ELVIS AND ME
The year was 1962.
After graduating from high school, I moved to Melbourne to start university. Billeted in a hostel with a hundred other youngsters from the country (I was 18 and not officially an adult, and the term ‘teenager’ had been bandied about in the media, usually in a derogatory manner, and wasn’t used by anyone I knew), I was agog with the many wonders of this metropolis.
At a loose end after a day of orientation at Melbourne University, a group of us gathered to decide how to fill in the evening. We settled on killing time at a movie, but couldn’t find one that none of us had seen before. (Even in the country, we got to see the latest releases not long after they’d screened in ‘the big smoke’.) Eventually, someone suggested ‘Blue Hawaii’ and, with some reluctance, the rest of us agreed.
At this time, Elvis had pretty much taken the world by storm, but I’d stayed away from his movies and largely ignored his music. Elvis had garnered some bad press early in his career, and my parents thought him a bad influence. In our house, we listened to artists such as Bing Crosby, Guy Mitchell, Doris Day or Nat ‘King’ Cole, singers I still enjoy today. Although I’d started to rebel in subtle ways, I hadn’t started to question my parents’ choices.
That was all about to change.
Believing I wasn’t about to enjoy this experience, I sat back with a sneer on my lips and prepared to rubbish this offering from this ‘so-called’ singer. How wrong I was. From the moment Elvis appeared larger than life on the screen before me, I became a convert. I watched, mesmerised, as he strode back and forth in front of me, singing and gyrating in a manner I’d never witnessed before. (And let’s face it, he’d been somewhat tamed by the time he returned from his army stint in Germany.) From that moment on, I became a fan. I bought every record as soon as it hit the stores and watched every movie soon after its release. And while the qualities of the movies would never again reach the level of ‘Blue Hawaii’, I remained a fan. For the first time I rebelled against the lifestyle of my parents, and my life changed forever.
Maybe my parents were right. Elvis may very well have been a bad influence.
Broometime Serenade
After graduating from high school, I moved to Melbourne to start university. Billeted in a hostel with a hundred other youngsters from the country (I was 18 and not officially an adult, and the term ‘teenager’ had been bandied about in the media, usually in a derogatory manner, and wasn’t used by anyone I knew), I was agog with the many wonders of this metropolis.
At a loose end after a day of orientation at Melbourne University, a group of us gathered to decide how to fill in the evening. We settled on killing time at a movie, but couldn’t find one that none of us had seen before. (Even in the country, we got to see the latest releases not long after they’d screened in ‘the big smoke’.) Eventually, someone suggested ‘Blue Hawaii’ and, with some reluctance, the rest of us agreed.
At this time, Elvis had pretty much taken the world by storm, but I’d stayed away from his movies and largely ignored his music. Elvis had garnered some bad press early in his career, and my parents thought him a bad influence. In our house, we listened to artists such as Bing Crosby, Guy Mitchell, Doris Day or Nat ‘King’ Cole, singers I still enjoy today. Although I’d started to rebel in subtle ways, I hadn’t started to question my parents’ choices.
That was all about to change.
Believing I wasn’t about to enjoy this experience, I sat back with a sneer on my lips and prepared to rubbish this offering from this ‘so-called’ singer. How wrong I was. From the moment Elvis appeared larger than life on the screen before me, I became a convert. I watched, mesmerised, as he strode back and forth in front of me, singing and gyrating in a manner I’d never witnessed before. (And let’s face it, he’d been somewhat tamed by the time he returned from his army stint in Germany.) From that moment on, I became a fan. I bought every record as soon as it hit the stores and watched every movie soon after its release. And while the qualities of the movies would never again reach the level of ‘Blue Hawaii’, I remained a fan. For the first time I rebelled against the lifestyle of my parents, and my life changed forever.
Maybe my parents were right. Elvis may very well have been a bad influence.
Broometime Serenade
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