Therapy was available-and it was pretty accepted in New York and LA but lets face it in most of our country back then it carried a stigma of shame or perceived weakness. Elvis would have needed reasurrance that is was not weak or shameful to get help other than pills for his chronic sleeplessness. Therapy explores your inner self, it helps people to be more able to cope with things they do not understand-to be more self reliant and assured-does that sound like something Parker would have wanted?Originally Posted by debtdbruno
Monroe had therapy (for all the good it did her) so did other famous people of the time-and had Elvis been encouraged to meet more people from different backgrounds and made to feel that is was okay to do so-he might have been exposed to people who would have given the positive aspects of talking to people "outside the bubble of comfort" that the Col approved of.
Instead of telling Elvis... some people you have to watch.... but its good to meet and learn from others..... He was told repeatidly to beware of others-that others wanted to gain his favor for reasons other than friendship....only Parker and his approved people were okay.
Elvis was snowed. Some people like Leiber and Stoller were interested in seeing Elvis grow and expand-not contract into the cocoon of perceived safety...but they and anyone like them were not on Parkers list.
Work in Progress!
all good point there KPM.........Elvis was definitely cuckooned, and kept away from outside forces...........tragic
he could have benefitted so much, stimulation that he needed to grow, if he had had contact with a wider range of people......and out of the Colonel's
control
"NO-ONE, BUT NO-ONE,IS HIS EQUAL, OR EVER WILL BE. HE WAS, AND IS SUPREME".Mick Jagger
My belief is that the Colonel was the single most detrimental force that brought Elvis down emotionally and physically bit by bit through the years until Elvis was so steeped in pills he lost sight of everything in his life.
LOL.........Mike will join you on that one Diane.....
you've a 'pet hate' of the Colonel don't you?........haha
Quite agree though Diane.......he needed to get rid of him years previously
I have said many times that I really believe the Colonel loved Elvis in his own way-"but he loved keeping the golden goose penned up and in his control much more"
Tommy Sands was a good singer ala Frankie Avalon, Fabian, etc... who at a young age was being guided by Col. Parker-but Sands mother did not trust Parker and because Sands was not of age at the time she got Parker out of the picture.
Sands says Parker wanted total control of all aspects of his life and his mother did not like the sound of it.
Sands had a fair career in the late fifties to mid sixties but when he was divorced from Nancy Sinatra a lot of doors closed to him.
Work in Progress!
It has clearly been stated that Elvis choose the life he was leading. He did not like Hollywood and interacted very little with that kind of people. And in Memphis, he couldn't go out much. He was in a cocoon because he wanted it that way and because fate dealt him that. Anyone get how hard it is to live with a self-distructive person??
His father and others tried to point out that he had problems. Has everyone forgotten that he would get ticked off if people tried to point that out. What exactly were they to do?? Hog tie him and drag him kicking and screaming to rehab. It has nothing to do with money...that idea doesn't make a lick of sense. What good is a dead gravy-master. It is well documented that they did jobs and they got paid-so what. And yes, they got gifts. Name me which one was living in the lap of luxury?? The sacrified a lot too.
Elvis loved the people he choose to have around him, each for his own reason. Does anyone really think they should have all left him, you know like his wife and girlfriends did,,,all of them! So you think them all leaving would have changed him?? People leaving him did not ever. Not even his love for his own daughter could change him. Not even his own father trying.
It is much harder to stay, and love the person, and accept them no matter what.
It's sad, but we choose our own destiny.
Kind of lol....but it's not hate as much as disgust of that greedy old man.
Very early on leaving may have worked....as when he came home from the army because it wasn't long after that that he was too addicted to listen to anyone. I believe they didn't leave later as some were getting their free share of the drugs....plus the girls and the gifts.
TCB!
Mike
R.I.P. Tommy
We will miss you dearest friend
TCB!
Mike
R.I.P. Tommy
We will miss you dearest friend
Perhaps that was part of it for some. But I don't think that was ALL!.. there was too it. I'm sure it was icing on the cake for some, but I believe they loved him too. Who could NOT love Elvis?? He was charismatic, funny, loving. He was their friend. I just feel that Elvis, with his charm, magnetic/and childish, needy personality would have been hard to just abandon.
I think love and jealousy were all mixed up in their minds plus being too self-centered was the problem.
Let's face it........it was a complicated situation, with pro's and con's
When Elvis spoke with Leiber in Stoller in the early years-he respected them, they were successful, making tons of money songwriters who were much sought after for songs by all the hot artists of the 50s and 60s....they came to him with a film that had been proposed by Charlie Feldman a famous and powerful agent in Hollywood he had a book that he wanted to make into a film, he was talking with the great director Elia Kazan about directing, he wanted Leiber and Stoller to write the songs, Leonard Bernstein to do the score and he wanted Elvis to be the lead....Elvis was excited and they then took the idea to the Col and to the other show business agencies that handled his film career thinking that this was a great opportunity for Elvis......
They were shot down and told that if they ever interferred with in the business of ELVIS again they would be blackballed bigtime and not able to get a job in LA, Chicago, Texas, New York ........
So they never again brought any outside opportunities to Elvis, and Elvis was told by the Col. to remember that people outside the scope of the inner circle were not to be trusted.
So Elvis really never had much opportunity to decide for himself what he may have liked from Hollywood, he was from the start warned of people wanting things from him, wanting to steer him wrong, wanting to use him!
