Just a country boy, he combed his hair,
Put on the shirt his mother made
And went on the air
- Gillian Welch, Elvis Presley Blues
An obscure marker labeled “Elvis Presley Fight Scene” sits on the northwest corner of East Washington Ave. and Stoughton Rd. in Madison.
The marker explains that, around 1:00 am on June 24, 1977, Elvis Presley was riding in a limousine that had stopped for a red light in front of what was then the Skyland Service Station. He had just landed at Dane County Regional Airport after a concert in Des Moines and was in Madison for an 8:30 pm show at Dane County Coliseum (now known as the Alliant Energy Center). Noticing a teenager on the ground being beaten by two other teens, Elvis jumped out of his limo and demonstrated a “few classic Karate moves.” The youths recognized him, stopped fighting and shook hands with him. “Is everything settled now?” asked Elvis.
A story in the Madison State Journal the next day gives more details. According to the account, the teenager being beaten was a LaFollette High School junior and the son of the service station owner. Interviewed after the event, the student said, “That was Elvis, no doubt about it. He was overweight and had jet-black hair.” Elvis, who was wearing a blue jumpsuit, never threw a punch or incapacitated anyone with a mawashi geri, but he was apparently willing to fight and told the two attacking youths, “All right, I’ll take you on.”
Karate had been an interest of Elvis since his stint in the army in the late 1950s. In the March 1998 issue of Black Belt, John Corcoran notes that Elvis had an eighth-degree black belt and helped make karate a household word. His 1968 NBC Christmas special integrated karate and dance moves – probably for the first time ever on US television. Elvis’s jumpsuits were also purportedly patterned after the karate gi.
The State Journal’s review of Elvis’ Madison show is not kind. The headline reads, “Paunchy Presley still dazzles fans.” Performing before a crowd of 10,000, Elvis wore a white jumpsuit with gold sequins on the legs and arms. The review states that he was “so overweight that not even his eight-inch belt buckle could hide it.” It goes on to say that he often “mumbled so badly that any other featured performer would have been booed.”
The review also notes that concert tickets failed to sell at the anticipated rate, most likely due to their high cost of $10 to $15. Even with a federal minimum wage of only $2.30/hr in 1977, this still seems like a pretty good deal. With the current federal minimum wage at $7.25/hr, comparable ticket prices would be between $31.50 and $47.28.
A 2015 Wisconsin Public Radio story is even less charitable, describing Elvis as “a blurry-eyed jester half-heartedly running through canned stage routines.” He is either “drunk or drunk on being Elvis,” slurring lyrics, crooning lazily, singing off-key and treating songs “with the tenderness of an axe murderer.” He misses cues, leads the band into false starts and mutters impatient orders. Harsh.
By the summer of 1977, Elvis was deep into a long decline. Long-term drug use was taking its toll. Surprisingly, it had only been twenty years since he rocketed to fame. For such a touchstone of American culture, Elvis’ career was comparatively short. After his commercial breakthrough in the mid-50s, he had only a few years of stardom before being drafted into the military in 1958. He served for two years in Germany, where he met his future wife, Priscilla.
In the 1960s, Presley focused most of his energy on shlocky Hollywood musicals, and did not return to doing concerts until almost 1970. The 70s was Elvis’ glitzy era, during which he wore his famous sequined jumpsuits and was a permanent fixture in Las Vegas.
Most of Elvis’ most famous songs are from a brief period in the late 1950s. Blue Suede Shoes, Don’t Be Cruel, Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, Love Me Tender, All Shook Up, Blue Christmas and Jailhouse Rock are all from this era. Most of his top-ten hits were recorded before the mid-60s.
Elvis played only two more shows after his June 24 concert in Madison, one in Cincinnati on June 25 and one in Indianapolis on June 26. He died a few months later, on August 16, 1977, at Graceland, his home near Memphis, Tennessee. He was only 42, badly overweight and accustomed to ingesting a variety of prescription drugs.
Elvis’ decline is often a source of ridicule and amusement. Why do we love to see celebrities fall from grace? Because it makes us feel better about our own dreary lives? Perhaps we are just a mean-spirited and jealous people. At the time of his Madison concert, Elvis was suffering from an acute mental health and drug use crisis. We could show a bit more empathy for this country boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, who – like Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Kurt Cobain and many others – let his demons get the best of him.