In our series of email interviews our next victim was a voluntary one, Marc Hendrickx. He's the author of one of the most complete Elvis-fact books available, Elvis A. Presley - Musique et vie d'un Mythe (or Muziek, Mens, Mythe). Unfortunately for the rest of the world this book has only been issued in Dutch and French. His second book about Elvis, which he co-authored with Connie Kirchberg, deals with the lives of both President Nixon and Elvis Presley, and how they both lived "The American Dream". This book is written in English.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
About a 100 years ago I started to work in the Belgian book-world, doing all types of production work for others, working with authors, publishers, designers, drawing artists... As a result, I did all kinds of publications, from comics to literature and poetry. I did things like research, lay-out sketching, editorial work and even old-fashioned physical 'cut and paste' work, in the pre-computer era.
Can you tell us something about "Marc the Elvis-fan"?
I was born on the day the Beatles landed in the USA (ed.: 1964), and that must have been a 'sign' of sorts. A counteract so to speak! (laughs). The first two Elvis singles I possessed were Suspicious Minds and Don't Cry Daddy, for which I bugged my family for weeks on end. They all thought I was crazy... A seven year old kid, going on and on about music ?!? When I was about ten years old I started to buy my own singles and LP's, and again Elvis came out on top. But, I didn't have an Elvis time frame so to speak, as I didn't know which music he'd made recently and which was already twenty years old. So, in my local record shop, I started by selecting records going by their cover, asking the manager to play a song or two of the two or three best looking ones, allowing me to make my definite choice on an aural basis.
I finally caught up with the new releases after buying "Hurt", which flopped badly at the time, and "Moody Blue". That single became a big hit, and it was the first one I could really 'follow' in the hitparade and everything. Of course I bought it, and the LP. Then, Elvis died ... When I heard this news I was on holiday with my family and because I was so depressed by the news, my parents decided to go home immediately. A couple of weeks later, with the intention to cheer me up, my father took me to a famous market in Antwerp. But instead of taking my mind off Elvis, he was everywhere... Memorabilia, music, whatever. It turned out to be one hell of a traumatic market experience!
How did you become an Elvis author?
In the mid-eighties, I thought it was strange that there still wasn't a decent Elvis biography out in Dutch or French. Being active in the Belgian bookworld I started looking for an author to propose the idea to, but couldn't find anyone who wanted or could write a 'complete' book the way I imagined it had to be done. So, combining my hobby with my work, the only person able and willing to do it turned out to be... me.
I worked for six years on the project, day and night, traveling all over the world, speaking to all kinds of people. Without already having a publisher, I invested a lot in it, even when disregarding the time and work itself. I bought copyrights for pictures and had plenty of travel expenses. Fortunately it worked out and resulted in a book both heavy in content and in weight. When it hit the market in 1994, both the Dutch and French version sold out in a couple of months.
What else did you write?
After all the time spend on this Elvis project I wanted to do something completely different and wrote a book about animal rights. But I also ended up in the entertainment business again, writing about Fawlty Towers (ed.: the British TV comedy) and translating a Keith Richard biography. Most recently, I entered the sports world, again encountering a major legend, in making a Muhammed Ali biography. He really is one of the very few people on earth to be anywhere near as well-known and popular as my very first topic was.
On the side, I had to update the Presley book for 1998 reprints in Holland and France, plus engage in some BMG projects on Elvis and of course the Nixon/Presley book.
Why was a comprehensive piece of work like 'Musique et vie d'un myth' never published in English?
Starting the project, I only had Dutch and French editions in mind, because these are the languages of my country (ed.: Marc is from Belgium and lives in a little town near Antwerp). As a consequence, thinking the book would never go beyond neighboring countries, I bought picture copyrights for non-English publications only. That turned out to be a grave mistake. When English publishers showed interest in the work later on -after it had become a smash- it became virtually impossible to work out a deal. First off, I had bought pix left, right and center, not with one or two big name photographers. This made for a most original and interesting mix and some neat rarities, but in order to do a UK or US release, someone had to re-contact about a hundred photographers, and negotiate a new copyright deal with each of them. Secondly, the book had to be translated into English. Counting as it did some 275,000 words, not exactly a cheap thing to do. And as I did not want to get involved myself -having spend six years on the book already, plus being engaged in other projects at the time the English and U.S. people showed an interest- these two practical things effectively prevented a publication in English. After all, there are hundreds of 'Elvis offers' being made to publishers, and so they went for a manuscript that would be cheaper to produce.
Can you tell us something about your latest "Elvis" book?
This book emerged from unpublished information about Nixon I possessed but hadn't used. I got in contact with Connie Kirchberg when writing the first Presley book and talking about mutual interests this "file" was one of them. Starting our research from there, we found a lot of comparisons in the lives of Elvis and Nixon. Not only the more trivial things, like the fact that both were born under the sign of the Capricorn, both had lost a brother early on in life and both made it from rags to riches, but, far more interesting, it turned out that the two not only perfectly fitted the bill as examples who lived 'The American Dream', they also could be 'used' in a book to illustrate, discuss and analyze this phenomenon in a great way. And so, the book, even though dealing with all of Nixon's and Presley's lives, in all honesty is more a study of 'The American Dream', than it is a little bitty book recalling the so-called 'chance meeting' at the White House in December '70. Believe me, there's no way this could ever be dubbed a 'chance meeting' (chuckles). Anyway, the nature of the book is also the reason why it appeared with a scholarly type publisher, not a typical fan-aimed one. Never the less, any intelligent Presley fan with some interest in America, both as a country and as a civilization, will greatly enjoy it too, we hope.
