Fifty years ago today, on 29 April 1976, a 26-year-old Bruce Springsteen found himself outside the gates of Graceland, driven by an unshakable urge to meet his idol, Elvis Presley. The night had begun with a show in Memphis as part of his Born to Run tour, a gruelling eight-month journey that had transformed the scrawny New Jersey bar-band poet into a cover star on both Time and Newsweek. But for Springsteen, the night was far from over.
A Taxi Ride to Destiny
Fizzing with post-gig adrenaline, Springsteen hailed a taxi and asked to be taken to an all-night diner. The driver replied, Yeah, there's one right out by Elvis's house.
Springsteen, as he later recalled on The Graham Norton Show, was electrified: Elvis's house?! You know where Elvis lives? Take us there, right now.
Along for the ride was fellow E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt, another Elvis obsessive. When the cab pulled up outside Graceland on Elvis Presley Boulevard, the driver warned them: They've got big dogs over there. Don't go over that wall.
At the end of the driveway, a light shone in an upstairs window. Springsteen looked at Van Zandt and said, Steve, I'm going in.
The Reckless Sprint Across the Lawn
Springsteen has told this story from stages for years, often as an introduction to Follow That Dream
, his haunting rearrangement of an Elvis deep cut. And follow it he did—this young pretender, flush with his first great fame, sprinting across the immaculate lawn in the Memphis dark, propelled by hero worship and the reckless momentum of youth. He had first seen Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show at age seven, watching him shake and swivel through Hound Dog
, Don't Be Cruel
, and Love Me Tender
. It was the evening I realised a white man could make magic,
Springsteen once told a SXSW crowd. You could call upon your own powers of imagination, and you could create a transformative self.
The King's Decline
By 1976, Elvis was on the wane. Just as Springsteen had caught fire, his vignettes of blue-collar longing and highway romanticism burning up the radio, the King was palpably struggling. Hollowed out by prescription drug dependency and nine gruelling tours in a single calendar year, he was running on legend alone. The performances still sold out, but the seductive electricity of his prime was replaced by a figure clinging to the microphone stand, forgetting lyrics and slurring words. None of this put Springsteen off.
The Encounter at the Door
Having evaded the dogs, Springsteen arrived at the front door. A gentleman answered. Is Elvis home?
Springsteen asked. He was not—the King was in Lake Tahoe. Still, Springsteen played his last card: You can tell him that Bruce Springsteen was here—and he may not know who that is, but I was just on the cover of Time and Newsweek.
Unimpressed, the guard politely escorted him to the gate. That's as close as I ever got to Elvis Presley,
Springsteen said.
A Brief Connection
Not quite. He did see him from afar at a show in Philadelphia, where Presley focused on gospel songs and ballads—closest to Elvis's heart
, Springsteen noted—such as How Great Thou Art
and American Trilogy
. Moved, Springsteen wrote a track he hoped would help his hero rediscover his old flame. He called it Fire
. A demo was allegedly sent to Graceland, but Elvis died on 16 August 1977, aged 42, before it could have arrived. Recorded later that year by Robert Gordon, with Springsteen on uncredited piano, Fire
eventually reached The Pointer Sisters, who took it to No 2 on the US charts in 1979. Elvis had known of Springsteen and approved. He liked Springsteen,
childhood friend George GK
Klein confirmed. He came on the scene real quick and hard and heavy, and Elvis liked him because he was a rock'n'roller.
Fifty Years On
I couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to be Elvis Presley,
Springsteen once said. Fifty years on from gatecrashing Graceland, he remains among the few giants of that era still crafting sophisticated hymns of depth and illumination, still delivering three-hour shifts of blazing rock'n'roll. This was a man born to run—even from Elvis's guard dogs.
