All hail the King! 8/17/2018

There's a reason why, nearly 40 years after he died, Elvis Presley is still revered as "The King". We are in Memphis, TN, with the express reason to visit Graceland. As luck would have it, we were able to get a reservation at the Graceland RV park, within a 5 minute walk of its namesake. We are staying on Blue Suede Lane, right around the corner from Don't Be Cruel Lane.

Graceland the house is pretty much as Elvis left it in 1977 when he died. What impressed Ray and me is that although Elvis was richer than rich, the house is pretty liveable. He took the home, that was built in 1939, and made it his own. The style is distinctly 1970s: there are mirrors everywhere, there

is a room with carpeting on the ceiling, faux fur is common. But the house as a whole is livable. It's not what I would expect for a culture icon.

But the Graceland tour is about so much more than the house tour. Elvis' planes and autos and motorcycles are on display in a separate area. His military, movie and recording careers all had their separate areas of museum display. There is a fascinating exhibition devoted to Sam Phillips

and Sun Records, essentially the beginnings of rock and blues music as we know it. And there is an awesome area devoted to how Elvis influenced all of the music of today: with quotes from Frank Sinatra, to Justin Timberlake to Gene Simmons to Robert Plante to Michael Buble and Springsteen. James Brown had such respect and love for him, he even considered Elvis his brother.

We had been unaware of the fact that Elvis was a significant benefactor to many charities, and was very private about it. Over the course of his career, he received numerous awards, but he showed up to receive only one, as one of the 10 Outstanding Young Men of America 1970, given by the Jaycees, probably because it meant the most to him. It was the first time, as an entertainer, that he had been accepted on the same level as others in fields like biological research, business, medicine and national affairs.

We came away from the 5 or so hours we spent at the Graceland complex with a new appreciation for Elvis and the impact he had on all of music and culture.

Photos of the house, grounds and museum stuff are here-- the descriptions of the pictures will tell you what you're looking at. :  https://photos.app.goo.gl/xH4SRQZ4P6TevDHF6