For my wife, it\u2019s the 1968 comeback Elvis, with the leather pants. All I know about women and leather pants is that I suspect it\u2019s a whole subject unto itself.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not hard to imagine a 70-year-old John Lennon still figuring out his muse. It\u2019s almost impossible to physically envision him as anything besides young.<\/p>\n
Otis Redding would have been a great 75-year-old.<\/p>\n
Instead, they\u2019re all young and beautiful forever.<\/p>\n
Then you look at Jerry Lee Lewis or Keith Richards, who abused themselves enough to kill a whole band and all of its roadies, and they\u2019re still on stage rocking and rolling.<\/p>\n
If Jerry Lee can still do it at 75, which he turns this year, and Keith can still do it at 67, there\u2019s no reason to think Elvis couldn\u2019t still have been singing \u201cCan\u2019t Help Falling In Love With You\u201d at 75.<\/p>\n
There, but for a slew of serious untreated medical issues, could go Elvis.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just the physical image that\u2019s impossible to conjure. Wrinkles? Grey hair? It\u2019s a great look on Tony Bennett. But on Elvis?<\/p>\n
Elvis\u2019s passing also revived another cynical music business one-liner, the one that says death can be a good career move \u2013 and if you look on Elvis purely as a profit center, which too many people, including his manager, Tom Parker did, that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
When Elvis died, he had a million dollars in his checking account and enough fiscal obligations that Parker kept pushing him out on the road when he needed to take some time off and see a real doctor.<\/p>\n
After he died, he became a trouble-free cash machine, raking in tens of millions a year in repackaged music, merchandise sales, imitator concerts, Graceland pilgrimages and what-all.<\/p>\n
This turned the Elvis industry into an easy and sometimes legitimate target. But what\u2019s essential to remember is that Elvis-mania would have died in a month if the music and the artist at the center hadn\u2019t made deep and legitimate connections with millions of listeners. <\/p>\n