It is hard not to feel pity for Elvis, he was locked in the iron grip of a man who saw him as a golden goose first and foremost. If only Elvis has broken free from the Colonel when he returned from Germany in 1960. If only he had a manager who wanted to develop him as an artist. Instead he made those crappy films in the 1960s, while the Beatles, the Beach Boys , The Who and The Stones took rock music in another direction.
shareWhich they could not even begin to have done without the foundation of Elvis Aaron Presley.
Not for nothing, you overlooked Chuck Berry, who transformed Rockabilly (look it up) into Rock n’ Roll, and Bill Haley and the Commits who laid White claim to Rock n’ Roll.
the black friends he had in the movie attempted to talk some sense into him early on
shareThe movie suggests that the worst enemy to Elvis' movie career was Elvis. He didn't want to put in the time to do them well so they opted for fast and cheap instead.
sharea lawyer coulda got his debt down to the colonel when he was wanting to leave Vegas, also should have fired his Dad
shareAgreed, The Golden Rule of showbusiness is never let your parent become your manager. They will either milk you for your money or mismanage your money. See Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.
shareThere have been all kinds of conspiracy theories about Elvis keeping Parker on even though he was a small-time shyster who made shitty business decisions, like he had some major blackmail info in Elvis. We'll never know, of course.
Maybe it was just that Elvis was lazy and didn't want to look for a new manager, or that he was afraid that the fight it'd take to get rid of Parker would have been bad for his career. Or maybe he was more comfortable with Parker than he would be with some slick big-time manager. That's the thing, Elvis remained an unsophisticated Southern boy his entire life, and Parker came out of the same unsophisticated world. Maybe there was an element of comfort there, maybe Elvis preferred the "Devil he knew". Parker was a small-time chiseler and maybe Elvis thought he had the upper hand, and if he'd signed with CAA or whatever the biggest agency of his day was, he'd have felt out of his depth.
Maybe Elvis was too sentimental towards the Colonel. He was like a father figure and he helped to make Elvis a star. He knew how to promote and market Elvis into a household commodity.
shareAs Elvis's own father was around for Elvis's entire life, I don't know that he'd have felt a need for a father figure, I really have no idea what held the Presley/Parker relationship together. I don't think anyone alive today does, all we can do is speculate.
I think it's a bit of a pity that Elvis didn't feel the need for a better manager, but it's possible that he had the career that he wanted. Maybe he really wanted ot make crap movies, and he didn't want some city slicker in a sleek modern office telling him to tour countries where people didn't speak English and you couldn't get cornbread for love or money. Elvis stayed in his lane through his whole career, his fan base loved him for doing so, and Parker wasn't going to push him out of it. Maybe there really was blackmail, maybe that's all Elvis wanted out of life.
I find it hard to believe that Elvis did not want to go on tour overseas. He must have seen the impact of the British Invasion with all those bands crossing the Atlantic. He knew how popular he was, and that a European tour would have been good for his career. He was probably not strong enough to insist on going with or without the Colonel.
sharemakes me wonder how many foreigners came here to see the King
shareI know that Parker didn't want Elvis to tour overseas because he wasn't legally qualified for a passport, and most modern observers think that touring overseas would have been good for Elvis's career, so they blame Parker for Elvis spending his whole career in the US. Now I'm no Elvis expert, I've read a couple of biographies but no more, and well - correct me if I'm wrong! But I don't recall ever reading or hearing anything about Elvis expressing interest in touring overseas, visiting far-flung countries of his own free will, or seeing the world. For all I know, Elvis was content to stay in the states, and let the world come to him.
The thing is, fandoms like to have someone to blame for their idol's shortcomings or bad decisions, and frequently it's a significant other (like Yoko), but in Elvis's cases Parker is clearly the designated scapegoat. He does seem to have been a horrible sleazy little chiseler, but I really don't know how many of the bad decisions were his and how many were Elvis's. Like, I vaguely recall that Elvis really had wanted to be a movie star, which is why he spent the British Invasion years making crap movies instead of touring the world.