Originally posted by JusuhMaybe I agree and maybe not but why do you put him up as a solo artist?
totally agree. Elvis was one of the biggest trolls ever.
He always had a band behind him, that puts him in the category of lead singer doesn't it? I think of solo artists as someone like Andre Segovia, John Williams, Glen Gould, Paganini, Bernard Greenhouse, those are solo artists.
Originally posted by eatmybishopThink so? Sure, I think that Elvis was a bit of a hack in the sense that he was the great white hope used and pimped by smart businessmen to bring so-called black music to the mainstream and benefit financially. However, there's no denying that Elvis did what he did very well - all the shaking, slurring, hip shaking and lip raising and so forth. At one time, he really was the King.
yes, it made me realise how overrated he really was; all that shaking and slurring, burger eating, lip rasing.... if he did that now you'd think it was a circus act
It was a bit hit when Elvis emerged, as the general adult public wasn't ready for such a "controversial" figure to be so well-loved by the youth and teenagers of America. (Unsurprisingly, many of the bad-ass/hip kids at the time were already listening to "black" music, the marketing of Elvis to America should be seen as nothing less than genius). Subsequently it was a big part of the rock and roll revolution to follow. Look at the Beatles and how Elvis Presley influenced them.
"It was Elvis who really got me buying records. I thought that early stuff of his was great. The Bill Haley era passed me by, in a way. When his records came on the wireless, my mother used to hear them, but they didn’t do anything for me. It was Elvis who got me hooked on beat music. When I heard 'Heartbreak Hotel', I thought ‘this is it’ and I started to grow sideboards and all that gear"
- John Lennon
The fact that he died in an unhealthy state takes nothing away from the accomplishments he achieved when the opportunity was given to him.
So, overrated? Maybe. I think the days of him being "The King" are all but over, but no one can take away how important he was to rock and roll.
/lecture