READING ROOM:In a flash of the King's life

[GirlHappy19]

READING ROOM: In a flash of the King’s life
17:00 Fri 15 Feb 2008 - Elitsa Grancharova

A one-night only show in Sofia was part of the European tour of the band of Elvis Presley – called the TBC Band – that includes the people who recorded with the King of Rock ’n’ Roll: Jerry Scheff on bass, Ronnie Tutt on drums, Glen D Hardin on piano and James Burton on guitar, as well as The Sweet Inspirations and vocalist Dennis Jale. Unbelievable, but true: on January 30 in the National Palace of Culture (NDK) they performed for a Bulgarian audience.
Hearing the news, I was excited for two reasons. The first one was that Elvis’s lyrics and music stand unique with their tenderness, realism and the strength of love that they express, which makes his music indescribably pleasant for the ears and for the soul. But this is something everybody knows.
The second reason for the butterflies in my stomach was that the people who played with the King are living legends. I had the chance to speak in person with four of them who are still alive and who had the stroke of luck to know Elvis in person.
Bass player Scheff told The Sofia Echo that Elvis always knew what he wanted, even when he was very young. “His clothes were his look. He would see some guys walking down the street and he would say: ‘Oh, look at that!’ Then he would come two days later and there would be five of those outfits.
“We would say that was terrible, and he would buy five of those! He wouldn’t ever wear them. I was in his room and he showed me some of his clothes, and they were of a terrible, funny fashion,” Scheff said.
“One time we were at Graceland at his house recording an album. He had some Denver, Colorado, police officer at his house in Memphis and they gave him a police uniform. He thought that that was really funny and he put it on to record while wearing it, even though there weren’t any cameras or anything.
“So he brought us each (a uniform), one at a time, and asked us to try different clothes on until we looked like he wanted us to look. Then we went downstairs and recorded the last parts of an album while wearing those Denver police captain’s clothes. And we laughed; we couldn’t look at each other without laughing because it was so funny.
That’s one of my favourite memories of him. This was just a year before he died. That was his ideal of having good time, and we did, we laughed until six o’clock in the morning.”
Scheff told another funny story about Elvis: “My favourite story about Elvis was about Colonel (Tom) Parker, his manager back then. He came to Las Vegas when we first started to play with Elvis and he found out how much money we were each making – because we didn’t deal with him, we dealt with Elvis, and he wouldn’t talk to us. We didn’t know this so we thought he did not like us. “So I went to Elvis and I said: ‘Elvis, why doesn’t the colonel talk to us?’ He laughed and said: ‘We had a business meeting last night and the colonel found out how much money you were making.’ And the colonel told Elvis: ‘We could put monkeys on the stage with you, Elvis, and the people would still love you!’
“And that was the beginning: he didn’t talk to anybody of the band for years! At that time we all had different fees. But Elvis didn’t care.”
Scheff worked with Elvis, with a two-year break, from 1969 until 1977, when the King died.
“When Elvis died we were on a private airplane going to the East Coast of US to start a recording tour. We received a message during the flight to land in Colorado and they told us that he was dead. About an hour passed and everybody was very stunned,” Scheff said.
Questioned whether he or any other of the band members expected in any way the coming end of the King, Scheff said that they all knew that his health was not really good. “A lot of people think that it might have been drugs, but most of us think that he had heart problems and other problems, including kidneys problems, and he was in pain much of the time. He was taking pain medications and he was sort of going down. We all knew he was ill but none of us thought he would die.
“I was in as bad a place as he was at that time and I am still alive,” Scheff said.
“We got back on the airplane and flew back to LA. Some of the people, from The Sweet Inspirations, for example, I haven’t met for 25 years.”
I was really interested in how they came up with the idea for the tour. Scheff threw some light on it, saying that in 1997 they started doing a big show with huge video screens on stage; Elvis’ people were behind it. They played for more than 1.5 million people from 1997 to 2007, when they gave the last show.
Scheff now lives in Scotland. He is currently writing a book, a bit of which is about Elvis; he also composes music and does studio work. He often records in London, Amsterdam and other places.

Scheff wrote a song for Elvis called Fire Down Below, but Elvis never had the chance to lend his voice to it, as they only recorded the music. During his career, Scheff also worked with artists including The Doors, LA Woman, Bob Dylan, John Denver and Elvis Costello. Elvis Presley’s Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich
* 2 slices of white bread
* 2 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter
* 1 small ripe banana, mashed
* 1 tablespoon butter
Spread the peanut butter on one slice of bread and the mashed banana on the other. Press the slices gently together. Melt the butter over low heat in a small frying pan. (It is said, however, that Elvis liked his sandwiches fried in bacon grease...) Place the sandwich in the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides. Eat with a glass of buttermilk - or airyan!
Note: Elvis tended to eat 12-15 sandwiches a sitting.

[marijaep]

A very interesting read! I didn't know that they played in Bulgaria!
Sofia isn't far away from where I live
Thanks for sharing GirlHappy

[elvislady]

Thanks for posting girlhappy.
elvislady