Jerry Lee Lewis, c. July 1959. From JLL.org
Elvis Presley, Knickerbocker Hotel, Hollywood, August 18, 1956. From ElvisPresleyMusic.com.
[ 12 Days of Christmas 💕 5/12 ]
At the start of my research, I found all sorts of stories, I wasn’t sure were even true. Like, Elvis and Jerry Lee riding around on motorcycles, with no clothes on the streets of Memphis, in the middle of the night? No way – but as time passed, the story got brought up to him three times (from what I know). He had a consistent reaction, that has led me to believe it happened.
Though, the stories are subjective, so you can draw your own conclusion!
The first reference of the story:
“In a crowded basement meeting room at the posh Omni-Memphis Hotel, 20-some journalists are attempting, with difficulty, to grill the subject of the forthcoming film “Great Balls of Fire”
The discussion, which never quite seems to interconnect, has degenerated to a foreign-sounding report’s question about whether the film’s subject, Jerry Lee Lewis – rock music’s archetypal bad boy – ever motorbiked naked with Elvis Presley, his fellow Memphian an ultra-rival.
“Motorbike?” Lewis says, archly, dismissively.
“Nekkid? Me and Elvis Presley?” His eyes suddenly narrow, “how’d you know that?”
“It’s in Joe Smith’s book,” says a reporter.
“You can’t believe nothin’…” Lewis mutters, his voice trailing off. “Well, that was 3 o’clock in the morning,” he suddenly adds, prompting explosive laughter from the journalists. “It really was,” he goes on with a grain.
“There was nobody out then—except this one policeman on a horse, and he was doing his dead-level best to catch us. Now, that was a sight. If anybody woulda saw that, we never woulda sold no more records. That woulda been the end of that.” Pause, his eyes narrowing again. “How’d you know that?”
“It’s in Joe Smith’s book,” the reporter repeats.
“Who’s Joe Smith?”
“The head of Capitol Records. Used to be head of Elektra Records.”
“Well, that’s ridiculous. That’s not right. Do you believe that?”
“You just told us it happened at 3 o’clock in the morning,” the reported notes.
“I can’t believe people will believe anything you say.”
“Well, is it true?” Another reporter asks.
“Yes. It’s true.”
Welcome, folks to talking with the Killer, a 54-year-old rock king dethroned before his time – in fact, before his prime – by the 1958 disclosure of a mad marriage to his 13-year-old second cousin.
The scandal caused Lewis, a Bible college dropout, to fall from rock ‘n’ roll grace into comparative oblivion – made all the more bruising by the fact that he was arguably the most intense performer, and most brilliant self-taught pianist, to ever rattle music stages around the world.”
From “THE KILLER BLOWS SMOKE FOR ‘FIRE’” by Jack Hurst and Country music. Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1989.
The second reference is from the book the reporter mentioned, actually, it’s called “Buddy Holly: Biography” by Ellis Amburn. In it, Ellis wrote that record executive Joe Smith and Jerry Lee spoke on the plane, during Buddy Holly, along with Paul Anka’s tour to Australia. They’d been drinking when Jerry Lee “confessed,” which is the word Ellis used. That yes, indeed, he and Elvis went on a naked motorcycle ride at 2:30 AM in Memphis, in a young Jerry Lee’s own words; “only for thirty-five or forty seconds, ‘round the corner and back.”
The third reference was from “Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story” by Rick Bragg. When asked the same question, instead of brushing it off or saying it wasn’t true. Jerry Lee laughed and said he can’t say anything about that because “Elvis isn’t here to defend himself.”
So, while Jerry Lee was right that you can’t believe everything anyone says, that doesn’t mean there aren’t patterns. Maybe, he thought it was funny to lie. Maybe, it happened and so what? It’s just two bros cruising down the street at night, naked on motorbikes, 5 feet apart – ‘cause they’re not gay. 😋
Other important lessons are if you do happen to go motorbiking naked with your supposed arch nemesis, don’t get caught, and don’t tell anyone about it!
