Revisionist History - Blue Seattle with Cameron Crowe | Development Hell

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

In 1986, Cameron Crowe, the film director, and Nancy Wilson, of the rock group Heart, got married. They honeymooned in a little cabin in the Pacific Northwest, and while they were there decided to write a musical, about Elvis as a cab driver in Seattle. They wrote and recorded demos of all the songs, and called it “Blue Seattle.” It became a lost masterpiece that never saw the light of day. In our Development Hell season finale, Cameron joins Malcolm to share the songs and tell the story behind “Blue Seattle” for the very first time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pushkin. Today, we're talking about Elvis. That person singing is not Elvis. That's Cameron Crowe. You've seen his movies. Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous. He wrote Fast Times at Ridgemont High. So many more. And the guitarist on this song is Nancy Wilson,

from the mega 1970s band Heart, who at the time was Cameron Crowe's wife. And the story we're going to talk about today starts back in the summer of 1986, when Cameron and Nancy were on their honeymoon. They spent it in a little cabin in the Pacific Northwest, a little cabin that would become the birthplace for today's movie that never was, Blue Seattle.

A loving romp about two songwriters trying to write a movie for Elvis Presley. A movie about a couple writing a movie written by a couple writing a movie. What's not to love? A script so meta that it belongs on a big screen, only the big screen wasn't big enough to handle it. Or something like that.

Because one of the things that you might conclude in listening to this interview is that for Cameron Crowe, it is so much fun talking about his Lost Elvis masterpiece that I think he's afraid that if he actually makes it, he'll feel abandoned, like a version of screenwriter empty nest syndrome. So let's tell the story of Blue Seattle.

And this interview is different from all the other development hell stories we told on this series, because instead of giving us the script to his movie, Cameron Crowe gave us the songs he and Nancy wrote 40 years ago. As in every Elvis movie, the best parts are the songs. They capture a moment,

that honeymoon bursts of creative inspiration, and they tell a story about a young couple in love. I've been looking forward to this all week. Let's start from the beginning, because this is a story that needs, as you know,

appropriate setup. Well, when we first talked, I went down a road that felt very friendly and evocative and filled with memories because you are an Elvis guy. Your revisionist history on Elvis

was seminal. And this idea of like, um, never made, uh, projects from the heart and stuff. It, it, it combined with my love of Elvis and a particular part of Elvis, uh, to, to just want to like, put this in your lap, Malcolm. This is, this, this was one that got away. Well, let's start with Elvis. So your first concert you ever attended as a kid, right, is an Elvis concert. That's right. I won tickets on the radio. You're 12.

Yeah, something like that. Which Elvis are you getting in that? Late period Elvis. 72 Elvis. The big high collars. Big high collars, 72 Elvis. The big high collars. Big high collars, karate kicks. He was a little obsessed with Nixon in my San Diego Sports Arena show. He did an imitation of Nixon and at one point was on his back kind of kicking his legs just having fun.

The kid was having fun at my show. Baroque. You got Baroque Elvis. I got Baroque Elvis. But Malcolm, he did, there was one moment where it just broke through. Like his genius really broke through. And it was a brief moment of sunlight through the clouds, but it was bridge over troubled water.

And I felt him connect. And there was that moment where it was galvanizing. Yeah. And he giving what he wanted to give. And the audience was like mid shriek and kind of taking it in. And, and that was, that was the DNA you were meant to build up from watching the show.

Like, okay, there he is. When you were meant to build up from watching the show. Okay, there he is. When you're weary Feeling small It was kind of fun and games Elvis. And so this is, so much of your life's work kind of grows, is growing from the tiny seed of that Elvis concert, right?

I mean, Almost Famous. So this concert had a huge impact on you. It did. And also, Malcolm, because I took my mom. And my mom, you know, if you've seen Almost Famous, you know my mom. Yeah. It's unfair that we can't listen to our music. It's because it is

about drugs and promiscuous sex simon and garfunkel is poetry yes it's poetry it is a poetry of drugs and promiscuous sex honey they're on pot so that week changes a lot so this was the door that gets cracked open where rock and of course my future love and that combined with journalism, I was on my way. But Elvis was there at the gates. And I still was obsessed with Elvis, but I was obsessed with the corners of Elvis's experience. And one of those corners was his movies. And I loved those B movies. Some might even call them C and D movies. He comes out of the box hot with Loving You and Jailhouse Rock. But eventually he's doing genre things for the money that Colonel Parker has put him up for. And there's a set formula

for the Elvis movies that happened. And I became obsessed with those movies. Yes. Yes. And you became obsessed with them because, I mean, one of the things I was trying to figure out as I listened to the music of the project we're going to talk about was I was trying to understand your intentions. Mm-hmm. And your, so are you obsessed in a kind of. That's so delicately put. I love it. Is it, is it, is it, are you winking at Elvis?

