Elvis Presely was famous even as a young performer, sending hundreds of girls screaming with his swinging hips and other “erotic” gestures. So why is it that the current fans prefer the later, fat, and sweaty Elvis over the younger one? And why do they view him as “wholesome”, patriotic and pious? It is probably because the image of later Elvis was more flexible in the eyes of his fans. His life could be related to what was going on in their own life. And if they saw a bit of themselves in Elvis, they wanted Elvis to be of the highest moral pedigree because they probably thought Elvis was a part of them also.
The younger Elvis was a teen sensation fascinated with the new way he expressed himself: his body. He was the one who introduced such expressive forms into music which helped him become famous (Doss, 5). But if his movements attracted the squeals of the younger generation, they ceartainly got howls of indignation from the older and conservative ones. (Rosenbaum, 5-6) But perhaps this was the start of it all. The young Elvis was to draw attention to him and the elder one was to hold it there. It had been said that many Elvis fans hold him almost to an equal status of a family member and that the fans knew “he was just looking and singing just to them”.(Doss, 6) Now that Elvis had ingrained himself so deeply into the fans, it was time for older Elvis to come in. If we were to divide Young and Elder Elvis with his time in the army, we can see how Elvis the Elder’s life slowly turned downhill into a tragedy many could relate (Rosenbaum,3). John Lennon even remarks “Elvis dies the day he went into the Army (Doss, 7). In Elder Elvis’s life, Elvis’s mother died and his marriage went sour. Also, the limited freedom he had due to his fandom was believed to be constrciting him to a life of alcohol and drugs (Doss, 8). But even as he was going through so much pain, most fans remember the later Elvis offering spiritual healing for their lives through his songs and his tragic story that captured the hearts of his fans. Perhaps, it is not too much of a stretch for Elvis to be seen as a sort of Jesus in his fans’ eyes; offering spiriutal healing to others at the cost of oneself. (Rosenbaum, 3)
If the fans saw Elvis as their hearthrob, family member, Jesus, or some combination of the three, it only makes sense that they would attribute the qualities they desired onto him. For example, many Americans said that he was patriotic because he served in the American army as a tank driver. (Doss, 7) Also, some people for integration hypothesized he greatly respected the African music he learned from but the opponents of integration could easily refer to Elvis’ supposed slur against Africans to promote their message. In general, Elvis is a flexible image that many use in order to reflect what we value.(Bertrand, 23) It isn’t just that many people see Elvis as wholesome, patriotic and as a family-man; it is also that these values are favorable in the prevalent eyes of the general population and therefore these views of Elvis are most likely to be prevalent among his fans.