Throughout her existence, Lisa Marie Presley had a complex romance with Graceland. She later blasted “That damned back again garden,” expressing it was ghoulish to have a household graveyard in the backyard garden. Tragically, she has now been laid to relaxation there, along with her father, grandparents and her only son, Benjamin Keough, who died in July 2020. Lisa Marie’s shock decline earlier this calendar year on January 12 provides the tale total circle. Her have childhood at the Memphis mansion was a dizzying whirl of excess and joy, that started out to fall apart when her mom and dad separated in 1972, when she was just 4 yrs previous. One particular deeply individual Elvis Presley tune speaks of his personal agony all through that time period.
Elvis’ overall existence was defined by his songs, but he was not a songwriter and so couple of of his iconic tunes ended up basically that personal to him. All excellent tracks locate a common resonance, moreover he brought all of his significant vocal talents to recordings and extra charisma and stagecraft to their stay performances.
But it really is one particular of the new music legend’s later, lesser-recognized tunes that speaks immediately about his very own lifestyle and that of his young daughter. He sings about the tears he cries when they are separated and her suffering that her mom and dad are no lengthier alongside one another.
Years later, Lisa Marie, owning turn out to be a recording artist in her own appropriate, revealed she was drawn to the “darker” aspect of thoughts and this was mirrored in her favourite Elvis tunes.
Lisa Marie said: “I like the darker music, the sad kinds. There is a track referred to as Independent Ways that was treacherously painful.”
The tune was unveiled in September 1972, with the legendary Constantly On My Mind on the B-side. Incredibly, it was prepared by one of Elvis’ individual interior circle, his Memphis Mafia, a gentleman Lisa Marie would later condemn as a “disgusting idiot.. a mom****er.”
Different Strategies was penned by Robert ‘Red” West, one of Elvis’ bodyguards in Could 1972, alongside with mounting songwriter Richard Mainegra, who was sure The King would reject a music so blatantly describing his very own upsetting daily life.
Mainegra explained: “We began leaning the storyline towards Elvis’ split-up with Priscilla and how it impacted their daughter. He (Red) instructed me when it was finished Elvis was going to slice the music. I permit that go in a person ear and out the other. I imagined, ‘No way!’ To start with of all, why would Elvis want to sing about his particular everyday living that was presently becoming dragged as a result of the media just about every day?'”
Elvis, even so, embraced the monitor, which also gave its name to a compilation album that same 12 months.
The lyrics start off: “I see a modify is coming to our life, It really is not the very same as it employed to be, And it really is not far too late to realise our mistake, We’re just not right for each individual other. Love has slipped away still left us only mates, We just about feel like strangers, All that’s left between us are the memories we shared, Of occasions we assumed we cared for every other.”
Elvis and Priscilla experienced previously divided and would divorce in 1973. The following verses refer right to Lisa Marie, who was only 4 a long time previous at the time.
The track proceeds: “There is certainly practically nothing left to do but go our separate ways, And select up all the parts still left at the rear of us, And it’s possible sometime, someplace along the way, One more enjoy will come across us. Some working day when she’s older, maybe she will recognize, Why her mom and father are not alongside one another. The tears that she will cry when I have to say goodbye, Will tear at my coronary heart permanently.”
Red West was one particular of the a few customers of the Memphis Mafia, alongside with his cousin Sonny West, and David Hebler, who experienced been fired from their work opportunities and wrote a convey to-all e-book. Elvis, What Took place? was released two weeks prior to the star’s dying on August 16, 1977, and caused him substantial distress.
Lisa Marie later reported: “These idiots ended up so disgusting… they assisted him go down and ended up essentially worse than he was. It infuriated me. They ended up making an attempt to take absent his dignity, the 1 detail that was most vital to him.”