Are you sharing in the fun or are you buying it? All of the above. All of the above. I think you just, you just have to enjoy it for what it is, which, which is a romp. Elvis often did three of those movies in a year. You can see he's kind of confused by the character names they call him by. It's like he's lost.

He's brilliantly lost. It's just, you know, you see so much. It's almost watching his face in these movies is like a diary that he never wrote you can see why am i here you can see glimmers of oh this is good and margaret viva las vegas wait a minute yeah she's challenging me so it's all there hidden in this candy colored uh genre romp that the Elvis movies became. So all of the above. Yeah, yeah.

Lots of that. So you develop early on, in other words, a rich and nuanced interpretation of who Elvis was and what he stands for. Yes. And is there any other artist who plays a comparable role in the development of your imagination?

No, because there's only one guy who was or artist who was so huge that he was able to make 30 throwaway movies that did well enough so that he could keep doing it like perhaps against his will only one person that I ever knew about, and I will share this later, did ask Elvis, like, why did you make all those movies? And he gave this one person an answer. But mostly he never did any interviews. He never commented on it.

He just did all those movies for 15 years. They squander quite a bit, you know, as John Lennon would tell you in his interviews, like, why is Elvis, why is the king just like, you know, strolling around Hollywood soundstages with B-level stars singing like medium, decent songs, you know, but that's part of the mysteries of Elvis. Yeah. Yeah. So we have this, this is the kind of the necessary context. Yes. For the story that you're going to tell.

Yeah. Okay. So it's the 80s and I had written Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which like amazingly kind of found an audience. So I kind of had a shot at possibly a screenwriting career. And in the middle of all this, I perhaps most importantly fell in love with Nancy Wilson, the great Nancy Wilson, amazing guitarist, half of the Wilson sisters who front their band Heart. So we were together for a while and then decided to get married. And it was a beautiful time. And Ann Wilson, Nancy's sister, had a cabin in Cannon Beach, Oregon. And that was where we wanted to go for a little honeymoon, just borrow the cabin from Ann. Now, this you must know as a setup is Ann and Nancy Wilson to this day, they're like the Everly sisters. They sing together and it's like, you know, there's no thought that goes into it.

They have the sibling voices that blend so beautifully. They're musical twins in a way. Anne sings, Nancy sings a little bit, but mostly plays this elegant, beautiful guitar. They're a serious duo. So 10 days into our honeymoon, which was how long we wanted to spend at Anne's cabin, we decided we want to spend two weeks. We want to spend a little bit longer. But Anne wants to come to her cabin. So Anne Wilson shows up on our honeymoon, which is an interesting thing for a small cabin

it's like a sitcom in a way here you have the two sisters with you on your honeymoon with one of them and what are you going to do in this small environment in a coastal town in Oregon where not much is going on well we're going to do a project, a musical project that will involve all three of us.

Whose idea was this? Mine. It's yours. Because I love watching them sing together. And Nancy would later score my movies and stuff. And so we worked really well together. And Anne's a lot of fun. Now, all, all of this being said, I was working loosely on a book I wanted to do about Elvis movies.

So, so, um, so that was on my mind and like any idea that you believe is good, it's built on the things you love. And Elvis was one, um, playing music with my wife was another. And SCTV and Martin Short was a third element. I loved Martin Short. That great comedy show, SCTV. I remember. I'm Canadian. So here comes this idea for a kind of, and this is the cousin of what you're doing malcolm it's like

lost masterpieces what's what's what's something that like a movie that almost got made and it's built on the burning fever inside your gut that this is the idea of all time so i started building this idea of the great elvis movie that never got made and what's the story behind it and I decided that it was like you had Goffin and King who were like a a great couple songwriting uh they're legends they'd written all these great songs the Beatles did some of them I thought like what about a much lesser Goffin and King? Like what about a couple who's a songwriting team that haven't gotten in the door? And it's Parnell and Zicks was their name.

