Finally! Someone tells it like it is!

[vivaelvis]

A black man, who is now a writer in Atlanta, grew up hating Elvis only because of the racism in his own family towards the man has come out and admitted that he no longer feels the way he used to about Elvis and his King size following. He tells it like it is, that Elvis was NO racist! PLEASE read this if you want to feel good about an article written on Elvis today.

Why I Stopped Hating Elvis Presley http://clatl.com/cribnotes/archives/...-elvis-presley

[King Of The Whole World]

During Elvis Week there was an article written by a black lady that grew up listening to Elvis. It was a great article. She said she remembered hearing Elvis sing, "If your looking for trouble" during the opening of the 68 special and how she was awestruck. She said that she would go to the music store and just look at all the Elvis records. If she bought them she would be ridiculed at home and by her friends. Later she started buying the records, she didn't care what anybody thought.

It was funny how she ended the article. She said come on black people, come out of the Elvis closet now.

I don't know about any one else who was at Elvis week but I saw a good amount of black people this year. There was this one woman who had two sons that were dressed as Elvis and everyone was getting their pictures, they were cute and posing for their pictures. It was great to see maybe more people are less afraid to say they are Elvis fans.

[vivaelvis]

Just out of curiosity to see what the kids were saying, I checked twitter during August 16 and noticed at how many young African Americans were praising him and just taking the time to acknowledge that it was "Elvis Day" and calling him "The King". Some were even saying "Happy Birthday" thinking it was his birthday. But sure enough for all the praise came the "Elvis was a racist" crap to darken the mood. Much of the positive tweeting came during Elvis On Tour, Jailhouse Rock and Viva Las Vegas that were playing on TCM. Most of the praising (and drooling) came from young African American women. The men in general still can't let go of their bitterness and hatred I see. And they call us the racist.

[rocknroll]

This article, while refreshing to see, still gets it somewhat wrong. It caters to the same view that a lot of black people continue to view rock music as black music. That it is a black mans music first. Therefore, any white artist that profits from it is stealing and racist.

Where this article misses the point is that black music was only about 1/3 of the influence on Elvis, where white Country and White gospel quartets were by far the most influential on Elvis and his music. Right up until the very end.

Elvis no more stole from black people than he did from Whites. He countrified blues and put rhythm to Country, creating his OWN sound that had nothing to do with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, etc. The fact he enjoyed music from black artists and chose to record their music is a COMPLIMENT to their influence and opened doors for them that they would otherwise not have been able to walk through.

[vivaelvis]

This article, while refreshing to see, still gets it somewhat wrong. It caters to the same view that a lot of black people continue to view rock music as black music. That it is a black mans music first. Therefore, any white artist that profits from it is stealing and racist.

Where this article misses the point is that black music was only about 1/3 of the influence on Elvis, where white Country and White gospel quartets were by far the most influential on Elvis and his music. Right up until the very end.

Elvis no more stole from black people than he did from Whites. He countrified blues and put rhythm to Country, creating his OWN sound that had nothing to do with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, etc. The fact he enjoyed music from black artists and chose to record their music is a COMPLIMENT to their influence and opened doors for them that they would otherwise not have been able to walk through.

Very true! However, I don't ever hear blacks in general accuse Buddy Holly or Jerry Lee Lewis or Frank Sinatra of stealing their music or ripping off their culture. Justin Timberlake and Justin Beiber have done that for sure. They used black music to get rich. But why do they attack Elvis for doing the same? Because he's the sex symbol on top of being very gifted and their women went crazy over him just like the white women did and it irritated their egos as black men. Plus he gets all the attention that they don't get. This is why they have hatred for him and some have even admitted this to my face and even recently on twitter.

[Turbo]

This article, while refreshing to see, still gets it somewhat wrong. It caters to the same view that a lot of black people continue to view rock music as black music. That it is a black mans music first. Therefore, any white artist that profits from it is stealing and racist.

Where this article misses the point is that black music was only about 1/3 of the influence on Elvis, where white Country and White gospel quartets were by far the most influential on Elvis and his music. Right up until the very end.

Elvis no more stole from black people than he did from Whites. He countrified blues and put rhythm to Country, creating his OWN sound that had nothing to do with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, etc. The fact he enjoyed music from black artists and chose to record their music is a COMPLIMENT to their influence and opened doors for them that they would otherwise not have been able to walk through.

Elvis placed their music out there for everyone to enjoy.

