karel-in-wonderland

[karel-in-wonderland]

What a great find! Was she the big fan or Terry Richardson?

[karel-in-wonderland]

I love this 🥹

”My hero!”

A small drawing I made

AKA: Captain Marvel Junior meets an old fan again

Sorry for the poor quality, tumblr hates me :(

[karel-in-wonderland]

Oh gosh this is adorable, THANK YOU! ☺️

Now here he is, El Dorko in pink sweater and pink runny nose:

Make The World Go Away

Make the world go away And get it off my shoulders Say the things you used to say And make the world go away

I walk into my hotel suite coughing up a storm. I got a nasty ass cold and feel like balls. I just want my sweet Kareline to make me feel better.

"Karel? You in here honey?"

I cough again and just wanna flop on my bed.

"Yes buntyn what is it?"

"I got a cold and feel like balls."

She comes up to me and helps me out of my fur coat and into bed.

"What can I do for you buntyn?"

"Honeh. I-I want you to make the world go away."

"I will buntyn. I will."

She starts changing me into that soft pink sweater she made me. It's so soft.

Do you remember when you loved me Before the world took me astray? If you do, then forgive me And make the world go away

Being here in bed while my Kareline tends to me almost makes me feel more balls. I grab a tissue but realize something.

"Dammit I can't sneeze. Can you believe it? I can't go down the street without thinking I'm gonna be mugged. I can't go to the bathroom without someone watching my ass. Now I can't even sneeze. This sucks!"

I start to wonder if this is all a punishment for going against momma's wishes and sign with Colonel.

"Alright then I'll help you sneeze buntyn."

She goes to tickle my nose with perfume but I can't smell it.

"You need brut buntyn."

"Yeah. Can y-you get it off the cabinet?"

She starts to walk over to the cabinet. I marvel at her kindness and realize that if I have done her wrong I've been forgiven for it.

Make the world go away And get it off my shoulders Say the things you used to say And make the world go away

Once she sprays my cologne I get ready to sneeze only to get nothing.

"Ah dammit. I'll never be able to sneeze again. My nose is gonna be stuffed like a turkey's ass on Thanksgiving forever."

"Oh. Come on now buntyn. You know you're a runny boy with a hungry nose."

I laugh a little at our inside joke.

"You're right honeh. I-I still gotta sneeze though."

"Don't worry buntyn. We'll find a way to make you sneeze."

She goes into the bathroom and I wonder what she has in mind. Even though she's been nice to me I can't help but think she's keeping her distance.

I'm sorry if I hurt you I'll make it up day by day Just say you love me like you used to And make the world go away

"Honeh? I-I didn't hurt you or nothing did I?"

"No you didn't hurt me. I just know you don't want me getting your cold since I'd feel balls like you do now."

I think I'm coming down with a fever now because my head feels hot. So damn hot I feel like I'm in hell.

"Come on buntyn. Let's get you on your back."

I can barely keep my eyes open as I look at her.

"Can you rub mah belleh? I think my sweater's riding up."

"Of course I will. You have such a cute belleh buntyn."

I feel her hands on me and any worry about her not loving me anymore goes away. Nobody loves on my belleh like Karel does.

Make the world go away And get it off my shoulders Say the things you used to say And make the world go away

"Achoo!"

"See buntyn you can sneeze again."

"Oh damn I needed that. My nose doesn't feel hungry anymore."

I blow my nose and it just empties out. All the tension in my body eases. Karel rubbing my belleh under where my sweater rides up definitely helps.

"Feeling better now buntyn?"

"Yeah. I'm feeling tired now."

She holds my head in her lap and rubs my hair as I fall asleep. I just know with my Kareline I'm going to feel a lot better in the morning. She makes the world go away when I needed it most.

Say the things you used to say And make the world go away

An: Thank you so much for the birthday art @karel-in-wonderland! I know you've been doing buntyn art so I got the inspiration to make this piece.

[karel-in-wonderland]

It’s August 16th guys.. 💔🕊️

[karel-in-wonderland]

Heaven

I wanted to do something for Elvis on the anniversary of his death, and I'm not a poet or someone who can make video edits, and I'm also not great at writing down my feelings. But I can write stories. So here you go. This is angsty sappy fluff that everyone can read.