Linda Parnell and Louis Zicks. And Louis Zicks of these two songwriters is obsessed with writing. He hears Elvis may do one more movie and he's going to write with his songwriting partner wife, they're going to write this song cycle for the 10 songs of an Elvis movie that they're going to pitch and make. And this is the beginning of Blue Seattle,

which is their song cycle, Malcolm, that they're going to try and sell to Elvis himself. And so here on our honeymoon, I began to write these Elvis songs that were fleshed out with Anne and Nancy Wilson of heart. And unironically, really, mostly, we were going to do these songs that captured all the elements of the Elvis movie formula. Now, before we get into the songs themselves, which I have to say are genius,

I want you to define, you said, all the elements of the Elvis movie formula. Break it down for me before we start. What are the elements, the crucial elements? Okay. The Elvis elements are this. First of all, he has to have a name that sounds like a fist you know nothing too complex just kind of like deke rivers was one buck thomas you know so like we we thought um you start with a name that's like you know mike davis something like that and and. And Elvis must always have workplace pride.

He needs to do a couple different things in an Elvis movie of this era. But, like, they're often a strange combination of things. Like, he can be a veterinarian who's also a race car driver who also works at a county fair somehow. What a way to earn a living. You know, a little kid should appear at some point looking for kind of some kind of mentorship, which he provides usually in the form of a song.

He had confidence, a little thing called- Dancing girls must appear. Would you mind telling me where I am? In the garden of paradise, noble master. So like that it's worked in. A fight. At least one fight. Baby, will you stay?

Um, and a thoughtful moment over a pet. Come on, Albert. Don't be a fink. A good elf. Because, of course, Elvis. Yeah. A pet. Come on, Albert. Don't be a fank. A good elf. Because, of course, Elvis. Yeah. I mean, his love of dogs.

I mean, the seminal. What was the seminal dog in Elvis's life? I've now forgotten. The one that song he used to sing over and over and over again as a teen was a song about a dead dog. Shep. Shep. Yes. Wasn't it?

I think it's Shep. Yeah. These are the kind of stations of the Elvis cross that you've. The stations of the cross. Shep. Shep, yes. Wasn't it? I think it's Shep, yeah. These are the kind of stations of the Elvis cross that you've... The stations of the cross. You can't say it any better. There's a lot going on in these movies. And he lined them up, man. He lined them up and did them.

But then ultimately we end up at a place where Elvis's nobility is protected. He either gets the girl or he doesn't get the girl. And there's a rave-up song that sends you out feeling good. Yeah. And that's the Elvis movie. Have you watched all the Elvis movies? Yeah, definitely. And as long as you have these elements, you're in the ballgame.

And of course, the songs are written outside of Elvis's experience. And usually they come to him at some point and they play him the songs. And, you know, legendarily, he's like, no, no. OK, I do something with that. OK, no. OK, now I'm tired. You know, like and they bring in more songs another day. And these are songs that the songwriters have like killed themselves over

because they know they're going to have a session with Elvis, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And this was the songwriting couple in the story. My fictional story, blue Seattle, like their dream is that they will one day be able to play these songs for

Elvis and, and pitch this movie. Are we going to hear some of those songs, dear listener? Oh, yes, we are. After a quick break, Cameron Crowe is going to play us some of the music from Blue Seattle. So you sat down. You're there.

How long did it take to write these 10 songs? Like four or five days. Because I remember we made this cassette that we're going to listen to mercifully a little bit of. Yes. Maybe not a lot. But I remember we listened to it on our way back from the honeymoon. We were like, this is really pretty good

yeah wait why don't we let's play that one i actually yeah i think you're being far too modest i have another one i want to recommend but we'll get to that one just play just just to get us in the mood let's listen to your favorite of the 10 songs you wrote great it's going to be my people my people let's listen to my people let me set it up we wanted to bring elvis this movie uh in the late 60s because this is kind of the period where post elvis has started to develop a little bit of a social conscience so the idea is elvis uh plays a cab driver in this who who is a man kind of of the people. And so the idea of Elvis roaming the streets in Seattle and Pike Place and all that stuff, we loved it.

