Hard to believe it’s been 32 years since Elvis Presley died. While I always liked his music, I wasn’t what you would consider an Elvis uber-fan, but since then I’ve listened to a lot of his stuff and respect the immense talent he had. He was truly one of the greats.

BTW, I especially love his gospel music – here’s a great DVD about that lesser-known side of The King.

Scott at Power Line blog has a great post remembering when The King met Richard Nixon. It’s an interesting read, pretty funny.

This past Sunday it was too damned hot to do anything outside so we stayed inside and watched Elvis movies all day on Turner Movie Classics. Did you know that Elvis starred in 31 movies and all of ’em made money? Even though they were a welcome distraction from work and life, after a while they all started to look the same, y’know? But, I did enjoy Clambake, and I thought he did a real good job in King Creole.

On the must-reading list for this fall: Peter Guralnick’s two-volume biography of Elvis – Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, and Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley. Both look to be page-turners.

Here’s one of my absolute favorite Elvis tunes, from his last album, Moody Blue. Recorded live in the “jungle room” at Graceland, “He’ll Have To Go” was the last song Elvis ever recorded. Bluesy and mournful, whenever I hear it, with its twangy guitar licks (courtesy of James Burton) and tinklin’ piano fills, all I can think of is thick, humid days in the Deep South and the Mississippi River. To me, it’s a sad but majestic coda to an incredible life and career as a singer and musician.

I remember the day after he died I scooted down to the local K-Mart to pick up a limited edition of the album on blue vinyl (!), figuring it might be worth something someday. Well, I guess not.