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Market Square Elvis news
Posted By katie allison granju
The Market Square Elvis (or someone claiming to be MSE) called the newsroom this morning, saying he’s been asked to quit belting out the superhits on the Square - or at least to unplug his amplifier.
Mar 12th, 2008
what?! knoxville will lose part of its soul if he goes. i smell protest.
that guy looks suspiciously like my brother - who lives within walking distance of Market Square. But my brother can’t sing.
That’s ridiculous ~ especially since Sundown in the City is VERY LOUD!!! C’mon people, let Elvis keep his amp turned on. He adds charm to the Square.
I understand why MSElvis would be a sentimental favorite, but I also understand part of the reasoning here. I’ve enjoyed watching some of MSE’s “performances” from time to time as I visit the Farmers’ Market. I have a few photos of him in my Flickr photostream, along with photos of other buskers on the Square.
I am happy the city and the Market Square merchants are actively trying to recruit buskers to perform on the square. The decision to restrict street performers to acoustic performances is a reasonable one. Otherwise, soon, the Market Street performances would be reduced to a headache-inducing cacophony as each amp would slowly be turned up to drown out the amp of the other performer. That’s not very conducive to encouraging folks to hang out on the Square to eat, shop, and socialize. If you can hear it inside the shops (where it distracts from the clerks ability to talk with shoppers) or if it overwhelms the ability for restaurant patrons to converse on the patio dining areas, amplified busking no longer becomes a sentimental favorite, it becomes a hindrance to conducting business. (Remember, also, that while you may only be in the shop or on the patio for a short while, the clerks, waitstaff, and owners are listening to it for a considerably longer time.)
There is a difference between the buskers and the Sundown shows. Don’t forget the Sundown shows are also regulated (loud though they may be). They are regularly scheduled so that the people who work and live on the Square can choose to work with it or around it as they desire and they have a set closing time each week. Buskers show up at any hour of the business day (including evenings) and can end up hanging out as long as their personal endurance seems to desire. It seems only fair that they be asked not to allow their performances interfere with established businesses and residents as much as possible.
I like MSElvis. I hope he can find opportunities to express himself. Maybe there are alternative locations for him to set up shop or maybe he can pick up a guitar and trade the jumpsuit for a black leather outfit and play act the role of acoustic “Comeback Elvis” from the ‘68 special. That’d be a picture worth taking.