Not a musical star nor a movie star in any conventional sense. He can be parodied but never truly imitated. Elvis imitators are so endearing because the whole act is an inside joke with the audience. There was no one like Elvis before he came on the scene. He, too, knows the bruising indifference any artist faces in the South, and about the bland affection that later accompanies success.Įggleston is right. The photographer William Eggleston captured the essence of “Why Elvis” when he said, “He just fit that hole there had never been a hero for.”Įggleston should know: Like Elvis he was born in Mississippi and lived his adult life in Memphis. There would be more good songs ( “Suspicious Minds,” “Burnin’ Love,” best jukebox song ever), but long before he died nobody thought of Elvis as anything but this weird cat in a class all his own. Tom Parker, built and ran off Elvis’ back for more than two decades. After he left the army and went to Hollywood and Vegas, the music became just another facet of the empire that his manager, Col. First of all, it wasn’t merely about his music, at least not after the first few years.
But then, Cash was perennially cool in a way Elvis was not.Įlvis’ appeal was more mysterious. Unlike, say, Johnny Cash, his fellow Sun Records alumnus, Elvis never caught on in a big way with the generations born after he died. Before long we may have more Elvis imitators than Elvis fans.
