? And does it
come to life in our imagination? Yes?
Speaker 4 (46:42):
It does.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
It's like Louis's wife says, sometimes a no is better
than a yes. This episode of Revision's History was produced
(47:04):
by Nina Bird Lawrence and Ben and Alfhaffrey, with Talian
editing Sarah Nix, original scoring by Lubiskarra engineering by Echo Mountain.
Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Thanks to the Pushkin Crew,
Greta Cone, Christina Sullivan, Sarah Nix, Nicole upten Bosch, Eric Sandler,
Sarah Bruger and Kerry Brody. An extra special thanks of
(47:26):
course to Camera Crow. I'm Malcolm Glappa.
Speaker 4 (47:29):
One too loud?
Speaker 8 (47:36):
What I love?
Speaker 4 (47:51):
Ye man, There's so.
Speaker 8 (48:01):
Many of us who that's what one.
Speaker 6 (48:10):
Whatever?
Speaker 2 (48:10):
Let the chances to look, but not me.
Speaker 8 (48:14):
Donald. No, I'll take my shot.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
I'll take my chances.
Speaker 8 (48:21):
Just what chance? It's true?
Speaker 4 (48:31):
What's it?
Speaker 6 (48:52):
Chimes one sends to
Speaker 8 (49:24):
Chans to
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