Devil's Music, Holy Rollers and Hillbillies by James A. Cosby

Author:James A. Cosby [Cosby, James A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2016-06-02T21:00:00+00:00

11

Mr. Presley

The Legacy

Elvis Presley left a vast and strange legacy. He arose dirt-poor from the Deep South to become the original and still biggest rock star ever. Presley’s bold sexuality shocked America and the world in 1956 before he disappeared into the army, then faded into a disappointing eight years as a Hollywood B-movie star in the 1960s, followed by a comeback as a glitzy Las Vegas performer in the 1970s, before finally dying unexpectedly in 1977. Presley was the best-selling recording artist in history; only the Beatles and Michael Jackson are even remotely comparable in terms of both critical and commercial success, as well as their overall impact on popular culture. Taking rock and roll to worldwide prominence alone makes Presley arguably the most important performer of the twentieth century. That was the title bestowed upon Presley by composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, who explained, “He introduced the beat to everything and he changed everything—music, language, clothes. It’s a whole new social revolution—the sixties came from it.”1 From 1956 to 1958, with the ideal musical influences, talent, attitude, ambition, and voice to change music, not to mention the look, moves, and skin color to be effective in the new TV medium, Presley was perfectly positioned to bring rock and roll to the masses.

Still, despite Presley’s accomplishments and his iconic status, his legacy is extremely convoluted. Presley biographer Peter Guralnick wrote that after Presley’s death, the man himself was lost under “a cacophony of voices … joined together to create a chorus of informed opinion, uninformed speculation, hagiography, symbolism, and blame.”2 With Presley’s legacy and true story both obscured, rock’s very origins, and a crucial piece of American history, remain obscured as well.

Presley’s chapter requires a rather extended analysis. It will also help to again leap forward on the timeline for a moment to understand where and how this legacy got so twisted. Presley is such a central figure that this confusion clouds the entire history of rock and roll’s origins. The “Elvis” legacy also serves as a Rorschach test for observers of American culture.

There are at least three factors that cloud the reality of Presley’s life. First, his final years are defined by the tragic end to his unglamorous Vegas era: scarcely relevant musically; performing in unflattering, bejeweled jumpsuits; terribly overweight; and, as was widely reported, finally dying on the commode from what was understood to be a drug-induced heart failure. That image has persisted and overshadowed the rest of his story.

Second, Presley’s legacy simply does not fit into any easy categories. He improbably found himself at the epicenter of some of the most volatile social issues in American history regarding shifts in culture, sexuality, and race, as well as in music. In part, Presley’s talents made him a sensation, but his notoriety is also due to some amazing circumstances of geography and timing. The result has been that too often Presley has alternatively received either far too much or too little credit for his social impact. On the

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