My Karate Kid bow off the floor

I’ve been blogging on and off for over a decade now. At times, the things I write gets personal as I share some part of my life with the world out there. It feels like I’m venting into outer space. It is like placing a message in a bottle and you have no idea who in this world might read it. Someone you don’t know, perhaps YOU whom I’ve never met, reads some very personal matter in my life that most folks would keep to themselves and not share if they were normal folk.

You wonder sometimes if you will get a response back. Perhaps some message in a bottle floats right up to your own shore with a reply. But for me, I’m writing this right now to express my feelings and make sense of my thoughts.

I mean, how often are you told that it’s not good to put your business in the streets?

And here I am putting it out on the information highway.

Here is my message in a bottle today:

There is a part of me that grieves today, but at the same time, I’m going through a process of accepting change in my life and those of my children. I had to accept this change in order to keep healthy relationships with my family.

Five years ago, I returned to my study of karate after a seven year absence. At that time, my daughter joined me in the renewed venture. She went to the dojo with me night after night for a few years. It was helping her with her health and provided her mother and me with some comfort knowing that she could defend herself. She actually became very talented in her karate skills. At some point, all the demands of studying karate became too much for her as she progressed. She made a decision that she wanted to quit. As her father, feeling confident that she could defend herself under most circumstances, I was able to let her leave without much fuss. Sure, I encouraged her and tried to convince her to stay (mainly for the health reasons to stay fit), but I was unable to convince her. She had a mind of her own and was grown up enough to make her own personal decisions.

Almost four years ago, my younger child, also started karate. He was already very physically fit, but I saw that he needed the discipline and the ability to defend himself. I wanted him to also feel confident as he walked the halls at school if a bully should ever bother him that he would be able to take care of himself. I wanted to work on his character development, focus and discipline. As a father to a son, I wanted to help give him an edge to become a man.

Last night, he came to me with the notion that he wanted to quit karate. He has thought about this on and off for the last year, but last night, it was something he was sure about. My son was at a point that he was nearing a mile-marker where he would test for his brown belt. Over a year ago, I told him that for him to pass that test, it would be solely up to him if he wanted to earn that rank. He would want to have the desire and drive to practice his karate and train hard. It was up to him. Physically, he was there. Skill-wise, he was doing fine with his kata, sparring, self-defense, etc. But mentally (or emotionally), my son was not prepared to continue studying karate. His interests went elsewhere.

Karate involves the balance of mind, body and spirit. His mind pushed him and his body obeyed, but his karate spirit had left the journey. I appreciated the honesty and respect he showed in handling this maturely, but he let me know last night that he wanted to take an extended leave of absence from his karate training to pursue other interests in life that included baseball.

I love baseball. Don’t get me wrong. But I’m sad that my son won’t be going with me to the dojo to train any longer.

I could have forced him. There were times that I did in the past, but I knew last night, I had to let him quit and make up his own mind. I actually made him write an essay last night putting into words what he felt he learned from karate and explain why he was temporarily leaving. He did so and I know it was a difficult thing for him to do. But he did. He signed it and I’m keeping it for posterity.

Like his sister, he had a mind of his own and was grown up enough to make his own personal decisions.

He learned a lot from karate. I didn’t even have to read what he wrote. Still, it helped quantify it and keep it as a record for his future should he go back and re-read it one day. Maybe, hopefully, he will reconsider and relight that fire where he will want to study karate again.

Karate has helped shaped him into the young man he is now, but I know that I cannot force him to continue. It would damage our father-son relationship.

I see firsthand all the time how parents struggle with letting their kids quit from some sort of sport. The kids aren’t having fun, they have short attention spans, they want to play video games, they lose interest, they don’t like getting yelled at by coach, and they get embarrassed if they don’t score. Whatever the million reasons are. It is a part of life.

I had to ask myself if the decision to push him into staying in karate was going to be my decision or his, and then I realized at this point, this is his own journey and not mine. As difficult as this was for me, it was time to let him discover on his own what he wants to do, rather than me making the decision for him and pressuring him into becoming someone or something against his will. I led him to a point that he’s done well and I’m proud of him, but it is his decision.

I have to remember that this was difficult for him, too.

I studied karate from ages 12 to 17. I quit. I then studied karate from ages 26 to 29. I quit a second time. I returned. There is hope.

