The Land of Elvis

The Land of Elvis

Every once in a while an entertainer comes along that captures the imagination of the nation and ascends into immortality. In this generation that honor seems to belong to Taylor Swift, but in my generation no one ever got bigger than Elvis Presley. He represented and transcended the decades of the 50s, 60s, and 70s all at once. Very few of us that came of age in those years could deny that his unique voice and mannerisms are all too familiar to us. Like many immortals, his life was cut short and he died at age 42, making his life strangely more impactful. I don’t recall many people who’s childhood home I would think to visit. I’ve been to Mount Vernon and Monticello, but have never even thought to go to Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace, and yet, tomorrow we will purposefully drive south from Nashville for three and half hours on the Natchez Trace, specifically to go to Tupelo, Mississippi. There is only one thing in Tupelo worth visiting and it’s the birthplace of Elvis Presley.

Now, to be fair, we are not so fixated on Elvis that we are driving over to Memphis to see Graceland, but our desire to see some of the South and specifically to drive the Natchez Trace has given us the excuse to go to Tupelo, where we will dutifully visit the childhood home of The King. I suppose because he chose to spend most of his life in Memphis, Elvis is not so prominent here in Nashville. Stars like Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline figure much more prominently here for one reason or another, even though their impact on Country Music is nowhere near as profound as was that of Elvis. We will end our trip to Tennessee in a few days in Knoxville, where Dolly Parton owns the scene with her Dollywood theme park taking center stage. But in between we will go to Tupelo and turn our not-so Country Music focused minds to the life and times of the man who’s very departure from the room has created a catchphrase. There certainly are a few people who dress up to look like Johnny Cash and Dolly, but the aura of Elvis is so powerful as to make Elvis impersonators almost a cliche. Such is the power of the man’s memory.

When I think of Elvis, my mind goes to the movies that he made like Viva Las Vegas or Blue Hawaii. I have a strong visual image of the man even though I am someone who never saw him in concert. By contrast, I have seen Cher in concert many times for some reason, but never Elvis. And yet, I can probably name more Elvis songs than I can for any other artist…except maybe Cher. I will never see Cher’s birthplace, so I think that still clearly makes Elvis the more impactful.

The soft Southern tone of Elvis’ voice was one of his most endearing qualities. He was polite and courtly to a fault, as seems to be the habit of Southern men. And yet, when we think of Southern white males we do not generally think of racially enlightened people, which is what Elvis represented to many. With his Rockabilly style of music that combined Rock n’ Roll with Rhythm & Blues and with his stage performances that swiveled hips in ways that white boys simply didn’t do in those days. Some say that Elvis was central in bringing the Civil Rights movement to the hearts and minds of the youth of America. His way of singing really was an original combination of white and black youth music culture.

We started our day with a visit to the Ryman Auditorium, which was the long-time historic home of the Grand Ole Opry radio show that was the mainstay of Country Music throughout much of the Twentieth Century. While the history of Ryman Auditorium dates back to well before the real start of Country Music as a genre. It was originally called the Union Gospel Tabernacle and has a decidedly church-like feeling to it. Throughout the auditorium are the normal array of Country Music memorabilia in glass cases. There was even a room off the main theater where the showed a film on the history of Ryman that was dedicated to memorabilia from Elvis and his entourage. THis included some commentary from the early DJ’s that had mixed reactions to his unique and, for the time, risqué style that some found quite outrageous.

Our second stop for the day was the General Jackson Showboat where we booked the three-hour Cumberland River tour and show. This is an old-fashioned paddle wheel river boat just like you see in the movies. The program called for paddling up the river to view downtown Nashville while we ate a buffet lunch in the Victorian Theater. There, a troupe of five men and two women called Eastern Tennessee Legends, put on a Country Western show that highlighted the songs of all the biggest Country Music greats. There was Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Charlie Daniels (The Devil Went Down to Georgia), Glenn Campbell (Rhinestone Cowboy), Dolly Parton (Nine to Five), Martina McBride, Willie Nelson & Waylan Jennings, and, of course, Elvis (Blue Suede Shoes). They did an amazingly good job of covering all the artists in very recognizable fashion that was highly entertaining and had the look and feel of a good Las Vegas floor show. It served to remind me that I really do enjoy Country Music more than I might have thought I did…at least when listening to a “best of” selection like this.

We Ubered back to our hotel and chose to eat dinner this evening at a nice nearby Italian restaurant right across from our hotel, which is The Graduate Hotel, which has a larger-than-life portrait made of a hooked rug hanging over the reception desk with the unmistakable image of the eponymous Minnie Pearl, complete with a price tag hanging from her flowered hat. A funny thing happened at the dinner table. For the second time this trip, Carolyn and I were mistaken for being husband and wife…or more exactly, as mom and dad to Charlotte and Evelyn. The difference was that this time, Kim was sitting right next to me at the time. After we all had our fun with that mistake and thoroughly embarrassed the waiter, we went through the possible explanations. Clearly Kim was worried that she needed more facials to look younger. Carolyn wondered the same thing. No one wanted to listen to my argument that it must be because I look so young. A friend suggested that it had to do with Southern men being into incest. Of course there is also the possibility that I just look like a lascivious pervert. We’ll see if it happens again on this trip and if so, I may have to make some changes.

Here in the land of Elvis, it may seem like his pattern of marrying a sweet young thing like Priscilla was borderline, but when you realize that he was only 32 at the time to her 21 years, that hardly seems perverse. I also think the trend today of people parenting at older and older ages is more common and accepted. More to come on Elvis as we traipse through Mississippi, Alabama and then Eastern Tennessee.