Elvis in he early years in Hollywood was much more open, he went to parties, he did get out with some people like Sammy Davis, Nick Adams,.... for instance, Rick Nelson Elvis met at a party and Elvis wanted to know all about the Nelson family tv show and Rick wanted to talk about Sun records and music.
But the subtle snowing by Parker began to make Elvis more and more hesitant about meeting others outside the circle till Elvis truely was totally reticent about meeting people outside Parkers boundaries.
The inner circle of friends that Elvis collected over the years was partly because Elvis had little chance to strike up real friendships after he became skeptical about motives of new people spurred by Parkers warnings.
That inner circle of friends became employees-IMO friends should never mix employment and friendship.
I have said many times that in a friend/employee relationship-99% of the time each side eventually feels put upon as time goes by.
The employer/friend-feels that his employee/friends are only there to get an easy paycheck and the employee/friend thinks they are taken advantage of-because of the friendship. It became an unhealthy relationship for all.
Envy, anger, hurt feelings, substantial blurring of the unpaid friendship and paid employee line.
Its a universally hard fine line to walk for anyone-let alone for Elvis Presley the greatest entertainer of our time....and his friends who ended up working for him.
They all say they tried to change him-but lets be real, we have seen how they jumped when he spoke, laughed when he joked, (funny or not)
and catered to him-how hard could they try?
They could have quit-and made it stick, but they were drawn back to the circle everytime they got a taste of life away from the electricity and power of the Elvis world (and thats not hard to understand)
I would say that in order to listen to someone seriously, you have to respect them totally-unfortunately I think somewhere along the way Elvis had little respect for 99% of them in matters of advice.
Destiny is sometime shaped by matters out of our hands, his childhood, his heredity and his insecurities that he tried to ignore.
If I was in total control of my destiny-I would not be afraid of closed in places, I would not have HBP and irregular heartbeat, I would not be a worrier who at times has trouble sleeping nights etc...........and Elvis was like this also there were some things he did not control, that did push him a certain way.......just like all humans.
Work in Progress!
What one of us could honestly say they would have done better in Elvis' place? Maybe not quite the same problems would have arisen but big problems nonetheless.....as Ken said....the bottom line was that Elvis was human.
Good posts KPM and Diane. Elvis was ill-equiped to handle his life IMO. And I speak as someone who is a caretaker and have always found it soo hard to leave those I love who have problems. I'd rather sacrifice myself, because as times it seems less painful. I also know how charming and persuasive Elvis could be.
No one of us could ever understand what Elvis was feeling at the point in his life the stress he felt, maybe he thought his fame was slipping, may be he thought he was outgrowing that lifestyle and wanted to settle down, or maybe it depressed him that all his friends and such were doing that, and he was keeping the same train going.
"How do I get placed in situations like this? Ah hell, I guess it's all part of showbusiness "~ Elvis in his limo on his way to perform in Omaha, NE on June 19th 1977
By 1976 Elvis had all but given up, his life was in free fall, he had been hospitalised twice for drug overdoses and relapsed soon after he was released. Elvis had gotten into a long ingrained cycle that neither he nor those around him were every going to pull him out of. I agree there is too much blame given to the Memphis Mafia! They just cannot be held 100% responsible! whether their motives for staying with Elvis were selfish or not they clearly didn't want their friend to die.
IMO they people around Elvis always thought it would never be too late for Elvis to turn it around like he had done in years gone by, they had got used to Elvis' appearance and behaviour and turned a blind eye to how bad thing had gotten. Elvis didn't even know how bad things had gotten!
That said, however bad things were Elvis would get on that stage and give his best and that must have been increasingly difficult with his health problems. If people had be honest with Elvis, perhaps played him a soundboard from a bad show, perhaps Elvis could have seen how poorly he had gotten, and took care of himself.
That is absolutely true-he had all but given up.
Any real hope of drastic change-had been gone IMO since 73.
The pattern was established in the relationships of Elvis's life. People were tiring, Elvis was tiring, the fun had vanished from things that all had enjoyed in the past. Hope of becoming a great "respected actor" must have been a distant memory. The divorce had to seem an admission of failure.
Age and unhealthy lifestyles dependent upon artificial remedies had taken its toll. His body which could bounce back at 25, or 30 was now beginning to revolt, human frailties began to surface-pains and aches that lasted longer, pulled muscles, strains, eyes, congential colon problem made worse by the abuses of "comfort foods" and over medication ..............no one on earth is immune to the aging process.
So for Elvis the answer was to try more remedies for pain, weight, and aging that did not help.
Double the cure-that will help.....or so he must have thought.
Its hard for any of us as we move from young adult into middle age and beyond.....but try being Elvis---SEX SYMBOL--ENTERTAINER OF WORLD ACCLAIM--whos every move is photographed and documented.
Red West once said "how else could it have ended"
Work in Progress!
The tragedy seems more acute when you look at Elvis in Jan 1973 and compare with Feb 1977 just 4 short years apart but it could be two completely different people! I realise that Elvis looked great in Jan 73 and that all manner of problems could have been hidden within Elvis' body but that seems like the last year and point of no return unfortunately.
I often wonder what would have shaken Elvis enough to change his lifestyle, I don't agree with pointing the finger at a single individual but boy I feel mad when I think of Dr. Nick and the Colonel and their combined contribution. One pushing Elvis relentlessly, the other handing out pills as if they were candy.
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