Pairing: Elvis x the whole fandom

TW: None really, obviously quite a bit of talk of death but that's about it. Don't read it if you don't want to be sad, I guess.

A/N: Please ignore anything about this concept that doesn't make sense, or fill in any gaps with some magical thinking.

Elvis had always said no when the angel asked. Every year, on the eve of the anniversary of his death, the angel would ask if he wanted to look down at Earth and see what people thought about him. He’d never wanted to. Well, that’s not quite true. He’d always been tempted. But he was so afraid that the answer would be that people thought nothing at all that he didn’t want to find out. Until this year, that is. This year he finds himself pausing before his usual sharp “no, thanks” and wondering what it would be like to say yes. Something about 2024 is appealing to him. Maybe because the numbers add up to 8. 

“Yeah. Yes please.”

The angel nods. As the sun rises over the first countries to wake on 16 August 2024, Elvis sits on the cloud indicated to him. The people of New Zealand and all the other little islands around there start to wake up. He sees them looking at computer screens, there are some pictures of him. This must be the internet. Amy Winehouse had spent an inordinate amount of time trying to explain the internet to him, and he was still mostly baffled by the concept. He’d bonded with her when she arrived in 2011, she had a great voice and they spent a lot of time singing spirituals together, when he wasn’t bothering her about modern technology and what had happened in the world since he left it. He never asked about himself though, he made a point to tell the people he met that he didn’t want to know. Sometimes they let slip the odd thing, but he’s still pretty confident he’s more of a niche interest down there. 

Australia and Russia are next, and he sees some of the same things, although a lot of people are looking at him on smaller screens. Bowie had told him these were mobile phones. He understands the concept of a phone you can move around, he had a car phone after all. But it all starts to get confusing again when the internet comes into it, and Bowie is trying to explain social media and “likes”. Elvis has got fond of the Thin White Duke over the years they’ve been here together. He used to think he was an absolute weirdo and hadn’t wanted to speak to him at all when he’d first arrived. But Bowie is nothing if not persistent. And there was a lot to be said for someone sitting next to you one day after the other, telling you how much they inspired you and singing your songs back at you. Basically, David wore him down. And now he kind of likes him, finds him entertaining, good for a laugh. 

“You can zoom in, you know.” 

Speak of the Devil; Bowie appears on Elvis’ left-hand side, gesturing with his hand on one of the phones in Australia. He flicks his fingers out and suddenly the screen is massive, and Elvis can see himself on it. He pulls a face. 

“What is that?”

“Tik Tok.”

“What tock?”

Bowie giggles. “It’s an app,” he holds his hand up to stop Elvis from immediately asking for about the hundredth time what an app is. “People put videos on there. Chrissy explained it to me the other day.”

“But… what is that?” Elvis asks, frowning hard at the series of flashing images of himself. 

Bowie does something else with his fingers and suddenly there’s sound too. It’s a series of clips from the Comeback Special, which sort of melt into one another. And the music isn’t his, it’s some kind of electronic thing he’s never heard before, with… very dirty lyrics. 

“Someone made it,” the other man explains, patiently. 

“Why?”

“Because they like you?” 

It’s been particularly hard for Bowie to honour this rule about not telling Elvis how many people actually love and admire him. How incredibly famous he remains, even in death. He might not have seen TikTok himself, but as a lover of technology he grasped the concept quickly when Chrissy McVie explained it to him. 

Elvis frowns and asks him to put the screen away again. He carries on staring down at the countries and the people, and zooming in occasionally. There’s more to see in some places than others, and as time passes he realises what he’s really waiting for is to see if he’s remembered in America. He can’t quite fathom this whole internet thing, it doesn’t make sense to him and he’s not sure how he can tell how many people are involved. He sees himself on screens a lot but he’s not sure what it means. 

He sees more as the day continues, his face is still on t-shirts in Europe, there’s even some of his music playing in some of the African countries, which surprises him. So many places he could never visit in his lifetime. When the UK wakes up he gets a sudden shock. 

