Elvis Presley
With the recent mention of "rock and roll" celebrating it's "50th Anniversary," as someone who grew up around black blues musicians and old school rockers, I felt it necessary to mention a great article i found as well as thoughts on Elvis being good, but let's not strip all those talented black men who STARTED ROCK AND ROLL of the credit they definitely deserve.
Elvis Presely admits he got his sound from the blacks in Tupelo Mississippi. The most important fact to not over-look, is the fact that Elvis did not even write "That's All Right." And the guy who recorded it for him, had recorded the original put out years earlier (1946) by a black blues man. And the quote from him is "If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.” He found Presley, and the money followed.
Who did the original? Arthur Crudup. Whom after recording it, went back to doing what all blacks were doing back then, working on a farm. Only a White Boy like Elvis could be popular enough to bring this music to a white crowd and that's exactly how history was written.
With all due respect, Elvis and crowd, he rocked, but Elvis was not the first, nor should the 50th anniversary of rock and roll be celebrated for a COVER SONG by a man most "rockers" could never even name: Arthur Crudup.
“The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doing now, man, for more years than I know,” Elvis told reporters in 1956. “I got it from them. Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw.”
Memphis Minnie, Louis Jordan, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jerry Lewis, Buddy Holly, and many others helped shape what is now known as "rock n roll." Elvis simply watched and imitated what he saw going on.
Read, Elvis Rocks. But He's Not the First
Let's not do old black musicians a modern injustice and strip them of what is rightfully theirs.
Elvis Presely admits he got his sound from the blacks in Tupelo Mississippi. The most important fact to not over-look, is the fact that Elvis did not even write "That's All Right." And the guy who recorded it for him, had recorded the original put out years earlier (1946) by a black blues man. And the quote from him is "If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.” He found Presley, and the money followed.
Who did the original? Arthur Crudup. Whom after recording it, went back to doing what all blacks were doing back then, working on a farm. Only a White Boy like Elvis could be popular enough to bring this music to a white crowd and that's exactly how history was written.
With all due respect, Elvis and crowd, he rocked, but Elvis was not the first, nor should the 50th anniversary of rock and roll be celebrated for a COVER SONG by a man most "rockers" could never even name: Arthur Crudup.
“The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doing now, man, for more years than I know,” Elvis told reporters in 1956. “I got it from them. Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw.”
Memphis Minnie, Louis Jordan, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jerry Lewis, Buddy Holly, and many others helped shape what is now known as "rock n roll." Elvis simply watched and imitated what he saw going on.
Read, Elvis Rocks. But He's Not the First
Let's not do old black musicians a modern injustice and strip them of what is rightfully theirs.
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