Long Live the King!

Elvis in 1957

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi.

 At 10 years old, Elvis received his 1st guitar, an inexpensive model purchased by his mother at the Tupelo Hardware Store.  His father, Vernon Presley, worked odd jobs and in 1948 moved the family to Memphis, Tennessee hoping for better prospects.  In Memphis, Elvis was exposed to the music that was happening on Beale Street; black rhythm and blues and gospel music.  The influence of that music and the people he met in Memphis can't be over emphasized.  Due in part to where he grew up and the people he had access to, he became the hottest entertainer America and the world has ever known. 

Everybody loved Elvis.

 I was born in 1954, just when his career was really taking off. 

 My parents were not Elvis fans: my dad had a big jazz band collection and my mom listened to Broadway show tunes. They were just a little too old to be screaming teenyboppers when Elvis hit his stride in 1956.  The 1st time I heard his music, I was  a college student listening to the radio in Ellensburg, Washington.  In the 1960s and 70s, KXLE, the local radio station, played country-western during the day and rock from 7 to 9 at night.  I think the 1st Elvis song that I noticed was In The Ghetto and I also remember hearing my favorite Elvis song of all time  Kentucky Rain. 

 Three of  the fabulous costumes Elvis wore on stage in the 70s shown here in the room at Graceland that is completely covered in gold and platinum albums.

 Custom jewelry made for Elvis, including the belt buckle which was presented to him by the International Hotel in Las Vegas, in recognition of his breaking all Las Vegas attendance records with his 1969 engagement there. 

 When Elvis died in 1977, everybody mourned.  In 1978 I moved to Athens, Georgia for graduate school and in the spring of 1979 a group of us went to Memphis for a conference. We made a pilgrimage out to Graceland and took a group photo by the gates (I was holding the camera).  It wasn't the tourist attraction then that it is now. In 2006, I returned to Graceland and did the whole tour with hundreds of other people. By that time I was more acquainted with his larger body of work and understood his contribution to American culture.  What was so special about Elvis?  The music critic, Lester Bangs, wrote in his obituary published in The Village Voice on August 29, 1977,

 "Elvis was probably the last thing we all are going to agree on."

 Amen to that. Long live the King of Rock 'n Roll.