I dont think so Erik this pic was taking at graceland and the beatles meet Elvis in LA
from the beatles anthology book
"The Beatles met Elvis Presley in Los Angeles at the tail end of their 1965
tour of America - the one that began with their famous concert/screamfest at
New York's Shea Stadium and peaked with their performance at the Hollywood
Bowl in Los Angeles. At the time, Elvis was making movies in Hollywood and
living in a mansion in Bel Air.
This excerpt is based on interviews, conducted over the past six years, with
the three living Beatles and their staff. The quotes from John Lennon were
taken from a variety of interviews before his death in 1980.
PAUL McCARTNEY: We met Elvis Presley at the end of our stay in L.A. We'd
tried for years to, but we could never get to him. He was our greatest idol,
but the styles were changing in favor of us. He was a pretty powerful image
to British people. You'd look at photos of him doing American concerts, and
the audience would not even be jumping up and down. We used to be amazed,
seeing them sitting in the front row - not even dancing.
JOHN LENNON: When I first heard "Heartbreak Hotel," I could hardly make out
what was being said. It was just the experience of hearing it and having my
hair stand on end. We'd never heard American voices singing like that.
They'd always sung like Sinatra or enunciated very well. Suddenly, there's
this hillbilly hiccuping on tape echo and all this bluesy background going
on. And we didn't know what the hell Presley was singing about, or Little
Richard or Chuck Berry. It took a long time to work out what was going on.
To us, it just sounded like a noise that was great.
PAUL: So although we tried many times [to meet Elvis], Colonel Tom [Parker,
his manager] would just show up with a few souvenirs, and that would have to
do us for a while. We didn't feel brushed off we felt we deserved to be
brushed off After, all, he was Elvis, and who were we to dare to want to
meet him? But we finally received an invitation to go round and see him when
he was making a film in Hollywood.
JOHN: We were always in the wrong place at the wrong time to meet him, and
we would have just gone round or something, but there was a whole lot of
palaver about where we were going and how many people should go and
everything, with the managers, Colonel Tom and Brian [Epstein], working
everything out.
GEORGE HARRISON: Meeting Elvis was one of the high- lights of the tour. It
was funny, because by the time we got near his house we'd forgotten where we
were going. We were in a Cadillac limousine, going round and round along
Mulholland, and we'd had a couple of "cups of tea" in the back of the car.
It didn't really matter where we were going - it's like the comedian Lord
Buckley says, "We go into a native village and take a couple of peyote buds,
we might not find out where we is, but we'll sure find out who we is."
Anyway, we were just having fun, we were all in hysterics. (We laughed a
lot. That's one thing we forgot about for a few years - laughing. When we
went through all the lawsuits, it looked as if everything was bleak, but
when I think hack to before that, I remember we used to laugh all the time.)
We pulled up at some big gates and some- one said, "Oh yeah, we're going to
see Elvis," and we all fell out of the car laughing, trying to pretend we
weren't silly: just like a Beatles cartoon.
JOHN: It was very exciting, we were all nervous as hell, and we met him in
his big house in L.A. - probably as big as the one we were staying in, hut
it still felt like "big house, big Elvis." He had lots of guys around him,
all these guys that used to live near him (like we did from Liverpool; we
always had thousands of Liverpool people around us, so I guess he was the
same). And he had pool tables! Maybe a lot of American houses are like that,
but it seemed amazing to us. It was like a nightcluh.
NEIL ASPINALL (road manager and future manager of Apple Records): The
Colonel was there and all of Elvis's buddies, the so- called Memphis Mafia,
and Priscilla. The first thing they did was show us their pool table that
swiveled and became a craps tahle.
We went into this other room with a television set that seemed to he twenty
feet by twenty feet. Then Brian walked in and the Colonel said, "A chair for
Mr. Epstein," and about fifteen people came with chairs.
I remember that when Brian told the Colonel that he managed bands other than
the Beatles, the Colonel was suite shocked. He said he didn't understand how
Brian could handle more than the Beatles, because it took him all his time
to handle Elvis.
Everybody was sitting around talking. Elvis was drinking water, and I think
a couple of the Beatles played guitar with him. I was up the other end of
the room with [ Beatles bodyguard] Mal [Evans], talking to a couple of the
other guys,
RINGO STARR: I was pretty excited about it all, and we were lucky because it
was the four of us and we had each other to be with. The house was very big
and dark. We walked in, and Elvis was sitting down on a settee in front of
the TV. He was playing a bass guitar, which even to this day I find very
strange. He had all his guys around him, and we said, "Hi, Elvis." He was
pretty shy, and we were a little shy, but between the five of us we kept it
rolling. I felt I was more thrilled to meet him than he was to meet me.
