Elvis Is Dead

I think the song is about the way people shamefully try to exploit Elvis’ popularity after his death instead of letting him rest in peace: for example, the first stanza in the song refers to those people, in the years after his death, who claimed his death was fake or staged. Many of those people claimed to have seen Elvis after his death; tabloids and others made money by publicizing those sort of stories.

In addition, you can’t deny the criticism of Elvis adulation in the song too . I don’t think Living Colour was a fan of The King. The song admits that people idolized Elvis (“he was crowned king”), but it also notes that he was taught by a black man (whom nobody remembers or talks about today). So the song points back to the way Elvis allegedly plundered black music. The song also points out, harshly, that Elvis died all alone while he was sitting on his throne, or his toilet; so the song is mocking the way he died . The point of all this is to say , basically, that “Elvis wasn’t all that.” So why, the song asks, do we still exploit his name and fame decades after he died when he wasn’t so awesome in the first place?

[Edit: Added some more detail]

The guitarist for Living Colour has said about this song: ““Elvis Is Dead” doesn’t castigate Elvis. Public Enemy was like, “Elvis was racist and simple and plain” [a paraphrase of the band’s 1989 single “Fight the Power”]. But it was maybe not as simple as that. The point of “Elvis is dead” is: You didn’t see him at the shopping mall.”

The irony of the song and the message of exploitation is lost on some. Here they are excoriating those who would exploit Elvis, while putting out a song about Elvis with less than flattering sentiment (bound to garner attention) thereby actually exploiting Elvis.

The song comes not too long after PE and their statement on Elvis (Chuck D goes on to say it wasn’t so much about Elvis as it was the system that made him famous)

The reality is Elvis never claimed to be anything but a lover of R&B and Gospel. He emulated HIS heroes and wasn’t shy about showing love to the Black community and those who helped form his love for popular music. When you hear James Brown, Solomon Burke, BB King, Jackie Wilson etc etc speak on Elvis, they never felt threatened or felt he stole anything. I’m fact they were happy and grateful that he inadvertently opened doors for Black Music to pour into the mainstream.

I think it's about, uhm... the death of Elvis? May be about the reptilians as well

Lol