Elvis Presley: What Could have been. Supplemental Post #2

There is no doubt that Elvis Presley is one of the most influential musicians of all time. In fact, John Lennon once said that without Presley's music, there would be no Beatles. Despite the hit after hit that Presley churned out for decades, many recognize the 1960's as a lost decade for "The King". I am currently in a film class called "Rock n Roll in Film", which deals with how the medium has portrayed and furthered the music genre of rock n roll and obviously Elvis is one of the main points of focus. Although we watched some of his better films like the 1957 "Jailhouse Rock" which contain quality songs and a decent love story, we also watched some of his hokier films like 1965's "Girl Happy". In this film Elvis does a pretty silly song and dance called "The Clam". In the class I'm in we discussed how Elvis' agent and manager "Colonel" Parker was more after money for himself and his client instead of allowing Elvis to explore his art and better it. Presley became quite content with just churning out mediocre to terrible films with generic songs and cashing in on them rather than write his own music, which he clearly was quite talented at. Although Elvis had a legendary career, one can only imagine how much greater it could have been if he had focused on his music rather than just seek money and become complacent.