And so there is a moment where he realizes he must return to the relevance of the street where he was once this cab driver um and and he leaves this relationship that has kind of belittled him um in some ways and so he's like going back to his roots and he's singing this song from behind the wheel of his cab my people and it's always good i'll just add this it's always good when you have a little bit of a Spanish kind of castanet feel. You know? These are the people, my people. In the city rain, they seem to know my pain. These are the people, my people. My people I'm just an empty house

Haunted by an image in my review mirror Excuse me if I cry I must receive my pride for the people. For the people. For the people. For the people. My people. Got a little bit of your moment in there.

And now another one. He's going to be clapping even though he has to have his hands on the wheel. We'll see if they do that. While I cry, I must say my pride for the people. For the people. My people. You can actually, it's funny, that's like totally believable as an Elvis song. If I heard that on an Elvis album,

I'm not thinking twice about it. I've come such a long way to hear you say that. No, I mean, I'm not blowing smoke here. No, I felt that too at the time. Like, almost sell that to Elvis. Yeah. For one of those movies? Yeah.

Yeah. Who's playing guitar on that? Nancy and Ann are both playing guitar and singing, and I'm, like, attempting to do an Elvis voice. Yeah, which is, it's not bad. I'm the wink link, for sure. It's not bad. Your range.

But they're fantastic. You know, they can play anything at the drop of a hat and their harmonies are so cool. But wait, so let's start from the beginning. So Blue Seattle is, is the first song, sets the tone here. And we're, what are we doing?

What are we trying to do narratively with Blue Seattle? Usher you into an Elvis world of time and place and character. Yeah. Where fun will perhaps abound. Yeah. Let's play a little, just the first half of it, and then just to get a kind of feel, we get in the mood. Let's hear a little, just the first half of it, and then just to get a kind of feel, we get in the mood. Let's hear a little bit of it.

Ha ha ha! Weather is always in general. Yeah. This is the native influence wafting through. Oh! I'm going back to the place where I belong. Oh, Seattle!

A pretty little city where man just can't go wrong. Oh, Seattle! The seafood is fresh, the steaks are ready. A pretty little city where man just can't go wrong. Seattle! The seafood is fresh, the steaks are rare. The rain is not falling, but you don't care. I thought the opening, this should be the theme for Seattle. First of all, blue Seattle.

Seattle needs to call itself blue because everyone thinks they're gray Seattle. So it was a marketing campaign to remind us that the skies are blue and the mountains are green is like, and secondly, just as open as this place, the town made for love. I mean, come on. Why is the city not make this just that those three opening lines, that's the, that should be the official tagline for Seattle. Am I wrong? You know, everything takes its time, I'm realizing. To come to this crossroads with you is really meaningful. Yeah, it happened at the World's Fair in Seattle.

So this is like a reunion with an Elvis city that's like undervalued as an Elvis city. Wait, Elvis plays Seattle during the expo? He makes a movie. It happened at the World's Fair. Oh. I forget who the co-star is, but like the space needle is on the poster for it.

Oh my goodness. Oh, wow. A little kind of, a little phallic imagery to add to the. Totally. Then we come to add to the. Totally. Then we come to pay the fare. Yeah. And as you said earlier in the kind of like, in the Elvis movie taxonomy that you created,

he needs to have multiple jobs, but one of them has to be a kind of keeping it real. That's right. And so the keep it real job we have here is we understand that he's a cab driver. He's a cab driver. Looking for love. Looking for love. Of course. Yeah. Let's do a minute of Pay the Fair.

I'll see the little girl I'll stand right over there Maybe 40 seconds. 40 seconds. She's a woman to stare Maybe 40 seconds. 40 seconds. Ha, ha, ha. The gas logo. That little girl That little girl I like you I tell her

And they sound Ken and Nancy sound so good on this I know, the thing that makes this genius is this understanding that we have the Wilson sisters doing the do do do do do do do do do do You're gonna piggy the bear Right Cameron, when you're doing this project,

are they as into it as you are? I mean, A, we're bored. Yeah. But B, it's a great question it there was mist there's like waves crashing on the below these little cliffs where we're staying and in the middle of this we're just like howling through these elvis songs it was uh an amazing honeymoon is there is there a lot of weed involved or not? Not really. Not really.

I think a lot of beers. I think we were just lining up beers doing some of this stuff. Yeah, yeah. I think we would have lost our hard Elvis edge if we'd gone to the weed too much. That would be the later Elvis movie. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So Hiccups is the one...

