Cornwall ON – Today is the 34th Anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. That means that the lovely young lady I dined with last week at Eight Zero Zero was three years shy of being born at the time that the King of Rock and Roll toddled off of his toilet and allegedly embraced his eternal sleep.
Were you alive when Elvis grunted his last? Do you remember what you were doing and what you thought? If so we’d love for you to post your comment below.
He would’ve been or is (Elvis like Jim Morrison and others that died too young is rumored to not be dead) 77 today and probably has the most celeb impersonators in the world. It’s an actual industry including clothing manufacturers and wig makers!
Elvis, born in Mississippi and raised in Tennessee took the flavors of early Blues and amped them up right as the Rock craze took hold. Jerry Lee Lewis may have been naughty and married his 13 year old neice, but it was Elvis that was banned for his gyrating hips and melting effect on women and girls across the world.
As the Sixties changed the music scene and the Army interrupted his ascent Elvis mugged his way through some really bad but kitschy movies with some of the periods starlets including a young Ann Margaret and my teen crush Carolyn Jones, the original Morticia in the Addams Family. ( I always wanted to be John Astin in that show!)
The Beatles, Nixon, and more drugs than Hunter S Thompson probably consumed turned Elvis into a bloated caricature of himself. The King of Rock and Roll floated through his last years in Las Vegas catching more panties than Wayne Newton. He was found dead in his Graceland home in 1977 which today is one of Memphis Tennessee’s biggest tourist attractions.
Elvis Aaron Presley January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977
After his death, like many celebs, his brand was polished, old tracks and re-issues keep rolling out. Elvis today is universally known and his music still sells. Elvis is now, like in his life, a name and industry embraced by millions around the world.
Yes we loved Elvis and when learning of his death, I can remember that I said “Sh*t, fu*king drugs again!” Today the drug scene is getting worse almost uninhibited. Some of us got through it though!