BY MIKEY MIGO
I respect Elvis Presley. I wouldn't place him in my top twenty five or even top fifty favorite artists or anything like that, but I do respect him. He is responsible for providing a voice to some of the most successful tunes of all time and is a cultural icon. When discussing the most famous and most successful musicians of all time you instantly bring up "Elvis", "The Beatles", and "Michael Jackson". After that, it's a wide range of subjective opinions.
I love music and been exposed to lots of it over my life so I know Elvis's work and the stories just as much as anyone. I've heard his dozens of hit classic singles, I know his mannerisms, and I've even seen or at least know of his movie career.
On the flipside, I've heard the backlash. I've heard all the rumors and crazy stories that come with a celebrity of this magnitude. Until now, I just took it all as the truth. That much success has to mess someone up, right? With the assistance of a few hours' worth of research from different sides of the spectrum, I've realized that a lot of what's said about Mr. Presley has been stretched or flat out lied about. Today we're going to take a look at some of these rumors.
THE RACIST
Elvis Presley was a musician with by many accounts, including that of other races, a kind heart. There are literally NO REASONS at all to think over wise so why not just assume something positive until proven otherwise? About ten very naïve years ago or so, I was told that Elvis once said "The only thing Negro people can do for me is to buy my records and shine my shoes." Why would I look it up or argue? The person who told me had nothing to gain from this and to be honest it made sense. I knew Elvis was from a segregated/"simple" (a nice word for ignorant) time. I knew of the lore of Elvis STEALING the black man's music as his own and I knew there was a lot of resentment towards him. In fact, this who thing started because of an African American journalist from JET magazine pushed the story without any facts AT ALL to back it up. It was rumored to of been said at a personal appearance in Boston or on a television program, but nothing was ever for certain except that Elvis was the devil. Truth be told, Elvis never appeared in Boston and never appeared on the talk show. On the set of the movie for "Jailhouse Rock" Elvis denied saying or ever wanting to make such a racist remark. Truth be told, when he first came out he was shunned by both black and white radio stations. The white stations disliked him because he "sounded black" and the black stations wouldn't give him airplay because many considered him a rip off of the rhythm and blues style. While it seems obvious that his work was inspired by that particular music scene to call him a "rip off" is a bit unfair. All of our favorite musicians would then be considered a "rip off" because their inspiration came from somewhere else. No matter how extreme you think he ripped someone off, it's sad to think of it in a negative manner. I just think even if he did copy someone's style, it wasn't done in hate or anything malicious rather than the admiration and love he had for the music. Elvis may have had more success with this style music than his black counterparts, but the racial war of the mid 50's and beyond doesn't rest on his shoulders. Chuck D has gotten his name out there by talking down Elvis's legacy and playing off his accused racism. He sticks up for black greats like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Otis Redding, and James Brown as his retort to Elvis being declared "The King". As much as I love Chuck it's sad that he fails to see the racism in his own statement. Maybe it's because I grew up in the 80's, but in my home and my grandparents was all of the above with the Rat Pack and Nat King Cole mixed in.
THE SEXUAL HEATHEN
The guy off rhythm hip movements to guitar music and this so called "dancing" was ruled obscene by most of the world. That only helped his reputation with the kids though. It turned him into a "bad boy" and gave rebellion at that time a face. He did seem to be a casual womanizer, but it's been said that he rarely "went all the way" because of his mother and religious upbringing. According to one source, famous actress Natalie Wood once complained that "The King didn't know how to screw". In an odd comparison to Michael Jackson, Elvis was a big fan of "slumber parties". He'd invite fans over and do make-overs with hairstyles and make-up. Despite this naïve innocence, his reputation seemed highly misconceived. With the "black man music" and the "obscene" stage antics Elvis found himself shunned, protested, and condemned by many churches. Around this time and maybe even related to the backlash, Elvis started exploring other forms of spirituality. I even saw that in 1965 he wanted to leave it all behind and become a monk. To this day, there are women who claim to have had sex with his ghost. Yeah, no shit. This wouldn't even be the worst of the misconceptions.
THE FBI FILE
The FBI had files on Elvis. This is apparently true. They considered Elvis Presley to be a "definite danger to the security of the United States". This is all because of his hip swivels on stage. They claimed his actions were a "strip tease with clothes on" and "sexual self-gratification on stage". They were convinced that Elvis barely gyrating on stage would cause an uproar and even riots of young horny teenagers going hump crazy. There was periods in time where he was under strict rulings by GOVERNMENT officials to not dance on stage. Even "The Chairman of the Board" had negative opinions of Elvis. Sinatra once said "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people." I wonder if he had anything to do with Presley's records. Hmmm. In comparison to what Elvis did and what people like Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, NWA, and others have done and do on stage, Elvis was a saint.
THE DRUGGIE
I'm not saying the guy didn't have some recreational experimentation with drugs, but in his later years it seemed like he was just over prescribed. Kind of like Michael Jackson, actually. From jump street, Elvis had health problems. He even had a twin brother, Jesse, who died very very young. For the longest time he had insomnia and sleep issues which got him hooked on sleeping pills. As he got older his health deteriorated. Heredity dealt him a bad hand with a disorder that causes enlarged organs, liver damage, internal bleeding, and a handful of other hard core problems. With this, he became more prone to pain killer addiction. We'll never really know what all he took, but the majority of it was prescribed by three different doctors at the time. When they did an autopsy they found a buffet of pills in his system. Painkillers Morphine and Demerol, Chloropheniramine, Placidyl, Vailum, Codeine, Ludes, Sleeping Pills, and apparently even more than this. If you know anything about drugs, putting these pills in a small combination is lethal for sure. How long he was in this environment is unknown. So I wouldn't call him a druggie, persae… over and criminally prescribed? Yes.
THE LIVING
He didn't exactly live a healthy lifestyle to begin with, but Elvis's death has always been a tabloid's dream. His death has been questioned, theorized, and talked about for my entire life. There are even those who claim that Elvis is STILL living. The tabloids really don't help that one. "Elvis sightings" got as common as "flying saucer sightings" for awhile there. Faking his own death, a wax figure in the casket, the misspelling on his grave, and all of the weird theories won't bring the man back. Surely, being one of the biggest superstars of all time and passing away relatively young is hard to take for some people but there is no legitimate proof that he is alive. Don't listen to your crazy aunt. She's clearly off her meds.
I'm no expert on "Elvis" at all. I'm not even that big a fan, but it was interesting to take a deeper look into these long assumed foregone conclusions. My opinion of him as a person is a bit more positive than it was before this research but I don't expect to be running out anytime soon to purchase any of his music.
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