All language subtitles for Elvis Presley The Searcher (2018) - 2-

that he not record
and not make new music

since he wouldn't
be able to promote it.

But what Elvis didn't know

was Parker was not a legal
resident in the United States.

And without
legitimate papers,

any travel that he took

could present
big problems for him

trying to get back in.

The Colonel,
he would come up with

excuses and
explanations to Elvis,

to his family.

Priscilla:
There'd be telegrams
from Colonel Parker

telling him not to worry,

I've done this,
I've done this.

Parker was releasing
songs for him

every few months

to keep the fans interested.

Light:
But it's not a lot,

and not at the pace
that they were used to

and that the machine required.

This approach to Elvis's career

was preying on
his vulnerability.

This was certainly
an opportunity for the Colonel

to fully seize the role
of parent, mentor.

The one person who could

take him through
this difficult time

and lead him out
the other way.

Priscilla:
Colonel was like
a father figure.

There's no doubt
about that.

And he felt Colonel knew
what he was doing.

I mean, Colonel brought him
to where he was.

Sam Phillips couldn't do
what Colonel Parker did.

He was bright enough
to know that.

So he was gonna follow
what Colonel Parker said.

He'd been right so far.

Elvis:
Oh, rock

Of ages

Hide thou me

There is no other

Refuge can save...

Schilling:
Anytime Elvis was going
through a really rough time,

he always went
to gospel music.

This old world

Springsteen:
What is gospel

Gospel is a place where
you go for transcendence,

where you go for peace,

where you go for a
certain type of security.

It's a home.

It's a deep home within
your soul and your body.

Ages

Hide thou me

Priscilla:
We just went to Germany.

My father was stationed there.
Air Force.

And a man came up
to me and said,

Would you like
to meet Elvis Presley?

And I thought
he was kidding.
I said, Sure.

He goes, No,
I'm really serious.

I told him if I were to--
to meet him,

he'd have to ask my parents,

and my parents
were very reluctant,

and I persuaded them
to at least let me,
you know, meet him.

Elvis:
I will spend
my whole life through

Loving you, loving you

Priscilla:
What does anyone say
to a famous person

Elvis:
Winter, summer,
springtime too

Priscilla:
Elvis was sitting in a chair,
his legs crossed.

Elvis walked over to me,
and he said,

Oh, what do we have here?

He started playing the piano

looking over at me,

and I kind of smiled at him.

The more I looked over,

the more he would
entertain even more.

Three days later,
I get a call

that Elvis would like
to see me again.

And the rest is history.
Elvis:
I'll always be

Loving you

Priscilla:
I learned so much
from Elvis about music.

Songs that he played

when I was in Germany
with him for those six months,

some of 'em
I could hardly connect to.

I was listening
to Frankie Avalon, Fabian.

And his selection of music,
I never heard really.

I'll be true

The Ink Spots, The Platters,
Faye Adams, Shake a Hand.

I didn't know
any of these people.

That's when I realized that
music was so much bigger

than what my music was.

Songs of loss,
songs of departing,

songs of hope.

I couldn't really even see him
as a movie star anymore,

that he was so much deeper.

I'll always be

Loving

You

Man:
Do you have any idea when
you'll be traveling back home?

Uh, no, I don't know.

Uh, I wish
I did know, you know.

Uh, how 'bout it?
Do you miss home?

Oh, boy,
you-- you-- (laughs)

I can't hardly talk.

That's kind of--
kind of a silly question
on my part, I guess.

It's a lonely man

Who wanders all around
Lonely man

It's a lonely man

Who roams from
town to town

Searchin'

Always searchin'

For something
he can't find

Hoping, always hoping

That someday
fate will be kind

It's a lonely man

Who travels all alone
Chorus: A lonely man

Elvis:
When he has no one

That he can call his own

Well, Elvis, now
you're really home.

How does it feel?

It's hard to get used
to it, you know?

I mean, I've been looking
forward to it for two years.

That-- that was the
hardest part of all.

Just being away
from show business.

It wasn't the Army,
it wasn't the other men.

It was that.
It stayed on my mind.

I kept thinking about
the past all the time.

Contemplating the future.

It's a lonely man

Who wanders all around

It's a lonely man

Who roams
from town to town

Searchin',
always searchin'

For something he can't find

Hopin', always hopin'

That someday
fate will be kind

It's a lonely man

Who travels all alone

When he has no one

That he can call his own

Always so unhappy

Taking shelter

Where he can

Here I am

Come meet a lonely

Lonely man

Man: All right, we have
a wide shot, so no one
can be in here.

Standing by.

9:12.

Jerry Schilling:
The ' 68 Special
really showed

Elvis's career in its entirety.

They took Elvis's
original songs

and they made 'em more modern.

Priscilla Presley:
This was bringing him
back to the beginning

but yet going into the future.

Well, I quit my job
down at the car wash

I left my mama
a goodbye note

There was the jam session
with his original musicians.

It had simplicity, spontaneity.

And it also had
the choreographed pieces

that really was
a reflection of the movies

and the post-Army years.

But nobody wanted
to hire a guitar man

Steve Binder:
The real spine
of the special

came from our writers.

They locked themselves
in their office

and played every Elvis record
you could find.

Chris Bearde:
We wove a story of Elvis

from his beginnings
to being a superstar.

It gave everybody a look
at Elvis as a musician.

I'm hopin' I can
make myself a dollar

Makin' music on my guitar

It's funny. It's telling
Elvis's story, yes,

in a variety show.

It's got the girls.
It's got him playing guitar.

I look back now...

his life was so big,

I don't know if you can
get it in an hour. (laughs)

Elvis:
Yes, I'm gonna walk

On that milky white way

Oh Lord, some of these days

Elvis:
I started out when I was
just out of high school,

I started out
driving a truck,

and, uh, I was training
to be an electrician.

Some of these days

Well, well, well, well

One day at my lunch break,

I went into this
little record company
to make a record.

The guy put the record out,
and overnight, in my hometown,

people were saying,
you know, Who is he?

I'm gonna walk
on that milky white way

Oh Lord, some of these days

I started to play
little nightclubs
and little football fields.

Like a year and a half,
I was doing this,
I met Colonel Parker.

My mother howdy,
howdy, howdy...

In 1956, they arranged to,
uh, to put me on television.

So they dressed me
in a tuxedo,

had me singing
to a dog on a stool.

My mother howdy
when I get home

I went to Hollywood
and I did four pictures.

I was really getting used
to the movie star bit.

I'm gonna shake
my mama's hand

Just overnight
it was all-- all changed.

I will shake her hands
that day

I got drafted.

That's when we walk

On that milky white way

Oh Lord, one of these days

Choir:
On some of these days

Returning from the Army,

coming back home,
getting ready to perform again,

it's obviously not the '60s.

Those '60s haven't come yet.

This is pre-civil rights.

Things are happening
in that regard,

but it's not really
coming to a head yet.

I'm sure he was aware
of how much had gone on.

He could've gone
in several directions.

Man:
Well, Elvis, now
you're really home.

How does it feel?

It's pretty hard
to describe, I'll tell ya.

It's hard to get
used to it, you know?

I mean, I've been looking
forward to it for two years,

and, all of a sudden,
here it is.

It's, uh...

It's not easy
to adjust to it.

Man: Elvis, do you think
the music has changed

since you've been
out of the service?