I was more mentally and spiritually prepared for karate as an adult and it was my body that has been tested to its limits. Karate, over the decades, has become such a huge part of my life that I can no longer separate it from my beliefs and what makes me tick. Karate is one of the major ingredients that make up the essence of my soul in who I am. It is more than punching or kicking. More than self-defense and feeling confident. It is so much more. Those that study budo arts and the philosophy understand.

Karate is much more than sport or a hobby. That was the thing that I’ve tried to instill into my kids. I still don’t know if it sunk in or not. I think perhaps the seeds were planted. We’ll see what happens in the future.

If anything, their time studying karate will have helped them in their own lives in some way and will have allowed them to perhaps understand their abnormal father just a little better.

Looks like I need to brush up on my Triple Lindy because I'm going back to school

This morning as I headed out the door for church, I sensed something and knew to open the mailbox. Sure, the post office delivered on Saturday and I hadn't checked it yesterday, but I knew that as soon as I opened that mailbox this morning, I would find a letter addressed to me from my place of work at Benedictine University at Springfield.

Sure enough as I opened it, there was the letter that I had been waiting for. I had visualized this moment happening and there it played out for me.

I flashbacked to a moment when I received a similar letter from Illinois State University when I was eighteen year's old. Now, at age forty, this comparable letter gave me a sense of déjà vu as it was once again my acceptance into college. This time around, it notified me that I was accepted into Benedictine University at Springfield where I'm now officially enrolled in the accelerated Master of Science in Management and Communications program.

I'm going to officially be a student again.

I do feel the weight of this all and have mixed feelings on this day. I do feel joy, excitement and a sense of accomplishment (for just getting myself to this point of acceptance), but I also feel a bit of trepidation and anxiety. I am proud that I am going to be a Benedictine student and future alum. I have already vested a part of my soul into this place as a member of the faculty and part of the staff. I do take pride in my work and want to see the Springfield campus grow and succeed. That is part of my own personal mission. I had re-dedicated myself during the changes that began in October 2009 and embraced the new opportunities presented to me by Benedictine University. I will now experience Benedictine in a different light as a student where I hope the experience will allow me to come out of the other end much stronger than I am today. I hope to be a positive person of influence for the institution and those people who I come in contact with at the University and in other areas of my life.

I know there are going to be days ahead when I'm going to feel that I've bitten off more than I can chew. There is already a small voice in the back of my head wondering why in the heck am I'm adding something more to my plate when I'm already pulled at in all directions by work, karate, family, comics and my interests. I also think about past regrets. For years, I've felt that I should have already gone to grad school and already earned my master's degree, but I accept the decisions that I've made in my life where I've done the things that I've had to do. If that makes any sense to anyone reading this. It makes clear sense to me knowing what I've endured.

Yet having these feelings, my martial arts instincts kick in and cancels the negativity. As I get in touch more and more with my budō spirit, the more noticeable I watch myself appear numb to it all. It just seems a matter of fact. Deal with it and don't overthink it. That is the karate mindset.

I found a moment of quietness recently where I thought about things going on in my life and how I got to this point. The direction my life has taken. How my skills have strengthened. How I've acquired an array of personal experience. I'm all over the map it seems. Especially starting out of a fine arts background where I found myself drifting over into the marketing and communications field. Yet, somehow, while this point where Management and Organizational Behavior may seem miles away from any profession in art and/or where some others may think I should be somewhere different � I know I'm in the place in my life where I need to be at this moment in time. This will round out some areas I need to focus in on myself.

And now perhaps I may finally earn that elusive master's degree in 13 months that I've put off for nearly two decades.

I'm recording my thoughts today. I want to remember the excitement and anxiety, yet there is a calmness that I'm feeling also that cancels both out. It is what it is. I'm moving through a moment and I'm neither overwhelmed nor taking this lightly. But I do feel a sense of pressure now to once again succeed. I want to do so with an empty cup that will allow itself to be filled.

Yoshukai (�秀会) kanji translates "training hall of continuous improvement" in Japanese. Though I'm "officially" a student again, I've always been a student. I'm always moving up the mountain just a little further. This is another formality that is testing me.

This 13-month program is a weekend format. Just about every third weekend, I will spend in the classroom. I will be reading, studying and writing several papers. Interacting with others. I'll buckle down. I'll still be able to work my day job and will juggle the rest. I'll do it. Some things may need to go to the backburner for a year, but it'll be worth it as I walk through that door and earn my degree while hopefully coming out the other end of this experience with new tools and a refined perspective to help myself be able to help others in a position of leadership.

