Arts

Arts

- Len Hawkins

NETFLIX

HARRY MOUNT

ELVIS PRESLEY: THE SEARCHER

You might think this Elvis documentary would be biased. It was devised by his ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, and his great friend, Jerry Schilling, cleverest of the Memphis Mafia.

Instead, it’s a two-part, 215-minute, objective view of Elvis’s life, as told through his songs. The talking heads are serious: from Priscilla to Ronnie Tutt, Elvis’s drummer in the 1970s; from Bruce Springsteen to the late Tom Petty.

Petty’s words stand for the whole film: ‘He was a light for all of us. We should dwell in what was so beautiful and everlasting – the great, great music.’

The title of the film comes from Priscilla Presley’s words to its producer, Jon Landau: she called Elvis ‘the searcher’.

That searching tendency produced his rare alchemy, combining rhythm and blues, country and gospel. Listen to the Sun Sessions, recorded at Sun Studios, Memphis, in 1954 and 1955, when he was 19 and 20, just before he became globally famous in 1956. His voice then was higher but still a miracle.

Bing Crosby’s voice was said to be the perfect singing-in-the-shower voice. Elvis’s voice wasn’t just the ideal rock ’n’ roll voice. It was also the perfect voice for ballads like Wooden Heart, Don’t and Can’t Help Falling in Love.