DATE: Saturday, August 16, 1997             TAG: 9708160003

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   37 lines

ELVIS AARON PRESLEY 20 YEARS GONE

Few radio stations will get through today - the 20th anniversary of his death - without playing something by Elvis.

Nearly everyone will sing along because few people in the world don't know the words to ``Hound Dog,'' ``Jailhouse Rock'' or ``Heartbreak Hotel.''

Elvis Presley was, after all, the ultimate cross-over artist. He seamlessly blended black rhythm and blues, gospel, country and rock into his unique sound, which in the beginning was so pure and pretty it could make you cry.

If the king of rock 'n' roll were still alive today, he'd be 62 years old. When he died in one of his Graceland bathrooms he was just 42, but he seemed worn out and world weary beyond his years. Those who were dismayed by the overweight, drugged-up, Las Vegas lounge-act Elvis of the 1970s shudder to think what he might have become had he lived longer. Dying may have been his best career move.

Had he lived, there is the chance that Elvis, like Sonny Bono, might have shed the costumes - and pounds - and served a term or two in Congress. Who wouldn't have voted for him?

But where would rock 'n' roll be today had it not been for Elvis? In his prime, the phenomenally talented singer was on the cutting edge of popular music. Nearly every rock 'n' roll superstar since has admitted drawing inspiration from Elvis. Even the Beatles were speechless in his presence, and John Lennon said he got into music because he wanted to be Elvis.

The saddest thing about Elvis Presley's short life was watching him transmogrify into Barry Manilow before our horror-stricken eyes. Just as we want to remember Marlon Brando as he was in ``A Streetcar Named Desire'' (and want to avert our eyes from the bloated Brando of the ``Island of Dr. Moreau'') we would do well to pause today to honor the King as he once was - before he smothered under the trappings of royalty.

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