Whenever you hear the name Elvis Presley, “black music” follows closely.
Baz Luhrmann’s new biopic “Elvis,” starring Austin Butler as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, leaves the singer’s often difficult relationship with black musicians in the background.
The film portrays Presley enthusiastically listening to Little Richard (played by Alton Mason) perform “Tutti Frutti” in a club, which Presley’s friend B.B. King (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) candidly tells him that he could register and make a lot more money than Richard. But that scene and others have sparked criticism of how the film deals with Elvis’ black music covers.
“I think the most offensive thing about Elvis’ new movie is the fact that Elvis famously stole from black musicians, but the movie acts like that’s a good thing,” tweeted one viewer. “Like what ??”
The Elvis story “has been told long enough with at least 5 films,” wrote another, listing black musicians worthy of a high-budget cinematic treatment. “LET’S TALK ABOUT ITS CREATORS AND INFLUENCERS.”
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The famous singer was a “consumer culture guy” influenced by his time in black spaces, says “Race, Rock and Elvis” author and Tennessee State University professor Michael T. Bertrand.
As a young man, “he was basically still going to the studio and recording things he had recently heard or remembered since he was a child,” says Bertrand.
Luhrmann’s “Elvis” is perhaps the most high-profile examination of the black influences of the Mississippi-born musician and the controversy surrounding his popularization of songs originally sung by black artists.
The film includes flashes of Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Yola), Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton (Shonka Dukureh), Little Richard, Mahalia Jackson (Cle Morgan) and Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup (Gary Clark Jr.) singing “Hound Dog “. “,” “That’s All Right” and more, recognizing them as the original singers behind Elvis’ covers. The film also shows the admiration between Elvis and blues singer King.
Mason, who plays Little Richard, initially expressed his skepticism about the narrative in an interview with IGN. “Are we going to use BB just to defend Elvis? If not, what’s the truth?” he recalled the interrogation. “We once found out that B.B. was really a true supporter of Elvis and loved him and they were friends. & Amp; mldr; I was really excited to dive into that story and discover some of those nuances and develop it with Austin and Baz.” .
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Bertrand calls Presley’s relationship with black artists “complicated”. This may interest you : Boris Johnson Gives Politics a Botox Jab: The Reading with Allegra Stratton.
“There is no question that (Elvis) has benefited enormously from performing music associated with African Americans,” says Bertrand.
Even in conversations with people who understand the intricacies of that association, the black artists who originally sang Presley’s signature songs are rarely controlled by the name. Thornton, widely recognized as the vocal architect of “Hound Dog”, made the song a hit, only to be eclipsed by the Elvis cover.
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Presley’s wealth accumulation for “Hound Dog” versus Thornton was a topic he often touched on at concerts, according to Michael Spörke’s biography “Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music”. Jet Magazine’s 1984 obituary recalls that he once said, “That song sold over two million records. I got a check for $ 500 and never saw another.”
The “Elvis” soundtrack features top black artists such as Doja Cat, who remixes “Hound Dog” in the song “Vegas” using Thornton’s original vocals. On another track (“The King and I”), Eminem confronts Presley, rapping that they both “stole black music”.
Thornton’s story is not unique, as Elvis was influenced by BB King, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jackson, Tharpe, Big Boy, and others.
Little Richard has claimed to be the rightful heir to the title of king of rock ‘n’ roll, with Berry up there with him. “I sang (rock ‘n’ roll) a long time before introducing it to the public,” Richard told Rolling Stone in 1990. “I really feel from the bottom of my heart that I am the inventor.”
He added: “I think the door (of opportunity) has opened wider, but the door may have already been opened by ‘Tutti Frutti’. … If Elvis had been black, he wouldn’t have been as big as he was. If I were white, do you know how big I would be? “
Listen to the original songs by the artists below:
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Berklee College of Music professor Larry Watson, who specializes in African American music, says Elvis wasn’t a party in the backseat of his brand. This may interest you : First person: discovering the taste and texture of music.
“Elvis enjoyed the privilege of whites. & Amp; mldr; Whites are always looking for a ‘great white hope’, they will always look for someone who can approximate what blacks have done so naturally,” he says.
At the height of Elvis’s career, Berry, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Quincy Jones and other black musicians publicly expressed a love for his music. “Where they got into trouble was how the industry made it a point of reference, the end of it all,” says Bertrand.
Note that Elvis did not speak out during a busy period of the civil rights movement, due to the danger to himself and his brand.
“The (music) industry environment is particularly segregated, perhaps in ways more than in Southern society,” says Bertrand, citing segregated audiences and segregated study time for artists.
Violence against other artists has become a source of hesitation for musicians to make political statements, says Bertrand.
In 1956, black musician Nat “King” Cole performed two shows in Birmingham, Alabama, one for a black audience and one for a white crowd, and was attacked on stage by a group of white men. Bertrand says Cole was vilified by both racial demographics for it: his black fans believed he deemed segregation appropriate.
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Musicians “feared” of mixing politics with entertainment, according to Bertrand, not only because of what happened to Cole, but also because of a fear of alienating any part of their audience.
Watson says Elvis wasn’t the only white artist to benefit from the silence.
“I love Eric Clapton. I love Mick Jagger, but they also benefited significantly from black aesthetics and black music,” adds Watson. “They hung Van Gogh (in their homes) and all these other black artists died penniless.”
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Watson says he finds it “interesting” that the film’s debut coincides with what he calls “one of the most critical racial periods in American history and issues relating to the weakening of women.”
“There have been so many black artists who gave their lives and died with no teeth in their mouths that they didn’t have those major movies about them,” he says.
How those musicians might consider Elvis is now a question mark, says Watson, noting that many black artists didn’t feel they could be outwardly critical of Presley at the time.
Says sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of double consciousness is the framework in which black society has acted in white society. “Let’s say one thing to whites, one thing to blacks for survival,” says Watson. “They knew (the superlative of Elvis as the king of rock ‘n’ roll) was a horrible joke” compared to other “rock ‘n’ roll kings” like Little Richard, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry.
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Watson says while Presley’s appreciation of black music was accepted, “that didn’t change the power dynamic between Elvis and blacks. & Amp; mldr; Elvis could shake his pelvic section, but Little Richard didn’t.”
There are many black R&B pioneers more deserving of recognition for changing the Elvis music industry, including Dorothy Donegan, Cornell Dupree, and Diahann Carroll, says Watson. His students at Berklee know none of this.
“They are shocked when I start pointing out great players,” he says. “But they know Elvis’s name.”
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