Before Elvis, their audience was limited in those times (which of course, is wrong how the "white" culture was).

[Turbo]

Very true! However, I don't ever hear blacks in general accuse Buddy Holly or Jerry Lee Lewis or Frank Sinatra of stealing their music or ripping off their culture. Justin Timberlake and Justin Beiber have done that for sure. They used black music to get rich. But why do they attack Elvis for doing the same? Because he's the sex symbol on top of being very gifted and their women went crazy over him just like the white women did and it irritated their egos as black men. Plus he gets all the attention that they don't get. This is why they have hatred for him and some have even admitted this to my face and even recently on twitter.

Put simply, "YES" - I agree 100%!!!!

[J.P]

that was a good read it was pure and honest thanks for posting it.

[KPM]

Very true! However, I don't ever hear blacks in general accuse Buddy Holly or Jerry Lee Lewis or Frank Sinatra of stealing their music or ripping off their culture. Justin Timberlake and Justin Beiber have done that for sure. They used black music to get rich. But why do they attack Elvis for doing the same? Because he's the sex symbol on top of being very gifted and their women went crazy over him just like the white women did and it irritated their egos as black men. Plus he gets all the attention that they don't get. This is why they have hatred for him and some have even admitted this to my face and even recently on twitter.

Theres a very good reason you do not hear that-none of those people in rock music (SInatra would never be mentioned as stealing from any black artists since he sang pop that was normally written for him) are not targeted like Elvis-because he was the biggest, the best and the first to really sell rock music to everyone else. No one attacks the people around the king-they try to knock off the king figuring the rest will fall beside him.
"Thats Allright Mama" was not country, not R&B, not pop or gospel-it was a totally new sound-that was not anyone elses thats why a majority of music critics voted it the Big Bang of rock.
Chuck Berry Little Richard, Fats Domino etc all huge artists all with their own style that was not R&B.... but a little of everything-none stole anything including Elvis.

[spanish eyes]

A black man, who is now a writer in Atlanta, grew up hating Elvis only because of the racism in his own family towards the man has come out and admitted that he no longer feels the way he used to about Elvis and his King size following. He tells it like it is, that Elvis was NO racist! PLEASE read this if you want to feel good about an article written on Elvis today.

Why I Stopped Hating Elvis Presley http://clatl.com/cribnotes/archives/...-elvis-presley

Its so sad when people judge Elvis and form an opinion on him in a negative way cos someone said something about him who didn't know him, or read something written by someone who didn't know him. I'm glad to read that he dropped his misconceptions when he discovered how Elvis really is and saw the man behind the image.

[josephinebeau]

Love this article but it unfortunately highlights the deep and often silent divide that still exists after all this time in our culture. Just to illustrate how important Elvis is in marrying white and black culture let me give an example. Last summer I read, "Last Train to Memphis" for the first time. Every time a black artist such as Big Boy Arthur Crudup or Big Momma Thornton was mentioned I immediately got my iphone and previewed their work, loved it, and downloaded tons. In addition to this I watched, and highly recommend the Martin Scorcese doc, "The History of the Blues" which is a 7 part series discussing the history of the blues genre, I also sat with iphone in hand learned cool new names like Son House and Blind Willie Johnson to name a few. I love music and see it as a awesome gift from God to communicate things we otherwise cannot say. Needless to say this middle class, college educated, white girl from the Ky probably never would have heard the stories of many amazing black artists if it was not for Elvis Presley. People of both races need to feel the love and explore the truth of our histories together.

[KPM]

The bottom line is you have several generations that have heard and believe the myth that Elvis stole his style from African Americans and many of those in each generation "call it fact" It is a myth that is now embedded like a cancer-reasonable people will truely explore the birth of rock "beyond the myths and misinformation" to try and fully see the whole picture and more importantly understand the whole picture.
The others will believe the myth and not look beyond the hate that the myth instills in them.
No amount of publicity, promotion, or explanation is going to change their minds-they want to believe the myth.

[elvia7]

Put simply, "YES" - I agree 100%!!!!

Me too Turbo................I agree 100%!!!!

[Snake Eyes]

I think in reality people do know Elvis wasn't rascist, but people get conditioned to believe the most outrageous claims. Elvis' influence is still here and that must be a bitter pill to swallow for the haters, but it's the truth.

The fact that some of the biggest names in African American culture have good things to say about Elvis speaks volumes, and if people don't believe that, they won't believe anything good about him.