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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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ELVIS
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IanB
IanB
6761 posts

Edited Dec 18, 2007, 19:08
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 18:57
He's an icon. An emblem of a virile, pre-Vietnam America. So yeah always relevant but those early Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis sides have just as much sweat and spunk spattered about them (probably literally). The pelvis thing doesn't do much for me but his band were really really good.

I guess it all depends where you were in your life when you first heard him and what stage Elvis was at.

My Welsh cousins were mad for Elvis of the Blue Hawaii period (and still are though are well into their 50s) whereas my brother and sister (both much older than me) were into Motown and the many and various blues boom acts that played the North London pub circuit. Ne'er the twain would meet.

I remember thinking the Elvis of the saturated hyper-coloured album covers was well creepy (very David Lynch and being repelled by them was an early Blue Velvet moment of sorts) but then my favourite records aged 6 were "Hey Big Spender", "Come Fly With Me" and "Yellow Submarine" so what did I know?

I imagine history will find a place for him as more of a style icon than a musical figure and the likes of James Brown will be in with a shout from the perspective of their respective creative legacies.

Of course you could argue No Elvis. No Beatles. No Beatles. No Stones, Kinks or Jimi. Hence no Iggy. No MC5. No Pistols. But that pre supposes that no other white artist could ir would have opened the door that allowed country blues and explicit sexual double entendre into the pop charts. Some other good looking guitar slinger would have come along sooner rather than later. No doubt in my mind about that.
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