Elvis and Girls, Girls, Girls

“Elvis’s sexual history inflects the myth of a feral young Southerner whose twitching hips were the point of articulation for a seismic shift in American mores.”

-- Robert Christgau, rock critic

I didn’t mean to do it, I didn’t want to do it. I intended to just drop off the unread “Idiot” and return home empty handed from my library trip, having enough at home now to read, and this way, I wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with a freezing cold front when I return books by their due date in the dead of winter.

However, as I was walking across the circulation floor to take a seat and read some more Dowden, killing time to get synchronized with the city’s bus schedule, I saw a new display of books, and who was staring up at me but Elvis Aaron Presley, the eternal King of Rock ‘n‘ Roll, on the cover of “Baby, Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him” written by Alanna Nash.

I mentioned this book when it first came out and was reviewed in the New York Times. Although I was excited about this new offering to the Elvis lore, I never did get it. Now after browsing through the sexually infused 600 pages, I regretted not having a well-read copy on my shelves at home. I even flirted with the idea of putting the book back in the display, in order to keep from ruining my reading experience before I buy my own copy. However, good sense prevailed. With too little money in my piggy bank and too many books on my wish list, it would be absurd not to take advantage of this fluke of luck and to enjoy a free read. So much more my bounty.

_ _ _

On November 23, 1956, two days after the nationwide release of “Love Me Tender,” Elvis’s first film, a high school photographer named Lew Allen covered a Presley concert n Cleveland and was astonished at what he saw.

“There was a row of policemen standing in front of the stage, and girls would start at the back of the auditorium with their eyes on Elvis, and run as fast as they could [toward the stage]. They’d bounce off these policemen’s stomachs, and then bounce back four of five feet and land on their rear ends. And they would still have their eyes on Elvis. It was amazing. They did it repeatedly, like flies running into a light bulb.”

Allen may have been dumbfounded, but as blues songwriter Willie Dixon teased, “The men don’t know/But the little girls understand.”

-- “Baby, Let’s Play House” by Alanna Nash

Elvis and Girls, Girls, Girls

“Elvis’s sexual history inflects the myth of a feral young Southerner whose twitching hips were the point of articulation for a seismic shift in American mores.”

-- Robert Christgau, rock critic

I didn’t mean to do it, I didn’t want to do it. I intended to just drop off the unread “Idiot” and return home empty handed from my library trip, having enough at home now to read, and this way, I wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with a freezing cold front when I return books by their due date in the dead of winter.

However, as I was walking across the circulation floor to take a seat and read some more Dowden, killing time to get synchronized with the city’s bus schedule, I saw a new display of books, and who was staring up at me but Elvis Aaron Presley, the eternal King of Rock ‘n‘ Roll, on the cover of “Baby, Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him” written by Alanna Nash.

I mentioned this book when it first came out and was reviewed in the New York Times. Although I was excited about this new offering to the Elvis lore, I never did get it. Now after browsing through the sexually infused 600 pages, I regretted not having a well-read copy on my shelves at home. I even flirted with the idea of putting the book back in the display, in order to keep from ruining my reading experience before I buy my own copy. However, good sense prevailed. With too little money in my piggy bank and too many books on my wish list, it would be absurd not to take advantage of this fluke of luck and to enjoy a free read. So much more my bounty.

_ _ _

On November 23, 1956, two days after the nationwide release of “Love Me Tender,” Elvis’s first film, a high school photographer named Lew Allen covered a Presley concert n Cleveland and was astonished at what he saw.

“There was a row of policemen standing in front of the stage, and girls would start at the back of the auditorium with their eyes on Elvis, and run as fast as they could [toward the stage]. They’d bounce off these policemen’s stomachs, and then bounce back four of five feet and land on their rear ends. And they would still have their eyes on Elvis. It was amazing. They did it repeatedly, like flies running into a light bulb.”

Allen may have been dumbfounded, but as blues songwriter Willie Dixon teased, “The men don’t know/But the little girls understand.”

-- “Baby, Let’s Play House” by Alanna Nash