muse: nashville » The big EP.

I didn’t get up this morning with a plan to post about the big white leisure suit in the sky, and, to be honest, I enjoy his music but am no Elvis expert. The more I’ve poked around, though, reading blogs this morning, the more I realized that I wanted to say just a little bit of something about Elvis. It’s not much, but maybe the youtube clips and the mp3s will make up for that!

I was born and raised in Mississippi, and when I was making the transition into junior high, my family moved up to a suburb of Memphis. We were so close to Graceland that I almost could have walked there. Growing up around Memphis, pretty much everyone has some sort of connection to Elvis. My best friend in high school was his cousin, and I knew a woman who worked at the airport who dated him, briefly (but seriously, growing up in Memphis, who didn’t know a woman who dated Elvis?). He would come and pick her up in his convertible and would buy her clothes for each date, and he was always such a gentleman, she said. I made her tell me every little detail she remembered, and she would be embarrassed to talk about it, but I think she was completely gaga over him.

I was actually fairly ambivalent about Elvis throughout all of my growing up years in Memphis (never even went to Graceland! not once!), and it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve really listened a little more deeply to his music, going beyond just the regular old stuff that you might hear on the radio every now and then. One of the ways that I make money around here is through teaching classes in music history, and as a component of the class we study the evolution of rock and roll. We always talk about the appearance of Elvis on the scene, his role in early rock, and how people like Elvis led us down the road of “whitewashing” the history of rock and roll. Rock and roll, a genre that evolved directly from R&B, blues and gospel (and, to be fair, some country, but the R&B influence is predominant), from the “race records” of the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, built from the songs and culture of the black community. But this is a rant for another day. I should say, though, that I am consistently surprised by the number of students who come through my doors believing that rock and roll is a white man’s game, and always has been.

I really think, though, that Elvis just sang his heart out. I think he was a pawn in Sam Phillips’ game to sell black music to white audiences, but Elvis.. I think he was just there to rock.

A couple of interesting links:

Fuelfriends has a great remembrance, and a zip of the King’s final show in 1977.

WMFU never fails to entertain, with the mishmash of Elvis (and Elvis-related) oddities they have to share.

My Old Kentucky Home offers up some great Elvis covers.

Also, today is Elvis Presley day on Turner Classic Movies. If you are enjoying your day from the comforts of your own home, like me (I call it “summer vacation”), you can see sunup to sundown movies featuring the King. I am especially looking forward to Viva Las Vegas, showing tonight at 9 PM.

Johnny Cash does Elvis: