Volume I No. 07
 08-15-02
 The Great Elvis Myth
 author: Vance Cureton
 © Copyright 2002

 Elvis Presley sold an awful lot of records. And Elvis certainly made
 his share of those old-style "B" movies that were once so very, 
 very popular. Movies full of adorable blondes, brunettes, and
 redheads, and very little else in the way of cultural diversity. It was 
 a make-believe America that Elvis inhabited. An America that did
 not include blacks, or asians, or brown, or red people. The same 
 America that the talentless Pat Boone made his fortune in.

 Give Elvis his due. He earned a ton of cash. Lived the life of a king,
 in more than a few respects, and became a cultural icon to countless
 Americans. But, let's not make this man into some kind of great human 
 being. Which he certainly was not. Elvis had his faults like all of us 
 do. But where are the film clips, the interviews, the quotes of Elvis 
 ever giving credit to the great muscians of the South that came before 
 him. Musicians of all colors. And especially from genre's like jazz 
 and gospel. The quotes of praise - if any - always came from others. 
 Never Elvis himself. The man was truly dismissive when it was time 
 to appreciate the innovative talents of his forebears.

 Beware the revisionist history that is on display now.

 It's a pity. Because other muscians of that era. Even Pat Boone,
 have lived to state on record, that white folks, did not, in effect, 
 invent rock and roll. It is not theirs. Ideas were stolen. Taken without 
 acknowledgement of any kind whatsoever. 

 But then, black folks did not invent rock and roll either. This great
 new music was wholly a product of the mind. Rock and roll evolved, 
 from a certain place and time in American history. Legitimate rock and 
 roll pioneers such as Little Richard and Chuck Berry did not come up 
 with their ideas and their musical interpretations out of thin air. But 
 from the men and women who came before them. The old timers in 
 the churches and road houses across the deep South. The Chitlin' 
 Circuit black folks used to call it.

 Elvis Presley never seemed to understand that. The evolution of
 music. He was America's white musical hero. And relished the part. 
 A man who acted as if he was the progenitator of this great new
 musical style. As if his singular talent carried the day. Those outrageous
 dance moves -- all that below the waist hip shaking -- that once 
 almost kept Elvis from appearing on the Ed Sullivan show. Presley 
 was hardly the originator of that provocative kind of dancing. To hear 
 it spoken now as if he was, by commentators whose parents weren't 
 even born yet when Elvis was in his prime is disheatenting. An indicator 
 of how historical myths begin, and are continued, and elaborated upon 
 over time.

 America deserves the truth. The younger generation, who really 
 don't know this man at all, deserve a more accurate accounting than 
 what is nauseatingly being displayed upon television screens across 
 the nation.

 Yet Elvis Presley's legacy, whatever it may be, does not deserve the 
 ugly tawdriness of the Elvis impersonators, and the countless jokes 
 about Elvis sightings. Give it a rest. Those images evoke the older, 
 aging Elvis when he was no longer and relevant. When he was 
 grossly overweight, could no longer sing, and was a hapless, drug 
 addict. 

 Elvis was a man of his time. Of his day. But let's remember him for 
 what he was. The good Elvis. And the selfish, arrogant Elvis, too.

 Celebrate his memory a little. But not too much. Play his songs into
 the night. And then when that celebratory day is over. Let him rest 
 in peace.
 

 ReadingPost.Com
 © Copyright 2002

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