I mean, since you've
been in the service.

Possibly, yes.
I-I... I can't say really.

I haven't been here
long enough to even know.

The only thing I can say
is if it has changed,

well, I would be
foolish not to...

try to change
with it, you know?

When Elvis gets back
from the Army,

he was still
one of the biggest
stars on the planet.

But rock and roll,
that force that happened

between '54 and '59,

basically had evaporated
while he was away.

And you see,
immediately, the results
of the Colonel plotting--

How do I make him
as widespread as possible
and polish his image?

Get him on the path
towards being a Frank Sinatra

or a Dean Martin,

pop singers who have
very long careers.

Alan Light:
This was a curious
crossroads in his career.

It was open field to see

what was he gonna do
and where was he gonna go.

The work that he had done
during his time in the Army

broadens the scope
of the music

that he was interested in.

Priscilla:
He didn't wanna
do the same music.

He wanted to grow.

He wanted to evolve in a way

that he could offer something
different in his music.

Ernst Jorgensen: With Elvis,
it was always about
the challenge, the motivation.

He's already in
the recording studio
in Nashville

two weeks after coming home.

He knew what was at stake,

so did the Colonel
and the engineers,
everybody.

There was this
tension in the room:
What's it gonna be like?

Man:
You ready?

Let's cut one.

LTWB0081, take one.

Elvis:
I just got
your letter, baby

Too bad you can't
come home

Jorgensen:
They all relaxed after
just a few takes

because he's so on top of it.

He's been longing
for this moment--

both to get his
career started

but also to express
a new range of music,

his new understanding of music.

Everything he could do.

Elvis:
I ain't slept a wink
since Sunday

I can't eat a thing all day

Light:
Since the last Ed Sullivan Show
appearance in 1957,

the Colonel decided to take
Elvis off of television.

He didn't want
to give Elvis away

when you could sell tickets
in a movie theater.

Jorgensen:
But in the relaunch,

he wasn't gonna gamble.

He wanted exposure to make
sure they got a head start.

Now it was time to deliver.

Jackson:
The Colonel's plan was
get Elvis on television

in front of as many
people as possible

with the world's
other most famous singer.

Make it fun and exciting,

so that now the career
can continue.

I know that I

Held nothing

Waa-ooh-waa-ooh

If you should go away

But to know

That you love me brings

Bruce Springsteen:
The Sinatra show,

it was a very conservative
move at the time.

It was just trying
to find his place

after coming out of the Army.

He simply had to believe
in himself,

and that's what Elvis did.

Fame and fortune

My way

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

Springsteen:
Elvis put himself forth
as somebody who was not
a flash in the pan

but who was in a long line
of a tradition of American
pop singers.

They were saying there's
a life for Elvis after Elvis.

I tell ya something,
it was great!

Jon Landau:
I remember when he appeared
on the Frank Sinatra special.

That show was
very much the opposite

of The Steve Allen Show.

There was
a collegial atmosphere.

Frank Sinatra and Elvis
had two different styles

but were in an incredibly
exclusive club.

We work in the same way
only in different areas.

Love me tender

Love me sweet

Never let me go

Jackson:
Trading their own hits
with each other

is the big moment
that the Colonel
engineered for him.

Those fingers
in my hair

You can hear the women
in the crowd start screaming.

Elvis sexes it up a little bit.

That strips
my conscience bare

It's witchcraft

Love me tender

Love me true

Sinatra, he's fitting
Love Me Tender

into that swing thing.
He's born on the beat.

Oh my darling,
I love you

And I always will

It's such
an ancient pitch

One I wouldn't switch

?'Cause there's
no nicer witch

Than witchcraft

I love you

And I always will

For my darling

I love you

Man, that's pretty.

Both:
And I always will

He's embraced
by the community

that had previously
put him down,

and that signaled
he was now ready

to take on this role
of cultural icon.

Jorgensen:
You get this new Elvis,

the Elvis that
Colonel Parker wanted,

the Elvis that had grown up
exactly the same way

that his core audience
had grown older.

They were gone
from being teenagers
to being young adults.

So for him, it was
the perfect launch.

The public widely
accepted that,

but, obviously,
this was a transition.

Elvis:
You gave me love to enjoy

Like a bright shiny toy
to a baby

No matter what
you would do

I depended on you

Like a baby

Priscilla:
He knew that next album
was important.

He gave it a lot of thought.

The Elvis is Back! album
reveals new influences,

new interests,
new arrangements.

He had been getting
ready for this mentally

while he was in Germany.

There's a little bit of R&B,
there's a little bit of pop,

ballads, country.

New songs that represented
a different vocal approach

than anything
he had tried before that.

I was blind,
'cause I just

His voice was very much
in tune always,

and that's because he didn't
have to fight the band.

Those guys were soft
and they didn't push him,

and they weren't too busy.

Jorgensen:
The band had the ability
to play all this music

that came from
so many different sources.

Elvis:
Like a baby

That was the true magic

of Elvis combining
with this band.

They perfectly
understood each other.

Red West:
Those musicians
were incredible.

Bobby Moore on bass,

Floyd Cramer on piano.

Man, those guys
heard a demo once

and bam,
they were ready to go.

Briggs:
They were a real tight group.

Nobody played anything
that didn't go

with what the other one
was playing.

Elvis:
I need soul

Briggs:
DJ and Scotty
were still there,

but they began to play
a lesser and lesser role

and that made it
a little more sophisticated.

Elvis:
Then I broke down
and cried

He liked the way
the music sounded.

Technology, it evolved
while he was gone.

Jackson:
RCA Studios got
a three-track recorder.

That immediately adds
a technical professionalism

as recording technology
is moving into the future.

Like a baby

He started feeling confidence,

because these were
his song choices.

These were songs that
he was singing in Germany.

That's the freedom
that he wanted.

That's what
he was looking for.

Elvis:
Like a baby

And that's why
it was so successful.

Just blew people away.

Elvis, when he came back,

clearly in finding the songs
and making the records,

was very driven.

His vision was very intact,

and I don't think
he could be distracted.

Zanes:
Elvis was so attuned
to the emotional.

He was always on the search
for emotional music.

I asked him one day,

What makes you
pick out your songs?

He said, I wanna be able
to reach and feel

what we all go through
as human beings.

Ooh

This is the mysterious
part about music.

How do we know when
we're listening to a song

that someone means it?

We just know.

Elvis:
Are you lonesome tonight

And the people who mean it

are generally the ones
who are processing

some kind of loss
through music,

and we can hear them
negotiating their loss,

and we connect to it.

To a bright summer day

When I kissed you

And called you sweetheart?

Those who are truly
a recording artist,

you go into
the artistic aspect

of what makes
whatever you're doing

alive and unique
for that song.

So he would lose himself
in an artistic way

in order for people to feel it.

And picture me

That's called soul.

Elvis:
Is your heart
filled with pain?

Shall I come back again?

Tell me, dear

Are you lonesome tonight?

Usually when we chat, Elvis,
we ask you to, uh,

select your favorite song
of all your recordings.

What's the current
favorite of yours?

Elvis:
I think, uh,
Now or Never.

It's Now or Never.

Ooh

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Elvis:
It's now or never

Everything was
a level up on the '50s.

The three singles,
Stuck on You,
It's Now or Never

and Are You Lonesome Tonight?
were number one hits.

