Unclear, but he seems to have leaned that way earlier and more GOP later (see his meeting with Nixon and rants against hippies.)
Elvis Doesn't Die, What Does He Record?
- Thread starter tallthinkev
- Start date
Unclear, but he seems to have leaned that way earlier and more GOP later (see his meeting with Nixon and rants against hippies.)
But what even suggested he wanted to go into elected politics?
I'm thinking if he lives and lets say pulls a Johnny Cash lets even give him a new wife one who kinda takes care of him. He goes dark for a few years then late 70's early 80's he comes out with a country album that's followed by a Gospel album. Then in 85 he is asked to help with Farmaid. The 90's brings him a acting role or two.
yes I know. But the OP said what Records not what political office. lmao.Because this is AH.com and we don't do cultural TLs very much (with a few exceptional exceptions)! Best to bring politics into it somehow
Yeah, but we're assuming he's running in Tennessee and not California or some other more liberal state. Tennessee Democrats were a different breed. Elvis running as an independent in 1978 would be interesting, going up against Jake Butcher and Lamar Alexander. Even though running as a Democrat is still a smart choice if you want office in 1978 Tennessee, as much as Ray Blanton tarnished that (after all, Democrats from West Tennessee--Elvis's home turf presumably, or at least what he'd associate with if he was serious about gaining office--helped through Blanton out of office a few days early to prevent him from further releasing prisoners because of his corruption)
For the most drama, you'd definitely want Elvis running in 1978 instead of 1982, since if Tennessee had enough nonsense involving the governor's office, a surviving Elvis Presley running for governor would pretty much be the capstone on a ridiculous year in state politics.
Very true, since Blanton is remember for corruption, Lamar Alexander is at most remembered for his later career in national politics, and no outside of Tennessee remembers McWherter or Sundquist.
Well, a bad experience with drugs, one which he OTL died from but TTL he survived, yet because of it he turned around his life, eventually has him seek politics, etc.
Really, we should start "Elvis for Tennessee Governor/President/whatever" in another topic.
Elvis would not be president, governor or another politician, anymore than he would become greatly interested in being a blimp pilot. Could he become a blimp pilot? Maybe. But that does not mean that is anything more than an outlier of what is more likely to happen. Not everyone wants or needs to become a politician. It's a bad habit on this forum to do so. And unless the OP is interested in that, the topic at hand should be discussed.
Creigton asked:
"Elvis passed before I was born, so I'm too young to have any in moment knowledge of where he was at culturally at the time of his death. I know that his personal life and health were deteriorating because of his addiction, but was his star power and reputation on a decline as well, or did this stuff come out after his death? Was he still considered extremely marketable?"
My recollection is just before his death he was widely seen as a has-been with a star power fuel gauge close to zero. Out of touch and out of mind for most in the music scene. I don't mean to be disrespectful to the man's memory but I remember his death announcement was not a big deal. Honor for his musical accomplishments but not much of a sense of a great loss. Also if I remember correctly the rights to all his songs was purchased from his estate for a - please excuse the pun- for a song about a year after his death. There was no competition for the rights that I remember and I remember a radio news discussion how difficult it was going to be to make any money in the deal. At the time it seemed to me it was going to be very very difficult to make his music a market success again.
I suspect if he had not died and had somehow escaped his drug habit that he would have bounced along for decades doing county fairs and similar venues for increasingly older and grayer true fans.
Would his music have come back into fashion if he had lived? I don't know. My instincts for popular culture are abysmal but I suspect not.
"Elvis passed before I was born, so I'm too young to have any in moment knowledge of where he was at culturally at the time of his death. I know that his personal life and health were deteriorating because of his addiction, but was his star power and reputation on a decline as well, or did this stuff come out after his death? Was he still considered extremely marketable?"
My recollection is just before his death he was widely seen as a has-been with a star power fuel gauge close to zero. Out of touch and out of mind for most in the music scene. I don't mean to be disrespectful to the man's memory but I remember his death announcement was not a big deal. Honor for his musical accomplishments but not much of a sense of a great loss. Also if I remember correctly the rights to all his songs was purchased from his estate for a - please excuse the pun- for a song about a year after his death. There was no competition for the rights that I remember and I remember a radio news discussion how difficult it was going to be to make any money in the deal. At the time it seemed to me it was going to be very very difficult to make his music a market success again.
I suspect if he had not died and had somehow escaped his drug habit that he would have bounced along for decades doing county fairs and similar venues for increasingly older and grayer true fans.
Would his music have come back into fashion if he had lived? I don't know. My instincts for popular culture are abysmal but I suspect not.
I don't think he would have done county fairs, but I think it would have been what it largely became, which was a niche market. Elvis became atrophied after getting back from the army. That was the fault of a lot of people, Elvis included. He did movies instead of albums. He surrounded himself with yes men, so no one would push him or contradict him in terms of his music. Tom Parker screwed him over for his own selfish reasons. And Elvis, I think as a result of Parker, required some publishing rights money from songs he recorded, which drove away material. I'll quote something here:
"I'm On Fire" (Springsteen)
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/what-if-elvis-had-lived.156934/#post-4358603
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/what-if-elvis-had-lived.156934/#post-4358603
Interesting bit from the Hee Haw wiki entry.
The Elvis connection
Elvis Presley was a fan of Hee Haw and wanted to appear as a guest on the program, but Presley was afraid that his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, would not allow him to do so. Two of the Hee Haw Honeys dated Presley long before they joined the cast: Most notably Linda Thompson in the mid-1970s, whom Presley also had a long-lasting, steady relationship with after his divorce from Priscilla; and Diana Goodman shortly afterwards. Shortly after Presley's death, his father, Vernon Presley, made a cameo appearance on the show, alongside Thompson and Buck Owens, and paid tribute to his late son, noting how much Elvis enjoyed watching the show, and introduced one of his favorite gospel songs, as performed by the Hee Haw Gospel Quartet.
The Elvis connection
Elvis Presley was a fan of Hee Haw and wanted to appear as a guest on the program, but Presley was afraid that his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, would not allow him to do so. Two of the Hee Haw Honeys dated Presley long before they joined the cast: Most notably Linda Thompson in the mid-1970s, whom Presley also had a long-lasting, steady relationship with after his divorce from Priscilla; and Diana Goodman shortly afterwards. Shortly after Presley's death, his father, Vernon Presley, made a cameo appearance on the show, alongside Thompson and Buck Owens, and paid tribute to his late son, noting how much Elvis enjoyed watching the show, and introduced one of his favorite gospel songs, as performed by the Hee Haw Gospel Quartet.
On that theme, might Elvis get pulled into the Travelling Wilburys or the Highwaymen?
I'm not an Elvis fan but I am a big Queen fan but not a big fan of the song "Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)" but I do think Elvis could've done a hell of a cover of this song.
It sounds perfect for him IMO.