PAUL: He showed us in, and he was great. I mean it was Elvis. He just looked
like Elvis-we were all major fans, so it was hero worship of a high degree.
He said, "Hello, lads - do you want a drink?" We sat down, and we were
watching telly, and he had the first remote switcher any of us had ever
seen. You just aimed it at the telly and - wow! That's Elvis! He was playing
[Charlie Rich's] "Mohair Sam" all evening - he had it on a jukebox.
JOHN: He had his TV going all the time, which is what I do; we always have
TV on. We never watch it - it's just there with no sound on, and we listen
to records. In front of the TV, he had a massive amplifier with a bass
plugged into it, and he was up playing bass all the time with the picture up
on the TV. So we just got in there and played with him. We all plugged in
whatever was around, and we played and sang. He had a jukebox, like I do,
but I think he had all his hits on it. But if I'd made as many as him, maybe
I'd have all mine on.
PAUL: That was the great thing for me, that he was into the bass, So there I
was: "Well, let me show you a thing or two, El..." Suddenly he was a mate.
It was a great conversation piece for me. I could actually talk about the
bass, and we sat around and just enjoyed ourselves. He was great - talkative
and friendly and a little bit shy. But that was his image. We expected that;
we hoped for that.
MAL EVANS: Charlie Rich was there. I loved Charlie Rich, and so did Elvis.
They had a record - player with the arm up the middle, and Muddy Waters just
seemed to be playing all night. And there was Elvis playing bass, Paul and
John on guitars - I was just sitting there with my mouth open all night.
It was a thrill, but it was the biggest disappointment of my life in one
way. I really am a big Elvis fan - at six foot three, I'm one of the
biggest. So I prepare my outfit to go and meet Elvis - send the suit to the
cleaners, nice white shirt and tie - really ponce myself up. But when the
suit came back from the cleaners, they'd sewn the pockets up. Now, I always
carry plectrums - picks they call them in the States, It's just a habit.
So when we get there, Elvis asks, "Has anybody got a pick?" and Paul turns
round, says, "Yeah, Mal's got a pick. He's always got a pick. He carries
them on holiday with him!" I went to go in my pocket for one-and there they
were, all sewn up.
I ended up in the kitchen breaking plastic spoons, making picks for Elvis!
That was a disappointment. I'd have loved to have given Elvis a pick, had
him play it, then got it back and had it framed.
JOHN: At first we couldn't make him out. I asked him if he was preparing new
ideas for his next film and he drawled, "Ah sure am. Ah play a country boy
with a guitar who meets a few gals along the way, and ah sing a few songs."
We all looked at one another. Finally Presley and Colonel Parker laughed and
explained that the only time they departed from that formula - for Wild in
the Country - they lost money.
PAUL: We played a bit of pool with a few of his motorcycle mates, and at
about ten o'clock, Priscilla was brought in. To demonstrate the respect that
country-and-western people have for their wives? Sometimes it's a bit on the
surface - as maybe their situation was shown to be later. It was like,
"Here's Priscilla."
NEIL ASPINALL: I thought Priscilla had a long dress on and a tiara.
RINGO: I don't remember seeing Priscilla there at all. think it wouldn't
have mattered to me if she was there, because it was him I came to see. I
don't really remember the boys he had with him, either.
PAUL: She came in, and I got this picture of her as a sort of a Barbie
doll - with a purple gingham dress and a gingham bow in her very beehive
hair, with lots of makeup. We all said hello, and then it was, "Right, lads,
hands off - she's going." She didn't stay long.
I can't blame him, although I don't think any of us would have made a pass
at her. That was definitely not on - Elvis's wife, you know! That was
unthinkable - she didn't need to be put away quite so quickly, we thought.
GEORGE: I don't remember even seeing Priscilla. I spent most of the party
trying to suss out from the gang if anybody had any reefers. But they were
uppers and whiskey" people. They weren't really into reefer smoking in the
South.
JOHN: It was nice meeting Elvis. He was just Elvis, you know? He seemed
normal to us, and we were asking about his making movies and not doing any
personal appearances or TV. I think he enjoys making movies so much, We
couldn't stand not doing personal appearances, we'd get bored - we get bored
quickly. He says he misses it a bit.
We never talked about anything [else] - we just played music. He wasn't
bigger than us, but he was "the thing." He just wasn't articulate, that's
all.
PAUL: It was one of the great meetings of my life. I think he liked us. I
think at that time, he may have felt a little bit threatened, but he didn't
say anything. We certainly didn't feel any antagonism.
I only met him that once, and then I think the success of our career started
to push him out a little, which we were very sad about, because we wanted to
coexist with him,
here is a couble of pics from that night in LA in the swinging sixties