Change management is a field that I've found myself drawn to lately. My mindset has been molded by a mantra that in life we're presented with three choices when it comes to making a difficult crossroads type decision: to keep it status quo, to change, or to quit. In life, being able to adapt and manage that change is something I feel that I'm mentally equipped to do in my troubleshooter mindset. We'll see where this journey takes me further down the road.

And in the back of my mind, I also know that right after I finish this 13-month program, I may be testing for my nidan (second degree black belt) rank in karate. I need to stay on target.

Over the next fifteen months, I need to focus on one word to get me through this challenge. I need to persevere. (忍耐)

I realize now after writing this, this isn't really a blog entry written specifically for YOU, though you may end up taking something from it. As I write this, it is a letter that I'm writing to myself and you're getting to glimpse what I'm contemplating at this moment of time.

Hopefully, in December 2012 I will remember to re-read this again and tell myself mission accomplished. Someone will hopefully remind me.

 

COMICS: Scott McCullar’s 10 Favorite Comic Book Covers

ORIGINALLY POSTED August 24, 2007

One of my favorite features in COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE magazine each month is when the editor allows a renowned comic book creator to pick their "Top 10 Favorite Comic Book Covers."

Since I don’t think they’ll be knocking on my door anytime soon to ask me to offer mine for the magazine, I instead thought it would be fun to go ahead and post them on my blog.

Sure, there are countless other more famous covers to choose from that are iconic in a sense that they might make it onto U.S. postage stamps. But when I sat down to think of the first top ten that made it onto my list, I realized that these images have been burned into my psyche…

(Not in any necessary order - all the books are in my collection)


GREEN ARROW - GREEN LANTERN #1 (October 1983) © DC Comics
Cover: Neal Adams

This was part of the a seven issue mini-series that reprinted the original “Hard Traveling Heroes” storyline from Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ classic Green Arrow/Green Lantern series from the early 1970’s. I had just read GREEN ARROW: LONGBOW HUNTERS and was hooked on the new monthly GA series by Mike Grell. I found this mini-series in the back issues bin to catch up on this classic storyline that I kept hearing people talk about that came out about the time I was born. Neal Adams has always been one of my favorite artists that I grew up on in the 1970’s as a kid.


ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #608 (July 1988) © DC Comics
Cover: Brian Bolland

Black Canary, sassy and sexy as ever in her fishnet stockings, burns her gawd-awful Olivia Newton-John “Lets Get Physical” bad 1980’s costume that had the headband. She was back in all her bountiful beauty. By Brian Bolland. Another favorite artist… especially when it comes for him drawing the ladies.


SGT. ROCK #372 (January 1983) © DC Comics
Cover: Joe Kubert

This cover caught my eye when I was 12 years old and I was hooked on Sgt. Rock and Easy Company. What a terrifying and haunting cover that made you want to look inside. By Joe Kubert. He is the man. One of my top favorite artists.


SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE #29 (November 1961) © DC Comics
Cover: Curt Swan

I love Curt Swan. He is THE artist who defined the look of Superman for over 30 years. But it was this cover with my favorite hero – Green Arrow – making his move on Lois Lane that makes me laugh all the time. Top that with the recent romance of Oliver Queen and Lois Lane some five decades later in the SMALLVILLE television series, I thought this was a hoot. Makes me grin everytime that he is the man with the mojo. Step aside Super Friends. Also, I highly recommend finding the book, CURT SWAN – A LIFE IN COMICS by Eddy Zeno to read on the life of Curt Swan. Again, another favorite artist.


G.I. JOE #23 (May 1984 ) © Marvel Comics / Hasbro Toys
Cover: Michael Golden

Gotcha! This cover was just cool as a kid. The Hunt for Cobra Commander and the G.I. Joe team caught the bad guy. Clutch and Roadblock.. two of the toughest cusses on the G.I. Joe team. Just my favorite G.I. Joe cover by Michael Golden.


LONE WOLF & CUB #4 (1987) Published by First Publishing
Cover: Frank Miller

Most folks know Frank Miller from DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, SIN CITY, or more recently 300 with the movie adaptation. He has a bunch of covers that are much more famous. But for me… seeing this picture of Itto Ogami taking on the three ninja mercenaries out of the bloodiest film I had ever seen in my life called SWORD OF VENGEANCE just peeked my interest. Frank Miller turned me on to LONE WOLF & CUB. This was the Japanese manga series from the early 1970’s by another one of my favorite creative teams – Goseki Kojima and Kazue Koike. The suspense of the bloodshed about to happen is just a moment of way as arteries are about to whistle in the wind from being cut by Ogami’s katana.


