A Tapestry Of Rich And Royal Hue

When I was a child I was brought up in the ways of Elvis. My father, God bless him, was besotted with the man and for a time I was too. I think my father’s proudest day was the occasion when he took me to a Convention at the age of ten and I was interviewed by BBC Breakfast news, much to the amusement of my classmates; footage of which no doubt still exists and shall be thrown back in my face the day I am elected President of the World.

The songs of my childhood were Elvis songs. My dad used to sing me to sleep with them. There were pictures of him around the house and you couldn’t open a drawer or a cupboard without coming across some piece of memorabilia or other; the crowning glory of which was a six foot tall tapestry featuring Elvis in singing stance wearing his white suit. God knows how much it must have cost my father, both in financial terms and my mother’s tears; but suffice is to say I had to put myself through university.

By the time I was ten I had seen more Elvis films than any other kind. I thought he must have been the biggest movie star in the world. I remember seeing lists of all time great films and sitting there baffled that there was no G I Blues, Fun In Acapulco or, my own personal favourite, Frankie And Johnny. How could this Citizen Kane film be any good if it didn’t feature a golden tanned god of a man sporting an impossible quiff and seducing big busted women with a pair of maracas? The answer, of course, is it couldn’t.

Writing this on the 30th anniversary of his death, just 51 short days after I was born, I look back fondly on those early days. It was only during my teens that it became something of a source of embarrassment and I denied him three times before the cockerel crowed. Throughout the 90s people quoted from Public Enemy’s Fight The Power:

Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see

And that became the generally accepted view and I pretended to ascribe to it. "What do you mean my father keeps an Elvis tapestry in his room? Nonsense, there is nothing in there but a stack of homoerotic pornography, his gimp suit and twelve dead bodies and I’ll fight any boy who says otherwise!"

Nowadays I can proudly wear my Elvis teeshirt to any occasion and often get admiring comments about it, and I hope one day to inherit the tapestry although I suspect my father will wish to be wrapped in it before he is buried.

I think people have finally come around and realised that Elvis is not the joke that his legion of impersonators, the obsessives, the conspiracy theorists and images from the fat Vegas years had turned him into. He was the King of Rock n Roll and we shall never see his like again.

Elvis Presley - Guitar Man

Elvis Presley - Long Black Limousine


Ricky Stardust