Kill The King

Today is the day that the much touted Grammy awards are being announced. I've never been a fan of Grammy's because the music I like, isn't what the masses like. I buy music because it strikes a personal note with me, and I don't care who else likes or dislikes it. There are some automatons out there who like whatever is popular and their tastes shift with popular opinion. I borrowed this song title from Rainbow, when Ronnie James Dio was still their lead singer.
I personally am not a fan of Elvis Presley. I don't consider him to be the king of anything except White Trash garish behavior. Back in the '50s, when Rock and Roll was young, Elvis was an important factor, I won't deny that. His early stuff I have no problem with. Tunes like "Jailhouse Rock", "Heartbreak Hotel", "Hound Dog", and "Love Me Tender" are okay in my book. It's only during the 1960s, that Elvis put out such miserable drech ( or is it drek?) like, "Suspicious Minds", and "In The Ghetto" that I began to really detest him. The kicker was, when the Beatles were in the height of their Psychedellic phase, that Officer Elvis contacted then President Richard Nixon and offered to get evidence of the Fab Four's drug abuse in order to deny them the right to tour in the U.S.A. In 1972 when the televised farwell Tour From Hawaii was aired, that Elvis appeared on stage in his flamboyantly, flashy matador outfit that he performed the song, "Something". As a bigger Beatle Fan than Elvis Fan, I was enraged. He'd tried to stop the Beatles from earning a living by touring, and yet he had the balls to perform one of their songs? I am mystified as to why people put him on a god-like pedastal.
Of course the final chapter in Elvis's life is that he was as big a drug abuser as the Beatles, yet none of their lives ended due to their experimenting with substances for recreational purposes. Elvis became a punchline to a bad joke. He evolved into a fat, buffoon, stuffing himself into his idiotic costumes. Rock and Roll has survived just fine since his demise. I was working in a factory when he checked out, and that really killed me, because I worked at a machine where hearing protection was required. I happend to have a pair of headphones that looked almost identical to the ear protectors, so I'd plug in my radio and have tunes to make the drudgery, less tedious. For at least ten days after the death of Elvis Aron Presley, I couldn't listen to the radio because my ears were assaulted with tributes to him.
The King has left the building, and I can breathe a whole lot easier.