“Dave!” He shouts. 

Bowie reappears next to him. He’s never let anyone else call him Dave, but he couldn’t say no to Elvis. 

“What is that?!”

Bowie snorts. “That, my friend, is an Elvis Impersonator.”

“A what now?”

“Well, you know, they were around when you were alive weren’t they? Guys that pretended to be you?”

Elvis’ eyes are like saucers. “But I… what… there are so many of them!”

“Wait til you get to the States,” Bowie says, under his breath. Out loud he replies, “yeah there are quite a few. Something we enjoy over in dear old Blighty. Usually at the seaside with our fish and chips.”

Over the years Elvis has just about got used to Bowie’s Britishisms, but he still frowns in confusion about the seaside. 

“What am I doing by the sea? I mean, no… what are they doing, being me, by the sea?”

Bowie struggles to contain his laughter. “I’m gonna get Amy.”

Between Bowie and Amy, they try to explain the concept of the British seaside to Elvis, who looks increasingly baffled. It’s hard to tell him that he’s sort of tacky, but at the same time very beloved. And that in certain places he’s very popular, and there are festivals for him. He pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“This is hurting my head.”

“You know, things would’ve been a lot easier if you’d just let us talk about it,” Amy tells him, frankly. 

Elvis pulls a face. “I just assumed I’d have been forgotten, y’know. I never did anything worth remembering. So I just… thought I’d rather not know.”

Amy rolls her eyes. “Never did anything worth remembering.” She reaches over and with another gesture she’s somehow made everyone listening to any of Elvis’ records in the UK show up. He can see all of their faces, some of them joyful, others sad. So many people are listening to him today, he can’t believe it. “You’re still basically the best selling artist of all time. Some people say it’s Taylor Swift but those early sales weren’t properly recorded anyway…” she trails off, taking a drag on her cigarette.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to tell him things!” Bowie is panicking, not wanting to end up on Elvis’ bad side after the weeks of work it took getting him to stop shaking his head and calling him a little freak every time he saw him. 

“I think that ship has sailed,” Amy replies, gesturing back at Elvis and his viewings. America is finally waking up. 

If Elvis had been shocked by the UK, he’s astounded by America. Over the course of the next few hours he sees people watch his movies, sing his songs, buy all manner of things with his image on, and people are at his home, at his graveside mourning him. He looks away, overwhelmed by emotion. Tears streak down his face. They hadn’t forgotten him. They really hadn’t forgotten him. 

Bowie gives him a tentative stroke of the shoulder and Elvis turns and grabs him around the waist and pulls him bodily into his lap, crying into the other man’s chest. 

“Dave, th-th-they remember me…” he sobs. 

Bowie strokes his hair gently and looks up at Amy, mouthing “go get Lisa.” To Elvis, he just says, “well, we did try to tell you.”

It takes some persuading for Lisa-Marie to go with Amy to see her father. He’d been so devastated when she’d arrived, knowing she died young too and feeling somehow responsible, that they’d barely spoken. And it didn’t help that he wouldn’t hear anything about what people thought about him. So she struggled to know what they could talk about. She felt like every time she opened her mouth it was to say something he didn’t want to hear. And he felt confused and upset that he’d missed all those years of his daughter’s life. He’d watched a little to begin with, of course, but it had been so painful. Sometimes he would look out on Earth and see what people were doing there, he had the odd glimpse into his daughter’s life… but mostly he just tried to live life in the moment, in heaven. He’d been sure his faith had told him that heaven was a lot more… well… heavenly than this. There was an angel, sure, but he was pretty grumpy and barely said a word to anyone. And there were fluffy clouds, and unlimited supplies of whatever you wanted to eat and drink. Things happened kind of magically - usually if you wanted someone you just had to say their name and they’d turn up. But it was still full of people. And those people could be just as frustrating, annoying, upsetting, tiring, needy… as everyone was when he was alive. 

“He’s been looking at everyone, he knows, Lisa. He knows the effect he had on the world. Or, he’s starting to get an idea anyway. I think you should go and see him.” 

