iMedia: Mansion Over The Hilltop by Elvis Presley

  
      In November 1960, Elvis Presley released the gospel song "Mansion Over the Hilltop" in his album "His Hand in Mine." Originally written by Ira Stanphill in 1949, it's been sung by many choirs and recorded by various musicians over the last several decades. There aren't many documents online describing the song's popularity back in the day, and it isn't one of his 30 #1 hits I have on a CD--but, if you read through YouTube video comments and online reviews of MP3 versions of this song, you'll find Elvis' rendition touched the hearts of many at its time. Most people have pleasant recollections of their Aunt or grandmother singing it to them as children.
    
      When I first came across this song in the "recommended videos" section of my YouTube page, I thought it was going to be a one or two minute simple rendition that Elvis had done of a classic song--a lesser known work, and one that Elvis redefined but didn't reinvent. However, I soon realized that though the song seemingly was a qualitative description of a serene, specific setting, like many of his other songs it attacked a greater theme of life. In this case, the entirety of the song turned out to be a metaphor for heaven, and his relationship with it.
The chorus reads:

"I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop
In that bright land where we’ll never grow old
And some day yonder we will never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold"

     His clear references to a "bright land" (heaven=light) where we'll never grow old (human desire for immortality, and the energy of youth) align with the Christian conception of life after death. Also, we see that he rhymes "old" with "gold," which alludes to the value of young age.

      When connected with the first verse of this song, where Elvis sings, "I’m satisfied with just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold" (describing his physical life on Earth) this verse has even more significance. The duality between the cottage and the mansion poses an interesting interpretation of the song. He describes the "cottage below" and the "mansion over the hilltop," the language of which seems to imply that both of those are slightly out of reach. 
      Perhaps he wishes he could be modest enough to commit to living in a small cottage among nature or by a sparsely populated region, but has a overly strong desire for the material things in the world--after all, he does follow-up the cottage line with 'a little silver, and a little gold,' which show that yes, he has a little, simple living space, but there's a desire for luxury sparkling in his heart. Even when he talks about heaven in the next verse, he remarks that there will be "streets that are the purest gold" there, which asserts his material desires.
      Then when he talks about the mansion, maybe it's 'over the hilltop' and barely visible because while he'd like to believe there's a life after death, and a beautiful heaven he'll come to, he's not entirely sure it exists. Perhaps he realizes to some degree that his interpretations of heaven are too far-flung or idealistic, but seems to still be allured by the prospective beauty of that place.

This interpretation can be further extended through the next verse of the song:

"Don’t think me poor or deserted or lonely
I’m not discouraged I’m heaven bound
I’m but a pilgrim in search of the city
I want a mansion, a harp and a crown"

      In the second line, Elvis mentions he's not 'discouraged.' This means that even though he has a yearning for riches and luxuries that he can't seem to accommodate with his inadequate finances, the fact that he will go to heaven and encounter all the wealth he's been missing, gives him hope. However, his connection to being a pilgrim searching for a city, conveys his lack of innocence. 

      It reminds me of the way Europeans colonized America, and how they displaced, killed, or fated the natives to lives of hard labor. They got satisfaction over being the superior rulers over a social group they subordinated and controlled, and befitted economically while the majority of natives working for them were dirt poor or even slaves. Not that Elvis is singing about taking anything over, but there's a strong feeling of 'greed' he expresses that isn't very different from colonialists in America. 

      Greed being a sin, and sins being something that would prevent one from being accepted to heaven, I sort of see that line as explaining why Elvis' description of heaven was so surreal and dreamy in the first place. He feels his ability to 'get into' heaven is slipping away from him, and feels insecurity because of that, but still tries to convince himself that there will be a bright and sunny future ahead. His insecurity at this moment is illustrated by how he pronounces "heaven bound" in the second line of that verse "haven-bound." Above all, he desires a feeling of security, and comfort.

      In totality, this song has several routes of meaning. Most prominently, it has an interesting connection to Elvis' life. It's said that his family was "superficially religious," meaning they believed in God and were members of the church, but visited infrequently. While Elvis was said to have embraced the notion of "Jesus" when he was younger, this belief is said to have dwindled as he became an increasingly popular celebrity. In addition to his questionable religious devotion, John Whitehead of the New York Times recalls that "ministers publicly attacked him, even threatening to lead a crusade to have him arrested if he set foot in their communities." Hence, the meaning behind this song almost seems to resonate within Elvis' own life; he was condemned by the global messengers of divine insight, or our religious authorities, did not foster belief in God to any measurable degree, probably in part due to the pressures and problems within his own life--and yet he wanted a drop of hope for the future, something that could promise to relinquish him of his pain.
      This theme seems to also appear in John Whitehead's article in the NY Times, where he explains that, "...a victim of success, Elvis became a parody of himself and of modern, materialistic America. And in the end, like so many of the generation he spawned, Elvis was a solitary soul trapped on that lonely street that leads to the Heartbreak Hotel." This short quotation, among other things, really shifted my attention to the external influences on Elvis' life. Earlier I had asked myself, if Elvis did not invest much belief in God, and was attacked so ferociously by religious authorities, why did he continue to so passionately pursue gospel music? I knew the reason he'd gotten into gospel music was more his appeal than his religious commitment--Sam Phillips, the man who first recorded Elvis, claimed he was looking for "a white boy who could sing like a black boy and catch the beat of black music." However, this quotation, speaking of Elvis as a "victim of success" and a "solitary soul," made me think that after his self-imposed doubts of God and condemnation by religious authority, he felt so alone and afar that he yearned for acceptance, or the supportive feeling of God, or the future under the comforting rays of heaven--and through gospel music, sought to call out to God for those things.

      Though at the same token, his popularity was contagious among young people, and seemingly spread around the more the older, traditional generations heaved criticism in his direction--and its very possible his love for singing, gospel specifically, and this fame that brought about the emergence of a new type of generation in America, was enough to push him to continue creating the masterpieces he did.