It Was 30 Years Ago Today

[joenamherst]

August 16, 1977 - Elvis Dies.
As we all know, Elvis was as big influence on the Beatles. Elvis was among the first class inducted in the R&R HOF. What most people do not know is that he was inducted by Sean and Julian Lennon!
Also on this date, in 1948, another uber famous American died.....Babe Ruth.

[pattiboyd's slave]

People remember, let's say, where they were when the Kennedy's died. I was coming out of Disneyland and the radio was playing a lot of Elvis, we knew something was up, then we heard the sad sad news. Whenever I hear Only Fools Rush In, I think of that day. And, I always remember hearing Elvis say, there's only one King, and that's Jesus Christ. ~Elvis is one of rock n rolls originals, the Big Daddy!

[AMBOISVERT]

I never heard of Elvis until the day he died, but I remember that day vividly. I was almost seven years old. I was out with my mother running errands on a hot dog day afternoon, and she turned the headlights (in her 1973 Ford Pinto!) on. She made a point of it, and I asked what was going on. She told me that Elvis was dead. I said "Who's Elvis?" She said "Elvis is the King, Tony."

Silence. I knew we didn't have kings in America.

"The king of what?"

My mother said, with feeling, "The King of Rock and Roll." She was, I now realize, only 29 years old.

I was shocked and confused. I already knew that the Beatles owned rock and roll. But you couldn't have four kings at once, and besides, I knew that Beatles had broken up. Maybe Elvis had stepped into the power vacuum...

Over the course of the afternoon, my mother gradually set me straight. I had taken my first step (to borrow a phrase that entered our consciousness from that same summer) into a larger world.