Neil Young's Elvis, Left the Tour Bus

During a 1992 live show at Los Angeles' Greek Theater, Neil Young, introduced his song about his favorite hound Elvis, "Old King" with a wonderful true tale about his hound.

..."And uh, so, I said, 'Okay Elvis, take a shot.'"

"Naw, really. . . he took off, I let him go. And uh, there's only one thing that can go wrong if you do that. That's if it rains, then, and then he can't find his way back, 'cause he can't smell over the little rains, you know. He just loses it.
"So, he lost it, he got lost. It's like three o'clock in the afternoon, we're still waiting for him to come back, and we gotta go to the gig pretty soon or we're gonna be late, you know, and I'm going, 'Shit, I lost my dog. What am I gonna tell everybody?' You know, I can't leave him behind, I can't, you know, what can I do? So I went out hunting for him.

..."So I went back to the bus, and uh, I got out my lucky shirt, which I don't have with me tonight, you may have noticed. I know, but it's too hot for my lucky shirt. So anyway, I, he, I took it out there and I put it down by the bowl, put his bowl out there, and left the shirt, he'd come back eventually, you know, find his way back to the shirt. And I'd figured after the gig I could come back.

"So, I get back on the bus to take off. So I'm leaving, and this guy in a pick up truck pulls up and says, 'Hey Neil, what're you doing?' Well, so, I told him, I'm not gonna tell it again here, I told him, and then, uh, then uh, he said 'Well that's okay, Neil, I'll, me and, I'll go get my wife, and we'll wait, we'll wait right here until he comes back, and then we'll bring him to you in Eureka.'

..."So, uh, so I, so I got there. Ah, hey, that's rock n' roll, you gotta do what you do. And ah, you know, just as I was going on he called me and said they found him.

This Lady Was No Tramp

Legendary singer, Peggy Lee, was not just one of jazz/pop music's most talented and swinging vocalist, but a legendary songwriter. She was a performer who crafted each performance from working with a select group of talented musicians down to her gown selection, hair do, and lighting. In 1952, she lent her vocal and song-writing talents to Walt Disney's production of, The Lady and the Tramp, as Peg the Lhasa Apso.

Peggy Lee co-wrote the films memorable songs, “The Siamese Cat Song,” He’s a Tramp” and, “Bella Notte," (the famous shared plate of spaghetti scene) with Sonny Burke. She also provided her vocal talents as Darcy, the mother who sings “La La Lu,” the two devious cats, Si and Am, who sing “The Siamese Cat Song,” and of course Peg, the sexy pooch who sings, “He’s a Tramp."

During production, Peggy was paid a $3,500 salary from Disney and she and Sonny Burke had split a royalty fee of $1,000 for the sheet music and phonograph record rights for the film’s musical score. Both were given no royalties for their contribution. But in 1992 when Disney marketed a videocassette without her consent, she sued the company and was awarded $2.3 million after a four-year court battle.

Peggy, who was 70 years old at the time of her court win, remarked of the experience, "You know, they always say, 'Don't mess with the Mouse...I'm glad that my rights were vindicated."