STAR TREK ANNUAL #2 (1991) © DC Comics / Paramount
Cover: Jerome Moore

“I need my pain.” Captain James T. Kirk. Captain of the Starship Enterprise. My longtime hero. Here he is illustrated photo-realistically by Jerome Moore in a montage that shows him at various stages of his life. I always loved this cover and I’ve always loved everything that Jerome Moore has ever drawn.


WORLD OF KRYPTON #3 (September 1979) © DC Comics
Cover: Ross Andru and Dick Giordano

The colors on this book and the iconic feel of who and where the Man of Steel came from was summed up perfectly for this cover. This is my favorite Superman cover from the thousands that are out there now.


BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #11 (September 1990) © DC Comics
Cover: Paul Gulacy
It was difficult to pick a single Batman cover. Not that I was hunting for one. But I remember reading this comic book during my freshman year of college – not too long after the 1989 Batman movie with Michael Keaton had come out. This just captured the “bat demon from hell” look of Batman for me that made the Dark Knight a scary creature of the night that put fear in the hearts of criminals. This is my favorite “Dracula” like pose of Batman with his cape raised like a bat as he is underground in his Batcave with either infrared lights glowing or perhaps some lava glow. Okay, maybe not lava glow… but this was one HOT cover.


SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY #6 (February 2005) Published by Shooting Star Comics, LLC
Cover: Mike Grell and Scott McCullar

Okay… this one is hard to be objective on. This is an excellent cover penciled and inked by my favorite artist, Mike Grell. You know, there are countless more memorable covers that Mike Grell has done… especially for Green Arrow, Warlord, and Jon Sable. But this one is a favorite because he did this cover for me. Pictured is my character, the Yellow Jacket: Man of Mystery and a few other characters that appeared in this story SHOOTING STAR COMICS ANTHOLOGY. This ended up being the last issue of the anthology series though we had more planned. Grell is a master artist. And for me… I had the extreme pleasure and honor of coloring it. Yep, a Mike Grell and Scott McCullar collaboration. A dream come true.



That’s it. There is my “top 10”. I hoped you got a kick out of my personal picks.

Best,
Scott

Elvis Presley: (The Secret Bass) Guitarman?

Elvis Presley is the King of Rock’n Roll.

I really don’t need to say much more than that. He doesn’t need an introduction.

For as far back as my memory allows me to go, his music has been a part of my life. I must have been about four year’s old when I was dancing on the shag rug to “Hound Dog” as the vinyl record spun on Daddy’s high fidelity turntable.

Now, I’ve got to forewarn you, I’m going to take the scenic route as I discuss my theory that Elvis Presley secretly held a passion for bass guitars and saw himself as a bit of a bassman. He knew how to get down on it and could really play bass guitar.

Did you know that Elvis actually played the bass guitar on the track “You’re So Square (Baby, I Don’t Care)”?

There was no question that the man had rhythm and that even his gyrating fingertip could swoon a crowd of women into a tizzy as it moved back and forth. Watch any film clip of Elvis live on stage (especially post 1967) and you can see his head, hands, body and his whole soul move along with the rhythm that the basslines dropped. Sometimes, when on stage and gyrating in his karate moves, he would even play a bit of “air (bass) guitar” on occasions with his two fingers as if he was “walking the basslines”.

But let’s take the scenic route and build up to discussing his bass playing and passion for Fender basses for later in this blog o’mine as I digress a bit.

One of my earliest memories as a kid was getting my shots for school at the doctor’s office in August 1977. Over the radio, the newscaster announced that Elvis Presley had died. It was like a family member had passed away. I was with my mother in the reception room and it was the first time in my life that I can remember ever seeing my Mama cry. It will be a moment that I will never forget.

I would learn years later, that Mama had met Elvis when she was younger. The story goes something like this… around 1956 or so when my Mama was about eight year’s old, my grandmother took her, along with her sister(s?) and cousin(s?), to see where this local Elvis boy lived in Memphis. This was before he bought Graceland in 1957 and had just made the transition from Sun Records to RCA Victor for his recording contract.

