Double trouble : Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a land of no alternatives / Greil Marcus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marcus, Greil

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Clinton, Bill, 1946-.

Clinton, Bill.

Clinton, Bill, 1946---Influence.

Presley, Elvis, 1935-1977.

Popular culture--Political aspects.

History.

Popular culture.

United States--Politics and government--1993-.

United States.

Politics and government.

Politics and culture--United States--History--20th century.

Politics and culture.

Popular culture--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Presley, Elvis, 1935-1977--Influence.

Presley, Elvis.

Physical Description:

xxii, 248 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Henry Holt, 2000.

Summary:

In June of 1992, when all the polls showed that Bill Clinton didn't have a chance, he took his saxophone onto the Arsenio Hall show, put on dark glasses, and blew "Heartbreak Hotel." Greil Marcus, one of America's most imaginative and insightful critics, was the first to name this as the moment that turned Clinton's campaign around -- and to make sense of why.

In Double Trouble Greil Marcus draws on articles he published from 1992 to 2000 to explore the remarkable and illuminating kinship between Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley. In a cultural landscape where ideals and choices are increasingly compromised, the constantly mutating representations of Clinton and Elvis embody the American struggle over purity and corruption, fear and desire. In the public imagination each remains a signal figure in a B-movie about the country's unresolved notions of what it means to be good, true, and beautiful -- and evil, false, and ugly.

Focusing as well on Hillary Clinton, Nirvana, Sinead O'Connor, Andy Warhol, and especially Bob Dylan, Marcus pursues the question of how culture is made and how, through culture, people remake themselves. The result is a unique and essential book about the final decade of the twentieth century.

Contents:

Part 1 The Elvis Election: 1992-1993

A Moral Crisis 5

Advice to Bill Clinton 9

How the Heartaches Began 12

Images of the Present Day 16

The Roger Clinton Experience 34

Flashback: The Music Playing Outside Bill Clinton's Oxford Dorm Room 37

Pop Music Saves the World Again 41

Artist of the Year 44

Bill Clinton: Hound Dog or Teddy Bear? 46

Part 2 Traces of Extremist Culture in a Time of Broken Politics: 1993-1997

Bob Dylan Argues with Himself at the Inauguration 55

The Summer of Love Generation Reaches the White House. So Do Their Kids 58

More Thoughts on the White House Playlist 62

But Not Life 66

What's New in the Cemetery 70

Mystery Train After Thirty-nine Years 74

Elvis and Hermes, Together Again at Last 77

Clinton Places Behind Juliette Lewis, Ahead of Prince in New Poll; McCarthyism Tops "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" 83

Traces of Extremist Culture in a Time of Broken Politics 87

Kurt Cobain 1967-1994 91

Nirvana After the 1994 Congressional Elections 96

Gladys Love Smith and Vernon Elvis Presley 100

Bob Dylan After the 1994 Congressional Elections 104

Nostalgia 108

Mario Savio 1943-1996 112

Allen Ginsberg 1926-1997 116

Tell-Tale Heart 119

August 16, 1997: The Drifter 122

August 16, 1997: The Farmer 129

A Map You Can Throw Away 132

The Story Untold 138

Part 3 The Last Laugh: 1998-2000

J. T. Walsh 149

Heaven's Gate 155

America at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century 159

Pennsylvania at the End of the Twentieth Century 163

The Last Laugh 170

Demand the Impossible 192

Artist of the Year 198

Center of the Universe 201

Pleasantville 206

A Look Back 211

The Man from Nowhere 217.

Notes:

"A John Macrae book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [231]-234) and index.

ISBN:

080506513X

OCLC:

43694282