MEMPHIS, Tenn. – It didn’t take much coaxing from President Bush to get Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to croon some Elvis tunes Friday at the king of rock ‘n’ roll’s Graceland mansion.
“You’re a pretty good Elvis singer,” Bush suggested to Koizumi, an avid Elvis Presley fan.
That was all the prodding the freewheeling prime minister needed.
“Love me tender, love me sweet,” Koizumi sang.
“Wise men say, only fools rush in. …”
“We need a karaoke machine,” joked Priscilla Presley, mother of Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie. Koizumi donned a pair of sunglasses that Elvis wore in the 1972 concert film “Elvis on Tour” and hugged Lisa Marie. “Hold me close. Hold me tight,” he sang to her.
Then Koizumi bent down, swung his arm as if strumming a guitar and sang, “Glory, glory, hallelujah,” a refrain from the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” also part of the Presley repertoire.
The visit to Graceland was the highlight of the outgoing Japanese leader’s two-day visit with Bush, a kind of sayonara summit to illustrate how their personal friendship has helped bring U.S.-Japan relations closer than at any time since the end of World War II.
“This visit here shows that not only am I personally fond of the prime minister, but the ties between our peoples are very strong as well,” Bush said.
It was Bush’s first visit to Presley’s white brick mansion.
“My first visit too,” Koizumi said, standing in a gaudy, wood-paneled den known as the Jungle Room where Presley hung out with his buddies. “It’s like a dream – with President Bush and Presley’s daughter.”
Bush, first lady Laura Bush and Koizumi drove through the gates of Graceland in a shiny, black limousine adorned with the flags of both nations. It was as if they were making a formal diplomatic visit.
After they got out, the scene turned surreal.
Here was Bush, who didn’t stop off at the Taj Mahal while in India, touring the home of a music star who died in his bathroom of heart disease and drug abuse in 1977.
Instead of walking down red carpets to review troops, Bush and Koizumi strode over green shag that lined the floors and ceiling of the den. Instead of elegant furniture and chandeliers, Bush and Koizumi posed for photos in a room decorated with white ceramic monkeys and wooden chairs with armrests carved in the shape of animal heads.
Bush’s top political adviser Karl Rove snapped photos of the Japanese delegation in front of Elvis’ 1955 pink Cadillac with whitewall tires. “I loved the (lamp) shade they had covered with faux fur,” Rove said.
Graceland was closed to tourists when Lisa Marie and her mother escorted the dignitaries around the 14-acre estate, showing them the glossy black baby-grand piano, a 15-foot white sofa in the living room, Presley’s burial site and his gold records, guitars and costumes.
Bush and Koizumi weren’t allowed to peek at the private quarters upstairs.
It was all Elvis all day.
Along with anti-war protesters along the motorcade route, four Elvis impersonators in white jumpsuits sang “Don’t be Cruel” in the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s protest to urge a halt to illegal Japanese whaling.
Elvis tunes were playing over the public address system aboard Air Force One as Bush and Koizumi flew here. Elvis movies were available upon request.
White House press secretary Tony Snow wore Elvis novelty shades to brief reporters on the plane and fueled conspiracy theories that the singer never died. The two leaders, he said, would visit the “alleged grave site.”
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