Elvis Presley: The Searcher Page #8

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If you want to be a complete

and fulfilled person,

if you want to be

an American,

this is something

you need to pay attention to.

Petty:

The American teen

just knew it rocked.

No white music

had ever done that.

Plenty of black music had.

Tell my mama

Lord, I swear to God,

what you been doin' to me

I'm gonna tell everybody...

Porter:

Elvis was able

to bring a value

to the presentation

of black music,

African-American artists,

at a period that

they were being ignored

by the great artists,

in a credible way,

because he learned it

from the source.

Girl, I don't be

comin' no more

Goodbye to little darlin'

Down the road I go

Can't stop me now, man.

We can't stop.

Man:

All right, all right.

I said, bye

(cheers)

Bye, bye, baby

(screaming)

Girl, I won't...

Jorgensen:

In the Colonel's view,

whatever the songs were,

whoever played on it

didn't matter.

It was Elvis.

It was, in his mind,

about the merchandise.

He always called it

"the merchandise."

And that's what it was

to him and to RCA.

Announcer:

We think tonight

that he's going to make

television history for you.

We'd like you

to meet him now.

Elvis Presley!

West:

Colonel knew how to do it,

and had the contacts

with the--

the show in New York,

the Tommy Dorsey Show.

Jorgensen:

RCA didn't seem to be able

to secure TV performances,

and eventually,

Colonel Parker secures

Elvis for shows

to coincide with the release

of the record in January.

Light:

The earliest shows,

he doesn't have that much

material to draw from.

What he's doing really

are the-- the covers.

These songs

initially recorded

by black songwriters,

black performers:

"Shake, Rattle, and Roll"

and "Money Honey"

and "Flip, Flop and Fly."

Petty:

He was an

incredible performer

in that his body

really picked up

all the intricacies

of the rhythm.

It's so lighthearted,

but it's so deep

and meaningful

at the same time.

It's such a magical

thing to see.

He looks really supernatural,

'cause of the kinescopes,

just the way

it distorts the image.

There's some beautiful thing

going down there,

you know, and it must

have been really incredible

to see it with no warning.

(scatting)

(audience cheering)

I'm like

a Mississippi bullfrog

Sittin' on a hollow stump

I'm like

a Mississippi bullfrog

Sittin' on a hollow stump

I got so many women

I don't know

which way to jump

Well, I said

flip, flop and fly

I don't care if I die

I said flip, flop and fly

Don't care if I die

Don't ever leave me,

don't ever say goodbye

(applause and cheers)

West:

He just did all those

Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey shows.

That was nationwide TV.

And it all went through

the roof from then on.

Robertson:

That's when

we saw somebody

that could sing better

than other people,

could move better

than other people,

had style that was better

than other people.

In the pop world,

when this came along

it broke glass.

Elvis:

You ain't nothin'

but a hound dog

Cryin' all the time

You ain't nothin'

but a hound dog

Springsteen:

When you look at those

television performances,

you see the band

watching Elvis.

They all got their

eyes on Elvis.

Well, they said

you was high class

Springsteen:

That was essential

to the way the band swung.

Elvis is simply

swinging your world

with the way

he's swinging his hips

and moving his legs

and his shoulders.

He's pushing and pushing

his musicians.

You ain't nothin'

but a hound dog

(screams)

Cryin' all the time

You ain't nothin'

but a hound dog

Fontana:

We were doing

The Milton Berle Show,

and we was doing "Hound Dog."

Right at the end,

we usually go out.

You ain't

no friend of mine

Fontana:

All of a sudden, he went

into this half-time bluesy

"You ain't nothin'

but a hound dog," slow.

(screaming)

And we had never

did it that way.

We all looked at each other.

"What do we do now?

We'd better follow him."

You ain't nothin' but a...

Fontana:

I just figured, well,

I better catch his blues licks

and his legs and arms

and do everything I can.

It was like every man

for himself, actually.

Well

Fontana:

Everytime he'd move

a finger, a leg, an arm,

or run across the stage

like a machine gun.

(Fontana imitates drumming)

Just every lick

I could catch, you know?

Priscilla:

My parents are watching it.

They don't know

I'm watching it.

They're looking,

and... (laughing)

My mother's saying,

"That's disgusting!"

Crying all the time

Well, you ain't never

caught a rabbit

You ain't no...

Petty:

As a little kid,

I can remember

the living room discussion.

His appearances on TV

were of a sexual nature.

He had really

stepped over the line

of what's decent

on television.

Priscilla:

After that, our parents

wouldn't let us see him.

The ministers, reverends

told our parents,

"Keep him away

from your children.

He's the devil."

So, he's forbidden fruit.

(flashbulbs popping)

Man:

On your personal

appearances,

you create

a sort of mass hysteria

amongst your audiences

of teenagers.

Is your shaking

and quaking in the nature

of an involuntary response

to this hysteria?

Elvis:
Involuntary?

Man:
Yeah.

Uh, well, I'm aware

of everything I do at all times,

but, uh, it's just

the way I feel.

Man:

And do you think

you've learned anything

from the criticism

leveled at you?

Elvis:
No, I haven't.

Man:
You haven't, huh?

Because, uh, I don't--

I don't feel I'm doing

anything wrong.

Man:

Do you read the stuff?

Nik Cohn:

One of the paradoxes

with Elvis is

how could a boy

so in love with God,

so obsessively in love

with his mother,

so decent,

and "yes, ma'am,"

and "yes, sir"

and all of that,

how could he be so

unconfined on the stage?

How could he do this?

Maultsby:

That was just totally

unacceptable,

because the mid '50s being

the beginning of the

civil rights movement,

the biggest fear that

most Southerners had

was so-called race mixing.

Ferris:

Elvis's first television

appearances

were earth-shattering.

He sang at a moment

in the history of the South

in the early '50s,

when his music was truly

a revolutionary sound

that bridged the black

and white musics

of Southern worlds

in a way that had

never been heard before.

Petty:

I don't think

he was, necessarily,

trying to shake

the world in that sense,

but I think he...

he knew what he was onto.

He knew it

made him feel great,

and he knew there was

a rebellious streak in it.

He had to know that,

and it made him powerful.

They're clearly

afraid of him...

(Petty laughs)

...to some degree.

Zanes:

If you see a large social

anxiety on the horizon,

there's probably issues

of bodies in control involved.

Young people,

whether they were

physically mixing

black and white or not,

they were culturally

mixing black and white,

the way they were

expressing themselves,

the movements in space

as that mixing happened

were sexual in nature.

Zanes:

And I think,

in the case of Elvis,

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