Did Elvis Go To Heaven Or Hell?

5-13-06 Questions, Said Rutger Hauer in "BLADE RUNNER"


Yesterday I was reading another biography of Elvis Presley whose tragic life has so consumed me the past 5 years or so and I came across the question at the head of this page: Did Elvis go to Heaven or Hell? Apparently this question has labored the minds & consciences of millions since the death of The King of Rock & Roll on 16 August 1977. I understand that this question concerning Elvis's eternal status in the beyond has not only vexed those Evangelical Southern Fried Chicken Christians but also rank & file Unbelievers. They also are greatly concerned for the eternal Soul of Elvis Aron Presley. And this is a telling datum on the whole business of Superstar or Celebrity and metaphysics and religion and of course America itself above all. For Elvis Presley was he who became America's Soul circa 1956 and never stopped being so. He as it were assumed the mantle of America. He incarnated America in the flesh. Elvis came down to Earth to put on the garment of American flesh and blood and hope and Suffering and thus his death was sacramental as his life was an Allegory as the poet John Keats once wrote the life of the poet is an Allegory.

Elvis passed out of his mortal flesh at the tender age of 42. But from all the written accounts he had already died long before that. He had ceased desiring women which surely is one of the fundamental signs of Being Alive. For years Elvis had thrived on popping drugs morning afternoon and night. He slept days and lived it up nights. And he always had a trophy woman within striking range. But in those tragic latter years he was content to have his lady lie beside him in the bed watching t.v. and going to get his pitcher of water & his pills. He had no more desire for sex and love. He was by this time a Musical Machine. And also a Cash Cow for several people. He still commanded tremendous fees for live performances and received tremendous sums from record companies from the cash sales for his recordings. He was only 42 but his closest friends had seen death coming for a long time. There was always something slightly Un-Human about Mr. Presley from the age of 21 since he began taking immense quantities of Speed in the army. He always stood apart. He was The King of Rock & Roll. And he could drive an audience into the sea of Frenzy when he began to strum his guitar and sing his songs and swivel his hips. The women began to shriek and throw their arms about in ecstatic cries of sexual delirium the minute Elvis ascended the stage. No other singer in history commanded a crowd of women like Elvis did. He was their one and only God. And therefore when He died they denied his death. Had to. Of course! The God never dies. Many of them of course knew he died. They were aware that he had shuffled off his mortal coils. But He remained Elvis Presley. How to square THAT with The Facts.

Did Elvis go to Heaven or Hell asked these people. Because wherever Elvis went they were bent on going down the same path. Heaven and Hell somehow became realer with the death of Elvis Presley. NOW it must mean something truly real. How could it not if it took Elvis into its domain? There must be something here that we did not previously understand. Elvis' death threw the whole world of religion into immediate Limbo as it were. For all of a sudden everyone was there with Elvis. First inside the box in Memphis. And from there to wherever that Great Carriage carried the soul of Elvis Aron Presley. Thus, men and women were ripped out of their comfortable atheistic lives. For, truthfully speaking, everybody in decent health is essentially an atheist 24-7-365. O sure, some people mumble a few prayers before meals & once in a while might get down on their knees before they go to bed just to cover the bases. But in the day light of money song & sex boys & girls & men & women are all slaves of Moloch. But the minute Elvis' death came over the inter com of The World a strange new obsession penetrated the whole world of The Elvis Worshippers. They could never again be the same. Nothing would ever again resemble Reality Pre-Elvis. There would only be Post-Elvis and Pre-Elvis to the True Believers. Like pre-lapsarian & post-lapsarian humankind. Those who lived before The Fall & those who came after.

Is Elvis in Heaven or Hell? And if so will He stay there or is this a volatile situation? (Or, has Elvis been Re-incarnated as the Dalai Lama claims to be the Way of Death)? Elvis himself had begun experimenting with the ideas of those who practiced various forms of immortality. He had not arrived himself at any hard and sound and safe place that we know of. We do know this: Elvis Presley drove the Question of Immortality into the brains & hearts & souls of his listeners as no man had accomplished since the death of Jesus. This is an experience that does not translate onto The White Page. It does not fit comfortably inside the vowels & consonants of Written American English. Somehow it is closer to the language Elvis himself spoke---the inimitable & forever mysterious language of music---The Melody. And we cannot go beyond it. It is futile for us to try. Did Elvis go to heaven or to hell? What a stupid question. What is Heaven and Hell? Are they a place? And who has any control over it? And once there should it be a place you can get out of and go to the other place and vice versa? There is no book of Rules on this subject. This is a realm of Superstition and Legend. Elvis fans will have to find new ground to break for their own souls. The King of Rock & Roll is not coming back for an en core.


RLG Copyright 2006