Elvis Imitators

There is a strange, strong, undeniable, arguably unhealthy relationship between the late Elvis Presley and his fans. Dave Barry wrote a great piece about this; he came to mock, and found something powerful, even though he wasn't comfortable with it.

What's weird is a near-worship of Elvis, and in particular, the people who try to dress, sing, and act just the way he did. Contrary to FrankLloydWright's assertion that UnderstandingIsLove, ElvisImitators seem to know and love Elvis, but copy him exactly.

I guess what's troubling about this (and please add your opinions) is that there's not a lot of value being added here. The ElvisImitators themselves enjoy it. Their audiences get the flavor of a live Elvis Presley performance. But there's nothing new under the sun, no new songs, no new interpretations, nothing's been created. Isn't it better to stand on the shoulders of past great people, rather than just standing in their place?

-- PaulChisholm

It's a form of role playing. It's analogous to a child pretending to drive a car like his father does. It is what we do as adults all the time: what's the difference between acting like a hero and actually being a hero? -- DaveHarris

I ask a similar question in ArtificialIntelligence, "What's the difference between thinking, and a simulation of thinking?"

Is there nothing good other than creating new things? Is it so wrong to recreate old good things? -- BenKovitz

Agreed. There are more "classics" than any one person can possibly fully absorb in one lifetime. At least the classics have been somewhat vetted. With new stuff, 99 out of 100 roughly are yawners or crap. The yawners of yesteryear have already been forgotten, leaving the classics. Seeing a live Elvis imitator is something everybody should do at least once in their life. Kiss imitators are starting to pop-up also. Kiss and Elvis fall into the similar category of performers with average but catchy songs but a multimedia presentation that is hard to forget.

The King (http://www.gravelands.com/ [BrokenLink 08-05-05]) sings songs such as 'Come as you are' or 'Sympathy for the Devil' in Elvis' style. This should count as new interpretation.

No discussion of Elvis impersonators is complete without mention of El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, and the lovely El Vettes (http://www.elvez.net/). Consider him mentioned. He too certainly is more than just an Elvis imitator.

OffTopic