General Music Chat

Dang I haven't seen one post on Facebook or here!

My Elvis story:

I was working in a boiler room in Hollywood hocking school supplies over the phone, supporting a music habit. I'd answered an ad for "Actors, Dancers, Musicians." I thought it was a musical production or something and thought, "How cool is that?"

It wasn't. But the folks were cool and we even had networking breaks - made some good friends and connections. We all felt like contenders which makes for an upbeat vibe. Our manager was rumored to have played lead guitar with Jan and Dean and I met a writer I'd work with for a while. That sort of place.

One dark day I heard these dreadful snuffling sounds coming from the corner. I looked over to my right and there was Bobby Yamashita my sales partner, head cradled in his arms, weeping...gasping. He was a brilliant cat. Linguist, computer geek long before Bill Gates got in the game. But here was something new.

"Talbot - the king is dead!"

We left early and I took him back to my flat to chill and thought, "Damn...Elvis was pretty cool all right...but what the hell?" As Billy ran it down there is a or was a whole Asian subculture of 'cowboy bands' that dress like that, play like that. He said it stretches across multiple countries.

And if Billy was indicative of their devotion to Elvis...my brother Jim had talked of wild bars in the Philippines...others of Thailand.

So Happy Birthday to the man who played on the absolute FIRST record I ever heard that could be called Rock: "Hound Dog!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmljYkdr-w

I watched this video and I could begin to see why Billy was so devastated by his death. Elvis was a treasure no doubt.

As a footnote, years later, I got hold of Billy and asked him how life had treated him. He said he'd gotten a divorce and was fronting a band in Vietnam...

Talbot

Me and the King in Nashville