It was a true triumph

and a whole new ballgame
of what pop music was.

Elvis:
Tomorrow will be too late

Landau:
Rhythmically,
his sense of time,

his phrasing, musicality,
Elvis was impeccable.

Elvis:
When I first saw you

Priscilla:
He loved opera singers.

He loved the range
of an opera singer.

It's Now or Never
is very much like that.

Elvis:
My heart was captured

What he did that was unusual

was he could slide up the scale
into a tenor voice

and then back down, you know.

And he's just having fun.

He's sliding
all over the scale.

It's so human.
It's so real.

It's now or never

Come hold me tight

Light:
It's Now or Never was
adapted from "O Sole Mio,

the Italian song.

Elvis had always
had this interest

in the Italian crooners.

When he was in the Army
with Charlie Hodge,

they were exploring that
kind of drama in his singing.

That sound, that style
became one of the staples

of Elvis's musical range
from then on.

Elvis:
Just like a willow

It's about challenge.

It was the challenge that
made him do that extra thing.

And hitting the high notes
at the end

on "It's Now or Never"
was the challenge.

And sweet devotion

He can't really reach it,
and the engineer says,

We can cut the ending only,
and Elvis goes back and says,

No, if I can't sing it
the whole way through,
I'm not gonna do it.

For who knows when

He challenged himself.

He got a thrill out of
hitting a note so high.

It's now or never

My love won't wait

It's now or never

My love won't wait

? Can't you see
I love you? ?

Please don't break
my heart in two

That's not hard to do

'Cause I don't have
a wooden heart

And if you say goodbye

Then I know
that I would cry

For Elvis to have
to do G.I. Blues,

reflecting his two years
in the Army

in a way that probably
doesn't compare a lot
to what it was like,

I don't think he really
enjoyed that.

G.I. Blues was
a family type of film

moving Elvis's image
in a completely
different direction

from the very young,
aggressive characters
in the '50s movies.

But he was given the promise
that there would be two films

for 20th Century Fox,
following this,

that were serious roles.

It may have been a reasonable
bargain for Elvis at the time.

Priscilla:
When he found out the songs
that he had to do
in G.I. Blues,

he said, Baby, I don't know
how this is gonna go.

I'm a little disappointed.

Jorgensen:
The songs they had
to fit into the plot,

but musically, they were
not where Elvis was at.

He makes a compromise.

That was the really
disheartening part for Elvis.

The soundtrack of G.I. Blues,

it was the most successful
album they had made.

It sold much more
than the absolutely
brilliant studio album

that came out
some months before.

Schilling:
Elvis is now a big business.

So instead of going out,

getting the best
songwriters in general,

Hill & Range,
from the Colonel,

were hiring a couple
of songwriters

to write Elvis songs.

Briggs:
They would bring
all of the material,

that was the unspoken rule.

Nobody else was allowed

to bring any music
into the session.

That was very tightly
controlled by the Colonel,

by the publishing company,

and by the record company.

West:
The Colonel eventually
started getting

a percentage of everything.

He was a businessman.

He didn't give a damn
if it was worth a crap.

Schilling:
Elvis could care less
about the songwriting,

publishing in general.

Some of it,
he got and understood,

but he cared more
about good material.

Petty:
It was more about the Colonel
owning the publishing,

which was a huge
stone in his shoes
the rest of his life.

It was this business of
We must own the copyright

or we don't
want you to do it.

Priscilla:
Elvis said, "I'm starting
to feel the pressure.

I'm obligated here.

I don't think there's
a way out for me.

And I said, Well, can't you
talk to Colonel?

And that's when I think
he started getting
disillusioned.

Basically, Colonel
was part of it.

Already, he's feeling
that he's not in control,

and this is really early on.

Gladys Presley:
Oh, home sweet home

There's no place like home

Priscilla:
I already had a feeling
of what Graceland was like

through Elvis's description.

He told me in Germany,

I want you to come
and see Graceland.

And he would give me images.

When I came, the first time,

he told me to close my eyes,
and not to open them.

We're driving, and then
he said, Open them.

The gates of Graceland open up.

It was everything
that he'd described.

It was bigger
than life for me.

His safe haven.

Schilling:
Graceland always represented

something more than
just a house to Elvis.

:Graceland was
something initially

that he had bought
with and for his parents,

and it reminded him
of his mother,

her presence and her
influence in his life,

which didn't end
after she died.

I opened up a closet

and it was filled
with her clothes.

And I had such a sense of her.

She liked soft fabric.

Her hats, her shoes--

he hung on
to those personal things.

Even though
it had been a few years,

there was still a lingering
scent there, of her.

It really showed me
the love that he had for her.

Elvis:
She never really
wanted anything,

you know, anything fancy.

She just stayed the same
all the way through
the whole thing.

There's a lot
of things happened,

and there are times
when it feels like

I don't know what
I'm gonna do next, you know?

Light:
Once he got back
to Graceland

and wanted to reconnect
with the spirit he was
brought up in

and the memory of his mother,

the best way was
to go back to the music

that he had grown up with.

Zanes:
The theme of return,

and in Elvis's case,
a return to gospel,

is part of how
we all experience music.

There are these
profound experiences

that happen with music
at a younger age.

Through our lives,
we're often chasing them.

If you were raised
in the proximity of gospel,

that's what launched you into
the world of emotional music.

West:
He was getting into
another phase in his life,

and gospel, religious music,
was his favorite,

and that's why he did it.

Jorgensen:
Just on the heels
of G.I. Blues,

he goes in and records
a complete album
of gospel music

with songs from
all his old heroes:

Blackwood Brothers,
Golden Gate,
Statesmen Quartet.

It's a tribute to everything
he came from,

and he does it with a voice
at his best ever.

Elvis:
Why don't you
swing low, sweet chariot

Stop and let me ride

Tony Brown:
It was so close
to those records

that the Statesmen
and Blackwoods were making.

It could've been those records.

Jorgensen:
He had the Jordanaires
as the key element

of developing a gospel feel

with a band feel that
was true to the music

on the Elvis is Back! album.

Elvis:
Let me ride

Rock me, Lord,
rock me, Lord

Jorgensen:
Obviously, it's not
really rock and roll,

but there's drums
and there's saxophones.

There's a lot of swing to it.

Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet

Well, well

The way he blended
them together

is an incredibly
original thing to do.

Sometimes, you know,
he wasn't traveling
very far away from the gospel.

I mean, some of it,
it was just about
putting a beat to it.

Wasn't so particular
about the chariot wheel

That angle of the two
and the four are

slightly different
than gospel good.

Why don't you swing down,
sweet chariot, stop

And let me ride

Jorgensen:
You have a feeling that
he's truly enjoying this.

It's a very joyous
record to listen to.

Schilling:
His Hand in Mine
was a passion.

The whole gospel influence
was as much a part of him,

and maybe even more so
as the rhythm and blues.

This was just his
opportunity to get it out.

And it was a mission
to show others,

the listeners, that in these
choices of music

and how it's embellished,

really what Elvis was
looking for as an artist,

to have that freedom.

It's that simple.

Just wanted to lay
down this heavy load

Why don't you
swing down, sweet chariot

Stop, let me ride

How's Blue Hawaii going?

It's going on very well.

We leave tomorrow
for Kauai, you know.
Yeah.

I think we'll be there
for about 10 days.

Tell us about
Blue Hawaii a bit.

