Any time I saw a group of people wearing shirts that were all the same, I would talk to at least one of them. Most of them were international groups. Very few of the French group could speak any English. Most of them were in the U.S. for the first time. The group from Chile brought their own Elvis. I got a picture with him and the whole group. When I asked if their Elvis was going to perform, it seems like they thought I was the guy that could get him on the stage.
Other than the waiter forgetting to bring our drinks, our meal was uneventful. After we left the Rock and Roll Café, we listened to a tribute artist from Italy. I’ve seen him there before and he is really good. His set only includes songs that the crowd enjoys. Songs where the crowd claps and dances. He always gets a standing ovation. He is there every year and is a crowd favorite. He made an announcement that this year might be his last year to be here as a performer. He is having surgery on his vocal cords and doesn’t know if he’ll be able to sing anymore. Then he sang “My Way” and the crowd went crazy.
We shouldn’t have stayed to listen to him. We he was done, we went to the visitors center for candles and then went to get in line for the vigil. This was about an hour before the ceremony started. This is about the same amount of time I would usually give myself before the ceremony so I don’t end up so far back in the line. When we got there, the line was already out of the queue area and stretched down the street almost to the point where they had the street blocked off. I’ve never been that far back in the line. We stood behind a couple from Plymouth, England. The lady was a big Elvis fan. Her husband likes him but is not the big fan. I got a picture with this couple. The lady sat on the curb most of the time. The man had a backpack full of beer. They were very nice and we talked about music, religion, the Olympics and the EU economy. They left right before the ceremony began. The guy immediately behind us was a young, retired West Point instructor from Oklahoma. He had been awake for 22 hours. He was just a guy passing through Memphis who decided to take the vigil in while he was there. We talked about music. Behind him was an elderly Canadian couple. The last time they had been to a candlelight vigil was for the 25th anniversary, the year of my first trip. They were interesting but quiet. Another group of Canadians broke line in front of them. They were from different parts of Canada and did not know each other. The most bizarre people in line were the couple in front of the Brits. The guy was from Kentucky and the lady was from Ohio. The man was little, wore a little cap, had the name “Jim” on the back of his shirt and looked like a troll. His companion was shorter than him, whined when she talked and tugged at the hair hanging down on the left side of her face. She wanted to make sure we knew that she had written a book about the Memphis Boys, the musicians who did sessions for Chips Moman’s American Studios in the late 60’s and early 70’s. She said it has a whole chapter on Elvis. While we were there, I googled the book on my phone and was able to easily find it on Amazon. It had mostly positive reviews but there was one titled “Great story clumsily told” that I thought would probably be the most accurate. We were behind Jim the Troll and the author most of the night. The author was having a breakdown just as we were about to go through security to go to the gravesite.
Prior to the ceremony, Pricilla and Lisa Marie made an appearance. They both spoke. Pricilla’s comments were very gracious. Lisa Marie seemed to be appreciative but it also seemed like she had a hard time dealing with the freak show that is Elvis Week. She said the right words but my heart really went out to her, trying to figure out how to deal with this show of obsession from so many people.
There is always a theme for the candlelight service based on the title of an Elvis song. This year, the song was “I’ll Never Know”, a song I’m not familiar with. They always play several songs and have some readings that are related to the theme song, repeating the title of the song in the readings. One of the guys that read this year was really emotional. I don’t know if he was trying to put more emphasis on the words because Pricilla and Lisa Marie were there but it came across as more cheesy than usual, which is hard to do. This was my favorite part:
“What happens to this heart of mine each time you hold my hand? When he walked on stage it seemed that he put his arms around every individual in the audience and sang only to you. Elvis made every person feel special and loved. How he accomplished this, I’ll never know.”
Another set of Brits broke like behind us. We didn’t talk to them as much until we were practically at the gravesite. The lady had classic Brit bad teeth and was hard to understand. It was their first time to the states. She complained about how long it took to get through customs in Chicago.
It was a three-candle vigil. In the past, I’ve been far enough up in the queue that the line moved pretty fast even after I was through the gates. Last night was different. It took at least two hours to get to the gates and probably another hour and a half to get to the gravesite. It wasn’t as hot as past years and there was a pleasant breeze. They had plenty of water stations set up and the workers at the stations were very good about bringing water to the people. As usual, most of the workers at Graceland are from the neighborhood around it and are therefore black. I was amused at the looks on the faces of more than one worker and some of the cops. Their looks just said, “Look at all of these crazy, white people!” We stopped at one of the water stations right after we were done at the gravesite. I spoke to the workers there and one of the ladies asked me for my beads. She said she was just joking but I gave her one of the strands. Before we exited the gates, I saw something else I had never seen before. There are members of the Elvis Country Fan Club lining the entrance of the gates holding battery powered “candles”. They also man the torches and pass out programs. This is the fan club that started the Candlelight Vigil service and still run it today. I have never seen a “changing of the guard” but they were installing a new shift of workers at the gates when we were exiting. A line of new people comes in and stands in front of the people holding the candles. They pass off the candles, exchange places and then the first workers file out.
By the time we got out of the gates, many of the candles in the shrines had long burned out. The locals who come out to watch and drink beer had put a large dent in their alcohol stash. As we checked out these tributes, I saw a homeless man asleep on the ground at a bus stop in front of the visitor center. There was a young black man who appeared to be waiting on a bus. The road was closed off so no busses were going to come by.
I thought we had seen all of the excitement for the night. As we were getting on Interstate 240, I was about to change lanes. Before I did, I saw a small group of motorcycles fly by us. Nick said we would see them on the side of the road after they crashed. As we were getting off of 240, we saw where at least one of them did.