There's usually a novelty song that's completely embarrassing. Oh, that's what Hiccup is doing. Yeah, where Elvis is asked to do something that's really kind of beneath him. And he knows it. You can always see it in the movies when he's asked to do this to play patty cakes with a little

kid or do a move like that he he usually if you're really looking at it with a microscope he he has a little fun and then it gets old because they're asking him to do a number of takes you can usually tell and so by the end of the novelty song in the movies he's so ready to move on but the but it's important that he bonds with a child and a pet. Yeah. Yeah. Those are crucial. It's just impossible not to be filled with sympathy for Elvis. I would want no part of his life. Everything about it just sounds, he's locked up in this gilded cage and he just sounds like he's desperately unhappy almost all the time yes and and the further you go into the movies you see the anguish start to turn up uh you can see the anguish build um and sometimes for whole movies he's annoyed.

Kind of just wondering why he's there while he's doing these lines. It's sort of heartbreaking. It is. Let's do a little bit of hiccups just so we understand the novelty. Because now that you say that I was puzzling, I was listening,

why is hiccups here? It's here. Hiccup. It's partly laugh, it's partly rhyme. The hiccup is another friend of mine. There's no way to rid yourself of this little pesky hell. Hiccup, hiccup. Hiccup, be gone. Hiccup, hiccup. I was humming this to myself.

You're right, this is a heartbreak. This is like the guy who was truly dangerous is now doing the hiccup song. Yeah, yeah. Culturally. And that line at the end, my prescription is simply love. Your love? Yeah. When he goes through all the cures for the hiccups

and then he comes, the only one that works for me is love, which by the way is like so poignant and so true. The one thing he was lacking was love, right? That's true. A truer line has really been written of Elvis, that he got every other drug, in quotes, offered to him and none worked.

The only thing he needed was, yeah, it was... Super well said, and there it was buried in the hiccup song. By the way, what's hilarious, continuing what's hilarious, is I said before before the contrast between two of the great guitar players of our generation. And then it's a good Elvis impression, but as you say, you are the weak link. I am the weak link.

You can only be, though, in this company. That's true. It's true. And of course, story-wise, which we'll get to, these are the demos that the songwriting team within the story are going to present to Elvis. So this would be their recording these themselves present to him, which we'll talk about in a sec. Yeah, yeah. I'll try to be brief i want to i want to play i want to play one chance to love and then let's talk a little bit more about about context this this is this is where and this functions how i think this is kind of the looking over his shoulder at the romantic uh landscape of of blue seattle he kind of steps out

and it's a single man in the spotlight, Roy Orbison kind of song. Yeah. That allows him to, you know, flex his vocal Elvis chops. And this time I think we should listen to the whole song. I think it's a lovely song.

Yeah, let's do the whole thing. Thank you. Darling. I've known you forever. And yet I've loved you never. Oh, there's many greedy men with hands and gloves. But I just want one. One chance to love

One chance to love I want you to know I am giving it everything. I don't have a lot to give, but I'm giving it all here. Oh, so Elvis-y. Oh, it's so Elvis-y. Who would ask for 20, 30, 40 more chances to love? But not me, darling. No, I'll take my shot. I'll take my shot. I'll take my chance on just one.

One chance to love. One chance in life. Your precious love I call it mine One chance to love There's only one chance. There's not two. There's only one. One chance to love I just think this is great. There's only one chance. There's not two. There's only one.

I just think this is great. I just love this one. We're building. We're building this up. Yeah. One chance to One chance to We get the Wilson sisters at the end. You can't beat it.

We get real singers at the end. Just in case you forgot what real singing is like. It's the least demo-ish. It feels like by the end of this, your enthusiasm for the project is increasing. You're exactly right. That is the most Elvis. That's the most pure.

If you played that for anyone and said, who would be the ideal singer for that? Everyone would say Elvis. That's an most pure. If you played that for anyone and said, who would be the ideal singer for that? Everyone would say Elvis. That's an Elvis song. I'm so close to it, you know. When you're the artist, Malcolm, it's hard to look outside the character you're playing sometimes. No, that's amazing.