There's about
11 songs in it.

Some Hawaiian tunes?
Yeah.

You got some
special material written
for you for the picture?

Elvis: Yeah, we had
about 10 songs written
especially for the picture.

We do that, you know,
before the picture starts.

Jorgensen:
The film Blue Hawaii was
an overwhelming success.

That is the point where
it gets real interesting.

Jackson:
The two dramas,

Wild in the Country
and Flaming Star,

they're not as music heavy,
and they actually lose money.

Priscilla:
And that's when
they told him,

"This is proof. This is
what the public wants.

People just wanna
hear your music.

They wanna hear you
sing in movies.

Schilling:
The last concert he played,
for almost a decade,

was a charity show
near Pearl Harbor.

Elvis:
Well, so long

That was like the
ultimate charity show,

because it was
for the building

of the Pearl Harbor
memorial.

Couldn't be more patriotic.

Couldn't have been
more of a cause

that people could get behind.

He's back,
he's served his time.

He's a great patriot.

It was more to build
that piece of the story

that the Colonel
wanted to tell.

He's cleaned up
and he's a good boy.

Elvis:
Let you go ahead on, baby

Pray that you'll come back
home some time

Boots Randolph.

The band that he brings
with him is very interesting.

He has Scotty and DJ,

but he brings
with him his all-star

Nashville, session guy band,

including Boots Randolph,
who was a great
saxophone player.

Jackson:
Boots Randolph brings
in a lead instrument

that can balance out
Elvis's singing

in a way that Scotty
playing rockabilly licks

didn't do previously.

So it just becomes
a much more full sound.

It's a tragedy that
he didn't continue

to play live
for people at that point.

But the Colonel knew
that the films

got Elvis in front of millions
of people simultaneously

with as little
work as possible.

The post-Army films,
I went to them.

They were a separate category
for what happened in the '50s.

He finds himself
in a situation

where he's just
churning out stuff

that he couldn't possibly
have believed in.

I said, take it easy,
baby, I worked all day

And my feet
feel just like lead

You got my shirttails
flying all over the place

And the sweat
poppin' outta my head

She said,
Hey, bossa nova, baby,
keep on workin'

For this ain't
no time to quit

She said,
Go bossa nova, baby,
keep on dancin'

I'm about to have
myself a fit

Bossa nova, bossa nova

Schilling:
The Colonel negotiated
contract after contract.

MGM, Paramount,
United Artists, you name it.

Hal Blaine:
He was inundated with
work, work, work, work.

I can dance with
a drink in my hand

She said,
Hey, bossa nova, baby,
keep on workin'

For this ain't
no time to drink

Everybody was trying
to get every penny they could

out of whatever
they could.

Bossa nova

Jackson:
He had to make
three movies a year.

So these soundtrack albums
became a big part

of the contractual obligation
to release music with RCA.

Bossa nova

West:
That was not his music.

It was killing his
recording career,

because they were
movie songs, situation songs.

Obviously,
in some of the movies,
you got some hits--

Viva Las Vegas,
Bossa Nova Baby.

They weren't all bad,

but because it was
connected to a movie,

it wasn't like a real record.

The songs had to fit the scene.

And the Colonel obviously
knew that the best format

was girls and
beautiful locations.

I thought it was
terrible direction--

the idea to do a bunch
of corny-ass movies,

Where this is all being led?
It's no-man's-land.

He-- he certainly knows
this music is crap.

The movies were
very harmful to his image.

As an innovator,
as a great musician,

they were harmful.

He's very talented.
I mean, he's very present.

It's an incredible
image of him.

But where he had
a nice start in the movies

and did do some
creative things early on,

and you could see
that there was great
potential for this guy,

there was really
no way for him

to become
the huge movie star

that he would've
liked to have been

and the Colonel
keep control of it.

You know, there's too many

creative aspects
gonna come in,

and they're gonna challenge

the Colonel's
carnival mentality.

Colonel Tom Parker:
Well, no, no, no, no, no.
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.

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

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

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
My baby loves me

My baby loves me

I said, my baby

Ha!
My baby

? Loves me ?
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Wee-ha!

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.

It's clear about halfway
through that period,

he becomes very restless,

and very annoyed
with the whole process.

Elvis didn't have
script approval.

There weren't great budgets.

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.

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.

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,

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.

'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.

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.

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

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

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.

And here he has
Odetta singing.

When you hear the song,

now you've got the lyrics
that match his feelings,

you've got the lyrics that
he can see himself singing.

Only if my true love
was waitin'

? ?

? If I... ?

Many of his relationships

with the culture of the day
were circuitous,

because he was Elvis
and he was behind a--
a high wall.

Elvis:
Only she was

Lying by me

Then I'd lie

In my bed once again

Elvis, a lot of times when
everyone had gone to bed,

or there was no one around,

he would go into the
music room at Graceland.

Just sit there
totally in solitude,

as if even I wasn't around,
and just start playing.

Always it was gospel.

Always it was
Precious Lord.

Precious Lord

Take my hand

When he would sing,

it was like a character study
watching him get lost.

Elvis:
I'm tired

I'm weak

I'm worn

Through the storm

Priscilla: And then,
he'd look over to see
how I was relating to it.

He'd look over
and wink at me.

Elvis:
Lead me on

Those were times that
I cherish the most, actually.

He wasn't really trying
to impress anyone.

He was doing it for himself

and just getting in touch,

getting in touch
with his maker.

It was a plea.

Well, you may run on
for a long time

Chorus:
Run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Let me tell you,
God Almighty's
gonna cut you down

He didn't have a
burning desire anymore

to record songs.

Elvis:
Midnight rider

The real interesting
element in that

is that when he regains
his appetite for recording

and wants to prove
a point in 1966,

he makes a gospel
record again.

Talkin' to the man
from Galilee

During the middle
of The Beatles,

and The Birds
and The Stones,

and Elvis makes
a gospel record when
he wants to come back.

Great God Almighty,
let me tell you what he said

Go tell that
long-tongued liar

Go tell that
midnight rider

Tell the gambler, rambler

Elvis is connecting
to new music.

He wants a more modern sound,

a more aggressive
rhythm section,

a rock and roll mix.

Run on for a long time

Let me tell you,
God Almighty's gonna
cut you down

You may throw your rock
and hide your hand

I think Elvis's
return to gospel

was a part of simply the deep
religiousness of the South

and his upbringing.

But in the late '60s, people
were having a hard time

looking past
the kitsch aspect

of some of the things
that Elvis did.

Elvis:
You gonna reap
just what you sow

Springsteen:
To appreciate that music,

that stuff
couldn't bother you.

Long time

Run on for a long time

What do you think
of yourself now?

You mean, uh,
as an entertainer

or an individual or what?

Both.

I can sum it up
fairly easily.

I, uh, as a-- as a
human being, really,

who's been very extremely
fortunate in so many ways...

I've a lot that I'd like to do,

a lot that I'd like
to accomplish.

I'd like to get married.
I'd like to have a family.

I suppose the most
important thing

in a person's life is,
uh, is happiness.

I mean, not
wordly things, because...

You realize, I mean,
you can have cars.

You can have money.
You can have a fabulous home.

You can have everything.

If you're not happy,
what have you got?

Priscilla:
I was very young
and very in love,

and I wanted to be
with him a lot.

The times that
we were together,

I-I cherished.

