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So I was in Hawaii two weeks ago, then Rochester, then Virginia, and I’m now heading West.  So, I’ve been busy, to put it mildly.  I’ve been reading the political news off and on, and all I can say to Democrats is there’s nothing less reliable than a poll in 2024.

That said, I visited Graceland this weekend, and what a strange trip that was.  I’m by no means a Elvis superfan — like most people my age, I know some of his songs, and I know a bit of the lore.  My wife and I decided that we’d go full tourist and just take in the place, and I have to say that it exceeded expectations.  It’s pretty surprising that a guy who died in 1977 can still pack in the crowds.  Every ticket to Graceland sold out last weekend, probably because Elvis’ granddaughter, Riley Keough, just put out a book about him and she had a book signing Saturday night.  Her mother is Elvis’ only child, Lisa Marie, who died last year and apparently dictated some of her memories, which Riley edited and published.  (I say “apparently” because I don’t know all the details and honestly don’t care to know them.)

We all know that Elvis died of a bunch of terrible things related to massive drug use.  But, if you visited Graceland, you’d never know that.  The history in that place ends roughly in 1972 with his last concert film, Elvis on Tour.  The hotel at Graceland plays an Elvis movie every night, and we saw that film one night.  It’s a damn good concert film — not quite Stop Making Sense, but honestly pretty close.  Elvis looked a little bloated, but he wasn’t full-on fat Elvis.

The crowds at Graceland were very, very white, and mostly older, though there were a fair number of hipsters and tourists from Europe.  Our group had some women from England, for example.

The sole nod to Elvis’ weirdness that I saw was the TV pictured above — Elvis shot it (famously) while watching Robert Goulet on the Mike Douglas show.  Supposedly, he was friends with Goulet, but res ipsa loquitur.

Graceland is already registered as a National Historic Landmark, and my guess is that once his heirs have wrung every cent out of the place, it will become a National Monument, and deservedly so.  The family has done a good job gathering up a serious amount of Elvis’ stuff, including Cadillacs, two jet aircraft, dozens of outfits, and his hundred plus gold records.  Maybe when the National Park Service takes over, they’ll create a place that has a more honest take on Elvis.  There’s definitely a whole constellation of Southern/White/Christian/Conservative attitudes that cause people to hide the reality of someone with a lot of issues in order to make a myth.  Someone who knows more about this region of the country might write up how the Elvis myth and the current Trump myth might come from the same place.  I don’t know enough about the South to write it, but there’s definitely something there that needs to be explored.  I, frankly, hate the South too much to do it justice.

Of course, the real sight to see in Memphis is the Civil Rights Museum at the former Lorraine Motel, where MLK was assassinated.  More on that another day, but if I only had time to visit one place in Memphis, it would be there, not Graceland.

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