Atongla Rothrong
To be honest, as I sit down to write about Elvis Presley, I don’t have a clue where to begin. After almost 21 years of being an Elvis junkie, suddenly all the right words are out of my grasp. Then just as suddenly, I realize that I don’t have to justify Elvis Presley to anyone. No matter what anyone thinks, Elvis Presley is the King. That’s an indisputable fact and whether you love him or feel totally indifferent about him, you just can’t change history.
Well! For a start, before Elvis there was no Rock ‘N’ Roll as you and I know it. Sure, he didn’t invent the so called Rock ‘N’ Roll but he gave it something. His music had emotions, it was and is and will be untamed and free.
He was born in a two-room plank house in Tupelo in Mississippi. The house was raised off the ground on legs of concrete and brick, had a porch, three windows and a pointed roof. Small, narrow, redolent of poverty, it resisted the heavy rains and the summer’s dry heat. There was no running water. Outside was a shit house, a pump, some trees and untended grass.
The great myth of America lied behind him. Born of a family that was scourged by its own poverty, he already dreamed some heady dreams. He learned to love God, to respect even his worst elders and to stand by his country. The boy sensed this but didn’t quite realized it. It was the singing of the blacks that had given him a culture he would never acknowledge.
Somethings, however are prophetic. At the tender age of ten, Elvis Aaron Presley entered the annual singing contest of the Mississippi- Alabama Fair. He stood on a high chair and sang Red Foleys “Old Shep” and won the second prize of $5.
His mamma bought him a guitar and he learned to play it by listening to the radio of the hillbilly stations- Jimmy Rogers, Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb- all steeping into country music. He also listened to the blues, to the proliferating black, to Big Bill Broonzy, B.B.King- steeping in ‘gutter’ music. And mostly always, he sang in the church with his folks, which added spirituality to his broadening repertoire.
This year on 16th of August it will be 51 years since Elvis did it. Did it? Did what? ‘It’ is his thing, the thing which is still working its magic. What Elvis did was magic. He did a thing that launched a million things. Magic is the art of pure influence- the power of the will to move wills. Helen of Troy launched a thousand ships they say, but Elvis launched a million hips, and a million guitars, a million acts, a million songs.
It’s been 28 years now, since Elvis died and in that time, the Elvis legend has grown. In death he has become larger than life. There have been countless books and exposes telling of ‘ELVIS’ stories that describes him as a walking drugstore and so on, but whatever it might be, wouldn’t it be nice if we could just try remembering the guy for what he was and for all that he stood for, without jumping to the conclusion?
“Elvis is a star”, asserted the notorious magician Alistair Crowley, as one of the principles of his magic, and it was to the star in every man and woman that Elvis addressed himself. That’s the way it was with Elvis.
In a group of superstars he was alone; hanging out with his ever-present entourage, he was alone. Like most kings, Elvis probably longed for some real company but his position made it impossible. And as with conventional monarchs, it was perhaps this irrevocable solitude that appealed to the masses. Elvis’ solitude and loneliness could be appreciated by the masses of fans. Ordinary nobles and celebrities are never alone, but a king and Elvis somehow shared the loneliness.
Elvis was a natural. He didn’t really have to work for it; he was it. But what he was, he must have only began to understand later. He might have realized early on that he stood for ‘good, bad but not evil”. And, then he must have realized that it wasn’t an easy thing to stand up for.
Morality is like climate- it looks permanent but subjected to change. Morals were one thing when Elvis came in and something else entirely when he went out, but in a way he was always on top or on the bottom of the situation.
At the beginning Elvis was the prime target for the ‘moral majority’ of the day. But because Elvis started out with assurance and massive approval, he knew he wasn’t bad. He didn’t have to take a middle road position. He was no Pat Boone. But neither was he a James Dean. Elvis knew he was good, so he was free to be ‘bad’. He was a love object- he knew it and he knew that love wasn’t bad and therefore he wasn’t either.
The legend of Elvis Presley has long passed since, into the public domain. The amount of literature available on him rivals Lindbergh, Houdini, Valentino and the Kennedy’s all put together.
28 years after his death, our attention still shifts from one posthumous saga to another. And yet, in our continuing passion to find out more about this man and assess his enduring legacy, future generations will face snarling problems of historiography and biographical veracity in separating fact from fiction, myth from reality, and truth from legend.
Elvis was called “the king” early on. The title came naturally; he reached the top and stayed there, virtually unchallenged. Now he’s gone but still the king of rock n roll, although many critics called him a walking drugstore cowboy. There are faces we remember, for the way they touched our lives, comforted us when we were desolate and quite frankly, caused us to go dancing out into the streets. This is a celebration of the lives and times of Elvis who enriched the world by his sheer virtue of existence, and who left behind a legacy that will endure in the years to come. There are people who achieve fame in their lifetimes and people who don’t but every now and then, one person emerges to stand above all others, someone who inspires and influences the imagination of millions, someone who becomes a legend. Elvis Presley is one of these people.
BORN- 8th January 1935
DIED- 16th August 1977
Elvis has more Platinum albums than any other artist (55) TROPHIES- Elvis has the most Platinum singles (27)
Elvis has more Gold albums than any other artist (97)
Elvis has the most Gold singles (24)
No wonder they call him The King.
