Is "Went To See The Gypsy" really about Elvis?

He did it in Las Vegas
And he can do it here

I've done it in New York.

I've also done it here.

I always heard it/heard of it as being about Elvis, but I once read someone stating, or maybe just theorizing, that it was about Allen Ginsburg. It's more fun to imagine it being about Elvis, I think.

(New Morning is the only Dylan album my dad owned, and I heard it almost daily growing up. It's still my sentimental favorite, not least because of that song.)

my dad has always told me it was about the maharishi (sort of "sexy sadie pt. 2"). i don't know what his basis is for that.

I was always under the impression that it was about the King. But in Chronicles, Dylan goes into this record in great detail, and it turns out a bunch of the songs were written for a play by Archibald Mcleish. He gives the impression that McLeish exploited him and used Dylan's celebrity and fame to help sell his crappy play which flopped anyway.

He doesn't mention this song specifically but it was probably written for the play. I know Father Of Night was.

It does sound like it could be about Elvis. In his later years, Elvis toured regularly in small-town America - playing local arenas to crowds who might never otherwise see a big-name headliner come to town. Not sure why Dylan would call Elvis "the gypsy" - except maybe the sense of an itinerant nomadic person.

this maybe?

and this

Lincoln and Ava Gardner, too. I had no idea about her.

Or this:

3. (lowercase) a person held to resemble a gypsy, esp. in physical characteristics or in a traditionally ascribed freedom or inclination to move from place to place.

oh totally. that dylan was alluding to Elvis' alleged ancestry is pretty doubtful.

Probably more likely to be an allusion to his more outlandish stage costumes.