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the thing is that they're so fascinated by sex, they love sex, they can't imagine a world without sex - they need sex to sell things, they need sex to be part of their personality, they need sex to prove their power - but they hate sex. they are disgusted by it.
sex is the only thing that holds their attention, and it is also the thing that can never be discussed directly.
you can't tell a child the normal names for parts of their body, that's sexual in nature, because the body isn't a body, it's a vessel of sex. it doesn't matter that it's been proven in studies (over and over) that kids need to know the names of their genitals; that they internalize sexual shame at a very young age and know it's 'dirty' to have a body; that it overwhelmingly protects children for them to have the correct words to communicate with. what matters is that they're sexual organs. what matters is that it freaks them out to think about kids having body parts - which only exist in the context of sex.
it's gross to talk about a period or how to check for cancer in a testicle or breast. that is nasty, illicit. there will be no pain meds for harsh medical procedures, just because they feature a cervix.
but they will put out an ad of you scantily-clad. you will sell their cars for them, because you have abs, a body. you will drip sex. you will ooze it, like a goo. like you were put on this planet to secrete wealth into their open palms.
they will hit you with that same palm. it will be disgusting that you like leather or leashes, but they will put their movie characters in leather and latex. it will be wrong of you to want sexual freedom, but they will mark their success in the number of people they bed.
they will crow that it's inappropriate for children so there will be no lessons on how to properly apply a condom, even to teens. it's teaching them the wrong things. no lessons on the diversity of sexual organ growth, none on how to obtain consent properly, none on how to recognize when you feel unsafe in your body. if you are a teenager, you have probably already been sexualized at some point in your life. you will have seen someone also-your-age who is splashed across a tv screen or a magazine or married to someone three times your age. you will watch people pull their hair into pigtails so they look like you. so that they can be sexy because of youth. one of the most common pornography searches involves newly-18 young women. girls. the words "barely legal," a hiss of glass sand over your skin.
barely legal. there are bills in place that will not allow people to feel safe in their own bodies. there are people working so hard to punish any person for having sex in a way that isn't god-fearing and submissive. heteronormative. the sex has to be at their feet, on your knees, your eyes wet. when was the first time you saw another person crying in pornography and thought - okay but for real. she looks super unhappy. later, when you are unhappy, you will close your eyes and ignore the feeling and act the role you have been taught to keep playing. they will punish the sex workers, remove the places they can practice their trade safely. they will then make casual jokes about how they sexually harass their nanny.
and they love sex but they hate that you're having sex. you need to have their ornamental, perfunctory, dispassionate sex. so you can't kiss your girlfriend in the bible belt because it is gross to have sex with someone of the same gender. so you can't get your tubes tied in new england because you might change your mind. so you can't admit you were sexually assaulted because real men don't get hurt, you should be grateful. you cannot handle your own body, you cannot handle the risks involved, let other people decide that for you. you aren't ready yet.
but they need you to have sex because you need to have kids. at 15, you are old enough to parent. you are not old enough to hear the word fuck too many times on television.
they are horrified by sex and they never stop talking about it, thinking about it, making everything unnecessarily preverted. the saying - a thief thinks everyone steals. they stand up at their podiums and they look out at the crowd and they sign a bill into place that makes sexwork even more unsafe and they stand up and smile and sign a bill that makes gender-affirming care illegal and they get up and they shrug their shoulders and write don't say gay and they get up, and they make the world about sex, but this horrible, plastic vision of it that they have. this wretched, emotionless thing that holds so much weight it's staggering. they put their whole spine behind it and they push and they say it's normal!
this horrible world they live in. disgusted and also obsessed.
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do yall ever think about bruce/batman!clone danny standing in front of his bathroom mirror after finding out he was a clone and silently tracing his face. The slope of his jaw and point of his chin. The high angle of his cheekbones and the shape of his eyes, the curve of his brow bones and the shape of his nose. The volume of his hair and the way it curls and gets fluffy when it gets too long.
