"It's easy enough to understand a dead, but evanescent Elvis Presley as a cultural symbol," Greil Marcus wrote in his 1991 book Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession, "but what if he--it--is nothing so limited, but a sort of cultural epistemology, a skeleton key to a lock we've yet to find?"

Thirty-two years after the King of Rock went belly up on the floor of his Graceland bathroom, with a pharmacopoeia of drugs coursing through his veins, the man who composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein once called "the greatest cultural force of the 20th century" continues to charm: 20 Elvis singles reissued in the UK in 2005 rocketed into the Top 5--three of those topped the pop charts.

A new four-CD box set, Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight (Legacy/RCA), gathers 100 digitally remastered tracks, from 1953's "My Happiness" to material from 1977's Moody Blue album, and includes a deluxe 80-page booklet with rare photos and a 7,000-word essay.

The release, the first four-disc retrospective spanning Elvis's entire career, commemorates the upcoming 75th anniversary of the rocker's birth in a two-room shotgun shack in East Tupelo, Mississippi. There's nothing here that any self-respecting rock hound hasn't heard before: Previous anthologies collected all the singer's Number One hits or focused on specific periods of his career (rockabilly, film star, etc.). And earlier sets have included previously unreleased alternate takes and rare live tracks.

Good Rockin' Tonight showcases the Elvis that baby boomers grew up with on the turntable, shielded and uncorrupted by the scandal and eccentricities that dogged him outside of the recording studio.

The classic early recordings, such as "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Hound Dog," still sizzle with a snarling sexuality coupled with an ace rockabilly band that delivered ricochet rim shots, slap-back bass and stinging guitar licks.

The crooner also reveals a naked vulnerability on his ballads. And while you may argue that some of the mid- to late-Elvis is forgettable, such '60s and '70s tracks as "Burning Love," "Suspicious Minds" and "Polk Salad Annie" are bona fide classics.

And there are plenty of surprises, such as his understated bluesy vocal on "The Fool," from the underrated 1970 Elvis Country album.

Forget the bloated, drugged and deluded Elvis who sweated profusely on stage and stumbled through his lines at those humiliating Vegas shows. The artist heard on these recordings retained his good humor and vocal chops till the end. Indeed, these tracks are infused with a certain sincerity--such a rare commodity today--that rises above all the cultural baggage that Elvis, the legend, has been forced to lug around for nearly four decades.

These tracks echo the humanity lost in the decades-long pursuit of greed and ambition. After all, Elvis--even Dead Elvis--is a babe in the woods compared to Bernie Madoff, Octomom and the White House party crashers.

Does he hold the key to Marcus's elusive epistemology? Perhaps. Maybe the King of Rock is just the guy to unlock the door to boomers' misplaced youth after all.

Meet the leather-clad, hip-gyrating, lip-curling ghost of Christmas past.

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Spin of the Week

Gentlemen, I Neglected to Inform You You Will Not Be Getting Paid (Spire Artist)

Charlie Hunter

This is a much more subdued version of jazz guitarist and bandleader Charlie Hunter than you may be used to. Sure, he's joined by a quartet of ace musicians--drummer Eric Kalb, trombonists Alan Ferber and Curtis Fowlkes and trumpet player Eric Biondo--all longtime collaborators. But on such tracks as "High and Dry," Hunter plucks out wistful melodies on his seven-string guitar while the rhythm shuffles at slow tempos, like a lazy walk in the park on a warm day. And things just get dreamier from there. If this is Charlie Hunter treading water, creatively speaking, it ain't bad, but--hey!--bring on the funk.

Love Greg tender at gcahill51@gmail.com.

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