Glasgow Daily Times, Glasgow, KY

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January 15, 2010

A lasting impression of the King

By CAROL PERKINS

EDMONTON — For a week or so the media has been celebrating the 75th birthday of Elvis. I can’t believe he would have been 75. To all of us, he is still a young man who died too soon. We will never visualize him as any older than he was the day he died.

My Elvis experiences were like most of yours. I was glued to the Ed Sullivan Show the night he first appeared, heartbroken when he joined the Army and was totally captivated by the Elvis and Prisilla love story, especially her parents allowing her to move into his home and keep her with him until she was old enough to marry. My parents would not have allowed this — Elvis or no Elvis.

My greatest appreciation for Elvis was for his movies. Later, I read that he hated those movies, but all of my friends and I loved them. “Blue Hawaii” was the most romantic. I was just a little too young for the true Elvis hysteria, but I certainly remember older girls insisting their boyfriends grow sideburns, slick back their hair and mimic Elvis (with a little James Dean thrown in).

From all accounts, Elvis must have been a nice guy. In a biography of the Beatles I just finished, I read how they first met him and how they stood and stared for the longest time as he sat on his massive couch with his arm around Priscilla. Finally, Elvis said, “If you are going to stare at me, then let’s call it a night. If you came to make some music, let’s get to it.”

Making music is an understatement. What better mix than Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Elvis. This would have been a historical union. Elvis singing “Yesterday” and the Beatles singing “Return to Sender” — what a combination.

I saw Elvis at Freedom Hall a few months before he died. Our seats were at the back of the arena on the floor, the very last row as a matter of fact. He was merely a speck on the stage and security was so tight, there was no way to get closer. Fans in front of us stood in their metal chairs. That was the only way to be sure he was there. Even then, it could have been a lip synching imitator dressed in sequins as far as I was concerned. Only later was I glad that I was part of the audience, even though I spent the night bobbing up and down in my chair in my high-heel shoes (I did take them off finally, but back then concert goers dressed up for the occasion.)

The day that Elvis died my family was having dinner with my parents. The reason I remember this is that my dad (a talented musician himself) commented that even though he didn’t like his music very much, this would be a very great loss for the music world. He was exactly right. Elvis has perhaps been mourned more than any other famous person in my time.

When I decided to visit Graceland, I did so with the preconceived notion that what I would see would be a commercialization of a man’s life in an attempt to make even more money from his death. I approached the ticket booth with cynicism. What I thought and what I found were not the same. Sometimes when you visit homes, the tour guide says, “This is a replica of…” What was inside Graceland was what had been inside Graceland all along. That made the tour special.

The site of his burial place was moving. Flowers, notes and little mementoes were on top of his grave and all around it. The only sound was that of cameras clicking. No one can visit Graceland and not feel Elvis.

Many greats have died too young in my lifetime, but not many in the music world of Elvis’ distinction. His voice is one of the few immediately recognizable. He is one of the few who is imitated and impersonated. There are even conventions for Elvis impersonators. I can’t think of another person who is impersonated the way he has been. Vegas is full of them.

As the Jimmy Buffet songs says, “I was dreaming last night about Elvis, the day that he died. The day that he died ….”

I remember the day well. Do you?

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