I think Elvis was killed by Colonel Parker.
The real Elvis was the Sun Elvis – the natural Nashville Hillbilly Cat, the Memphis Flash. He had original style, energy and was innovative. The contrasting clothes, the quiff, the ducktail and sideburns, the way he moved.Those early Sun recordings were superb and life changing.
Then came Parker the killer, the showbiz fairground huckster, the conman who sanitised and castrated Elvis. The signing to RCA, the terrible films, the move to first Rock ‘n’ Roll from Rockabilly – and then to Pop, the cutting of the sideburns, the caricature of himself on stage. the gold lame suits, the backing group singing about hot bananas.
By the time the army got him he was already dead.
The stupid thing is that all the Elvis impersonators choose the wrong Elvis. They’ve made an icon out of the sad pop star and not the radical rockabilly king. I suppose that is because that later slob was easy to copy, but nobody could come near the lean majesty of the real king.