Amy is chain smoking, something you can do in heaven with no ill-effects, obviously. But it still stinks. Lisa wrinkles her nose at the smell. She’d been trying to give up.

“He has? Hmmm.” Lisa fiddles with her sleeve. “You think he wants to see me?”

“Obviously he wants to see you. You’re his little girl.”

Lisa sighs. “I was his little girl. Then he died and I had to grow up without him. Now I’m just some woman.”

Amy shakes her head, impatiently. She never had any patience in life and she sure as shit doesn’t have any in the afterlife. “C’mon,” she says, grabbing Lisa’s arm and making her stand up. “Stop this whining, go and see your dad.”

Lisa is surprised by the scene that greets her as she appears next to Elvis. David Bowie is sitting on his lap and they are talking in animated terms about… Tumblr… and… fanfiction?

“So, they just write a load of dirty stuff about me? And people read it?”

“Yeah it’s not just you. If you can think of it, someone has written about it.”

“Huh. And so… have you read any?”

Lisa decides she really doesn’t want to know the answer to this question, so she interrupts. “Hi Daddy.”

Elvis almost jumps. He’d been so engrossed in his conversation with Bowie, which, he reflects, he really needs to come back to later, that he hadn’t noticed his own daughter standing there. 

“Yisa!” He exclaims. 

Bowie takes the opportunity to get off his lap before he’s turfed off. Elvis stands and puts his arms around his daughter, reflexively. She hugs him back. 

“People do remember me,” he whispers into her hair. “They’re all… they’re listening to the records and they’re even watching those damn stupid movies…”

Lisa giggles. “Of course they are. I could’ve told you that, but you wouldn’t let me.”

“I’m sorry honey,” he pulls back to look at her properly. “I just didn’t wanna know if people had forgotten me. Or they all hated me. And I wasn’t expecting you here… so early.”

Lisa nods. “I know.”

They look at one another for a while longer, and then Lisa breaks the silence. “Do you wanna carry on looking?”

Elvis nods eagerly. He can’t believe he’s been missing out on this for all these years. They sit together and look at people, Elvis asking questions and Lisa explaining what feels like the whole of the past 47 years to him. 

“Is that woman really, deliberately, watching Clambake?”

Lisa giggles. “Yeah people do that all the time you know. Plenty of them don’t think that’s your worst movie.”

“They don’t?”

“No. There’s even, uh, a podcast about it.”

Bowie leans over. “Don’t say things like podcast. He gets confused. You’ll be there for the rest of the day trying to explain the internet to him.”

Elvis shoves him, laughing. “I’m getting it. I understand it. Kinda. Leave me alone.”

They all laugh, sitting together and watching Elvis fans all over the world celebrate his life and mourn his death. Elvis can’t believe he waited so long to do this, but at least he’s doing it now. And now he has the rest of eternity to spend with his Yisa. He smiles. It’s not so bad in heaven, really. Even with all the people.

***

Taglist:

Let me know if you want to be added or removed.

@vintagepresley @arg-xoxo @from-memphis-with-love @msamarican @blursedblegh @returntopresley @elvisalltheway101 @eapep @everythingelvispresley @i-r-i-n-a-a @sissylittlefeather @arrolyn1114 @jhoneybees @cattcb @polksaladava @lookingforrainbows @jkdaddy01 @ccab @epthedream69 @lustnhim @elvisslut @pomtherine

[karel-in-wonderland]

I am very much still here, but my Elvis 2022 Austin Butler fandom has turned into a general Elvis fandom, plus I am not vibing greatly with Tumblr blogging. But i AM HERE lurking always 😻

hiya besties so...for the sake of science...how deceased is the elvis/elvis 2022/austin butler fandom? 👁️ 👁️

[karel-in-wonderland]

I love those, especially the one where he’s blinking! I think i need one 😍

YALLLL LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIFUL BDE PINS @atleastpleasetelephone sent me 🥺🥺🥺 literally cried.

[karel-in-wonderland]

I love this, keep up th egreat work with these articles 😍 bowie’s connection is especially rich and you included and nailed it all 😍

I am still a bit mad Elvis was not mentioned in Moonage Daydream (2022) because he should have been.

