Previous Page In Las Vegas Elvis also met with Barbra Streisand, who was producing a remake of “A Star is Born” and was interested in Elvis for the male lead. While the singer had grown increasingly more frustrated with his film roles as the 1960’s progressed and was relieved to be done with them when the decade ended, the offer by Streisand was a different matter entirely. This was not some crackerjack, shoe-string budget, musical comedy starring Elvis as a fun-loving fisherman, or a fun-loving ski lodge instructor, or a fun-loving son of an oil tycoon, or any other trite rubbish. It was a serious film, with a serious production, and would feature serious star power. Presley was receptive to the idea and pledged to get into shape and commit to the role as needed. In fact, Elvis saw the role as the chance to become a genuine, serious movie star, something he wanted when he first signed on to what would become “Love Me Tender.” Despite all the weariness of the almost-thirty films of the 1960s, Elvis was prepared to jump back into Hollywood and leave everything he’d build in the 1970s behind if it meant becoming a real actor. A month later, Elvis’s management received an official contract offer, but a combination of factors derailed the project. For one thing, Colonel Parker did not like the idea of “his boy” playing a supporting character. Also, Parker was used to negotiating Elvis’s film contracts a certain (carny) way: From a position of strength. Almost every movie Elvis ever made featured half the budget being paid to the star (of which half was then paid to Parker). Elvis was now getting a legitimate film offer, and his percentage of the cut was far less than what something like “Double Trouble” or “Kissin Cousins” had afforded. There’s also the fact that, if the movie had succeeded and Elvis had turned to serious movies as a career, his music career would certainly have dried up, which would have made Parker’s relevance to Elvis’s career much more…insignificant. That being said, the movie did end up casting a musician (Kris Kristofferson) and though he did go on to have a long film career, he never really stopped recording; Parker was unnecessarily paranoid. Nevertheless, the Colonel counter-offered with such an insulting submission that the producers of the film didn’t even try to negotiate. Parker demanded Elvis receive top billing, a million-dollar salary and an astounding fifty-percent of the profits (of which Parker would get half, but nevermind that). Considering that Streisand had already won an Oscar and been nominated for a second, not to mention was producing the movie herself, the idea that she’d give top billing to a supporting actor in “her” movie was laughable. One would almost think it was intentionally insulting. Either way, Elvis was out of the picture, and he went on with his life. But in the shadow of the massive Aloha concert, and with the missed opportunity of a proper film career, work in Las Vegas was no longer exciting. The Promised Land LP had been released, featuring mostly left-over material from the 1973 Stax session. The album, as did its predecessors, struggled on the overall album charts, but it did reach number-one on the country chart, and the title track “Promised Land” was a big hit both in sales and in radio play. The album cover is yet another picture of Elvis in Las Vegas, this time sporting a peacock outfit and a terrible double chin. The man was as averse to professional publicity photos as he had been to studio recording, it seems. His summer Las Vegas season brought a new look to Elvis. He no longer could fit into his older suits, and he was no longer interested in jem-studded, cape-adorned outfits (one too many times he’d almost been pulled off stage by his cape), so he asked Bill Belew to design a series of new costumes for him to wear. These would be just as elaborate as the previous, only now with respect to the patterns and art than the number of rhinestones. On one occasion, Elvis looked at a drawing for a suit that was to feature two zebras looking at each other. Elvis saw the picture upside down, however, and thought the design was of a bird. Belew didn’t have the heart to correct him (of course), so he tweaked it and turned it into the “black phoenix” outfit that would be sported in his later years. In the meanwhile, he performed in Vegas wearing”normal-looking” two-piece suits. The suits weren’t the only thing that was “normal” and “usual” about his latest Vegas run; the music was pretty “usual” too. Attempts to add new material to his set, such as “T-R-O-U-B-L-E,” rarely stuck, and his crowds were growing a little too familiar with the same twenty songs. Some numbers that used to bring the crowd to their feet, like “American Trilogy” were now receiving only polite applause, causing a frustrated Elvis to shout out “alright, what do you want to hear?” leading to requests for half-remembered songs like “Return to Sender” and “Marie’s The Name (His Latest Flame)” that he would rush through with slurred speech, laughing at his own slip-ups along the way. There were a few bright spots to note, such as a cover of Bobby Darin’s 1963 hit “You’re the Reason I’m Living” that had as much spontaneity and energy behind it, you’d almost think it was recorded in 1970 at the peak of his live performing. You can hear him in the recording, guiding his band through the song, first calling for a C-chord, then telling them to switch to the bridge, then go down to a D. It’s a rare moment of what made Elvis’s 1970’s recordings so exciting in the first place; just a singer interpreting a song for no reason other than the joy of music. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content On the other side of the spectrum was the ballad “Softly As I Leave You” which was less of a song and more of a story told with musical accompaniment. Elvis introduces it as a “true story” (it’s not, but it adds color to the tale) about a man writing his final words to his wife as he feels himself start to die. Elvis doesn’t actually sing the goodbye-words, but instead speaks them while backer Sherill Nielson (of the Stamps quartet) sings. It comes together as a touching moment that usually roused the crowd. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content With the bicentennial approaching, Elvis added “America the Beautiful” to his setlist in 1975 and would keep it through 1976. A studio version would later be tried, with the intention of making it a 1976 single, and potentially feature it on an album of half-life/half-studio recordings, but the idea was abandoned, and in fact the only known recording of the song in the studio is lost except for the tail-end. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content By the end of 1975, Elvis had made millions from various tours across the US, the sale of his back-catalog to RCA and his multiple Las Vegas gigs. But also by the end of 1975, Elvis had spent millions more, without any care or concern for his income. All of the handlers who were so quick to control where he went and what he did were less interested in reining in his obscene spending habits. In fact, at one point in the year, Elvis completely drained his bank account of every dollar he had to his name, having spent a small fortune on the purchase and upkeep of his own personal jet, the Lisa Marie. His health was deteriorating, not only because of his persistent drug abuse but also his dietary habits. At forty years old, he wasn’t able to throw down cheeseburgers, banana-splits and jelly sandwiches like he used to, at least not without heavy weight gain and strain on his heart. Yet he persisted. Empty promises to get in shape for this concert or for that tour were given, but without a big global spectacle like the Aloha Special or the Madison Square Show on the horizon, there was no motivation for him to change what he was comfortable with. And at this point in his life, all Elvis cared about was being comfortable. Making changes—permanent changes—to his life, twenty years into being the most famous entertainer on earth, was simply not practical: It was needed, but not realistic. Lingering bitterness over the end of his marriage, frustration over the stagnation of his career, the harsh reality that he was no longer the genre-defining idol he had been, and a myriad of health problems brought on by diet and drugs were all orbiting around his life, and unless someone could get through to him before it was too late, it would be the death of him, and the King of Rock and Roll would leave the building permanently, not with a standing ovation, but with a frustrated, heartbroken fanbase saying “it didn’t have to be this way.” Unfortunately, that’s exactly what will happen. > PART ELEVEN: LEAVING A LEGACY
