JUNGLE MUSIC

JUNGLE MUSIC

The All-Star All-Time 1950's Rock 'n' Roll Movie

By

Greil Marcus

Starring

Elvis Presley

as The Good Boy Gone Wrong

Gene Vincent

as The Bad Boy Gone Wrong

Fats Domino

as The Old Con

Pat Boone

as The Prison Guard

Little Richard

as The Chaplain

Chuck Berry

as The Warden

Jerry Lee Lewis

as The Leader of the Pack

Frankie Lymon, Richie Valens, Dion, the Del-Vikings, the Everly Brothers, and Many Others

as Members of the Pack

Buddy Holly

as The Leader of the Laundromat

Carl Perkins, Rod McKuen, Frankie Avalon, Frankie Sardo, the Platters, the Three Chuckles, and Many Others

as Members of the Laundromat

Bo Diddley

as The Dean of High Hopes High School

Fabian

as The Dope Pusher

Dick Clark

as Mr. Big

Eddie Cochran

as The Undercover Agent

Natalie Wood

as The Girl

And Featuring

Alan Freed

as the President of the United States

We open in a crowded country music bar where Elvis Presley is singing “Don’t Be Cruel.” Halfway through the song a drunk staggers to the stage and vomits all over Elvis’ blue suede shoes. El smashes him with his guitar and suddenly the place is in chaos. Several goons jump Elvis, while another douses the lights; we can barely make out Gene Vincent, dressed in black leather from head to foot, as he flicks open his knife and plants it square in the back of one of Elvis’ assailants. The crowd scatters; the lights go up; the cops arrive. No one is left in the bar but Elvis, Vincent, and the corpse. The cops lead the two young men away.

Fade in on High Hopes High School; on the soundtrack: “High School Confidential.” The Pack, led by Jerry Lee Lewis, and the rival Laundromat, led by Buddy Holly, are in the midst of a lunchtime face-off over the affections of Natalie Wood, the only girl in school. The Pack make quick work of the Laundromat, and are moving in on Natalie when Dean of Boys Bo Diddley appears on the scene. “More small potatoes,” sneers Bo at Jerry Lee. “I always said the Pack ain’t got no class.” Nettled, Jerry Lee rolls Holly’s unconscious body down a flight of stairs. “How’s that, Dean Diddley?” Jerry Lee asks politely. “That’s class, man!” smiles the Dean, as Natalie takes Jerry Lee’s arm and gazes at him adoringly. On the track: “I Only Have Eyes For You.”

Fade in on the State Prison. Warden Berry is at his desk. “Thirty years, thirty years, gonna take you thirty years to get back home,” he sings to himself. Guard Boone enters. “Time to sign out Fabian,” Boone reports. “The Parole Board ordered him freed today.” “Bout time,” snaps Berry. “Payoff came through from Mr. Big months ago. I’se beginnin’ to worry we was gonna have to give it back.”

Cut to the prison exercise yard. On the track: "Rock Around the Rockpile." “Sheeit!” whines Vincent. “Why’d that creep Fabian get sprung?” “Ah’m sure ah don! know,” says Elvis. “Must be God’s will.”

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CONTINUE^ FROM PAGE 43

“God’s will, my ass,” says Vincent. “He’s out, and we’re in. In. in, in! I’m going nuts in here!" We’ll never* gdt out.”

“Ain’t that a shame,” calls a voice; Elvis and Vincent turn to see Fats Domino lumbering across the yard. “Who’re you?” Gene growls, suspiciously.

“They call, they call me the Fat Man ’cause I weigh two hundred pounds. All the boys( they love me, ’caiise I know my way around. You wanna know why Fabian’s on the street? I’ll tell ya! Mr. Big’s slipping payola to Warden Berry, that’s why! Mr. Big’s sending Fabian down to High Hopes High to hook the whole student body on dope, and everybody from the Warden to the High Hopes Dean got a piece of the action!”

