Thousands Remember Elvis on Anniversary of Death

VOA News ^ | 16 Aug 2003

[veronica]

Saturday is the 26th anniversary of the death of singer Elvis Presley, and thousands of people gathered at his Graceland home in Memphis, Tennessee, to remember the music legend.

About 5,000 Elvis fans were lined up when Graceland's gates opened Friday night for the annual overnight candlelight vigil past the singer's grave. Thousands more later joined the procession which continued until early Saturday.

AP Beverly Swain, from Lexington, Tenn., attends a candlelight vigil to Elvis Presley's grave at Graceland in Memphis, Tenn. Officials in Memphis estimate about 35,000 people took part in this year's Elvis Tribute Week. Some came many hundreds - even thousands - of kilometers to attend. One man from Ohio said he has been at Graceland on this day every year since Elvis died on August 16, 1977.

The event comes with a full week of activities, including concerts, Elvis look-alike contests, special tours of his Graceland home, screenings of his movies, and if you give $35 to an animal charity, a chance to swim in the swimming pool at the home in Memphis where Elvis lived before he moved to Graceland.

[veronica]

[TBall]

Man that would be so cool to swim in the King's pool.

[veronica]

:)

[xp38]

I was there last year about a week before the 25th anniversary. Already the gravesite was overun with flowers and tributes. It was interesting. He was one of the greats.

[Khurkris]

This just in...

Elvis is still dead...more on the hour...

[boothead]

Thousands Remember Elvis on Anniversary of Death

Hells Bells!! I ain't got over Glenn Miller's death yet

[Revolting cat!]

Thousands Remember Elvis on Anniversary of Death

Who?

[frmrda]

Yes, thousands of people w/ some weird obsession w/ this overweight, drug addicted womanizer, who met and seduced his wife when she was 14. Yes, truly something to look up to. And for God's sake, his music wasn't all that good. Just because he was the blackest sounding white guy alive he became famous.

I'll always remember the fat Elvis, so bloated on pills that he sweated more than an Al-Queda member in an Special Ops interrogation. That and keeling over while on the crapper.

I really don't get these people. They're probably the same folks who lined the streets when Dale Earnhart died. Granted, that was a tragedy, but it's not like the guy was a "hero" or anything. He was a freaking race car driver. And Elvis was a singer. Why the obsessions?

[xp38]

Far from obsessed. I like his music. That's all. I'm sure you like someone else. I visited his place because it was sort of on the way to New Orleans and as a first time visitor to Memphis it was one of the things to see.

[Revolting cat!]

I'll always remember that the "hero" checked out of Graceland and the surrounding world while sitting on a gold crapper reading a book whuch claimed to prove that Jesus was an alien from outer space!

[frmrda]

I'm not talking about folks like you. If I was in Memphis I'd probably go as well, just for the historical and cultural significance. And I'm not criticizing people who like his music. You may not like what I like either. That's fine.

What I don't get are these thousands of people who show up every year and light candles on the anniversary of his death and cry like he was some sort of mystical figure. Those people are borderline insane.

[gedeon3]

I saw him in downtown Atlanta this morning. He was driving a pink yugo with canadian license plates.

[frmrda]

I always remember the skit Howard Stern did about Elvis. It was Howard "channeling" Elvis from heaven, with the hillbilly accent and stuff.

In the middle of sentences he would suddently blurt out "Get me a demerol" and "Ohh, my momma had a gobbler on her like a turkey. Hey, somebody get me a turkey sandwich"

Trust me it sounded much better and fall down hilarious when you heard it first hand.

[Revolting cat!]

Yes, the worship is bizarre. But since we're in the non-judgmental phase of our cultural evolution, and since the newspapers are (we and they think) "objective", no one dares to point it out in a public forum. Their (the religious fanatics') votes count after all, their dollars that buy the stupid products that buy advertising count, and we seem to be stuck with insanity being presented to us like another walk in the park (not the Central Park, that's for sure, though! That's deemed officially insane, after a certain hour!)

[foreverfree]

If I was in Memphis I'd probably go as well, just for the historical and cultural significance.

I wonder why, if I'm ever in Memphis, I'd sooner visit the National Civil Rights Museum? That place commemorates events, and is indeed itself a place, of historical and cultural significance that, I reckon, is just as great if not greater.

What I don't get are these thousands of people who show up every year and light candles on the anniversary of his death and cry like he was some sort of mystical figure. Those people are borderline insane.

I tend to agree. But isn't there the same madness outside the Dakota on the anniversary of John Lennon's death every December?

foreverfree

[WKB]

I like Elvis OK but I know a KING who is STILL alive!!

[frmrda]

Oh, I'd surely visit that museum before Graceland. Part of wanting to go there is to "people-watch" and see these obsessed maniacs in all their glory.

As to John Lennon, I think it's on a much smaller scale. Talk about a whack job. He and the wife were commie loving, drug using hippie freaks. I swear, listening to her sink is like listening to animals dying slowly in a trap.

One thing I will say for John though, he was a great songwriter. Not a great perfomer or musician (that's Paul) but a magnificent songwriter. Those two were definately right for each other.

[Beaker]

Who?
Amen.... So that's why there's a tribute down the street from me. Honestly, it's all I can hear. Driving me bloody insane.

[publius1]

The greatest American artist of the 20th century--making him the greatest artist in the world. It's good that people remember, and pay tribute.

All great artists produce a body of work. Few change a culture.

I know some people will refuse to understand him, or admit to his brilliance (there are people who refuse to admit to Picasso's brilliance); but for those open and sympathetic, here's a clue: you can't understand anything about him unless you understand that he was a very great artist.

[speedy]

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