That time Elvis shot his TV in Disgraceland

I’m a fan of journalist Jake Brennan’s podcast Disgraceland. 

And the release in book form of some of the most outrageous rock ‘n roll historical storytelling from that show is perhaps even better. The first story Brennan tells in Disgraceland: Musicians Getting Away with Murder and Behaving Very Badly is about the sad last days of Elvis Presley.

As “Fat Elvis” slid ever further down his rabbit hole of greasy fried food and narcotic cocktails, he premeditated how he was going to use his .38 pistol to shoot the TV the next time singer Robert Goulet’s “shit-eating grin”appeared on screen.

It wasn’t just the fact that Goulet moved in on his girl back when Elvis went off in the military. The story postulates that one of his major sources of intense loneliness stemmed from being the survivor when he was born and his twin Jesse Garon Presley died in childbirth.

By the time Elvis died in 1977, he had amazingly not had a top 10 hit since “Burnin’ Love” in 1972 and not had critical success since 1969’s “Suspicious Minds.” It had already been nine years since his NBC Comeback Special, which tells you how long it had been since Elvis was the King.

The source of Elvis’ sorrow and anger (at that TV) was of course, as we all know after seeing last year’s Baz Lurman movie, Colonel Tom Parker. The grifter from Holland who assimilated into U.S. society by getting people to give money to circus acts jumped into the 1950s fad of rock n’ roll, finagled a contract for Elvis that gave himself lots of rights, and got the singer moved over from Sun Records to RCA, where the hits started flowing. 

Tommy Stinson of Guns N' Roses and The Replacements: Rockin' the Suburbs

Last Friday night's Tommy Stinson show at Jammin' Java in Vienna, Virginia was surely one of the underrated shows that will happen in DC this year. With probably 80 people in attendance for great bar-band openers Trapper Schoepp and the Shades, the crowd had winnowed down to about 35 people by the time of the legendary headliner's encore.

I mean, this guy is the bass player of Guns N' Roses! And more importantly, of The Replacements! And even more importantly, his solo material is an incredible cross of Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Replacement Paul Westerberg. What more could any music fan ask?

Well, despite the strange choice of a suburban strip mall (even Tommy at one point asked, "Are we in Maryland or Virginia?") and the underwhelming crowd turnout, Stinson (who has also fronted great bands Bash & Pop and Perfect over the years) did not let down. He had also just arrived from Los Angeles after the funeral of a friend. He looked very rough when he walked onstage, but after a few coffee cups of what may have been straight vodka, he was looking plenty replenished by the end of the night.

With his wife on tambourine and backup vocals, he peeled through a great set list of his negative brand of club rockers:

One Man Mutiny
Light of Day
A cover of Elvis and Carl Perkin's That's Alright Mama
Zero to Stupid
Match Made in Hell
Loose Ends
A couple of rowdy numbers I didn't know
Something's Wrong (very poppy and very Replacements-y)
Seize the Moment
Turn it Up, the incredible Perfect song
Destroy Me, the first song he ever wrote with his wife
All This Way for Nothing
Some other song I didn't know, leading into Motivation

Encore
Never Aim to Please (see my video above)
Friday Night is Killing Me
Nothing
And didn't know what the last bit was

My only complaint is that the band didn't play Fast and Hard, Hang Ups, Another Girl Another Planet, and Tiny Pieces. But all in all, a very special treat of a show.

****1/2 out of ***** stars