Woman:
I picked up my bag

And went looking
for a place to hide

When I saw old Carmen
and the devil

Walking side by side

Springsteen:
I mean, 1968 was a wild

and violent year
in American history.

Woman:
She said I gotta go

But my friend here
can stick around

At the beginning of the year,
Lisa Marie is born.

And then a couple
of months later,

Martin Luther King
is assassinated.

Woman:
Take a load off, Fanny

Schilling:
We were making
a movie at MGM

when we heard on the radio
about Martin Luther King.

King was that hope
to bring us all together,

and Elvis knew that.

Elvis looked down
and he said,

He always told the truth.

It's just old Luke

And Luke's waiting
on Judgment Day

There's this contentious
presidential election going on.

Bobby Kennedy is assassinated.

There's chaos
at the Democratic
convention in Chicago.

Baby now,
won't you stay

Priscilla:
Things were
just in disarray,

and it was never
the same after that.

Nik Cohn:
By '68,

most Elvis fans had,
more or less,
given up the ghost.

There'd been
so many poor movies,

so many throwaway singles.

Elvis starts to think about,

Okay, so how can I
play live again

There's no infrastructure
for me to do that.

A couple of really
bright guys who got Elvis

talked their way
into making a TV special.

Their mission was
to remind everybody

just who Elvis had been,

and who he still was--

in a sense, to erase
the last seven years

of the movie soundtracks.

When the opportunity for
the TV special is presented,

he hasn't performed
for an audience for years.

He was actually thinking
what he would do

if everything went wrong.

This was his career.
This was his life.

This was the moment of
realization that this is it,

that this is gonna be
either a complete failure

or it'll change everything.

Springsteen:
Well, I remember I waited

for weeks
for the '68 Special

'cause I knew it was coming.

I can remember
exactly where our TV

was set up
in the dining room,

the exact place
I was sitting.

I mean, it's one
of those things

that's imprinted
on my memory forever.

But you weren't sure
if he had the ability to focus

and gather it all
together one more time

to create
musical explosiveness.

Host:
Uh, welcome to NBC,

and the
Elvis Presley Special.

You can do better than that.
I'm gonna say it all over again.

Now, I wanna really
hear something.

Schilling:
When I went with him to NBC,

he was very quiet.

He didn't know how people
were gonna feel about it.

Priscilla:
He was extremely
nervous that night.

It's all new again,

and I'd never seen Elvis
perform live before.

I didn't really know
what to expect.

Binder:
We didn't know where
it was gonna go, period.

Just before it began,
on the first taping,

Elvis called me
into the makeup room.

He was sitting there
and he asked everybody
in the room to leave,

so he could just be
with me one on one.

I said, What's--
what's the problem?

Problem is
I changed my mind.

I don't wanna do this.

Man: May we strike
the coil and cable off
the platform, please?

Priscilla:
We weren't seeing,
sitting in the audience,

what was going on.

I'd stayed away
from the dressing room.

He didn't want
anyone around.

I was sitting there going,
Oh my gosh, you know.

Is he gonna be able
to pull this off?

Binder:
I said, What are you
talking about?

And he said,
I don't remember anything
I sang in the dressing room.

I don't remember
any stories that I told.

My mind is a blank, Steve.

Let's just call it off.
It's not gonna happen.

Binder:
I said, Elvis, I've never
asked you to do anything

that you don't wanna do...

Host: Mr. Elvis Presley.

Binder:
...but you've got
to go out there.

Thank you very much.

Schilling:
I don't know
how this happened,

but I saw him relax.

They want me
to sit on the floor!

Man:
It's all right

It's all right

It's all right

Yeah, man ?
It's all right

It's all right

It's
all right

It's all right

Oh, yeah!

Binder:
I had no knowledge
or understanding

about how incredibly talented
he really was until that show.

Zanes:
He's having an experience
in the moment.

During the years
he was doing Hollywood movies,

you never got to see him
in the moment.

Yeah, baby!

indistinctly)

We're goin' up,
we're goin' down

We're going up, down, down,
up any way you want

Let's roll

Yeah, yeah, yeah

You got me doin'
what you want me

Oh baby, what do you
want me to do?

Schilling:
The interplay
with Scotty and DJ

who's playing drums
on the back of a guitar case.

DJ Fontana:
It felt like
we were back home again.

Yeah!

All right

Hep, hep, hep, hep, hep, hep!

Boones Howe:
Those are guys
who grew up together,

and they suddenly
have a moment

of reflection.

The past, their early days.

Down, any way
you wanna let it roll

He was rediscovering
the sheer animal joy

of making music, and realizing,
for the first time in years,

just how good he was.

Baby, what do you
want me to do?

You got me doing
what you want me

Oh baby, what do you
want me to do?

Man: All right!
You got it!

That show was
1,000% Elvis.

His fingerprint was on the
first frame to the last frame.

He was a man on a mission.

And that night
when it premiered on TV,

we were all silent.

We just sat there
and watched the show

and never said a word.

And then, of course,
the telephone calls were
coming in, and reviews.

And, oh my gosh,
it was such a relief.

It was so great
to see him smile again.

Elvis:
We're caught in a trap

After the comeback special,

Elvis didn't have
to look too far

to find his way
back to the source.

Because I love you
too much, baby

Springsteen:
It was the old story.

You could take the boy
out of Memphis.

You really couldn't
take Memphis

out of the boy, you know?

The roots that you come from

are always compelling
to return to

no matter how
far away you get.

Schilling:
By that point, he only had
a couple of movies left.

And so when he went
back to the studio,

he wanted to
do things differently.

Preston Lauterbach:
Elvis returned home
to restart

his career as
a recording artist,

with local musicians,

with a local producer in
a little humble storefront,
north Memphis,

that's where Elvis returned
to essentially save his career.

Chips Moman, his job
was writer and producer.

He had evolved
from Stax Records

as a producer primarily
associated with soul

and with black artists.

But Chips was one of these
trans-racial kinda figures.

He thought in terms of style,
in terms of sound.

And he really did
embody Memphis music.

Elvis:
Asking where I've been

It was the greatest sessions,
the greatest.

My gosh, I mean,
he came alive again.

He was liberated.

It was, uh,
a beautiful marriage.

We can't go on together

With suspicious minds

And we can't build
our dreams

He told Elvis, I have
a stack of records here

I think are hits,

and you don't
have any publishing.

What do you wanna do?

Oh, let our love survive

Elvis said, "Chips,
I need hit records.

I'll dry the tears
from your eyes

Let's don't let
a good thing die

He decides he's gonna
sing contemporary material.

Publishing be damned.
He's gonna do what he wants.

Lied to you

Ooh

Yes, yes

We're caught in a trap

West:
The songs, every one
of 'em, was a hit.

That's the biggest sales
Elvis had had ever.

Love you too much baby

You would think
that would've been

the next recording session.

Never recorded
with Chips again.

I can't walk out

August '69, he got
a chance to play live

at the International Hotel.

Vegas was a huge
event for him.

Back in the '50s,
he wasn't accepted too much
then in Vegas.

Vegas, it's not
about teenyboppers.

It's aimed at
a particular audience--

people interested
in a show that's there,

so that they'll stop
in the casino,

on the way in or out,
and drop some money.

Their burning thing
to go to Las Vegas

and play long stands,
you know,

that doesn't happen
till they've virtually run
aground in the film business.