The David Bowie Connection

David Jones’s very first performance was not as David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust, or the Thin White Duke, but as an Elvis impersonator in front of a crowd of Boy Scouts in Bromley. The year was 1958, David was 11 years old, and among the songs that he sang for his audience there was probably “Hound Dog”, which his cousin Kristina remembers as one of the records he owned, and to which they danced to “like possessed elves”. It’s important to remember that it was difficult to get American records back then in England, but through his work as a promoter, David’s father managed to bring home a collection of American 45s, which included Little Richard, Fats Domino and, obviously, Elvis. Rock ‘n roll was like a ray of sunshine in David’s grey postwar world, still plagued with food rations and the rubble of bomb sites.

In high school, David liked jamming with his guitar, like Elvis did, and he was also interested in fashion and science fiction like him. Rock ‘n roll was elusive in England, but there were cafés with a jukebox where you could hear it as if it were some secret information. David liked oddities and stagecraft, like Elvis’ gyrations and extravagant clothes. He also loved Little Richard, whom he thought would die on stage because of the energy he put during his concerts. He would later say: “Elvis had the choreography, he had a way of looking at the world that was totally original, totally naïve, and totally available as a blueprint. Who wouldn’t want to copy Elvis? Elvis had it all. It wasn’t just the music that was interesting, it was everything else. And he had a lot of everything else.”

After a few unsuccessful albums, David Jones – now using the name David Bowie, like the knife – started experimenting with what the press called “glam rock”, that a lot of people thought was decadent and deviant. In 1972, when questioned about young boys with glitter makeup attending concerts, he said: “What about Elvis Presley? If his image wasn’t bisexual then I don’t know what is. People talk about fag rock, but that’s an unwieldy term at the best of times.” You could say that Bowie, like Elvis, obliterated boundaries in music, as much as in fashion, changing forever what was permitted and accepted as a stage artist, playing with clothes, makeup and sexuality in new ways.

Bowie’s fascination with Elvis was so big that in June 1972 he attended his concert at Madison Square Garden. “I came over for a long weekend,” Bowie recalled many years later. “I remember coming straight from the airport and walking into Madison Square Garden very late. I was wearing all my clobber from the Ziggy period and I had great seats near the front. The whole place just turned to look at me and I felt like a right cunt. I had brilliant red hair, some huge padded space suit and those red boots with big black soles. I wished I’d gone for something quiet, because I must have registered with him. He was well into his set.”

That was the concert that triggered the famous New York Times headline “Like a Prince from Another Planet”. It’s serendipitous that Bowie’s influential album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, where he plays an androgynous alien rock star, came out that same month. The alter ego and stage persona of Ziggy Stardust, which he used in 1972-73, had started to form the year before, during an American tour. Like everything in his music and stagecraft, Bowie was inspired by many things, from Iggy Pop to experimental theater. Ziggy Stardust was loosely inspired by Vince Taylor, a 1950s rock ‘n roller who Bowie witnessed going off his rocker and obsessing over aliens, but it’s also reminiscent of Elvis (whose fall from grace had already started, according to many, and whose mythology includes being an alien). Unlike other early Elvis fans, though, Bowie loved Elvis’ 1970s jumpsuits and explicitly told his costume designer Freddie Burretti to draw inspiration from them for his stage costumes. As a result, Ziggy’s costumes are as outrageous as Elvis’, but in a different way.

To double down on his rock n’ roll opera, “Rock ‘n Roll Suicide”, the melodramatic song with which Ziggy closed his concerts, is essentially about a washed-up rockstar. Ziggy literally sang it in an Elvis-style jumpsuit, and a solemn voice announced at the end of the concert: “Mr. Bowie has left the building”. Ziggy is an archetypal messiah rockstar who arrives on earth from Mars, becomes a prophet of rock ‘n roll, and then literally destroys himself. You can argue that Ziggy Stardust was a departure from hippies: a postmodern interpretation of a rockstar, and a meditation on superstar status.

The following album, “Aladdin Sane”, where Bowie continues the story of Ziggy Stardust, features the rockstar with a lightning bolt drawn across his face, which many say is a reference to Elvis’ TCB logo.

