Two and a half years earlier than he died, Elvis Presley sat on the ground of a walk-in closet on the Las Vegas Hilton and mentioned a undertaking which may have modified the course of his life.
The assembly, as recounted by Presley’s longtime buddy Jerry Schilling, put the King of Rock and Roll nose to nose with Barbra Streisand, who’d come to see Presley carry out on the Hilton in March 1975 then sought an viewers after the present to drift an concept: Would Presley be enthusiastic about showing reverse Streisand in her remake of “A Star Is Born”?
On the time of the duo’s dialog — Schilling says that he, Presley’s pal Joe Esposito and Streisand’s boyfriend Jon Peters squeezed into the closet with the celebs in a seek for some quiet amid the commotion backstage — it had been six years since Presley had final performed a dramatic position onscreen; Streisand’s pitch so tantalized him, in line with Schilling, that they ended up speaking for greater than two hours concerning the film.
“We even ordered in some food,” Schilling recollects.
Presley, after all, didn’t get the half famously performed by Kris Kristofferson — a casualty, relying on who you ask, of Streisand’s insistence on prime billing or of the unreasonable monetary calls for of Presley’s supervisor, Colonel Tom Parker. (In her 2023 memoir, Streisand wonders whether or not the character of a self-destructive musician was in the long run “a little too close to his own life” for Elvis’ consolation.)
Regardless of the case, Schilling believes that the frustration over “A Star Is Born” set Presley on a path of poor decision-making that successfully tanked his profession earlier than his tragic demise at age 42 on Aug. 16, 1977 — 48 years in the past this weekend.
“That was the last time I saw the twinkle in my friend’s eye,” Schilling, 83, says of the sit-down with Streisand.
An intriguing new field set commemorates the King’s closing burst of creativity. Launched this month in five-CD and two-LP editions, “Sunset Boulevard” collects the music Presley recorded in Los Angeles between 1972 and 1975, together with the fruit of 1 session held simply days earlier than the assembly about “A Star Is Born.” These had been the studio dates that yielded songs like “Separate Ways,” which Elvis reduce amid the crumbling of his marriage to Priscilla Presley, and “Burning Love,” his final High 10 pop hit, in addition to 1975’s “Today” LP, an exemplary showcase of Presley’s latter-day mix of rock, nation and blue-eyed soul.
Is one more repackaging of Presley’s music actually one thing to get enthusiastic about? The Elvis business has by no means not been alive and properly over the half-century since he died; in simply the previous few years, we’ve seen Baz Luhrmann’s splashy big-screen biopic, the newest ebook from the singer’s biographer Peter Guralnick (this one about Parker) and never one however two documentaries concerning the so-called ’68 comeback particular that heralded Presley’s return to dwell efficiency after practically a decade of movie work.
Extra gloomily, “Sunset Boulevard” arrives as Priscilla Presley — who obtained her personal biopic from director Sofia Coppola in 2023 — is making headlines because of an unsightly authorized battle with two former enterprise companions she introduced on to assist in managing the Presley model. (The feud itself follows the sudden demise two years in the past of Priscilla and Elvis’ solely little one, Lisa Marie Presley.)
But the brand new field affords a chance to ponder the curious place Elvis discovered himself in as soon as the glow of the comeback particular had pale: a rock and roll pioneer now unusually faraway from the tradition he did as a lot as anybody to invent.
“Sunset Boulevard’s” title, which the set shares with Billy Wilder’s iconic 1950 film, can’t assist however evoke the spoiled grandeur of an getting old showbiz legend. It additionally refers back to the bodily location of RCA Data’ West Coast headquarters at 6363 Sundown Blvd., throughout the road from Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome. Now the positioning of the L.A. Movie Faculty, the constructing is the place the Rolling Stones recorded “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and Jefferson Airplane made “Surrealistic Pillow” — and the place Presley arrange within the early ’70s after slicing most of his ’60s film soundtracks at Radio Recorders close to the nook of Santa Monica Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.
Jerry Schilling at his house in West Hollywood.
(JSquared Images / For The Instances)
By 1972, rock had lengthy since developed past the essential affect Elvis exerted originally of his profession. Nor was the King notably dialed into what was occurring in music whereas he was busy in Hollywood.
“We weren’t as exposed as much as I wish we would’ve been to everything going on,” Schilling says on a current afternoon at his house excessive within the hills above Sundown Plaza. A core member of Elvis’ fabled Memphis Mafia, Schilling has lived right here since 1974, when Elvis purchased the place from the TV producer Rick Husky and gifted it to Schilling for his years of loyal friend-ployment.
“When you’re doing movies, you’re up at 7 in the morning and you’re in makeup by 8,” Schilling continues. “You work all day and you come home — you’re not necessarily putting on the latest records.”
Greater than the growling rock lothario of Presley’s early days — to say nothing of the shaggy psychedelic searchers who emerged in his wake — what the RCA materials emphasizes is how expressive a ballad singer Elvis had turn out to be in center age. Schilling says the singer’s romantic troubles drew him to slower, moodier songs like “Separate Ways,” “Always on My Mind” and Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times,” the final of which he delivers in a voice that appears to tremble with remorse. (Presley needed to be cajoled into singing the uptempo “Burning Love,” in line with Schilling, who notes with fun that “when it became a hit, he loved it.”)
However within the deep soulfulness of this music you’re additionally listening to the rapport between Presley and the members of his dwell band, with whom he recorded at RCA as a substitute of utilizing the session gamers who’d backed him within the ’60s. Led by guitarist James Burton, the TCB Band — that’s Taking Care of Enterprise — was assembled forward of Elvis’ first engagement at Las Vegas’ Worldwide Resort, which later grew to become the Las Vegas Hilton; certainly, one in every of “Sunset Boulevard’s” extra fascinating options is the hours of rehearsal tape documenting Presley’s preparation in L.A. for the Vegas reveals that started in 1969.
The sound high quality is murky and the performances pretty wobbly, as in a tackle “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” the place Elvis can’t fairly appear to determine on a key. But it’s a thrill to hear in because the musicians discover their groove — a sort of earthy, slow-rolling country-gospel R&B — in an array of far-flung tunes together with “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues,” even the Pointer Sisters’ “Fairytale.”
The RCA Data constructing on Sundown Boulevard in an undated photograph.
(RCA Data)
In a single rehearsal recorded Aug. 16, 1974, Elvis cues his band to play the Ewan MacColl ballad made well-known by Roberta Flack: “‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Friggin’ Face,’” he calls out as we hear the gamers warming up. Then all of them lock in for a carefully harmonized rendition of the music so fairly there’s one thing virtually spooky about it.
He’s extra halting when he talks concerning the finish of his buddy’s life and about what he sees as the shortage of a severe inventive problem which may have sharpened Elvis’ focus. Staying on in Vegas a bit too lengthy, making so-so data in a house studio arrange at Graceland — these weren’t sufficient to buoy the person he calls a genius. Does Schilling know if Presley noticed “A Star Is Born” when it got here out on the finish of 1976?
He considers the query for 10 seconds. “I don’t know,” he lastly says. He began tour managing the Seashore Boys that 12 months and was spending much less time with Presley. “He never mentioned it to me. I wish I knew. There’s probably nobody alive now who could say.”
