Funny How Time Slips Away: Happy Belated Elvis

The Rock Turtleneck staff bows its collective head in shame for forgetting to mark August 16th, the 32nd anniversary of Elvis Presley's alleged passing.

One cat who didn't let Elvis Day slide was Bob Dylan, who played a first-ever cover of "Heartbreak Hotel" in Tahoe that night. There's not much to look in on this YouTube clip, but plenty to listen to; Dylan, as is often the case live, puts more brio into his cover than he does his own songs:


mp3: Bob Dylan, "Heartbreak Hotel" (Tahoe, 8.16.09)

Though it was long rumoured that Dylan's song "Went to See the Gypsy" (from New Morning) was about a meeting between Bob and Elvis, Dylan remarked in a recent Rolling Stone interview that he and the King never actually met.


I guess the closest Dylan ever got to Elvis was this silk-screen portrait by Andy Warhol. Warhol gave it to Dylan in 1965 in exchange for filming Dylan as one of his series of "screen tests" seen below. Since the screen test is a minute and the picture is worth millions, I'd say it was time well spent. TCB.