Was Elvis even the king of his own household let alone rock and roll? Hey, ask Priscilla, she would know. What I do know is that there can be no denying the impact he made on the world of music as a whole.
Something I found bizarre in his promotion of a music of rebellion was his devotion to gospel music. One minute he’s singing about his blue suede shoes and then he’s singing a song like this.
Bizarre though it maybe, it is no less a wonderful rendition of the classic track. Look out for more Elvis songs up on the blog in the future, just to show that even the apparent monarch of rock and roll also bows the vocal knee to the King of Kings.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 
I think that Elvis just loved music – all music – and he just didn’t see a separation between the kinds of music that there were.
That’s why he was able to do the variety of songs and styles that he did.
He performed R&B with a country soul and country with an R&B rhythm and delivered both with a southern gospel fervor.
Much the way that Elvis saw people, not skin colours.
nina
http://ntrygg.wordpress.com/elvis-index/
Thanks for your insight, Nina, but do you really believe Elvis didn’t see skin colour? Wasn’t he influenced by at least some of the racial attitudes of the day?
I don’t think that Elvis came from a social class that didn’t make seeing skin colour as anything significant. After all, you can’t really look down on people when you’re at the same level both looking up, because there isn’t anyone below you.
There’s so many tales of pre-fame Elvis being at black churches, hanging out around BB King in his pre-fame as a singer DJ days, and black clubs, listening to R&B records that his school friends didn’t.
I think Elvis was painfully aware of his poor Southern social class and he most likely felt closer socially with black people around him – than middle class Southerners and Northerners of any level. Even after he was famous.
A big part of the prejudice against Elvis was not only that he didn’t sing and perform white – but that he was poor, southern, achieving fame the wrong way (not rising through the Tin Pan Alley route – he came out of the South, not NY or LA) all making the sexual threat even more so – Hillbilly today remains a freely used pejorative after all.
People didn’t (and still don’t) get that he got his performance style honestly – his Mom was known for her sensual dancing as a younger woman, Elvis grew up in a church where the minister played guitar and jumped all around dramatically.
Also, I think you can be in a time and not be of the time.
After all, none of the civil rights advances for any group would have moved through society and through the courts unless a few people had the sensibility to push for change and other people weren’t willing to change until there was critical mass and change happened.