Elvis

I meant to post this on his birthday, which I somehow thought was the 9th, but I think that's Nixon's birthday..

Elvis.

How do I put this gently?  I never understood the appeal of Elvis Presley. I missed the whole "Elvis the Pelvis" thing, where the tv stations would not show him dancing his signature swivel, as it was deemed  inappropriate for women and children.   By the time I was aware of him, I suppose, all that sexy young man thing he had going for him had waned and now he was just an overblown caricature.   Graceland.  The Memphis Mafia.  The .. jumpsuits.  His voice and delivery of a song was not particularly thrilling to me.   I think most of the stuff had over produced layers of too much .... stuff.  if that makes sense.   I think at one point I had a single of "In the Ghetto"  a song whose lyrics I consider so abhorrent, I can't believe it was a hit.  Such a terrible cliche. The Elvis films all had the same plot in different locations.  He may have been a wonderful actor for all I know.  I only remember him being dragged into the same films over and over again, none of which were anything but fluffy 1960's sun-and-surf with music films.

Still people love him, forty plus years after his death they still make pilgrimages to Graceland.  I think if I were ever in Memphis- although the likelihood of that is slim- I would probably go for curiosity sake.

I just don't get the King of Rock and Roll and the Greatest Entertainer of all Time sobriquet that is often attached to Elvis. 

I listen to a lot of different music, and I was noting that I can think of at least FOUR songs that talk about Elvis:

Black Velvet
Free Falling
Walking in Memphis
Porcelain Monkey

the last is a dark ( is there any other kind) Warren Zevon song about Elvis and how he threw away himself to become Elvis.  I suppose when you are a poor kid with nothing but a talent you can be swept up in selling your soul.  Col. Tom Parker was the villain of this piece, locking a poor uneducated kid into a contract for life where Parker reaped the lions share.  At least, that is how it played out in the world.  Unless you were there, you cannot really know.

I wonder if Elvis was happy.  I doubt it.  At 42, he was a bloated drug addled version of his former self.  He died young, I wonder if it were drugs or genetics or a combination. 

I won't wish him a Happy Birthday, but as people remember him at what would have been his 85th birthday, I will go listen to those songs written about him.

"Left behind by the latest trends
eating friend chicken with his Regicidal  friends
that's how the story ends
with a porcelain monkey"