elvis is everywhere / elvis is dead

it was thirty yrs ago today that i showed up to open the lawn guyland rekkid store where i worked and found a line of tear-stained, duck-tailed elvis fans mourning _their boy_. when i was living in memphis in the winter of 1981-1982, i surreptitiously carved "elvis sucks" in the wall at graceland with a penknife. but then i was just a jackass. since then, i've come to appreciate the merits of early (sun records) el -- thanks, greil marcus -- but aside from that, pert near evathing i think / feel on the matter is encapsulated in the first two clips, from mojo nixon and living colour, respectively. it's also worthwhile to compare presley's "hound dog" (with scotty moore on gtr) to big mama thornton's (with buddy guy). as energetic 'n' exciting as "the hillbilly cat" could be, he was also ready, willing, and able to be manipulated, ripe for transformation into the joke-icon we all had fun lampooning back in the '70s. his last great moment: "one night" from the '68 tv special. r.i.p.











ADDENDUM: i'm reading richard hell's go now, and maybe hell pegged it best when he wrote, "The America of the fifties, especially in the pockets that are still practically like the nineteenth century electrified. Right before television and franchise merchants homogenized and cheapened it all. That's what Elvis was and why he was so adored. He redeemed the poor and simple, showed the big shots the beauty of a country boy set loose."