"Elvis was, at least the times I was around him, Elvis was a practical joker. He was always, had some little mischievous something going"
About this Quote
Elvis doesn not show up here as a marble icon or a tragic tabloid character; he shows up as a guy working a room. Jackie DeShannon frames her memory with a careful qualifier - "at least the times I was around him" - which is both honest and strategic. It sidesteps the myth machine that swallows everyone who ever met Presley. She is not claiming the definitive Elvis; she is claiming a version witnessed up close, in the informal backstage ecology where reputations are made and unmade.
Calling him a "practical joker" lands because it punctures the solemnity that often surrounds celebrity. Practical joking is tactile, social, low-stakes power: you control the moment, you test boundaries, you make people react. For a superstar constantly watched, the prank is a way to reclaim agency - to move from being performed upon to doing the performing. The repetition of "Elvis was... Elvis was..". reads like someone circling a name that has become too big to hold, trying to pin it back to a human scale.
DeShannon's phrasing - "some little mischievous something" - is deliberately fuzzy. It suggests a steady hum of play rather than a single anecdote, and it protects the intimacy of whatever happened. The subtext is that charisma is not just voice or looks; it is attention, timing, and the pleasure of making a private joke inside a public life. In a culture that turns stars into symbols, this memory insists on personality as evidence: not the King, but the kid still bored enough to stir the pot.
Calling him a "practical joker" lands because it punctures the solemnity that often surrounds celebrity. Practical joking is tactile, social, low-stakes power: you control the moment, you test boundaries, you make people react. For a superstar constantly watched, the prank is a way to reclaim agency - to move from being performed upon to doing the performing. The repetition of "Elvis was... Elvis was..". reads like someone circling a name that has become too big to hold, trying to pin it back to a human scale.
DeShannon's phrasing - "some little mischievous something" - is deliberately fuzzy. It suggests a steady hum of play rather than a single anecdote, and it protects the intimacy of whatever happened. The subtext is that charisma is not just voice or looks; it is attention, timing, and the pleasure of making a private joke inside a public life. In a culture that turns stars into symbols, this memory insists on personality as evidence: not the King, but the kid still bored enough to stir the pot.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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