Elvis and Bowie, who share the same birthday, are very different artists, but if Elvis was the sacrificial lamb of rock ‘n roll, Bowie had his example to become a master in brand renewal, and studied deaths and rebirths. After killing his Ziggy Stardust alter ego, Bowie had other inspirations and continued to create extravagant personas to use on stage and off stage, not without controversies.

Bowie’s connection with Elvis went further than just liking his early hits: he had an awareness of his own fallibility that made him empathize with Elvis on a more profound level. Of his disastrous 1978 movie “Just a Gigolo”, for example, he said that it was “thirty-two Elvis movies rolled into one.” He was still very much fascinated with him in 1975-76, to such a degree that he pitched his song “Golden Years”, which incorporates elements of 1950s doo-wop into a funk tune, to him. Although it’s unclear if Elvis ever heard the song, Bowie’s office did contact Colonel Parker for a possible collaboration, maybe as a producer for one of Elvis’ albums.

Even Bowie’s last song, “Black Star”, references Elvis. Written at a time when Bowie knew he was dying, the song has the same title as an an alternative version of the title track for his 1960 western movie “Flaming Star”. It’s a song about death, as in the movie Pacer knows his time has come and Elvis sings: “Every man has a black star / A black star over his shoulder / And when a man sees his black star / He knows his time, his time has come”. It seems to me that Bowie intended to close a circle with this reference: since they were born on the same day, it seemed only natural to reference Elvis’ fictional death in one of his movies. Only, in one of his most clever postmodern games, Bowie’s death wasn’t fictional after all.

Here is David Bowie imitating Elvis’ voice for a Christmas message on BBC radio 6 Music in 2013:

August 16, 2002 marked the 25th anniversary of Elvis’ death and Bowie opened the concert with “I Feel So Bad” and “One Night”, and told the story of what he was doing when Elvis died:

Here is a link with my other connection posts. I have written about many artists who were inspired by Elvis, from Jimi Hendrix to Quentin Tarantino. If you have any suggestions about artists who have an Elvis connection worth exploring let me know, and I’ll do some research for my next post.

[karel-in-wonderland]

#legacy of love 💖

[karel-in-wonderland]

Elvis Presley (24 years old), 1959 | Source: @hillbillycatep on Twitter

[karel-in-wonderland]

Elvis' perfectionism 📀

Author's note: Okay, I'm beyond excited with this post, so please take your time reading it. You won't regret a bit.

So, things just got more interesting for me.

If you read my content for a while now, you must be familiar with the fact that I'm a huge fan of "Elvis On Tour" documentary. There's this scene in the middle of the movie where they play instrumental of "Don't Be Cruel" while some 50s pictures of Elvis are "randomly" shown onscreen... well, not as random as one may think.

"Elvis On Tour" is mainly a live concert documentary but it tells Elvis' history as well. His history as a musician is delivered through his own accounts (Elvis talking about his music preferences, his love for gospel music, etc) and by family members' accounts too, such as an interview with Vernon Presley, his father, that is also featured on the film, when Mr. Presley talks about how Elvis' tours in the 50s were wild with all the fans going extremely hysterical over his son.

One of the pictures in particular, displayed during the "throwback scene" in the movie, is immensely significant to the story that documentary meant to tell the viewers. This one right here:

July 3, 1956: On The Train back to Memphis, Tennessee. Photograph by Alfred Wertheimer. Below, other pictures from the same moment. Note the little record player on Elvis' lap, it is important.

The day before those pictures on the train were taken, Elvis had cut some new songs, soon to be released, "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" are among them, but also "Any Way You Want Me".

Elvis during Studio Sessions for RCA July 2, 1956, at RCA Studios in New York. Photograph by Alfred Wertheimer.

About that recording session, on the precise moment EP was recording "Hound Dog", below is an excerpt from "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music" by Ernst Jorgensen and Peter Guralnick:

This was the session where Elvis’s perfectionist streak first became apparent. From [Steve] Sholes’s point of view several of the earlier takes would have been just fine, and he tried to get the singer to listen to the playbacks, but it was obvious that the singer was marching to his own beat; he wouldn’t rest until he had recorded the song to his own — not anyone else’s — satisfaction. Finally, with thirty-one, Elvis declared himself satisfied, and the room breathed a sigh of relief.

