Hanif Abdurraqib talks about Ellen Willis reviewing Elvis in Las Vegas

I have little interest in the music of Elvis Presley, and even less interest in the mythology of Elvis as a prominent figure in American music. What am I? I am The intense interest in resurrection means that there are corners in Elvis’ narrative that, when well-lit, I find myself hovering over with fascination, or with a kind of sick pleasure. I was drawn to Ellen Willis’s 1969 review of an Elvis concert, the singer’s first in nine years.

There is no single thing that makes a writer like Willis great, but what makes her work compelling, and what most informs my writing, is that Willis…The New Yorker Pop music’s first critic – he was never afraid to be overcome by unexpected joy, even if it came at the cost of some pre-existing doubts. These two traits—doubt and the possibility of pleasure—existed at the intersection of Las Vegas and Elvis, especially during the summer of 1969. Elvis was not yet the sweat-soaked singer who toiled in hotel stays in the following decade, slowly dragging himself along for a paycheck.

The Elvis that Welles witnessed was, in fact, a man resurrected, not from the dead, but from a long period of dissatisfaction with his career path, which led to film roles, soundtrack recordings, and largely staying away from the stage. The previous year had been something of a turnaround: There was a triumph in his comeback special, which was filmed in June and aired in December. But to prove that it was Completely A return, Welles wrote, would require occupying Las Vegas, a place that at the time was “more like Hollywood than Hollywood.”

There is a striking moment in her work, a kind of slight metamorphosis, when you can feel Welles’s method of observation shifting from bewilderment to something that can be read as real charm, verging on outright pleasure. It happens after Elvis arrives on stage, when Willis greets him for the first time. She’s amazed by his new, slim body (“sexy, totally alert”), but she’s also puzzled by his hair, which has been dyed black and no longer slicked back into his famous duck tail. Her confusion gives way to a sense of wonder when she realizes that, despite his efforts to look younger, he is not interested in performing as he did in his youth. She marvels at his fun and focuses on his seriousness. She wrote of his performance of “In the Ghetto” that “for the first time, I saw that it represented how a white Southern boy felt about black music, with all that it meant.” Although Willis herself was only 27, and the magazine had hired her the previous year, she appreciated his maturity. She notes that “he knew better than to try to turn 19 again.” “He had enough to offer at 33.”

Willis’s Elvis column embodies one of her central talents: her ability to walk you through an unfamiliar tunnel and lead you to the other side, to a luminous light, as much as she is surprised that the destination seems to be what it is. Since this piece is not particularly long, the aforementioned twist lands with more force. This is a writer saying, “We don’t have much time, and I’m not trying to change your mind, but I’m allowing you to witness how I’ve been transported from one place to another.”

Reading Willis’s review of Elvis Shocked Back to Life reminded me that my interest in the singer extends beyond resurrection. Elvis was one of the first to be thought of as pop stars, a breed of performers, including more recent figures like Taylor Swift, who have become so imbued with meaning, for many, that they have become a stand-in for larger feelings and concepts whether they believe in them or not. What fueled Elvis’s stardom was his ability to contain all expectations at once, and even grow them. It takes a sharp critical eye to catch an artist like this, not to write about what he does means But about what he does. This work is not about stripping away the romanticism of the performer’s appeal. On the contrary, I find it very romantic. Willis surrendered herself to the still-unfinished scene of Elvis, an artist who remained as alive as ever. ♦

Viva Las Vegas: Elvis returns to the stage

The King’s first party at the International Hotel.