There isn't a single studio

that will throw down
any significant money

for Elvis in a movie.

So, they look around go,
Well, what we gonna do now?

Elvis is going on stage,
you know. Thank God.

And "You Don't Have
to Say You Love Me,
and, uh...

I was able to witness him
put a band together.

When he goes out to Vegas,

he's really
making decisions

that are a little
more for Elvis

than what came before.

Zanes:
He's wanting to play
with the band.

He's wanting to go
through a deep catalog,

you know, big parts of which
remind him or his own youth.

Well, you may go to college

May go to school

You may get religion, baby

Don't you be nobody's fool

Now baby, come back, baby

I personally went to him
and said, Elvis,

I wanted to know
if you wanted me

to try to duplicate
classic songs.

What was done previously.

He said, Absolutely not.

Just do what you do,
that's why you're here.

I thought it was good that
he would try different songs

that he liked the sound of.

Glen D. was the arranger,

and he would write these
great arrangements for him,

and they would--
they would be exciting.

Elvis:
Come back, baby, come

Come back, baby,
I wanna play house with you

Then it goes into this one.

I wanna try something.

And since, this is last verse...

I think the vocals were
just as important to Elvis.

Okay. The horns are
answering it then.

He had to have
The Sweet Inspirations.

They had been working
with Wilson Pickett
and Aretha Franklin.

Talk in
everlasting words
Talk, words

And dedicate them
all to me

Dedicate them
all to me

Elvis did whatever
he wanted to do.

If he was feeling it,
we had to feel it too.

And we could connect,

because we were from gospel.

We were raised gospel.

You think that
I don't even mean

A single word I say

It's only words

And words are all I have

To steal your heart away

Colonel Parker, he had
billboards all over.

There was a vibe.

Everybody knew
that Elvis was there.

He was a nervous wreck.

It's one thing to have
a small invited audience.

Now he's going
on the biggest stage
in the world.

It's Las Vegas.

This is the nitty-gritty time

as far as being
nervous, you know.

Opening night, man.

West:
He was excited,
and also nervous.

He didn't know exactly
how he was gonna be received,

and he wanted
the best of everything.

Tutt:
There were all these big
goals as far as attendance,

and he had a very
competitive nature.

So he wanted to be able
to be as powerful

and popular as Sinatra,
Tom Jones.

He wanted to take his music
to a whole different level.

The first time
I ever saw him on stage,

was the first time
he played in Vegas in '69.

The '68 special, it was more
of a controlled environment.

It was for television.

But in Vegas, to actually
see him walk out there

and own that stage,

it was like,
Oh my gosh, I get it.

I get it!

Well, that's all right, mama

That's all right with you

That's all right, mama

Do it any way you do

That's all right
That's all right

Yeah, that's all right
That's all right

That's all right, mama
That's all right

Any way you do

Well, Mama,
she done told me

Papa done told me too

Son, that gal
you foolin' with

She ain't no good for you

Well, that's all right ?
That's all right ?

Yeah, that's all right now
That's all right

That's all right
now, mama

Any way you do

Play it.

Priscilla:
I remember looking around.

They're all applauding.

So drawn into him.

I'd never seen anyone control
an audience that way.

It was like he rehearsed
that show all his life.

That's all right
That's all right

Yeah, that's all right
That's all right

That's all right
now, mama

Any way you do

Well, that's
all right now, mama

Any way you do

Woman:
There's a place
on Lonely Street

They call it
Heartbreak Hotel

Where brokenhearted
lovers go

It was great, staying up
all night, being in Vegas.

We never left the hotel.

But psychologically,

at a point,
it weighs on you,

and you may not
even know it.

Heartbreak Hotel,
where I'll be

I'll be so lonely

I'll be so lonely,
I could die

Although it's
always crowded

You still can find a room

For brokenhearted lovers

Thirty days, 61 shows,
first engagement.

Six months later,
the second engagement.

The third engagement.

Woman:
Die

Schilling:
Playing that much
for weeks on time,

not seeing daylight.

Locked up in a hotel room,
what is there to do?

Talking to the same
15 guys every day?

Bored out of your mind,

and it all kind of conspires
to make Elvis vulnerable

in ways that if he had
a more rational life,

he would not be vulnerable.

Woman:
You got a tale to tell

And that's when
the Colonel took over

and went back
into modus operandi.

Let's see as much money
as we can make out of Elvis
for as long as we can.

It worked great
in the beginning.

It just got to be
same old stuff.

Die

He realized that fans
want to hear the hits--

kind of painted himself
into a corner, so to speak.

Back in those days,

there was a dinner show
and then a late show.

So all the tables up front,

they were serving dinner
and drinks and stuff.

And the only people that could
afford the up-front seats

were the high-rollers,
the older cats.

Elvis needed connection
with the audience.

And Vegas, it was a very
reserved, rich crowd

dressed up for the Elvis show.

It frustrated Elvis that
he couldn't quite seem

to get the mayhem going.

Priscilla:
He felt like really
what he needed

was to get outside
of Vegas and go out

and get connected
with people

though he hadn't been
on tour for over 13 years.

Man:
What, uh, what made you
decide to come to Texas?

Well, I think the most
important thing is the, uh,

the inspiration that I get
from a live audience.
I was missing that.

Well, I never
been to Heaven

But I've been to Oklahoma

Well, they tell me
I was born there

But I really don't remember

In Oklahoma

Or Arizona

?Yeah, what does it matter?

What does it matter?

Back in the 1970s,

I was working
for Rolling Stone.

They sent me to Boston
to review an Elvis concert.

He stands there
in a black jumpsuit,

gold spangles
and an orange cape.

When he stretches
out his hands,

the cape forms
a half-sun

under his outstretched arms,

and he looks like the
true king of rock and roll.

He parades in front
of 15,000 people,

and waits for the applause
to wash over,

and it comes as it always does

and as he knows it will.

Elvis Presley
has lived through

the greatest superstar
trip of any performer,

and he survived it
in his own kind of way.

Elvis participates in a pure
one-to-one relationship
with his audience.

When he steps on the stage,

it is he and he alone
who is the subject

of the manic, ecstatic,
irrational adoration.

I've never been to Heaven

His brilliance is reflected
in his control.

But I've been
to Oklahoma ?

He never moves too far
in any one direction,

and never loses his grip.

They tell me
I was born there

But I really don't remember

In Oklahoma

Or Arizona

To me, no matter
how frustrating

the lapses in his career
have been,

he remains an artist...

In Oklahoma

Or Arizona

Landau:
...an American artist,
whom we should be proud
to claim as our own.

Yeah, yeah

Elvis, in concert, covered
all kinda genres, you know.

And he came out
and he would do
all those songs

from the '50s and '60s
that he broke with.

But during the show, there was
a lot of country standards.

He just did things
that he liked.

You have any
thoughts about

the rising interest
in country music?

I think it's fantastic.

You see, country music was
always a part of the influence

on my-- on my type
of music anyway.

It's a combination of, uh...

country music, and gospel,

and rhythm and blues
all combined.

That's what it really was.

As a child, I was
influenced by all of that.

But I like the blues,
and I like, uh,
the gospel music,

gospel quartets and all that.

Thank you.
Good rehearsal, see you soon.

If you look at the band
he put together

for the '70s shows,
there was a huge
gospel contingent.

Those sections of the show
were so powerful.

