Now I have actually had this conversation and more than once I might add! When I pointed out that Fess, Wynonie, and Roy all pre-dated Elvis, I was, after a bit of incoherent sputtering, challenged to a fight! The last refuge of that sort of idiot. I have similar experiences with Tea Party-ers who value their ignorance so highly that they will fight for it when presented with actual facts and cogent argument.
So here we have a photo that kind of gives lie to the story that racists love cite in which Elvis is purportedly quoted as saying that a black man is only fit to carry his luggage. (btw I have a whole lot of black friends who point to that and so they refuse to HEAR Elvis. The stupidity works both ways!) So to ALL these fools I offer this picture. Elvis showed up at these guys shows all the time when he could sneak away. You think he got the hair, clothes, voice and swinging hips from White Folks? PLEASE!! Elvis is known to have shown up in Chitlin Circuit bars and to have even gotten up on stage! Particularly in his early years.
All of which only has to do with the photo so let's get to the music. You will remember from the earlier bio that Parker was discovered by Ike Turner, did a pair of tracks with Ike at Modern and then was quickly snapped up by Sun. Something tells me Ike made money on every step of that process. The Sun period too, was short before he moved on to Don Robey and Duke but there are enough tracks to make this set with a little filler from James Cotton and Pat Hare. The Cotton tracks aren't all that exciting but the Hare tracks are killer, especially 'I'm Going To Kill My Baby'. Hare actually did kill his woman a year or two latter and spent the rest of his life in jail! He was a R&B guitar hero pioneer using distortion tricks unknown at the time. The Junior tracks are all first class including the oft covered (including by Elvis) 'Mystery Train'.
5 comments:
Awesome!!
Anyone who doesn't understand the full story of Elvis' beginnings is laughable to say the least. Many of his hits were already done by black artists, and made hits on black charts.
I have never experienced the racism driven angle, but have talked to many people who are just plain ignorant to the facts. Like many, they simply eat what's fed to them and never question it.
The King of Rock... ha!! They did the same nonsense with Paul Whiteman, and more recently, I think it was Vibe magazine rated Eminem the greatest rapper ever. For those of us who know better, it's pretty easy to simply laugh and dismiss it.
I suppose we still see a few more of the 'invested' racists down here in the deep south, even in New Orleans where folks have been mingling for longer than most places.
Thanks for the music and speaking the truth.
"Showed up at these guys shows all the time"...
Maybe if you had more than an elementary level understanding of this history you would know this was a photo taken at an all black charity event to help underprivileged poor black families. And you would know that Rufus Thomas, BB King and bluesman Little Milton... among many others... talked about how Elvis was the only white artist back in those days that was getting involved to help the black community. And you would also know they talked about the guts he had, considering the KKK and much of mainstream White America hated him for doing these things.
Their words (BB'S, Little Milton's, Rufus Thomas) about Elvis also are validated by the black journalists and newspaper reporters of those days, those articles still are archived and exist.
Those articles in newspaper reports were written by black men and say the same thing about how much he was highly respected in the black community and by other black artists and early civil rights activists. Like Reverend Brewster & Rev Milton Perry.
Point is you're writing turns this photo into something less than TRULY is. You misrepresented it as some sort of evidence that he was hanging out with black artist so he could get whatever he could from them... instead of realizing that he first saw charismatic jumping around in the charismatic white Pentecostal churches he grew up & in the black gospel churches.
This assumption that Elvis got his moves from following black artists around Beale Street is amateurish, incorrect history... even though I'll admit many sloppy historians have been pushing that has some sort of *Truth* for decades, so the Waters of Truth are somewhat murky.
If you were aware of anything I just mentioned above you either purposely avoided sharing it, giving disrespect to the actual importance of that history while at the same time disrespecting some of our great blues, R&B legends that have spoke so highly of Elvis... and his contribution....
OR you didn't purposely avoided sharing it, but you just simply didn't know.
You also failed to point out how he not only acknowledged his black influences but also his country and western white influences, as well as his Italian operatic influences like Mario Lanza and Dean Martin, as well as his white spiritual and black gospel, and also pop influences.
Elvis was not so one-dimensional that he only owed a debt to black artists. He soaked up every music his heart & soul was ever exposed to and gave credit to EVERYBODY. BB King - "Elvis had integriry". (From his own autobiography).
About the only thing in your writing that is close to factual that I will agree with it is too many of his white fans aren't aware of the history.
But if you're going to tell it... tell it right .. and make sure you tell it the way the Blues Men from that era would have you tell it.
Blues Man Sugar Blue and funk, R&B Legend Rick James both used to talk a lot like you, and they both admitted BB KING got hold of both of them and set their butts straight and they both came away with tremendous profound respect for Elvis as a legit, unique talent in his own right, as any of the other R&B blues artists back then.
There's also a video of Muhammad Ali saying essensually the same thing about Elvis after he spent minutes before that statement talking about all the great black artist from that era, but then made it clear that Elvis was as great as any of them individually and without question an equal to every one of them.
If people want to be taken seriously when talking about Elvis, it's OK to bring some of his fans weren't as evolved as Elvis was or as honest about the history.
But also have make sure when talking about Elvis we get away from the sparky, smug, *all these other greats he stole from were doing it first* mentality.
It only makes those that do this seem unintelligent... no matter how strongly they claim to be speaking some *Truth*.
Continued -
Most those blues, r&b atrtists he's accused of getting everything from spoke in interviews or in their own autobiographies with tremendous respect for Elvis.
It's time people, when talking about this history, start putting him a more honest respectful perspective.
Early civil rights folks and black artists pointed out he was treating blacks as equals at a time when many whites did not. Hell, some Black Panther leaders and MLK's people said the same.
Little Richard made it clear in numerous interviews over the years Elvis was an integrator. Brother James Brown and Muhammad Ali both told anyone who would listen that Elvis, throughout his entire life before he was famous as well as after he became famous, was constantly doing things to help the black community. The white dominated press of his lifetime constantly swept it under the rug so most people just never knew.
Let's respect their words and knowledge and give this white boy the respect he fully deserves.
He wasn't just another white copycat... he was a rare open minded, legit talent, with a beautiful soul. It's not his fault more whites didn't follow suit.
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