Idolization of Elvis Presley After Death
Elvis Presley was the first rock and roll star. He was born January 8, 1935, in East Tupelo, MS. Presley was the son of Gladys and Vernon Presley, a sewing machine operator and a truck driver. He and his parents moved to Memphis, TN in 1948 and Elvis graduated from Humes High School in 1953. Elvis Presley is one of the world’s most famous singers and icon of music and pop culture. His talent, good looks, sensuality, charisma, and good humor endeared him to millions, as did the humility and human kindness he demonstrated throughout his life. Elvis was a very kind man.
He did everything he could for people around him. In 1975, he purchased a poor black East Memphis woman an electric wheel chair and picked her up and personally sat her in it. The woman’s teenage daughter told Elvis she liked his car. He gave it to her and even gave her boyfriend a job. Studies show that Presley was bullied at school. Classmates threw things at him, rotten fruit and stuff, because he was different, such as quiet and he stuttered and he was a mama’s boy. All of this showed him that he had to change his attitude and become someone that he was not.
Presley was more popular than ever and one of the biggest personality cults in modern history was taking hold. When Presley was off stage he suffered self doubt, poor management, and a basic dissatisfaction with his life. With these thoughts he turned to drugs to solve all of his problems. Elvis’ musical influences were the pop and country music of the time, the gospel music he heard in church and at the all-night gospel sings he frequently attended, and the black R&B he absorbed on historic Beale Street as a Memphis teenager.
He put together music from both sides of the color line. Elvis performed this music with a hip swiveling sexuality that made him a teen idol and a role model for generations of cool rebels. He was always dismissed vulgar, incompetent and bad influence. Teenage girls became hysterical over his sexual movements; particularly the one that got him nicknamed “Elvis the Pelvis”. Television cameras were not permitted to film below his waist. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success with other genres, including gospel, blues, ballads, and pop.
To this day, he is the only performer to have been inducted into four music halls of fame. People today still think that Elvis was the greatest person in the world and he was not. Of course he made good music and had accomplished things that people still haven’t been able to do to this day but he also did a lot of bad things also. He was a prescription drug abuser and even led many women on to think that he really liked them instead of just telling them all the truth. Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977 in the bathroom at Graceland.
Studies show that he died of cardiac arrhythmia, which means that the heart was beating irregularly and in this case, finally stopped. While that is so true he also overdosed on many different prescription drugs. These drugs included codeine, valium, morphine, and Demerol. These were the drugs that were said to be Presley’s depressants. Now that Elvis has been for 31 years, he still has many people talking and seeing him as he is still alive. People still praise him after his death. That is so against the Christian religion.
The Christian bible says that you shouldn’t idolize any other person but the Almighty above. You will be punished for idolizing any other person other than God. Okay I can understand leaving his house up for public show but having old pork chops and pajamas all on the floor is uncaused for. People just take it overboard and then for him to have been dead for so long, why do people keep saying that he is still alive. It just doesn’t make any sense for them to be saying that and they know that he is buried behind his Graceland home in Memphis.
Since Elvis’ death, his Memphis home Graceland has become a shrine for millions of followers worldwide. Graceland was purchased by Presley in March 1957, it was a former church and he converted it into a twenty three room mansion. Graceland visitors come from all walks of life, all ages, all musical tastes, all income levels, all educational backgrounds, and all parts of the world. Over half of Graceland’s visitors are under the age of 35. I am 19 years old and would ride pass Presley’s house everyday and would care less what’s in his house. You can see how it looks from the streets.
People even gathered twice a year to celebrate his birthday and mourn on his death date. I think that that is the craziest thing ever. These are people that know nothing about this man and have only listened to his music and do stuff like this. I mean Elvis Presley Blvd will be backed up for miles because people are out worshipping this man and he is nobody. Yes he may have given Memphis a good name but he did nothing for the city itself. We had B. B King and many others and you barely hear anything about them. When you hear of Memphis it’s all about Elvis Presley and he did nothing.
Presley’s home Graceland is the second most popular private tourist attraction in the United States after the White House, and is estimated to bring in $150 million to the city itself each year. I just can’t believe that because Memphis has streets that need to be fixed, need new schools, and more. Memphis is not a perfect city at all and if we’re getting that much from Graceland then we should be close to perfect. Presley’s family or daughter is getting that money and it makes me upset to see them say that Memphis is getting a percent of that money and we not seeing a dime of it.
In conclusion, Elvis has brought a lot to Memphis and has given us a good name. Elvis was one of the best artists alive but he is gone and people should treat him as such. He lived as a good man or so they say but he gone now. It is fine to leave his house up for attractions but do something with the money to help the communities around Memphis and to better it. Idolization is not right and should not be practiced. It doesn’t matter who it is. Nobody amounts to God and nobody should be compared or treated as God is.
