Last Friday — January 8 — marked what would have been the 75th
birthday of Elvis Presley. The milestone was dutifully noted on most
national new broadcasts and publications, tastefully hitting the high
points of the King’s life without dwelling overmuch on this drug-
addled final years. The bulk of the celebrating took place in
Graceland, unsurprisingly, where the event was marked by a three-day
fete capped by appearances from both Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley.
Turner Classic Movies ran a (mostly) 24-hour retrospective of Elvis
movies, a few of which (Harum Scarum, Roustabout)
strain even TCM’s liberal definition of “classic,” while various other
commemorations were scheduled throughout the US.
But if Houstonians weren’t watching network news, or blinked as they
loaded up the old RSS feed last Friday, it’s entirely possible they
missed the whole thing. Were local restaurants serving peanut butter
and banana sandwiches to mark the occasion — like Nino’s Osso Buco in New York City? Beats me. Hell, the Houston Chronicle didn’t mention the occasion at all (the same can’t
be said for Rocks Off, however). Of course, I can’t really blame the
Chron, as there’s only so much space left once you’re done
talking about the return of American Idol and the shocking
fact that it gets cold in the winter.
Still, we need to confront the cold reality of the situation. Namely,
by asking if Elvis is still everywhere, as Mojo Nixon once asserted,
or has he finally become irrelevant? When the man’s legacy is
increasingly limited to campy impersonators and people more interested
in discussing the sordid details of his death than his music, it’s not
a trick question.
“Less” relevant, surely. Graceland is still — according to the the
official Graceland page, that is — the second most visited private
residence in the United States (behind the White House), though in
overall tourism it’s well back in the pack. Elvis has also started
slipping down Forbes’ list of top dead celebrity earners (4th in 2009, behind Yves St.
Laurent, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Michael Jackson). Priscilla
could take a few marketing tips from Gene Simmons, or maybe an
authentic Elvis Aaron Presley coffin would be a bit much.
Presley’s influence is significantly lacking among the young, who let
his birthday pass largely unnoticed, but also their parents, who would
be among the first to have grown up with no living memory of Elvis
performing. This hasn’t been a problem for other long-defunct acts,
like — for example — the Doors or the Beatles. But those groups
still have living members who can either release video games or tour
with new singers to keep interest stoked. As far as I know, there
isn’t any Elvis (Presley) DLC for Rock Band, much less talk
of an actual game a la The Beatles.
Looking at footage from last weekend’s celebrations, the age gap was
even more apparent. Most celebrants looked to be no younger than their
late 40s, with some grimacing teen grandkids in tow.
And while Elvis was once a titan of the silver screen, recent
depictions have ranged from the perfunctory (Walk the Line) to
surreal (Bubba Ho-Tep), and few musicians younger than Baby
Boomer vintage seem interested in acknowledging his influence at all.
Yet influential he remains. Accusations of cultural theft aside, Elvis
is still one of the most recognizable and dominant figures in
entertainment history. I only have vague memories of his 1970s
specials, but I remember where I was when I heard he died (in the car
on the way home from a trip to Yellowstone) and I still have a handful
of songs in my iPod (nestled between Elton John and Emmylou Harris). I
won’t claim great sorrow at his slow passage from our collective
memory, but am not in any hurry to experience an Elvis-less world.
Unlike Michael J. Fox, I’d still like to have some Elvis in me.
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2010.