Straight out of white
and black gospel tradition.

Hallelujah

Springsteen:
In the '70s, Elvis had moved
on to American Trilogy.

His show was consisting of
a huge cross-cultural picture

of America and Americana.

Springsteen:
He was trying to encompass

an image of the country
as a whole

that he could be a vessel
that could contain

the entirety of
American experience.

Oh hush, little baby

Don't you cry

Petty:
You know, that
version of Dixie

and uh, the
Battle Hymn of the Republic,

it's so beautiful!

You know, the band
he's put together
is so over-the-top,

and only Elvis would have
that kinda spending power,

and just audacious craziness.

Choirs, and orchestras,
and a great rhythm section,

maybe another
gospel group on the side.

None of it makes sense
until you suddenly

hear something like that,

and they're all playing
a role in that,

and it's very moving music.

When you see him
do that music

in those little pieces of film
that I've seen of him,

that's the pure joy
of music in the man.

You know, that's when
I see everything stop.

Glory, glory

Hallelujah

His truth is

Marching ?

On

His truth is

Marching

On

Whoo!

Thank you, thank you.

Whew! Boy.

How was the sound
in that building?

Very good,
very good.
Here. Hold on.

Strickland:
That was his life.
He lived to sing and perform.

It's a hot time in Florida.

Boy, it is.

An artist like Elvis is,

rather than pretending
when he goes on the stage,

he's actually pretending,
when he's home, to be normal.

And when he goes out
on stage at night,

it's who he actually is.

It's a very
difficult dichotomy.

To see him become
even bigger than life,

he had so much so soon.

He was snatched
from the ordinary life

of a-- of a young man

into a place that
no one else had ever been

in society or in our culture.

To have that success,
and to experience it,

he had to hand over
significant portions
of youth.

That was the trade.

He is unmoored from
the Earth experience.

We were living
two different lives.

He was performing, and, uh,

and he was home
very, very little.

It was very difficult to
communicate at that time.

Uh, Elvis had a horrible
fear of not sleeping.

He would spend
many, many nights alone,

and he would think
and that would keep him up.

So he started
on sleeping pills,

and he thought that
he had it under control.

Everything that he ever had
was prescribed.

Are you satisfied
with the image
you've established?

Uh... well, the image is
one thing,

and a human being
is another, you know, so.

How close does the image
come to the man?

It's very hard
to live up to an image,
I'll put it that way.

Come on, bring your
cameras over here.

Come on through here.

Soon as the Colonel gets
through talking, I'll tell you--

I'm-- I'm sorry.

Oh, yeah, I'd like
to do something.

Uh, there's so many places
that I haven't been yet.

I'd like to go to Europe.

I'd like to go to Japan
and all those places.

I-I've never been
out of this country

except in the service,
you know.

Elvis, from early on,

had expressed interest
in touring overseas

having no idea

that Colonel Parker
was never going to let him.

Because if the Colonel
went with him,

he was afraid
he was not gonna be
let back into America.

Schilling:
Colonel knowing that Elvis
wanted to tour overseas,

colonel not wanting
anybody to know

that he wasn't a US citizen,

how could he answer Elvis

but come up with something
that nobody had ever done.

Instead of shutting
down the idea

of Elvis playing
in different countries

and just sort of
curtailing it for now,

he actually uses it
to his advantage,

and creates the first-ever
live concert simulcast

on satellite television,

so that people
in every country
all over the world

can see Elvis
play a concert.

Light:
By the time
of the Aloha special,

Elvis had been
touring non-stop.

His health wasn't great,
his weight wasn't great,

and now he was confronted
with this performance

that was gonna be seen
by a billion people
around the world.

Whew!

It's so very hard
to comprehend it,

because I...

In 15 years, it's hard
to comprehend that happening.

To all the countries all over
the world via satellite,

it's very difficult
to comprehend.

It becomes the
biggest media moment

of his career
up to that point.

And he knows this.
He's trimmed down for it.

He looks amazing.

The band is super tight.

Aloha does represent
Elvis music,

the moment that
Elvis brought together
all of his influences

to solidify an image of Elvis,

a look and a style
and a presentation

that seals in amber,
this is what Elvis is.

Elvis was the first major

televisual musical star.

We can see him,
but we can't touch him.

Elvis, without intending to,

created an image of himself

he would never live past.

Yeah, now this time

Lord, you gave me

A mountain

A mountain

I may never climb

It isn't

That show was another way

in which he was truly
disserved by the Colonel.

It's a bit of a metaphor
for keeping the blinders on,

which is what I think
the Colonel is all about.

My picture of the
Colonel really is

someone that loves
selling merchandise,

you know, that
wants it to the end,

walk the aisle selling
posters and ballpoint pens.

It doesn't make
any sense really

to keep him from
touring other countries,

to keep him from
really going to, you know,

the whole way with the music,

like, letting him
be an artist.

Elvis:
Thank you!

I think the troubles between
Elvis and the Colonel

started getting
worse at that point.

There was the bond,

but they were
two very different people.

Elvis outgrew Colonel Parker
as an artist,

but he, um, didn't know
how to cut the strings.

By this time, he had started
to turn to prescription drugs

to keep himself going.

He was on a
relentless wheel

of performance to travel
to performance to travel,

and you start to see
the stress of that.

Binder:
All the things he told me
that he wanted to do--

travel the world,
meet new audiences--

none of that happened.

All the light went
out of his eyes.

Zanes:
With an addiction
to prescription pills,

if you are a performer,

what you're after is the
anesthetizing part of it.

But that's gonna
take you away

from your powers
as a performer,

and he's gonna go
on stage nonetheless.

He had many afflictions,

and he hurt himself
in many ways.

But there was a core in there,

that, if you let it,
would shine through,

and sometimes in the
most unlikely places.

Lord Almighty

I feel my
temperature rising

Hmm

Tutt:
We has basically tried
to influence him

to do more rock and roll.

Burning Love, that one
had some potential.

He never felt
comfortable with it,

because he had a hard time
with the lyrics.

Priscilla:
He was going through
a lot at that time,

so he didn't want
to do the song,

and the guys kept expressing
that he should do it,

and he was really
fighting it.

Landau:
Burning Love,

well, it's one of the
greatest records
he ever made.

Like the sweet song
of the choir

And you light my morning sky

With burning love

With burning love

Just a hunk of
hunk of burning love

Ahhh!
A hunk of
hunk of burning love

Chorus: Ahhh!
A hunk of hunk of--

It was a hard song
for him to sing

and to get into.

About them lyrics...

It was only one,
and I hit my mouth.

He wanted to
let out his feelings

in a-- in a song that
related to how he felt.

It was difficult
to be given music

for something that's
really uplifting, upbeat,

and that's not
matching his tone,

that's not matching
his feelings.

I see a change

Is coming to our lives

It's not the same
as it used to be

And it's not too late

To realize our mistake

We're just not right

For each other

Love has slipped away

Left us only friends

We almost seem
like strangers

All that's left between us

Are the memories we share

Of times
we thought we cared

For each other

Elvis was very
family oriented.

He did cherish family,

but Elvis wanted it all.

Pieces left behind us

It takes two
in a relationship.

Having a child, not being
able to do the traveling.

I was a mother.

He always used to say,
You can't serve two masters.

