Go to main content

From Squirrels To Bloodhounds, Part 2: A Female Annoyance

By Elizabeth Frisian, November 08, 2002 | Other
There is something, which worries me a lot. All my life I have been an Elvis fan. The whole Presley package has stolen my heart and soul. One could really say that I get up with him in the morning and go to bed with him in the evening, metaphorically speaking of course.
But recently I become a little bit annoyed with all those “women/groupies” whom, 25 years after his death, come forward with the most possible and impossible stories. I also wonder what cause this serves. It will probably have to do with money, or worse, they probably only want to use Elvis’ name to become notorious or richer.
The annoying thing however is that when I as a woman make a comment about this, everybody immediately beats the big drum and thinks that you are “jealous”.

Take Priscilla for example. Okay, she was Elvis’ greatest love. She did not want to/could not live with him anymore and she left. All right that was her prerogative. Why then still make a profit of his surname? I know, that seems to be quite common in America but I don’t find that inappropriate. When you don’t love a man anymore you should also not want to use his name anymore. Of course I know all the stories of the Priscilla devotees, the fact that she made Graceland “big”, kept Elvis’ name in high esteem and so on.
But when I as a woman critise the fact that she kept using the “Presley” name all the men immediately take offence. Most recently this happened to me again. In the Rock Café a man told me very proudly that he had just come back from America and had a photograph of him together with Priscilla, with his arm around her……. Brrrr, everybody to his or her taste. In the first place this man was at least 20 years younger than Priscilla and certainly intelligent enough to know better.
This has nothing to do with being jealous. But the fact that Priscilla deserted Elvis is reason enough for me not to want to have anything to do with that creature, even if she is the mother of his child a thousand times over.

And of course we have the 2nd female Lisa Marie, Elvis’ daughter. Okay, the poor creature can’t help that.. But all the fuss around her, I think we already have waited 3 years for her cd, I don’t understand that either, I am an Elvis fan and that’s final.
Every time it surprises me that true Elvis fans apparently are dying to hear her CD. Personally I rather listen to the “normal” version of Don’t Cry Daddy instead of the duet. And how weird is the following. It is normal practice in America to keep your ex-husbands surname, but apparently not in this case. Just keep daddies name, because that yields a bit more honour and glory. (I presume she is not really waiting for more money).

The worst however are the “groupies” from bygone days. Those girls whom might have been invited once by Elvis, but whom nowadays suddenly as a kind of expert try to dissect Elvis’ character, throw his sexual preferences in the public eye and supposedly know everything about him. Didn’t we all have a boy friend for a couple of days or weekends? Wouldn’t we find it terrible if those boyfriends suddenly after 25 years would write an article, would give an interview regarding what we liked or did not like, ever? Are we as Elvis fans really waiting for this kind of “garbage”? I know very well that Elvis has not lived like a monk, but who cares? It certainly is the music, his voice, his charisma, in short the whole picture what it is all about? I really find it ludicrous to read that ladies whom might have shared his bed once, the “fruity types”, now even dare to make statements about the times of which they have not been a part. Of course there are exceptions. The friends who were indeed Elvis’ real girlfriends. These ladies are fortunately too decent as to throw all the private details around. Let’s face it, are the male fans waiting to hear whether Elvis was good in bed or not? No, I don’t think so. Neither do I as a female fan. The man was a legend, a performer 1st class, but I really don’t “slither” of my chair because of all those bed stories. I really find it quite insulting that men seem to think that straight away. The female Elvis fan is not always taken seriously in one way or another, and that galls me very much!
The worst is that it is my own sex, which is at fault here.

Furthermore we have other money-grubbers around us, amongst which there are also men! Those are the types, which at one time once sat together with Elvis in the same train or bus, golf cart, taxi etc., and now feel compelled to publish books, DVD’s and articles. Of course I make an exception for people that have really been involved with Elvis, but nowadays all too often I read articles on the internet of people whom have seen him only once and immediately have the guts to attach a complete character analysis to that experience. What a lot of rubbish! Even cassette tapes are circulating with “bedroom-noises”. People, what are we doing? Think hard and long before you dare to present such “items”! And especially if the only motive is money!
Would you like it yourself if recordings from your own bedroom would be publicised?
And NO, that tape was once offered to me to listen to and I have declined that offer! I don’t even want to listen to it! True or false, Elvis deserves more respect than us wanting to play eavesdroppers.

And let us not forget the impersonators. Those pathetic creatures that have the need to dress themselves like Elvis and to use his image to pull in a crowd. There has been only “one” Elvis. Period! Every human being on this planet is unique and has to make it under his or hers own steam. A real artist does not need to use somebody else’s fame. If a book would be published with the same kind of story as another book, the writer would go to court because it would be called plagiarism.

And last but not least we have the “photographers” amongst us. All those people whom have ever really attended a concert and now only are prepared to share their photographs with the rest of us fans for big money. What a nonsense! If you are a real fan you should be prepared to share everything with other fans! Of course I understand that professional photographers are completely entitled to publish books and to earn money by doing so. Those people are photographers in the 1st place and fan in the 2nd place. I mean the people that buy photos from ordinary fans and subsequently enrich themselves by selling them on! I mean the fans, which suddenly realise that they are sitting on a “goldmine” because ALLC, Lilo and Stitch, and 30 #1 Hits have put Elvis back “in the picture” again!
Suddenly these people come forward with their photographs to enable themselves to get a piece of the action.
It hurts me that people sooner or later often become money-grubbers!