Heartbreak Hotel, Lonely Street, Memphis, Tennessee

Date of Sketch: September 17, 2017

Hearing the achingly beautiful slow movement of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 recalls the aural mood created by the King in one of his first iconic threnodies. The glass tower thus inspired is clad in a "tonal" range of grays to intensify the hotel's angular form, echoing in silhouette Elvis' performing style. "The desk clerks dressed in black." 

from program notes ~ Songwriter Tommy Durden was inspired to write the lyrics from a newspaper story about a man who leapt from his hotel room window committing suicide and leaving behind nothing but a note that said “I walk a lonely street”.