Growing up I was mesmerized by KISS, but my aunts and uncles told me Elvis Presley was the King. I only knew Elvis from his Aloha from Hawaii TV special and his death, so what they thought was rocking about a dead guy who was last seen in a lei and bellbottoms escaped me.

I've since tried to understand the Elvis legend. At 16 I went on a minor Elvis binge and bought Elvis' Golden Records and a book and magazine, and later got Sun Sessions. It was through a DVD I watched last night, though, that I began to really understand why, for a generation, Elvis Presley is still The King.

There's a three-DVD set out of Elvis Presley's 1968 comeback TV special. It includes not only the original show, but also the raw, uncut footage. I bought this for my dad and Saturday night we watched some of it.

Everything to Everybody

The sit-down jam part of the show is the rawest and gives the best picture of the true Elvis. Eddie Murphy was right when he observed, "Women wanted him, guys wanted to be him, and little kids looked up to him." It's absolutely true. Elvis was a guy's guy. Fuck Mick Jagger! There would never be a rumor of Elvis frolicking with David Bowie. Elvis was all man, and everyone knew it. That's why every female in the audience looks like they would jump on stage and fellate him on request. His swagger told guys that Elvis would have their back in a bar fight.

Though worshiped like a deity, he was surprisingly self-effacing. You've probably seen the clip of Andy Kauffman doing an Elvis impersonation where he says, "Hold on...there's something wrong with mah lip." What everyone forgot is Elvis did that joke first, in this special! At another point he's opining on contemporary music when he says, "I really don't know what I'm saying. I'm just rambling." On one hand a swaggering sexual dynamo, on the other hand self-deprecating. Then he performs a gospel song with all sincerity, convincing even your grandma he's a good boy. He was everything to everybody!

The Social Force

It wasn't just Technicolor that changed life from black-and-white to a rainbow. Elvis did it, too.

I once picked up my Mom's high school Home Ec book, and there was a chapter on how to throw a party. In the pictures the teens were all dressed in coats and ties and drinking from tea cups. I asked my Mom if this was really how they threw a party in the `50's. She said yes, most any time you went out of the house you wore a coat and tie.

Now imagine you live in this world where letting your hair down means undoing a button on your sport coat, and in comes this guy with curls hanging in his eyes, sweating, shouting, dropping to his knees and swinging his family jewels in the ladies' faces. Holy shit! No wonder old people thought they were witnessing the beginning of the Apocalypse and teenagers thought it was the most exciting thing they had ever seen. Yeah, blues singers were doing it first, but get real: have you seen what Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters looked like in 1956? They were middle-aged, overweight and balding even then. A young, trim guy letting it all hang out was really a new thing under the sun. Elvis got loose for everybody.

I can imagine his success was especially meaningful to people in the South. To this day, being from the Southeast is something you're supposed to be ashamed of. You have dirt roads, can't read and fuck your cousins, right? Have you burned a cross or lynched anyone lately? But when it came to Elvis, even the guy born-and-bred in Manhattan would've given both nuts to be the guy from Tupelo. Elvis Presley tacitly let Southerners know it was more than okay to be who they were, that they were the inventors of cool, and all that was worthwhile in music.

Template of the Star Gone Wrong

This `68 special also exemplifies that Elvis was the prototype of the star led astray by The Suits.

Here was a guy from Tupelo doing what came naturally, and the world went wild. Now Hollywood comes a-knocking, wanting him to stop wiggling, put on a suit, add some strings and horns, do more ballads, get some backup dancers. Now, these pros made the careers of Sinatra and Brando, so they must know what they're doing, right? Maybe not. The later, cheesy Presley that I would roll my eyes at in the mid-70's was under construction. This is the Elvis that stands like a bowling pin as dancers swirl around him in absurd production numbers, a stark contrast to the rocker in the other segments.

Elvis' quandary at 33 becomes clear. No one knew how a rock n' roller was supposed to mature; Sinatra had gone to Vegas, so Elvis followed. And he progressed into the caricature that we know now: a campy cartoon, Tortelvis, El Vez, a velvet painting at a roadside stand. I guess you could say he blazed the trail for Phil Collins and Rod Stewart, the first formerly-cool rocker to go Adult Contemporary.

I think if Elvis just came onto the scene today with updated music, he would still take the world over. There's truly been no one who covered all the bases like that before or since. That's why Elvis is the King!