Viva?
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Rode through the Mojave Desert this past weekend, going from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back again on business (with a side order of pleasure).
It was a 24-hour round trip marked by arid climate (temperatures reaching 112); tacky glitz; the occasional celeb strutting around the disco's V.I.P. section or sitting in the front row at the boxing match; and a transient population of wide-bodied Middle Americans sucking down drinks, fast and slow food, and the high-oxygen atmosphere pumped into the casinos to keep 'em yanking on slot machines and plunking chips down onto the gaming tables.
Needless to say, this is not my regular turf. Las Vegas and the highways that connect it to Southern California are the antithesis of cool, liberal-minded San Francisco by the Bay, where I usually hang around and bang around. Still, I found Vegas wildly entertaining in a conspicuously consumptive way - for a night.
Somewhere along the road, the City of Angels behind us and Sin City ahead, we needed appropriate music. It was a point between the desolate landscapes with Joshua trees beseeching the heavens and the glowing skyline of hyperbolic, fancifully and prosaically themed hotels with internal super-malls, clubs and showrooms designed to lull guests into gambling away their paychecks. Our astute driver eased a CD into the slot: Elvis' Golden Records. Presley, the '50s rock-and-roll idol whose life became inexorably linked to Vegas when he revived his career there in the late '60s and early '70s, was the right sound for the right time: a singer, an icon, a legend - albeit, one with a sordid, banal finale.
Oh, Elvis. You truly were the King - and Las Vegas, that bloated kingdom of excess, took you to its heaving bosom and overfed you with love, adulation and far too many fried peanut-butter-and-marshmallow sandwiches until your premature death.
We opted for classic Elvis, but there's something enticing about a few of his Hollywood musicals, and one in particular came to mind as we hurtled towards the ostentatious oasis beyond the Nevada state line. The Dead Kennedys did a roaring punk-rock cover of it, but we all agreed that the original remains the greatest. "Viva Las Vegas!" (In small doses…)
Comments (22)
When I saw you had a post called "Viva?" I thought I would find something about the Warhol superstar.
i've never been...not sure if i ever want to. and your depiction of that "glowing skyline..." is not moving me to get out there anytime soon!
The only Vegas related thing I want is CSI Las Vegas. And some Elvis from you, of course :)
Masoo: Ha! Loved her, but no, that was more a commentary on my mixed feelings about a certain city...
brittany: Yeah, it's not my favorite place. Then again, there is no other quite like it.
Anna: Funny how fresh and palatable tired old Elvis songs sound when you're barreling down Route 66 in the scorching heat, Vegas looming in the distance. Re: CSI - I'm just glad nothing horrible happened that would have left me stretched out on Gil Grissom's slab...
A couple months ago I did the Mojave Desert run. It was brutal and had I thought to throw a few Elvis tunes on the player mix it surely would have been a cooler ride. Next time....
Not to go on a TV series spree, but there is a Sex & The City quote saying "some outfits wait a lifetime to be taken somewhere special"; same is true of tunes, sorta; meaning that they too, can thrive on location. Elvis in Vegas, Smiths in London (Lizzie will verify that) and so on. Songs have a life of their own, I'm telling you :)
thankyouvermush
Songs are people,too.
Madeline Burke: Maybe next time, I'll opt for Wayne Newton. Just kidding. Tom Jones!
Anna: That smacks of a provocative post - probably done already, but cool. I mean, listening to the Velvet Underground or the Strokes in Manhattan? Perfection!
ROCKNROLLPIMP: Give my best to the Colonel!
The brain-deadness of LV is what stops me - it's hedonism without real pleasure. But I actually love the surrounding desert: the mountains and Lake Mead and Hoover Dam and Nevada City and Red Rocks. That is a truly awe-inspiring landscape....
Masoo, I had precisely that thought! That said, I think the song (tip of the hat to Doc Pomus) is kind of thrilling-- I particularly like it over the opening credits. And I confess I find parts of the movie hard to resist. But that's about as close to Vegas as i want to get.
Never tire of Elvis, and although his time on my player is limited, there are moments that only the king can make that much better. Oh, and 112 heat, you must be crazy
ivylander: Quite so. The city is a twisted microcosm of the American Dream. The tease of wealth, the hunger to gamble and win, though the odds are stacked against you. But those Joshua trees were much more impressive to me.
deedee: I've only been there a couple of times before this jaunt, but the song really is a better bet - if you will - than the city, or for that matter, the rest of the movie.
Rawkkiddoh: The Big "E" does resonate, don't he? And, for the record, that 112 degrees was refuted today by one of my traveling companions who said that, in fact, the mercury reached 115 by 3 PM when we pulled into a rest stop in Baker, California to eat at The Mad Greek diner. (Now we know what drove the Greek mad.)
Thank Christ, I thought this post was going to be about Coldplay's new album. Elvis = lots better. ;)
Flux: I'd say it was more about Las Vegas than Elvis, but only by a bit. As Chris Martin wouldn't say, "Viva la Vida Loca!"
and here I thought it was Anna that drove them all mad, go figure
I knew Elvis was hiding out somewhere in Nevada. :>)
I think I spotted him making out with Kevin James in the balcony of the MGM Grand's Studio 54 disco, e.p.
Great clip. My wife keeps telling me I need to go with her to LV, but there are some vices I haven't entertained that reign supreme therein.
Nothing like the King, tho. Been diggin the Sun Demos of late. Damned near untouchable, that smooth voice...
hope all is well with you as I poke my head in:)
wassonii: Nice to hear from you. The Sun Sessions rule - for sure! Vegas, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. Fascinating, but excessive - and debilitating. I've recovered nicely, though.
I'm with Flux on this - I thought you were going to write about the new Coldplay album when I saw the title - it was the question mark that made me think you were toiling over whether or not you liked it. Then I figured, maybe Coldplay isn't your style, but judging from your mash ups, I don't think there's much you don't like, if I may be so bold as to say.
Also, my apologies for writing on your posts 3 months after the fact. I've only found the time now to go back and read them!
Excavate as you will, man!