How big a star was Elvis Presley

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Q.� Biggest and best

A.� Biggest certainly, best possibly not, and certainly far from the most consistent, but a detached examination of his life and career shows Elvis as an artist whose talent and sheer volume�and diversity of output deserve a better reputation than the memories of his turgid almost caricatured 'Las Vegas' period, or the bizarre details concerning his final decline and death.

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Q.� Better start at the beginning then.

A.� Elvis Aron Presley (his middle name has only has one A, his gravestone is mis-carved with two) was born in Tupelo Mississippi in January 1935 to a poor white family.� A move to Memphis so his father could find work ensured Elvis's absorption of a veritable melting pot of musical influences�- gospel, blues, country, folk, all of which he used to greater or lesser degrees throughout his musical career. His debut recordings, spotted by Sun Records owner Sam Phillips who had a vision of a white singer with a black sound, produced a version of blues singer Arthur Cruddup's That's All Right Mama, which started off a career that was to change the face of popular music for ever.

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Q.� How did Elvis manage to lose the initial spark that created some of the greatest rock and roll records

A.� The popular belief is that Elvis was totally manipulated by his manager Colonel (an invented title with no proof of an appropriate military record) Tom Parker, and although Parker's influence was motivated almost entirely by the desire to make money, Elvis must share the blame for his apparent unwillingness to take any control over career decisions made on his behalf.

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Broadly speaking, Elvis's career breaks down into two distinct halves�- his life as a vibrant and innovative rock and roll singer who popularised�the musical mix of rhythm and blues and country music known as 'rockabilly', which lasted until 1958, and his career after his national service, which saw his string of dreadful movies and patchy recorded and live output. John Lennon, asked for his thoughts on Elvis's death, famously observed that "Elvis died when he went into the army." and it's not hard to see the truth of that statement, at least as far as the end of Elvis's innovation and influence as an artist is concerned.

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Q.� Was it all over by the early 1960's

A.� A talent as huge and influential as Elvis Presley's can take a massive slide into the sludge and mediocrity of his film career, featuring a string of movies with forgettable plots used as vehicles for even more forgettable soundtrack albums, and still survive through the sheer willpower of his fans to see him regain some of the fire and spirit that characterised his earlier work.�That patience was rewarded by Elvis's comeback, his 1968 television special.

Q.� So Elvis's career was re-started by television

A.� Ironically yes. After years of meandering along in neutral, cushioned from reality by ever-increasing record sales generated by fans who would literally buy anything Elvis released, together with the peculiarly cocooned lifestyle that such wealth and status can generate, Elvis emerged as a credible musician once again�- thanks to a TV show that presented a visual image that was in keeping with his original style, and a musical format that reminded the world that Elvis had charisma and energy that could still captivate a world-wide audience desperate for him to return to his earlier status as a rock and roll icon.

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Elvis embarked on his 'Las Vegas' period which saw him continue to sell out shows to an adoring public who seemed willing to overlook the increasingly bizarre image of a man descending into a parody of his former style, fuelled by a diet of greasy food and prescription drugs. The only thing the fans could rely on was Elvis's voice, that magnificent instrument he used to such great effect, and which never ever deserted him.

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Q.� So how did Elvis change from rock and roll god into overweight cabaret turn

A.� Again a lot of the blame is laid at manager Parker's door, but it is probably more complex than that. People who grew up in the Depression, as Elvis did, set huge store by having enough to eat, based on times when eating squirrels or rats fried in batter was a delicacy, because when you are poor enough, you don't get too fussy about what shape your meat was when it was alive. Once he was able to enjoy the services of a chef on call twenty-four hours a day, Elvis spent his waking hours doing what he enjoyed most, which was eating, and his diet followed the artery-clogging fat-based dishes he grew up with. Surrounded by his 'Memphis Mafia' of buddies and yes-men, no-one would ever upset their own personal meal ticket by suggesting to Elvis that maybe he should loose some weight, or leave off the drugs, and without anyone to offer sensible or genuinely caring support, Elvis continued his slide into a lonely twilight world which divorced him from reality ever further as the years went by.

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Colonel Tom Parker ensured that Elvis never left the US, a career move based on Parker's fragile immigration status as an illegal alien, which made foreign travel a hazardous exercise. His villainous persona in the eyes of Presley fans is probably less justified than a simple analysis of him as a money-grabbing Svengali would suggest. Although Parker's guidance of Elvis's career was designed almost entirely from a financial standpoint, his emotional and artistic support of his sole client was perceived by Presley as looking out for his interests in a way which no-one else seemed willing or able to do, filling the gap in Elvis's life left by the death of his beloved mother. It is part of the tragedy of Elvis's life that the 'golden goose' factor of his career for his manager which propelled Elvis into being the entertainment world's first, and biggest superstar, also meant that his subsequent decent into drugs and the ultimately fatal abuse of his system went on possibly unnoticed, and certainly unchecked by the one man who's advice he would have taken, and which could have saved his life.

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Q.� What are Elvis's best recordings

A.� Anyone who enjoys any modern music should explore the roots of their own idol's sound, which began with the sessions Elvis recorded for the Sun label back in the 1950's. Using that as a starting point, careful selection of the enormous output of recorded material released by RCA, Elvis's label, should ensure that the dross of re-issues and dodgy soundtracks can be side-stepped, and the enduring talent and skill that no amount of rock star living and career chicanery could suppress, can be extracted from the latter years of Elvis's recording career.

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Q.� For what should Elvis Presley be remembered

A.� From a musical point of view, Elvis Presley should be accorded the respect and adulation his career richly deserves. Even though his awesome output of material contains more than its fair share of shoddy and lazy work, the best of his music is simply among the best there is, and the lack of quality in his later offering should not be allowed to overshadow the value�of his influence on popular music which lasts through to today. Similarly, although most people's lasting image of Elvis is of an overweight man peeping through eyes almost closed by the combination of alcohol and drugs, struggling to remember the words of his most famous songs on a Las Vegas nightclub stage, they should remember the vibrant energy and freshness that Elvis breathed into the world of music, changing young people's perception of the notion of rebellion and the creation of youth culture, for ever.

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See also:

• Elvis and the Nike advert
• Elvis.com (official website)

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