Someday when she's older

Maybe she will understand

Why her mom and dad
are not together

The tears that
she will cry

When I have to say goodbye

They tear at my heart

Forever

There's nothing left to do

But go our separate ways

Schilling:
After he recorded
Separate Ways,

he wanted to go
into the control room

and listen to that song
for hours.

And he would just look up
and shake his head,

'cause I know he still
always loved Priscilla.

Elvis and I,

you know,
we held hands in court.

There was still
a lot of love there.

He was a doting father.

We kept that relationship
very close.

I know he was
always there for me,

and for Lisa as well,

but the breakup
of the marriage

was painful for both of us.

He was never
the same after that.

He just changed.
He was very moody.

He just wasn't well
doing two shows a night.

And he had to take uppers
to get him going

and downers
to put him to sleep.

Well, I don't know,
but I know one thing.

When I told Elvis
to slow down,

he said, I wanna
play more dates.

So I booked more dates.

I said, Well, I don't
think you should,

and he said, Well,
it's what I wanna do.

He was very unhappy,
so we started all over again.

With some 25 colored
portraits available...

Souvenirs!

Hey! Take home
a little bit of Elvis!

Elvis super souvenirs!

Cohn:
I think night by night,
it became harder for him to--

to carry on being Elvis.

Drugs and the
self-destructiveness

were all punishments.

He was in great pain, and yet,
he gave so much pleasure.

He would go offstage
and collapse,

and the audience would
go out buoyed up and joyous,

spiritually blessed.

Elvis was always
searching for answers.

Why him?

Well, maybe God
had something else
planned for me.

Am I supposed to be
giving a message?

Not realizing he was doing

what he was
supposed to be doing.

Petty:
The last days of his life
was not his best work.

He had a lot of problems.

He had gained weight

which is a cardinal sin
in show business.

Isolation, you know,

that-- that brings on
the drug abuse.

He's lost touch
with his father.

His mom's gone.

His wife is gone.

It had to be very lonely,
we know that.

There's a point when--
when you have success,

and you get really wealthy

and there is that day
where the letter comes

that none of this is
gonna make me happy.

And he knew he had
to try to find some--
something, you know,

but I think he gave up.

I think he felt out-gunned
and gave up.

Those last shows,

those shows those
last couple of years

were not the most memorable
as far as performance.

Sometimes he didn't
get through a-- a song.

I think the last year,
he was pretty much over it.

I don't even know why,
you know, he went on stage.

They're just hard to watch.

Sometimes, I think
it was better, maybe,

if they just
canceled the show.

Brown:
We got the call that Elvis
wanted to record in Memphis.

Strickland:
Whenever we got the call,

we would be there
at his beck and call

whenever they were ready.

Brown:
In my mind,
we're going to, like,

Sun Records or someplace over
there, Chips Moman's studio.

But we pull into Graceland,

and I say, "Well,
what are we doing here?"

They said,
We're cutting here.

He wouldn't go to the studio.

The studio had to come to him,
right in the Jungle Room there.

It's hard to get him to go
into a studio environment,

because he was
uncomfortable there.

Didn't wanna
go to Nashville,

didn't want to go to Stax,

didn't want to go
to Chips Moman's.

He wanted to stay at home.

We would come over
from Nashville,

check into a hotel that was
just right down the street.

And then, we'd all be
ready there to go,

and they'd say,
Elvis is still not up.

He could come down
at midnight

or it could be two o'clock
in the morning.

You never knew what
the night was gonna hold.

Elvis ended up
back in the Jungle Room,

recording his last record.

Graceland can be
something that's--

that gives you
a sense of-- of place,

and of-- of center.

Uh, but it can also
be a place where--

that you just disappear into.

It seemed to me that
Elvis was caught in-between

doing a little bit
of both there.

Seems to be,
he's picking songs

that somewhat reflect
his state of mind.

Like "Hurt" which is one
of the-- the very last ones.

I think he's--
he's feeling very hurt.

He's very down.
He's very alone.

He doesn't understand
what's happened to music,

and he got left out of that.

He had become a thing.

He was no longer
Elvis Presley.

He was Elvis.

Norbert Putnam:
Well, when I first came
over to the Jungle Room,

they had removed
all the furniture.

They covered the walls
in blankets.

Strickland:
There was a semi,

like a very large
tractor trailer,
out behind the house.

It was RCA's complete
mobile recording studio.

They would run
all their recording lines

into the Jungle Room.

Brown:
It looks like you're in
Tahiti or something.

It looked like you
were in the islands.

But we're all just crammed
into this tiny little space.

Tutt:
It was a nightmare for
the recording engineers

to keep that sound clean
without too much bleed

with open microphones,

and we did our best to do the
recordings as best we could.

Strickland:
It wasn't like we did
a lot of rehearsal

for the recordings.

It was Turn the machine on,
and he's gonna sing.

We would all watch each other
doing it on the fly.

And you know, I-I remember
one of the first songs

that I recorded with him,
uh, was Hurt.

We didn't have a clue
of how it was gonna go down

or how he would perform it.

All of a sudden,
he takes his stance.

Elvis:
I'm

So hurt ?

To think that you lied to me

I'm hurt

Way down deep inside of me

You said

Our love was true

And we'd never

Never part

Now you want someone new

And it breaks my heart

Oh, I'm hurt

Much more

Than you'll ever know

Yes, darling

I'm so hurt

Because

I still love you so

But you know

Even though you hurt me

Like nobody else

Could ever do

I would never ever

Hurt

You

Yeah, you

Elvis wanted to finish the
'68 Special on a big note.

Quite frankly, we didn't
know how to finish the show.

Every day at four o'clock,

we would all sit in the
piano room, of our offices,

rehearsing with Elvis.

While we were sitting
in Steve's office with Elvis,

we had a little
black and white
television in the corner.

On that TV...

Robert Kennedy
was assassinated.

Elvis picked up a guitar,

and he started playing.

Talking at a mile a minute.

He said, I want you
to understand me,

because this is a
moment in time

where we all have
to understand each other.

There must be lights
burning brighter

Somewhere

Got to be birds
flying higher

In a sky more blue

If I can dream
of a better land

Where all my brothers
walk hand in hand

Tell me why

Oh, why

Oh, why can't my dream
come true

Oh, why

There must be peace
and understanding

Sometime

Strong winds of promise

That will blow away
all the doubt

And fear

If I can dream
of a warmer sun

Where hope keeps
shining on everyone

Tell me why

Oh, why

Oh, why won't that sun

Appear

We're lost in a cloud

With too much rain

We're trapped in a world

That's troubled with pain

But as long as a man
has the strength to dream

He can redeem his soul

And fly

Choir:
He can fly

Deep in my heart

There's a trembling question

Still I am sure
that the answer

Answer's gonna come somehow

Out there in the dark

There's a beckoning candle

Oh yeah, and
while I can think

While I can talk

While I can stand

While I can walk

While I can dream

Please let my dream

Come true

Oh

Right now

Oh, let it come true
right now

Oh, yeah

Petty:
Can't you see

I love you

Please don't break
my heart in two

That's not hard to do

'Cause I don't have
a wooden heart

And if you say goodbye

Then I know
that I would cry

Maybe I would die

'Cause I don't have
a wooden heart

There's no strings

Upon this love of mine

It was always you
from the start

Treat me nice

Treat me good

Treat me like
you really should

'Cause I'm not made of wood

And I don't have
a wooden heart