His hair is black the same way a crow's wing is black. His dad's hair is black the same way a black bear's fur is black. His dad's eyes are blue like the ocean is blue. Danny's eyes are blue the same way a glacier is blue.
His dad has a square jaw and straight flat hair, and he tans and gets a face full of freckles when he's out in the sun for too long. Danny burns like a lobster and his face remains untouched. Danny has a sharp jaw and tall cheekbones, and Sam says when he's not smiling there's almost something regal about him. You would never call Jack Fenton "regal" when he's not smiling.
Sam says when he's not smiling he looks scary the same way a stone statue is. Jack Fenton when he's not smiling looks scary the same way that german shepherd staring at you across the street is.
Do you ever think he grew up wondering if he was adopted. Because of course, he has black hair and blue eyes like his dad. But having the same color doesn't make you someone's child.
Or, worse, things he's heard from the other kids and the other parents and even some of his teachers growing up; that he was the product of an affair. And that his dad was just too stupid to notice. And Danny would defend his parents until the day he died, because Jack Fenton wasn't an idiot and Maddie Fenton wasn't a cheater.
But doubt comes in with fickle tongue. his parents swear up and down that he is their child when he asks about either. That Danny just had his grandparents' features, but he was their son and they loved him.
But Danny doesn't look like either of his parents. His mom's eyes are blue like an aquamarine and Jazz's too. And they burn like lobsters in the sun too, but Jazz gets freckles on her face and so does Maddie. And as Danny grows up he doesn't bulk up or get stocky like his dad did, and when he hits puberty he doesn't shoot up like a tree like Jack Fenton did.
He stays small, and they say he's a late bloomer (and he is), or that he just has his mom's height. But he's fast and has good stamina, and some days it feels like he's built entirely different from his family. That the things they went through growing up just didn't apply to him. Jack and Maddie Fenton both had acne and breakouts when they hit puberty, and Jazz inherits it and he's seen the amount of skincare products she keeps on her side of the bathroom.
And then he hits puberty and breaks out maybe once or twice, but his skin stays clear for the most part and the problems and changes his dad went through just don't happen to him.
And the truth is worse than all of the lies.
How horrifying.
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Irondad fic ideas #139
NWH AU where Tony's been in a coma this whole time. He still is. But the world thinks he's dead.
One day, Rhodey is in some science place (maybe SI, maybe a community college where he was giving a speech?) and he sees this kid tinkering who looks exactly like Tony Stark. The teen Tony Stark from when he first met him at MIT. Even down to the mannerisms. He goes up and has a brief conversation with this stranger, just curious. Then he leaves.
Unbeknownst to the kid, Peter, Rhodey managed to grab something for a DNA test. The kid just looked too much like his best friend. Like seeing a ghost
When they analyze the DNA, they learn that this kid is in fact Tony's biological son
Rhodey goes back to find the kid, this time bringing Happy. Peter gets to have the super fun conversation where two people who should know him but don't tell him that the person he saw as a father was his actual father, only it's too late
They convince Peter to come with them eventually. And Peter gets the shock of his entire life
Over the next little while, at Tony's bedside, Peter gets to know Morgan (who he would've seen as a sister anyway but this is insane). He also gets reacquainted with Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper, who all admittedly find him a bit sus with how much he seems to know.
But...this is Tony's kid. His son. So they let him be there, let him talk to Tony and hold his hand.
Finally, finally, Tony wakes up.
And it turns out, being in a coma and thought dead by the entire world, including wizards, makes one exempt from certain magic
Bonus:
As he sits by Tony's bedside, Peter has to grapple with a lot of emotions. One of them is the realization that he was never actually related to Uncle Ben, which makes him feel like his uncle and aunt died for nothing
Pepper helps him through it. Even not knowing him the way she once did, she knows plenty about guilt complexes and chosen family. She assures Peter that he's still a Parker, no matter what, and that his aunt and uncle wouldn't have given him up for the world
Another thing Peter deals with is the fear of Tony waking up and not knowing him. It breaks his heart just thinking about it.
Cue THE most relieving hurt/comfort reunion ever imagined
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