Side note: Before recording the song on studio, Elvis performed "Hound Dog" on the Steve Allen Show, on July 1, 1956. They were all worried about how to turn the live performance into a record, and Elvis was the one who was intensely dedicated to make it work. That's why he took 31 takes to finish working on particular track. It really paid off in the end.

Back to the train pictures on July 3, 1956, the photographer, Alfred Wertheimer, shared his accounts on the moment. He said:

"Elvis in on the train. He had just recorded these three songs but two of them became his third and fourth gold records: "(You Ain't Nothing But A) Hound Dog" was the third and "Don't Be Cruel" was the forth. Here he's listening to it over and over again and over again on the way down to his home [Memphis, Tennessee], and he's listening it on this inexpensive little record player and here, I mean, while the other musicians are horsing around, while Colonel Parker is somewhere else, Elvis keeps listening and listening and listening. He's a serious guy! I asked him 'Why are you listening to it on this tiny little machine with a terrible speaker and you just heard it yesterday on a fourteen inch speaker in a studio, beautiful reproduction?' He says: 'Al...'

"'That's the way my fans listen to my music. That's the way I wanna hear it.'"

— Elvis Presley, July 1956, to Alfred Wertheimer on why listening to newly recorded songs on regular record player before them being released.

ABOVE: "Elvis On Tour" (1972) snippet with "Throwback scene". Instrumental of "Don't Be Cruel" is playing on the background while pictures from Elvis' early tours are displayed onscreen. The first picture, that one from July 3, 1956, that Mr. Wertheimer shared his memories about.

The footage on that scene from the documentary is from September 9, 1956 on The Ed Sullivan Show. If you'd like to watch the full performance, here it is:

Well, I don't know about you but I will never see the throwback scene the same way.

I mean, if I'm being honest here, I used to often skip that scene just because I've seen the pictures over and over again and the footage from Ed Sullivan Show as well, so when I watch the film I used to be much more interested on the 1972 live performances, the backstage scenes and so on, but now I know the story of that picture, the scene is a lot more meaningful. That 1972 documentary, friends, is not only about Elvis' performances or the lasting love and adoration from his fans. It has a lot more to do with who Elvis Presley was, specially how he felt about music, and how he gave all of him to please us. The film shows Elvis talking how, in the 70s, after many, many years of experience onstage Elvis still felt anxious before performing. And that picture from the 50s that is shown on the film tell us his dedication to his music was to the extent of listening his records on home record players just to make sure it sounded flawless as it could be... all for us. I fell in love with this documentary, with El, even more. ♥

[karel-in-wonderland]

elvis, daydreaming

[karel-in-wonderland]

Look at this precious man.

Elvis Presley "Ready Teddy" on the Ed Sullivan Show, September 9th, 1956

[karel-in-wonderland]

I think it’s like that…

@alienelvisobsession

[DISCUSSION]

That's it. I'm officially getting to a point I'm mapping out Elvis' body. All the little marks on it, shapes, all of it... birthmarks, scars... everything I can notice.

First thing I noticed was the little mark above his brow, but recently I noticed this mark on his hand too. Did Elvis have a scar on his hand, on the pinky knuckle, or is it just lighting or something? The '68 special close ups are fantastic for catching every little detail on our man, btw. I mean, Lamar said he had huge pores - yes, he did. Didn't make him look bad at all, let's face it. Anyway.

[karel-in-wonderland]

Some pics of Elvis just require a title of their own.

I present to you

The Superbuntyn

☺️

@kiankiwi @arianatheangel-girl @earthbaby-angelboy

[karel-in-wonderland]

@arianatheangel-girl @earthbaby-angelboy baby E’s for you 😊

Who wants to play woth E’s hair, and put Lisa’s hairpins and scrunchies on him in a ridiculous way? 😊

Me me me!!

[karel-in-wonderland]