“We ain’t got no piece of it,” scowls Vincent; but Elvis is mortified. “I figured that Fabian for a rinqer the first time I heard him sing ‘Hound Dog Man’ at the prison variety show,” he says. “We gotta save those kids—and maybe get ourselves a pardon in the bargain.”

“Reetpeteet, King,” says Vincent. “I suppose we just ask Buck Cherry for a pass and waltz on out, huh? So’s we can queer his scam?”

\“God will show the way,” Elvis replies.

“Damn straight,” says the Fat Man. “You know Crazy Richard the Chaplain? Well, he’s always lookin’ for converts, and he’s blackmailed the Warden into letting a couple out each month.for a night so he can take ’em up to his Holiness Church and get ’em1 born again. But—you gotta learn how to speak in tongues.”

“I already know how,” says Elvis proudly.

“Great,” says the Fat Man. “Now, you just stay cool, wait till Richard gets into his stuff and the place is goin’ wild, sneak out, and double back to High Hopes. It’s a cinch. But remember, you gotta act devout—that Richard may be crazy, but he can tell the wheat from the chaff like Mr. Big can tell horse from sugar. He wouldn’t take me.”

“OK, says Vincent. “We gotta try it.”

A small wooden church filled with a screaming mob. Crazy Richard stands on the pulpit, picking up momentum by the second. “TUTTI FRUTTI!” he shouts. “ALL ROOTIE! I’M READY! m READY READY READY TO ROCK & ROLL RIGHT INTO THE ARMS OF THE LORD! I DON’T WANT NO UNCLE JOHN’S JUMPIN’ BACK IN THE ALLEY TONIGHT! I WANT I WANT I WANT

Elvis and Vincent stand facing the pulpit, dressed in pure white. The congregation begins to move up so Richard can sanctify them, but out of nowhere lightning strikes the church and plunges it into darkness. “Now!” whispers Vincent. He and Elvis turn to escape in the commotion, but suddenly a huge blue flame materializes behind Crazy Richard. He raises his arms to the roof, and begins to scream. Elvis, his face bathed in the blue light, is transfixed.

Shifty, Vincent says, “For heaven’s sake — nobody’s looking now, let’s make our break!”

Elvis smiles and says, “Nix, nix! I gotta stick around while I get my kicks!”

“NOW I’M REALLY READY!” howls Richard. Gene knocks Elvis over the head with a hymnal and drags him from the church as the crowd goes into hysterics. “I’M READY READY READY READY READY ...”

Quick cuts of Fabian, Elvis, Vincent, and a new face we recognize as Eddie Cochran, all registering as transfer students at High Hopes High. On the track: “School Is In.”

The screen reads “Two Weeks Later.” We fade in on the Study Hall. The Laundromat with Fabian in their midst, are nodding off, falling over, and laughing madly. Fabian has made his first connection. At the other end of the room sit the Pack, with new members Elvis, Vincent, and Cochran. They are straight, but can’t take their eyes off the Laundromat. “What’s happening?” whispers Jerry Lee to his boys. “I know,” says Elvis brightly, “It’s that little Fabian who—”

“Coolit,”Cochran hisses. “Meet me after school, we gotta talk. But cool it!”

Cochran, Vincent, and Elvis are huddled in a booth at the Soda Shop. “Alright,” snaps Eddie, “I got something to spill. I wasn’t supposed to cop,. but I gotta if I’m gonna keep you guys in line. I’m not really a student*here.”

“Well, piss in my eye,” sneers Vincent. z

“We’re jnot either,” glows Elvis. “We’re here to nab Fabian and Mr. Big and save the kids!”

“And us,” Gene adds.

“That’s really something else,” says Eddie, flashing a badge. “I’m Treasury, what’s your outfit?”

“Uh, freelance,” says Vincent.

“I don’t care what your cover is. But here’s the story so far. We can’t move on Fabian till we flush Mr. Big into the open, and by that time he’s gonna have the whole school on the needle. We don’t even krjow who he is. We need a plan.”

