This is the real Elvis – the innovative Hillbilly Cat. This is Elvis before the machine turned him from a unique innovator into a money-making machine.
1954-1955 and then it was almost over. Elvis came from the wrong side of the tracks – poor white sharecropping family. He grew up in a multicultural enclave in a segregated society. He learnt the Blues from the likes of Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup as well as Country from the likes of Bill Monroe. He fused the two together, added an audacious speedy beat and rocked it up. The result was something revolutionary – Rockabilly.
Many others, mainly black, had already invented a similar rockin’ blues. There are many examples of pre-1954 numbers rocked up and as hot as hell. Elvis just distilled it. He was white, handsome, sexy and moved like a mountain lion on heat.
It wasn’t just the music though. He radically changed the look – once more adopting the more audacious attire and style of the black musicians he had interacted with and based his look on. Big greased back pompadour, duck tail and big siddies. Brightly coloured contrasting clothing.
It’s had to imagine back in those ultra-conservative early 50s with ubiquitous crew-cuts and sombre clothing, where conformnity was unquestioned. Where the blacks listened to the blues and R&B on race radio stations and the whites listened to C&W and never the twain should meet.
Elvis arrived like a nuclear explosion and blew it all apart.
in 1956 it all went wrong. Colonel Parker, RCA, backing vocals and watered down rock. Rockabilly was dead. Elvis was made into a money-spinning pop star. The innovation was diluted. Elvis was tamed.
ELVIS – “Sun Days 1954-1955” – (NEW sound & edit) – TSOE 2019 – YouTube