Thank you. I always dug One Chance to Love. Yeah. Okay, now that you've heard the songs, I think you understand why I needed to see this movie. Okay, now that you've heard the songs, I think you understand why I needed to see this movie. We're going to take a short break. When we come back,

we talk about how the story of the film turns out and what it all means. So we've got our 10 songs. And now we're... This is the core of a narrative. You want to do this kind of tongue-in-cheek Elvis movie. Yes. Pretending that... Or tell the story of how it almost happened or yeah could have happened that that idea is what kind of landed for for this so to go back to the screenplay did you actually

write a screenplay around those songs i did i did so how does it begin with those two characters dreaming about writing an Elvis movie? Yeah, and enjoying one of the movies and trying to be productive in their own little songwriting career. And I got the feeling story-wise that Elvis had done the comeback special. And just maybe he had two more movies that he did after that. I think he did. I could be wrong. I think he did.

He did a movie called, let me see Chautauqua was the name of it. And it was kind of like a sought after property. And he does this movie Chautauqua, but by the time it comes out, they've changed the name to the trouble with with Girls and How to Get Into It. So dashed again are his dying embers of an acting career. And then he goes into the last one, which is Change of Habit, which he does with Mary Tyler Moore.

And, of course, he plays a doctor. Wait, Elvis did a movie with Mary Tyler Moore? The last one. It's the last one. So I got the idea that our little songwriting duo gets a shot. That's the dream. To get the shot with Elvis. They're ushered in and they have a moment in his trailer where he's in his doctor uniform.

There's a guitar in his trailer he's on a break doing you know change of habit and he and he ushers them in and um they're kind of nervous uh our guy um the main guy who's who's like an elvis fanatic and has like really studied louis zix has studied elvis but anyway they run through the songs but before they do elvis says um you know not real talkative totally charismatic bronzed in his doctor outfit he says um i always wanted to be in a good movie. I don't know if I'm going to do this very much anymore. Maybe never. Go ahead. So having led with I'm not really doing this stuff anymore,

these guys earnestly run through the songs. And Elvis listens. And he says, let me have the sheet music for the Cab Driver, My People song. And there's one guy that's written the songs, plays the guitar, Elvis' guitar and accompanies him. And Elvis sings My People in that little trailer. And then a guy comes to get him to do a scene

and he's leaving, and our guy, Louie, says, Elvis, why'd you do all those movies? And I used the line that I had heard from the actual story where somebody asked him that, and he said, hey, man, last thing I remember, I was driving a truck. And he laughs and leaves. and we're left with the songwriting couple and the and the wife of Louie says I think he said no and Louie says yeah but

what a no that's like the greatest no ever and says, sometimes a no is maybe even better than a yes. And that's the end of Lost Masterpieces, the movie that never gets made. Elvis never makes another movie, but they have that moment in the trailer where it all came to life for one minute while he sang the song. Yeah. That truck, last thing I remember, I was driving a truck.

Yeah. I'll tell you where it came from. Leon Russell, the great pianist and member of the Wrecking Crew and stuff, besides being a genius solo artist, he played on so many records. And he played on a bunch of Elvis records. And he was in the RCA studios in the hallway. And he sees Elvis coming down the hallway. And they hadn't seen each other since playing on a session.

And Leon Russell described it as he kind of developed Elvis Tourette's. He's just like, what do you say to him? And he ended up blurting out, Elvis, why did you say to him? And he ended up blurting out Elvis. Why'd you make all those shitty movies? Just yucking it up in a studio hallway. And Elvis said, last thing I remember, I was driving a truck and like walks on, you know, driving a truck in Tupelo basically.

And then the hurricane hit and there he is. Oh, what he means his whole life is just a blur that's what he means that's what he means but once again it's so heartbreaking it is heartbreaking

the idea that he would he's essentially confessing to the fact he's had no agency over his own career which we know is the truth of his own career. Yeah. That he just completely surrendered all decision-making to somebody else, to this kind of bad surrogate father. Yeah.

And clearly, in what little research I've been able to do in the years past, our little novelty project here, he didn't appreciate his movies he he never apparently had the moment of watching him at two or three in the morning and saying like it's kind of good i think he who's aware of his own kind of loss and failure in some sense. And who, you know, they're coming to him and they're confronting him with more of the kind of falsehood, you know? Exactly. And he just can't do it anymore.

Priscilla Presley said there's a version of Elvis that few people ever saw, and they would go to the outskirts of town to like gospel festivals, and Elvis would sit at a piano with like a gospel group who was just like kind of amateurish gospel group, and he'd sing at this piano, and she would say, that was the purest Elvis. That was him just connected to his own heaven. That was it.

