Elvis is Dead. Or IS he? hmmmm

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon
November 10, 2008


We had to take a little Saturday road trip to Memphis to pick up a dress for the upcoming beauty review for one daughter and to catch a play for class credit for another daughter. Scott thought it would be a great idea to drive up Elvis Presley Blvd. and show Ji Ehun and Ping Lo the Elvis Shrine.

Elvis is dead. Or so we have been led to believe. I personally have always thought since that fateful day of August 16, 1977, that it was all a farce. I remember the day well. I was working at Seabrook Wallpaper in Tupelo as their in-house interior designer. Yes that is correct. I used to be a member of the American Society of Interior Designers. But that was another life that is full of stories that will make you rock and roll with laughter!

Now where was I? Oh yeah. The day the music died. Nope that was Buddy Holly. The day the jester that stole the crown died. Hmmm yes much was made about ole Elvis. He was found dead in the bathroom at that icon of inferior decorating hell he called home, Graceland!

I was sitting at my desk at work picking out wallpaper and paint colors for someone’s bathroom and bedroom suite when I received the phone call. “ Elvis is dead!” the person on the other end shouted. “Elvis who?” I queried. Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth that followed that statement!

For several days, it was all over the news and in the papers and magazines. But it wasn’t long before the gossip rags started printing what I thought. Elvis wasn’t dead. He was just looking to make a new life and faked it all leaving ole Dr. Nick to take the fall. Why do you think they had to go and exhume him and rebury him on the grounds of Graceland. They didn’t want anyone to break into that mausoleum and find out that one of the wax figures that Madame Tussaud had just recently made was really in that casket.

Ole Elvis wasn’t stupid. He might not have had any taste when it came to clothes and decorating his house, but he knew he would be worth more dead than alive. And he had the money at the time to make such a move. Why not make sure that everyone would be well taken care of and fake the elaborate hoax and live in relative obscurity in Montana and live a normal life? Ole Col. Tom Parker could sure carry it off. He was getting 50% of all Elvis made, the crook. Elvis was tired, overweight, he dressed out of date and he took too many prescription drugs, just like us. Elvis' death did occur at a time when it could only help his reputation. Just before his death, Elvis had been forgotten by society…Except for older women. He was getting older and needed a way out.

There have been Elvis sightings for years as well as weird movies and books. Have you seen Bubba Ho-tep? Elvis is alive and living in a nursing home and an impersonator was the one that died at Graceland. Then a propane explosion destroyed all the records that prove he was the real deal so he can’t come back. Then there was Orion. Orion made the most sense. He was a singer who wore a mask and sounded just like Elvis. (spooky music starts now) and the book of the same name went into great detail about how the death charade was carried out. It was published as fiction but it would make you think that maybe, just maybe, it really could be true.

The Elvis cult touches on so many crucial nerves of American popular culture: the ascent of a working class boy from the most obscure Mississippi beginnings to international fame and fortune; the white man with the soul of black music in his voice; the performer whose music tied together the main strands of American folk music – country, rhythm and blues, and gospel; and, perhaps most compellingly for a weight-obsessed nation, the sexiest man in America's gradual transformation into a fat, sweating parody of his former self, straining the bounds of a jewel-encrusted bodysuit on a Las Vegas stage. The images of fat Elvis and thin Elvis live together in the popular imagination. He continues to be imitated—and parodied—outside the main music industry and Presley songs remain very popular in karaoke bars. People from a diversity of cultures and backgrounds work as Elvis Impersonators and they always chose the raw 1950s Elvis and the kitschy 1970s Elvis.

Before Elvis was campy, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force... Elvis’s breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely.

Do I really believe Elvis is still alive? Hmmm, in this day and age anything is possible. I mean, just think about it. They didn’t catch the uni-bomber for years. Bin Laden has been on the loose for how many years now and he does send out tapes and messages on a predictable basis. So could Elvis still be alive and just living out his ‘golden years’ in peace and tranquility somewhere? Why not? Rock On Elvis and stay off my blue suede shoes!