Twenty-five years after his death people all over the world are gathering to celebrate the life of Elvis Presley. And when I say the world, I mean the world. Not just all over the USA but in Britain, Germany, Holland, Japan and even Malaysia.
Elvis Presley is bigger, more popular and more influential now than he was even when he was still alive. He is a global phenomenon that shows absolutely no signs of waning. His memory and his music continues to proselytize across borders and generations.
Elvis was so much more than a great rock ‘n’ roll singer. He was dirt-poor red-necked farm boy who earned fame and fabulous wealth by exploitation of his raging talent. He was all about looking good, living fast, having fun, driving gas-guzzling cars, eating hamburgers the size of cathedrals, wallowing in pretty girls and not letting anybody tread on his blue-suede shoes. His consumption was not merely conspicuous it was outrageous.
In a story linked to the one above, Chinese Elvis Impersonator Paul Hyu says:
He has gone down in Far East culture less as a rock star, and more as an icon of the West presented to them in a stage of their development.
For so many academics and ‘intellectuals’, Elvis represents everything that is crass and vulgar but for millions of other humbler folk he is the American Dream made flesh. It is a dream that are buying into as they gather together in every corner of the planet to shake, rattle, roll, jive and jitterbug.
Whether they realise it or not, Elvis fans are engaged in a glorious political act.
The King lives on.
