RickOHIO Revisited: Elvis to Generation X

This is a web column written before blogs were blogs at RickOHIO.com.  This August 1997 column is revived for publication. It was first published to mark 20 years since the date of Elvis Presley.  Today, now, marks 35 years and the Milennial Generation could write their own view on the topic.

Elvis To Generation X
by RickOHIO

August 1997 [UPDATED AUGUST 1999]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

August 16, 1997 marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Rock and Roll legend Elvis Presley. For some, namely those in the so-called Generation X, Elvis is not even a memory. His legend is conceived from historic reports not from first-hand observation.

Elvis Presley died of a heart attack on August 16, 1977. He was a legend to a generation. Many called, and continue to call him, the "King of Rock and Roll."

By the time 1977 had rolled around and for some years earlier, Elvis Presley led a fairly secluded life. His was not the kind of life that Kings are known for nor the kind of life one expects the children of that day to recall.

Those born after the Baby Boomer Generation, can be considered the Post-Elvis Generation. You see, ask the typical Generation Xer about Elvis, and anything that's known first-hand about him is none too flattering. These are the things that Generation X has been able to observe:

A fight occurred over which image of Elvis should be depicted on a postage stamp.

His wife, Priscilla, was on the TV show Dallas and several movies, including Naked Gun.

His daughter, Lisa Marie, married Michael Jackson.

Reports of Elvis sightings, everywhere, as if he never really died.

Eddie Murphy mocking Elvis' style while he sings, "Lemonade, that cool refreshing drink."

These are the memories of the new adult generation. Sure they see reruns of his movies (no one watches them though), marvel at the worshipers who pay homage to him at his former estate at Graceland in Memphis, and, even some, listen to his music and call themselves fans.

But, in reality, Xers don't know the man. They never did.