And she said, like, if you're going to do something about Elvis and not have that in, you're not seeing the real guy. So I felt like that moment in the trailer he actually there was just a love of music and there was something in that song that touched him enough to want to sing it and who is he if not a singer

and so he takes a spin he takes it for a spin and that was his goodbye it's like in the screenplay how much of Elvis had we seen prior to the trailer He takes it for a spin and that was his goodbye. It's like... Yeah. In the screenplay, how much of Elvis had we seen prior to the trailer? Oh, nothing. He's like Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti or something.

It's like... So we... It's a brief... Oh, he just has that cameo right at the very end. Yeah. They're just jamming like we're on the honeymoon. They're trying to like, it's the joy of their creation, the songwriters, the whole story really is they're living in it and experiencing it like we did on our honeymoon.

But I think that line is cool because maybe his partner realizes that the act of actually doing it and pulling Elvis back into a place that he was obviously leaving and how will the songs really turn out and are they out of step with the times? These are all challenges that they don't have to face. They got to see it. And damn, it was good. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Cameron, why have we been denied this? This is so much more interesting

than I imagined. I thought what you were doing, because all I had was the songs. You sent me the songs. I didn't have the story. And I thought, oh, this is like a goof. I just thought, oh, you're just like someone who loves Elvis is doing a little goofy Elvis thing. But now I understand, as is the case with so many of your movies,

when we get to the core of it, there's something really emotionally resonant there. Like painfully, painfully emotionally resonant there. Like painfully, painfully emotionally resonant there. I hope so. It's that happy-sad feeling that, you know, like the songs we love so often tap into that happy-sad feeling

of, you know, the ying and yang, and you get to feel it all. So did you pitch this script anywhere? No, I kind of wrote it and enjoyed it and moved on to something else. Why didn't you pitch it? I hadn't started directing yet, really. And by the time that I did, I was already off on another journey. I always loved the idea of the dream that almost happened. And this is what you're digging into right now. There's an incredible kind of happy-sad melancholy about some of the Christopher Guest stuff

in the way that it was influencing me around this time and later too. I just love the humanity and the humor and the mix of that. I don't know. Maybe someday I'll circle back to some version of this, but I did love the idea of a portrait of these artists just scraping for something true

and a different truth comes out of it. On this season's Development Hell series, we've heard stories about my brush with Hollywood glory, science fiction tales that never were, chimp forward Michael Jackson biopics. But I wanted to tell you about Blue Seattle at the end of it all, because this conversation was my ticket out of development hell. Crow and Nancy Wilson got divorced some time ago. We didn't talk about that, but I think it was part of the happy, sad feeling I got listening to these songs they made together right when they got married. Crow is the king of happy, sad on film, the kind of instant nostalgia that's all about feeling joy while knowing it will pass. That all things fade, but not if they never exist in the first place. That's the beauty of development hell. I thought it was all about missing out on projects the world

deserves to see, and for some films, like say Bubbles, it really is. But it's also about ideas so perfect that realizing them on screen might do them a disservice. Will anyone's Elvis be better than Cameron Crowe singing with Nancy Wilson 10 days after they got married? How could you even shoot the scene where the songwriters run through all the songs they've written in a trailer? How's Elvis going to clap his hands while driving his cab?

Would it look ridiculous? Maybe. That's not the point. Does it sound amazing? Absolutely. And does it come to life in our imagination? Yes, it does. It's like Louis' wife says, sometimes a no is better than a yes. This episode of Revisionist History was produced by Nina Bird Lawrence and Ben-Nadav Hafri with Tali Emlin. Editing by Sarah Nix. Original scoring by Luis Guerra.

Engineering by Echo Mountain. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Thanks to the Pushkin crew, Greta Cohn, Christina Sullivan, Sarah Nix, Nicole Optenbosch,

Eric Sandler, Sarah Bruguere, and Carrie Brody. An extra special thanks, of course, to Cameron Crowe. I'm Malcolm Glauco. One chance to love, one dance inside

Your precious love, my darling man I ain't coming back Darling, there ain't so many others Who would ask for twenty, thirty, forty or fifty chances to love But not me, darling No, I'll take my shot I'll take my chance on just one One chance to love One chance to love What gets inside

Your precious love I call it mine What gets to love One chance to love Your precious love I need to live on I ain't gonna fall One chance to One chance to go