Elvis Presley: The Searcher Page #16

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No, no, no.

Far as I was concerned,

I was not involved other

than making the contract.

He had the opportunity to say,

"I don't want to do it

or I'd like to do it."

No one told him

he had to make a picture

that he didn't want to do.

When we had a script,

we'd deliver it to Elvis.

Schilling:

Elvis did refuse

a bad picture.

In comes the Colonel,

in comes the studios,

in comes the record company.

They would say to him,

"You don't fulfill

your contracts,

you won't do anything."

Well, come on everybody

And turn your head

to the left

Come on everybody

Jackson:

In Viva Las Vegas,

it's the closest he ever

gets to having a true co-star.

Take a real deep breath

and repeat after me

Jackson:

That becomes a problem

for the Colonel,

because he doesn't

want anybody to even

come close to outshining Elvis.

Hey, hey, hey

and my baby loves me

Chorus:

My baby loves me

My baby loves me

Chorus:
My baby loves me

My baby loves me

I said, my baby

Ha!

My baby

Loves me

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ann-Margaret (laughing):

Wee-ha!

Binder:

The Colonel did not want

Ann-Margaret in his world

after she got

a lot of press.

Anybody who had influence

on Elvis was a threat.

Landau:

The tragedy of the

old style of management

was to try and maintain

control of the artist

by limiting their

exposure to opportunities.

The Colonel

was not interested

in Elvis becoming

too independent of a thinker.

He needed Elvis to think

that everything good

came from the Colonel

and anything bad came

from imagined enemies.

He kept that con game

going for much too long.

Zanes:

The years spent

chasing the movies,

you know, seven years,

they were very

destabilizing for Elvis,

because music

was always the buoy.

Jackson:

It's clear about halfway

through that period,

he becomes very restless,

and very annoyed

with the whole process.

Schilling:

Elvis didn't have

script approval.

There weren't great budgets.

Priscilla:

The humdrum movies

that he was given--

boy chase girl,

boy gets girl,

they get married,

and it's happily ever after--

that was not Elvis Presley.

He was not that man.

He was much deeper than that.

He had no inspiration

whatsoever.

He knew he had

to make it work.

He knew he was

under a contract,

and he walked through

every one of them.

After a movie,

he felt trapped.

He dreaded the next script,

because he knew

it would be the same thing

over and over again.

But the disconnect,

the disconnect in the two

was really wearing

on his mind--

that Colonel was not taking him

to the place he needed to be.

Petty:

This is what

we'll never understand

is why did

Colonel Parker have

this kind of influence

over him.

Why was he willing

to knowingly humiliate

himself for this man,

or for the money

promised him by this man?

He puts up with it.

Porter:

I have never felt

Elvis was lost.

He knew with all those movies,

as is the case

with every artist,

that they're taking themselves

away from their strength.

Many artists can't get back

to where their strengths are.

Emmylou Harris:

An artist has to

constantly grow,

and to continue creating,

and changing,

and being inspired

by things around him

in a spiritual

or a personal way.

Elvis:

I'd like to stay

in the same vein.

I-I mean,

I wouldn't like to, uh,

be at a standstill,

you know what I mean?

I'd like--

I'd like to progress.

I'd like to do a lot

of things, but I...

I realize, uh,

that it takes time,

and you can't, uh,

you can't go out of

your, uh, capa--

uh, your limitations.

You have to know

your capabilities, you know.

Like I have people

to say to me all the time,

(stammering)

"Why don't you do

an artistic picture?

"Why don't you do this

picture and that picture?

Why don't you go

do something blah, blah?"

Well, that's fine, but, uh...

Uh, I would like to.

I'd like to do

something someday

where I feel that

I really done a good job.

You know, as an actor

in a certain type role,

if what you're doing

is doing okay,

you're better off

sticking with it until,

you know,

until just time itself

changes things.

Zanes:

The great irony is that Elvis

was such a significant force

in the launch

of rock and roll,

and the very revolution

that he sparked

carries on without him.

There is a renaissance

that is underway,

and he is, in effect,

in a bubble in Hollywood,

as it passes him by.

Priscilla:

'63, '64, '65, when

all the bands were coming in,

he just didn't really

wanna hear music.

He didn't wanna

hear the songs.

Was there room for him now,

being a solo artist?

Elvis really wasn't interested

in writing his own music,

and all these other

groups coming up,

The Beatles,

Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys,

they all wrote

their own songs,

so they could direct

their careers

in a way Elvis couldn't.

Petty:

There is no road map

at this point

as to what a

rock and roller does

when he gets older.

The Beatles had each other.

You know, they had four people

together to go through it.

And Elvis was totally alone.

There was no one

vaguely his equal.

There was nobody he could

bounce anything off of.

Priscilla:

Elvis really didn't ask

for anybody's advice.

He didn't ask the guys

for their advice.

Oh my gosh, he would never.

I mean, you didn't

tell Elvis what to sing

or what movie

he should be in.

Elvis was truly his own man.

He needed someone

to come in with a game plan

and offer it to him.

"What do you think of this?"

But he hung out with

the same people all the time.

We all lived in this bubble.

Very few outsiders came in.

His world was really

quite small,

and only consisted of us,

people that he trusted.

You didn't really talk about

the movies around Elvis.

We didn't go there.

Why get him upset?

And people-- the guys were

around to bring him up.

Schilling:

Elvis was going to us

and saying,

"Damn it, I know

there's good music out there.

I hear it.

Why am I not getting it?"

Petty:

You can tell his interest

in making records

has kind of gone away.

You don't get him

in the studio a lot.

Priscilla:

He was just struggling

with what to do next

and where to go,

trying to figure out

his purpose again.

It was very difficult

to watch.

Odetta:

How many roads

Must a man walk down

Before you call him a man

Light:

By this point,

Elvis had grown so

disconnected from the music

that he was recording.

He knew that

it was inauthentic.

He knew that

it was insincere.

And he was looking for

some connection to music

that still made him

feel the way

that music had made him feel

when he was younger.

Odetta:

How many times

Must a cannonball fly

Light:

He was interested in

this new folk music--

Peter, Paul, & Mary,

the songs of Bob Dylan.

He didn't love

Bob Dylan's voice,

but he was interested

in this imagery

and this language that drew

from the gospel and the blues.

Priscilla:

And here he has

Odetta singing.

When you hear the song,

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