Elvis notices Gene and Eddie tapping their fingers to “Race with the Devil,” which is playing on th£ jukebox. aDo you dig The Rock?” Elvis asks. “Cause if you do, we just might form a band — everyone thinks musicians are junkies — and Mr. Big will come to us. And even if he doesn’t, we can pick up some bread playing the prom. What say?”

Eddie and Gene look to Elvis with. admiration. “We need a name,” says Eddie. “The ‘Go-Valeers’?”

‘“The Plume Gods’?”

‘“The Wrong Way’?”

“‘The Vacant Lot’?”

“‘The Fourth Period’?”

“How ’bout” — Elvis gets a gleam in his eye—“ ‘The Rolling Stones’?”

“I like it,” says Vincent. “I like it a lot.

It says something.”

“OK, Stones!” cries Eddie. “Let’s shake it!”

Prom night at High Hopes gym. Hundreds of students are wandering around in a daze, not even bothering to hide the works in their pockets. Off to one side the Pack and the Laundromat are taking on Natalie Wood one by one, while Dean Diddley administers injection after injection to the nearly comatose girl. “Help me, Jerry Lee,” she moans; he giggles like a moron. Fabian snakes through the crowd, keeping the supply up, occasionally snorting from a glassine envelope. The Pack and the Laundromat pass Natalie to Dean Diddley and pass a dirty needle from hand to hand, spattering each other’s clothes with junk. Elvis, Eddie, and Gene huddle backstage. “Great idea, King,” mumbles Vincent. “Wr got the band, we ain’t got Mr. Big and any minute people are gonna start wondering why we’re the only ones without tracks on our arms.” “Keep your head straight,” says Elvis. They hit the stage, and roar through three stunning tunes — “Hound Dog,” '“The Summertime Blues,” and “Be Bop a Lu La.” Not one High Hoper pays the slightest attention; Mr. Big is nowhere to be seen. The plan has failed. The Stones, dispirited, head backstage toregroup.

There, waiting for them, is Dick Clark.

“Hi, I’m the world’s oldest teenager,” says Clark. “I’ve heard about you boys.

I like your sound. We can go places. I can make you.

The three boys forget their mission, Mr. Big, Fabian, prison. They see records, stardom, money, girls — the American Dream.

“We’re ready,*’ says Elvis.

“Where do we sign?” says Eddie.

“We want the big time!” says Gene.

“Great,!’ says Clark. “Let’s shoot on it, ”

Suddenly it hits them. This is Mr. Big. The whole school has gone under and only they are left. Today High Hopes — tomorrow, High School U.S.A. Dope School, U.S.A., thinks Cochran bitterly. His dreams of glory fade. He has no choice. One wink to his pals, and with Eddie in the lead they take Mr. Big withbut a struggle. Everyone knows dopers ar£ cowards.

With Fabian and Mr. Big in cuffs, and the students slowly detoxifying and entering the first stages of cold turkey, Eddie puts in a call to Washington. “We got him, Chief,” he says to President Freed. “But I’m quitting. I want a pardon for my friends, and then we’re going on the road. I want a clean life, Chief — I’m tired of messing with scum. From now on, it’s rock ‘n’ roll for me.”

“Congratulations, son,” says the President. “I know the kids just love that jungle music. I wish you all the best in the world.” Surprisingly, his voice ; grows hard. “But you damn well better remember one thing, and that goes for your pals, too.”

“What’s that, President Freed?” asks Eddie.

“I had half a mil tied up with Mr. Big, you little twerp, and you blew it for me, you and your bopcat buddies. I never thought you’d turn down his offer. So go ahead, rock around the clock, slop till you drop, shaLe till you break. I could care less. But you make damn sure my office gets half of every gig, and every cent of your publishing — or the only.groove you’ll get into will be six feet in the ground.”

The phone clicks dead. Elvis and Vincent look hopefully at Eddie, anxious to hear the results of the call. Slowly, Cochran turns toward them.

A look of incredible horror is on his face.

FADE OUT

THE END

(Reprinted from City Magazine)