Elvis is Dead, and I Think I May Have a Sore Throat

By Scott Coner

Country Artist

            The summer was hot in 1977. My dad's boyhood friend, James Loveless, came up from Kentucky and stayed with us for several weeks, and he and I did several odd jobs together. He was tough as nails but always really nice to me. He and I dug out and framed sidewalks around the front and back of our house. It was August, the state fair was going on up in the city, and Elvis died. That's what I remember most. Elvis died. I also remember my mom making us a lot of Country Time lemonade.

            As we set the string tight from end to end across the grass, I learned how to dig along the line and set rebar for the frame. We had a small radio near our work area, and all that played that week was Elvis. I had never been exposed to such love for an artist. It seemed like the whole world stopped and wept for the king. I remember my dad came home from work one afternoon and told us about a winter he spent in New York and had actually seen Elvis in the early part of his career, gold coat and all. I was pretty impressed.

            I remember not saying anything about it, but being more than a little bothered about Elvis controlling the airwaves entirely though. Oddly, there was a song that was out on the radio I was crazy about. It was called "Telephone Line", and it was by a band called Electric Light Orchestra. I loved the compression on Jeff Lynne's voice on the recording. I'm not at all sure about this, but I have always figured that the song fell quickly out of the charts simply because Elvis Presley died. 

Scott Coner (Photo by Cyndi Coner)

            I have already told you about my exposure to early rock and roll via a monster stack of 45's. I had listened to a recording that had "Don't be Cruel" on one side and "Hound Dog" on the other. That was powerful. I had listened to "Jailhouse Rock", and it took me to another planet. Everything that guy did until he joined the service seemed slick and perfect. His voice seemed like an instrument itself, and the guitar and bass seemed to jump off the vinyl.

            Our television, the one with five channels, showed Elvis movies back-to-back every weekend. It was during "Viva Las Vegas" that I saw Ann-Margret for the first time, and once again, I was pretty impressed. That woman was freaking beautiful. Sorry, I got off track for a second. What I didn't understand (remember I was a kid) was why the movies didn't have deep pockets of quality songs. But Elvis was alive and healthy on our television at least, and we watched and wondered what could have happened if he could have lived a full life.

            It didn't take long for the countless new compilations of Elvis singing country, Elvis with pictures on the record itself, and Elvis like you had never heard before. Nothing but cheap and sad attempts to make money, but I expect a lot of records were sold. All kinds of books came out from people that had known him in some way. I admit I bought into some of the books, some of the made-for-TV specials, and everything else. But I noticed even as a kid that his music was tarnished by such a circus. He didn't deserve how he was treated. He was the king.

            Before I go, I wanted to tell you first, that his pre-army music was and still is some of the best music ever recorded. But he had many special moments in his career. One of my favorite songs he did later in the '60s was called "If I Can Dream".  I hope he knew that the whole world loved him, and I hate it that he had to leave at such an early age. Anyway, school started not long after his passing, and I got chicken pox. It's a pretty cool little sickness, and if you ever get the chance to catch it, I say go for it. Because of my pox, I got to stay home and truly study the music he left us with. Up until that moment in time, I knew about the talent, understood the charisma, and a collection of B movies had been viewed. But, sitting there alone in my room with corn starch all over my body, I began to better understand that he was not just a great voice. He had truly harnessed rock and brought it to all of us without any pre-existing road map. Now, that is impressive.

            Scott Coner is a country/Americana/Southern rock artist whose latest music video has been downloaded more than 150,000 times on Facebook. Learn more about Scott at http://www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, http://www.ScottConer.com, or http://www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer. Download his latest single, "Sweet Mary", at https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/album/sweet-mary-single/id1052955133?app=itunes .