Early musical christmas present for lounge lizards: One of my favorite tunes, ever;

[old mark]

Elvis's "That's All Right Momma". This one was done live in 1970, features very fine Scotty Moore guitar. I hope you enjoy it - I know many of you may not be familiar with the song or with Scotty, but he is one of the players whe actually wrote the book on rock and roll...if his playing sounds familiar it's because he invented it in 1955 and many people have copied it ever since. Enjoy.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xslu3_elvis-presley-thats-all-right-mama_music

Happy whatever holiday you celebrate, and just have a great day if you don't celebrate at all.

mark

ADDED: Scotty Moore will be 78 on December 27th.

[Flaxbee]

1. thanks, old mark!

:hi:

George Carlin had some harsh words for Elvis (clip about Michael Jackson - refers to Elvis) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uC8LSV-j2g

What do you think? Elvis ripped off the music, or another interpretation is that he at least introduced it to a wider audience?

Really nice to know Scotty Moore is still around.

[abq e streeter]

3. This is a part of Carlin I always profoundly disliked--a real mean streak in him

"fuck those kids?" That's just swell George....But re: Elvis....While I understand and support the recognition ( financial and otherwise, although generally far too late for the financial) of the great black artists who laid the groundwork for so much of American music of the past century, it is dishonest and narrow-minded to say that Elvis and the other rockabilly guys were just "ripping off" black musicians, and nothing more. To me, ripping off implies a conscious, cynical decision to claim something belonging to someone else as your own, and cynically profit by it. Maybe people like Pat Boone... Elvis had no such "plan". He, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and lesser known rockabilly guys like Billy Lee Riley (for one of many examples), felt this music within them and grew up with it as part of their souls equal to the white gospel and country they heard. They internalized it all and it came out sounding the way it did because... well, because that's what this synthesis of styles came to sound like, with an energy that was new and exciting and just a little different than the music they internalized from both "sides of the tracks". It wasn't blues and it wasn't country although it sure as hell had plenty of both within it. When Elvis was asked "who do you sound like" , he honestly answered " I don't sound like nobody". In the early days before he and his music DID become tragically watered down, he was the real deal and sang and performed from the true depths of his soul every bit as much as Arthur Crudup , Howlin' Wolf, Junior Parker or any of the other black Memphis blues guys did. Just my opinion..., but I really dislike the oversimplification that I hear too often that Elvis just ripped off black music, and that's all there is to it. It's just a hell of a lot more complex than that.



On edit: didn't mean to make this sound like I was saying that you were accusing Elvis of being a rip off artist or agreeing with Carlin; you were merely posing the questions. Hope it didn't come off that way....abq e streeter:hi:

[old mark]

4. George was funny and smart, but not always right. Elvis LOVED

black music-as it was called at the time-and he learned it from black musicians playing in the south. He loved country and religious and gospel music, too, played very good guitar and piano, and had a wonderful voice. He put it all together at the right time and place.
Scotty Moore said something about they had no idea that they were creating a new musical form, but they all knew immediately they were doing sometihng very special and different and very good.
Sam Phillips heard "That's All Right" and KNEW instantly that this was the change in music he had been looking for.

FWIW, Elvis introduced millions to black music and performers and made a lot of them well known and rich. Before him, they were on "race records", not heard or bought by whites.
Segregated music.

Elvis crossed that line, and he damn well knew it.

mark

[abq e streeter]

2. Elvis, Scotty and Bill spontaneously breaking into That's All Right Mama is a seminal moment

in American cultural history. In a just universe, Scotty Moore and Bill Black would be names that every child learning American history would know. Thanks for posting, Mark.