The other King!
And No not King Diamond! Though the Elvis influence is fairly obvious, the sideburns, the hair, the love of small dogs!
Another other King!
American icon Elvis Presley was born on January 8th, 1935 he'd have been 77! I'm not gonna recount his musical legacy or iconic odd-balliness but I will relay the Tank's take on Elvis...
"tank I outta kick your ass, man"
As a kid,say 10 to 28 or so I did not get it! Absolutely could not see what the fascination about Elvis was, I was so, um, adamant that he'd just ripped of the black-man's blues and dressed it up to make it palatable for white consummation! I saw him as the parody of himself in the rhinestones and sequence jumpsuit, I remember his death as a national week of mourning and thinking what the hell is this all about!? I really was ignorant about his impact on "my" music!
Proof!
RP; Devout Elvis Worshiper!
(You thought I was gonna say devil worshiper, didn't you?)
It took time, reading and frankly a lot of listening to Elvis until I finally got it! My future and current mother in law helped out too she's a huge fan like most of her generation,but she grew up in the south and really embodies what it was like to be young in the late 50s/early 60s in the Mississippi Valley and was able to covey to me what a firestorm Elvis ignited.
I'm not a hardcore fan I don't have "mutton-chops" or a jumpsuit but I did gain respect and understanding for what he was about. Not unlike The Beatles, Black Sabbath,Adam Ant, Punk, Thrash or Grunge,
Are you paying attention?
Elvis shook shit up ( pun intended) if you look at popular music just before Elvis hit the landscape was already changing, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino were charting w/ doo-wop sprinkled in but nobody had seen anything like Elvis! We weren't too far removed from orchestral big band type music...Dino, Barber Shop, greasy East Coast crooners...
Elvis changed the game yea it was the black-man's blues but it was also the young white man's backlash, backlash to brass and sheet music, to Doris Day and Sinatra... It had to happen and Elvis was the one who took the crown ascended the throne and influenced all my favorites!
Hell without Elvis no Led Zeppelin and without Led Zeppelin this blog would be called "Sentimental Journey"! ... Wait a sec that actually is a good name for my blog! Oh well next blog...
PS, my fav Elvis tunes ,"Good Luck Charm" & "Suspicious Minds" now you know!
Thank you,thank you very much.
Tank has left the building...
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