Today, in case you weren't aware of this fact, is Elvis Presley's 75th birthday.
I knew this day was coming up. I grew up about two hours or so west of Memphis, which is, of course, the site of Graceland, Elvis' home. Elvis' birthday always draws a crowd to Memphis, and the Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote today about special observations that were planned for Presley's 75th birthday. It's a pretty big deal, and I spent a lot of time wondering what I should say.
But, in the end, it occurred to me. What can one say about Elvis Presley that hasn't already been said in countless ways? The man has been dead for more than 30 years. He was in his early 40s when he died, an event that was comparable in its impact on that generation to Michael Jackson's death nearly 32 years later.
It is indeed ironic — as we have been told many times since Jackson died last summer — that Jackson was briefly Presley's son–in–law, even though Presley didn't live to see it.
In spite of the apparently bogus "sightings" of Elvis, which seem to have tapered off in recent years, he remains a "what if" from another time. When Elvis' name is mentioned, one asks the same thing one asks about John Lennon or Jimi Hendrix: What do you suppose he would have done if he had not died?
I once heard Ringo Starr speculate that Lennon "would have been quite a force" if he hadn't been killed in 1980. I assume the same would have been true, at least for a little while, of Presley if he hadn't died in 1977.
Perhaps he wouldn't have been as much of a force as he was in his 20s. I can't say I was ever an Elvis Presley fan — the Beatles performed the music of my childhood — so I can't say I'm an expert on his career, but I did have a copy of the "Sun Sessions" album, a collection of his early recordings like "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky." My impression is that Elvis was a singer and a musician, not a composer, so it seems unlikely that we would have heard many (if any) new Elvis compositions. But I'm sure he would have continued to tour and probably record songs written by others.
I assume that, at this stage of his life, he would have given up touring, but he might still have been recording in the studio, possibly at Graceland. He might have recorded some duets with his daughter.
When someone dies young, like Elvis did, there is a sense of wasted potential. We will never know what Elvis might have done in his 50s, 60s, even his early 70s.
It seems to me that may be why many folks report seeing Elvis in convenience stores or walking along a lonely stretch of highway.
They are still reluctant to permit that potential to slip away forever.