Do you use the Internet as a medium to gather information and do you have a favourite website?
I look things up on the WWW, especially since I started work on the Muhammad Ali biography. It's a great tool, but the massive amount of hits and failing search engines often make for frustrating experiences. As for favorite websites... Not really. I hop onto any site friends or colleagues refer to, and I also consult my newspaper website when I forgot to buy a regular copy, but other than that... I'm a poor little writer, so I am working most of the time my dear friends. Having finished work, the last thing I want to see is a computer screen, believe me.
Oh yeah, before I forget... A young fan of my work made me a site too, which was launched mid-last year and should get a major up haul late this month or early in May. It contains info on all my books plus some of the additional product that came out. For example: not too many non-French know that 'Musique et vie d'un myth' has been relaunched as a 30-part series by Atlas France and BMG, offering 30 A4-format magazines of 32 pages each plus official BMG Presley CD's, on which we've been able to put some 'weird' compilations. For instance, this series offers the 'Memphis '74' live album with 'Steamroller Blues', injected at the right spot. Why? Because the collection came out after BMG had 'freed' the song on 'Platinum', and so we could use it.
The site's address is http://www.hendrickx-books.com
Can you tell us your favourite, song, album and movie?
My favourite track is "Moody Blue", because of it's personal emotions and memories. Talk about subjectivity! Taking quality into account the musical richess of the '69 - '71 period stands out. Listening solely to E's voice, one has to end up with the early sixties for clarity and reach, and the very last period of his life, when he was really going 'all out'. People tend to forget this, as he was ill, often didn't look good, and could only turn in a great performance every now and then, but when he did... Don't believe me, just ask someone like Kathy Westmoreland or Sherill Nielsen... They'll all tell you that vocally, Presley was reaching his peak at the time of his death. And it's logical, really, when you look at opera singers and the like... They all have their top years in their forties.
Picking an album, anything from 1969 to 1971, I guess 'That's The Way It Is' would come out tops. You can hear Elvis' heart in the songs, and take a listen to the musicians on things like 'The Next Step is Love' or 'Stranger in the Crowd', in one word: marvelous!
For my favourite movie, I'll be naughty. I should say 'King Creole' as everybody else, but I'd pick 'Flaming Star', because that movie really shows Elvis as an actor. When all is said and done, 'King Creole' remains a musical. Of his later career, I always rated 'Live and Love' (ed.: Live a Little, Love a Little) pretty high. There's some good and lively dialogue in there!
Is there anything else you want to leave us with?
I must say I have a lot of respect for the achievements of Elvis, especially in the seventies. It's one thing to make it to the top, but it's something else to stay there, especially under difficult circumstances. Vocally he was at his peak in the seventies, but physically he obviously wasn't. They called him the "King of Rock and Roll" in the fifties, and he opened the door for many black artists. But deep down, that wasn't the kind of music he liked himself. It was already obvious going by what he recorded versus what Sam Phillips put out. But you can most clearly see it in the seventies, when he finally started to limit stuff he didn't like and did mostly those things he really liked. So yeah, he pleased Felton Jarvis by recording 'Burning Love', a song he despised according to several members of his entourage. But overall, in his other recordings and in his live performances, he gave just a bit of what the people came for or bought his records for (like the 'quicky' run-throughs of hits in medleys), then going for things like 'Mountain', 'How Great Thou Art' or 'Hurt'. And hey, could he match any trained singer or not?
Something else people tend to forget is how much of himself Elvis put in his performances. For example, it's 'in' now to make fun of the suits he wore, but they were not all show. Beginning with 'something different' in '69, his designer evolved to the more gaudy stuff to be seen in 'On Tour', but from there, Presley started to ask for designs with a meaning. Things like the 'Peacock suit', which stood for 'eternal life', with Presley also using a peacock glass window decoration in his house. The 'Tiger suit' in turn referred to his karate passion and the Eagle on the 'Aloha From Hawaii' suit showed his patriotic side to the world. And I could go on for a while. This guy was something else, you know.
Our last question, who should we interview next, and what question should we ask?
I think it might be interesting to interview people who have made quality programmes or documentaries on Elvis. It could be interesting to read what they experienced during their search, how they personally regarded Elvis before, during and after their work, and how they view his role as one of 'the' men from the twentieth century. On the other hand, if you want somebody with a real 'Elvis' past, I should direct you to my partner in writing, Connie Kirchberg. She saw the great man in concert a couple of times, is still young despites that, and sure knows how to intelligently write & tell about Presley and his role in our society as a whole and music in particular.
ElvisNews.com likes to thank Marc for this great interview, all email contacts turned out to be a real pleasure. As soon as we have our review copy, we'll let you know our opinion on the book.