Recorded in 1989, Black Velvet still gets pretty regular radio play, and it’s not a bad song. Lyrically, it is a tribute to Elvis Presley. There’s only one thing I’m confused about:
The bridge of the song has the following lyrics:
Now, when I think of my own perception of the death of Elvis, the words “in a flash he was gone, it happened so soon” are about the last thing on earth that comes to mind. My understanding of it is that he was the epitome of “past his prime, ill health, deteriorating” and that this was well known. Those lyrics make it sound like he was James Dean or something. But I thought everyone pretty much knew what Elvis’s situation was during his last years. I thought the drug problems, weight gain, lifestyle of excess, were public knowledge.
Am I wrong though? Was his death surprising? Did he have really good PR that made him seem healthier and more together than he actually was, right up until he died?
Or is the song just taking some artistic license with that line?
His career was in decline, modern rock had taken over, he was a joke to younger people, somebody your parents listened to like Frank Sinatra. It was expected Fat Elvis would perform now and again, show up on talk shows, fade away maybe, but not just keel over.
It was a surprise because not everything we know about the latter period of his life was known then, or at least it wasn’t common knowledge. He wasn’t touring or getting out as much at that point so most people weren’t aware of how unhealthy and strange his life had become.
Most of the general public had an image of him from years earlier, maybe the pudgy and aging Elvis but not the wreck he actually had become near his death.
So when they heard Elvis was dead, they imagined the sudden death of someone much more vibrant. Even if you had some knowledge of what his life had become, it was still a shock in the sense of a sudden end to a sad situation, and someone dying relatively young no matter how much they brought it on themselves.
Yes, you could, in fact, care less. You could, for instance, care so little that you don’t even bother to open up threads about this topic. Instead, you clearly cared enough about it to insist on threadshitting. This is an official Warning: If you are not interested in a topic, then just stay out.
I heard an interview from one of Elvis’s former bandmates who recalled the day he heard news of Elvis death he dismissed it claiming rumors of his death had been going around for the past few years, so to him it wasn’t an unknown thing he was in bad shape.
His death was such a surprise that two network newscasts (remember, there were only three back then) not only led their shows with it, they devoted a major portion of the programs to it.
It probably doesn’t seem so shocking now because since 1977 we’ve seen any number of stars – Karen Carpenter, John Belushi, Michael Jackson, and Prince to name a few – who died young. But being overweight and out of shape was not supposed to kill you at age 42.
I don’t know if it was generally a surprise. But I was certainly surprised. There are lots of fat, out-of-shape 42 year olds in the world. Some years ago, I was a fat out-of-shape 42 year old. Most of us don’t drop dead.
Elvis was a distant cousin. From what I saw of relatives in that direction, I wasn’t surprised. He lasted till 1977, longer than many. Sidenote: I’ve read that ELVIS IMPERSONATOR was a job category at the Las Vegas state unemployment office. Your job prospects increase if you also skydive.
But it wasn’t unheard of even in 1977. In fact, until Elvis’ excessive pill consumption was found out, the consensus was he died from a heart attack caused by obesity and a high-fat diet.
This, exactly. I remember getting up that day, and the radio news was all about the death of Elvis, and the radio was playing lots of Elvis’ songs. Later, his death led the noontime TV news.
I was in my late teens at the time, and Elvis didn’t really resonate with my peers and I, but plenty of people ten to twenty years older than us, pretty much went into mourning. “He was too young to die!” Not saying that 42-year-olds don’t die, but he seemed in okay, if not good, health; so his death was unexpected and surprising.
The general public was definitely shocked. When someone becomes an icon, as Presley definitely had, people sort of put him on a shelf and assume they’ll always be around. Besides, it had only been 5 years since his last #1 hit, and he was still performing.
Elvis had been on tour for most of 1976 and 1977 and they had to cancel a dozen dates in August, 1977 alone, due to his death. Hardly “wasn’t touring”.
I even remember where I was at the time, in a hotel room in Colorado. I was on vacation with my parents. It was the biggest vacation we ever had, past or future. We traveled throughout the West, Arizona, California, Oregon, the whole bit.
Anyway, it was 1977, and big time celebrities were dropping dead right and left. Groucho Marx had just died, and then Elvis. In a couple of months, Bing Crosby would keel over while golfing. Charlie Chaplin would go after that, and just in time to miss New Year’s Eve, Guy Lombardo.
Sure, most of them were old. But not Elvis. Big, big surprise.
Great vacation though. My parents did know how to travel.