.
Above left: The famous 10-foot-tall Egg…“Memphis- Home of the Blues, Birthplace of Rock”
Right: From the bridge over the Mississippi tourists learn that you can’t spell Memphis without a guitar.
ELVIS is the big Memphis draw for most folks. What made the King so special?
.
Above Left: As a kid Elvis drove a truck for Crown Electric…
Above Right:…and listened to “race music” on America’s first radio station with an all-Black format.
This was unheard of for white American teens in early 1950s.
White kids had their own pop charts, radio stations and clubs. But, Elvis kinda dug the beat.
Below: And, Elvis (along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and so many more white kids) brought that great sound to Sun Records.
.
Presley not only covered the Black sound (such as Big Mama Thorton’s “Hound Dog”), but also developed his own style which nearly matched the original. Blacks laughed when they first saw Elvis strut his stuff… a little tame by the high standard of performances that they were accustomed to. White parents weren’t laughing. They considered Presley’s gyrations as suggestive and immoral. WASP teens claimed a double-standard foul here. “How about your Jane Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe?” The Elvis issue confused Mom and Dad. When they looked at the boy, Presley fit the Wild One / Rebel Without a Cause/ JD image with his greaser hairstyle, black leather jacket and the obscene way that he shook his hips to entice young girls. On the other hand, in interviews between songs, Elvis sounded like a God-fearing, good-ole-boy. Certainly, this hillbilly kid seemed less dangerous than Little Richard, Chuck Berry and the rest of those “sex-crazed Negroes.” Elvis from my free e-book Puzzling Evidence.
.
But, of course, I came to Memphis for Bar-B-Q and Blues.
To be continued
Published by Nick at 06:12 AM on August 20, 2010