Take this all with a grain of salt (I do believe it is all true), but oral family tradition has it that during the infamous Elvis meeting with my Mama and the girls, they were standing on the sidewalk in front of his house to see if they could sneak a peek of him. They could see Elvis’s mother, Gladys, hanging clothes on the laundry line. Elvis then rode up on his motorcycle wearing his black leather jacket and cap. He had a girl on the back of the cycle with him. Mama says it was Natalie Wood, and would you believe, doing a little Internet research, Elvis did indeed date Natalie Wood in 1956.

Well, the story goes that Elvis pulled over on his bike to say hello to his young fans. He chitchatted with the girls, and then get this… he cuts up a bit with them and then he ruffled my Mama’s hair. She had “Shirley Temple” style curls as a child and Elvis goofed off with her for a moment. He stroked my mother’s hair and played with her curls for a moment. According to Mama, Elvis then invited my grandmother to come back the next day to play cards with his mother but my Granny declined.

“That’s okay. We don’t want to bother.”

Shoot. We could have become Memphis Mafia.

I tell you that story to set up the next story. Yes, indeed, I’m an Elvis fan. By birthright as you can see.

I’ve amassed quite the Elvis record collection myself and I believe I have over 50 different albums that he put out. I even own quite a few Elvis movies on DVD. I love KING CREOLE, CHANGE OF HABIT, ROUSTABOUT, KID GALAHAD, HEARTBREAK HOTEL and so many more. I make no apologies. I’m an Elvis fan.

So, last year, as part of her own birthright, I took a little vacation down to Memphis in May of 2010 to visit my Mama and Daddy. For this trip, I just took my daughter, Rachel, along with me to visit her grandparents. During the trip, we decided to take Rachel on her first pilgrimage to Graceland. It was just me, Rachel and Granny (my Mama) who went as my Dad wasn’t feeling well and stayed home.

There is a lot to see at Graceland. I recall them saying that only about a third of their memorabilia is on display while the rest is archived in storage. In some of the halls, you can see many of his Martin and Gibson six-string guitars on display amongst other props, jumpsuits, big buckled belts and movie posters.

As many Elvisologists will tell you, there has often been debate about how well Elvis actually played guitar. He may have appeared to be a “Guitarman", but his Sun Records guitarist Scotty Moore eluded that Elvis was not really an accomplished musician, though he had an “uncanny and amazing sense of timing and rhythm.”

In the early performance career of Elvis and as seen in both his movies and album covers, he was often holding one of his acoustic six-strings. During an interview that I recently caught on the Elvis XM Radio (XM 18) with host George Klein, I heard photographer Robert Dye mention on air that he remembers how aggressively Elvis strummed the guitars that he broke two strings of a guitar he had borrowed from a musician at performance in Memphis’s Overton Park.

A similar account was written about in Paul Hemphill’s book, The Nashville Sound: Bright Lights and Country Music in which country singer Bob Luman recalls that during a show in Kilgore, Texas, Elvis “…hit his guitar a lick, and he broke two strings. Hell, I’d been playing for ten years, and I hadn’t broken a total of two strings. So there he was, these two strings dangling, and he hadn’t done anything except break guitar strings yet, and these high school girls were screaming and fainting and running up to the stage, and then he started to move his hips real slow like he had a thing for his guitar.”

This kind of jives together that Elvis used the guitar as more of a prop in his performance and to give his hands something to do in his jitteriness. I’m sure the heavier EADG gauge strings of a bass would have suited him better!

Sure, he knew the guitar chords and could strum and keep rhythm. It has been suggested on Scotty Moore’s website in an article by James V. Roy that “…perhaps the lack of a microphone on his [Elvis’s] guitar most of the time contributed to the development of his aggressive style in an attempt to be heard.”

[Sidenote: I highly recommend visiting www.scottymoore.net.epguitars.html for more on the scope of Elvis’s guitar playing and a look at some of his guitars.]

Amidst the guitars and memorabilia on the main Graceland museum, there is a very snazzy 1972 Fender Jazz Bass on display that we saw on the tour. It is a beautiful sunburst with tortoise shell pick guard. It has two pickups and a three knob arrangement. It stuck out amongst the many guitars, because, well, I’m a bassman myself, and I love looking at bass guitars.

With a man who had three televisions in his living room in the early 1970’s and was known for giving passerby individuals the keys to free Cadillacs all the time, it didn’t seem all that out of the ordinary that Elvis may have ventured out and bought a bass to fiddle around with and experiment. I remember seeing this particular bass many years ago in one of my visits to Graceland.

It is a very swank bass and definitely has that early 70’s feel and look. If I recall correctly, bassist Geddy Lee plays one.



But while on our pilgrimage with my daughter and mother, something else caught my eye this time in one of the museums across the street from Graceland. There was another bass guitar. It was a Fender Precision 1951 bass guitar originally owned by Bill Black that was pretty much a spitting image of my own bass guitar. It had a chrome pickup and bridge cover like mine.

My primary bass guitar is a “Sting Signature Series” reissue of a 1953 Fender P-Bass that I bought customized with those same style added chrome pickup and bridge cover. Before customization, my bass guitar is a replica of the one used by one of my favorite artists – Sting (lead singer and bassist of The Police).

Again, my bass set up looked just like the Bill Black Fender bass that I saw in the display case. Then, something caught my eye. It was the placard next to the bass that read:

Fender Electric Bass ca. 1957

This Fender Precision Bass Guitar (owned by Bill Black) was played by Elvis during the final version of the song “You’re So Square” in his 1957 film “JAILHOUSE ROCK”. – On loan from the private collection of Judy and Larry Moss, Memphis, TN.

Also, next to the photo, was a black and white picture of Elvis holding the bass that stood right before me. It is an amazing photo. It was doubly amazing to know that Elvis was holding a bass guitar that looked just like mine. It brought me a bit closer to the King at that moment!

I had never known that Elvis played bass guitar on an actual recording. Especially one that had perhaps the most memorable bassline of any Elvis song. It made me a bit curious.

I did a little bit of homework because I was curious about why Elvis played bass on the song and not Bill Black. What I found online was this recollection from deejay and close personal friend of Elvis, George Klein.

Klein said, “On 'Baby I Don't Care' , the Fender electric bass had just come out at that time and Bill Black was using the upright bass. In live concerts, you really couldn't hear the upright, they couldn't ‘mike it up’ well cause the sound systems in those days weren't very good. So it was really just for effect. When the Fender bass came out, it was electrified. And Elvis loved it because it'd be great in concert. It gave him a bass sound behind him. So when it first came out, Bill Black had to learn how to play it and he was having a little trouble. On the 'Jailhouse Rock' session when they got to 'Baby I Don't Care' and the intro that's on there, Bill couldn't get it down like Elvis wanted it. So Elvis played it. He recorded it and then he sang over it. I think he played guitar on 'One Night' too, I'm not sure, perhaps Scotty played that ...”

Wow.

Listen to the song and you will hear that it has a solid bassline.



Do you know how one thing can trigger another thing? How one memory can reopen another that you had stored in the attic of your mind?

Well, I’m also a big Beatles fan. I recalled an interview with Paul McCartney during their official documentary, THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY, where the lads from Liverpool were reminiscing about their first (and only) meeting with Elvis Presley at his Bel-Air Los Angeles home in August 1965.

McCartney said, “That was the greatest. Elvis 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. Friendly and a little bit shy. But that was his image. We expected that, we hoped for that.”



A moment of digression… Sir Paul, a legendary bassman himself, also ended up buying Bill Black’s stand up bass years later.



_{(Photo by Charles Nicholas © The Commercial Appeal)}

But getting back on track, I then started looking around in books and found another famous photo from 1965 published in The Commercial Appeal of Elvis playing a 1962 Olympic White Fender Precision Bass Guitar on his loooooooong stretch white couch in the front living room. I’ve got a hunch that this was the same bass that McCartney and Elvis played around on during their infamous get together that same year. If I’m correct, I believe that this is also the same bass guitar on the guitar stand behind in his movie, SPINOUT from 1966. He would also be pictured with a different Fender Sunburst P-Bass in the 1965 film GIRL HAPPY and the 1967 film EASY COME, EASY GO.



_{(Screen capture © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)}

All very swank. All very deep.

So with that, I’m lead to believe that Elvis deep down was a bass enthusiast who loved to play those various Fender basses. But he knew. He knew that his primary instrument would always be his voice. He had to take care of business in flash with that first and foremost.

Often imitated but uniquely his.

To quote a line from one of his songs, “I thought my pickin’ would set ‘em on fire, but nobody wanted to hire a guitarman.”



_{(Screen capture © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)}

But, I’ll secretly know (and maybe you too will now) that Elvis was really a (secret bass) guitarman in his heart. I just can’t help believing.

Scott