Into my seemingly endless music taste…
As you can probably tell from some of my artwork and blogs, music is one of those things that is very important to me. I grew up in a very, shall we say, musical house (By that, I mean, we always listened to music, none of us could play an instrument, or sing for shit.). I had no hope, really, with parents who listened to Johnny Cash, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, etc, on repeat. I also have a brother who introduced me to things such as UB40, The Clash, The Specials and Madness. All in all, it was gonna be a given that I would grow up to be a lover of music. (Plot spoiler, I am old-fashioned and as such, could not tell you what a Billie Eilish is.)
Today I want to talk about the musician who started it all for me, Elvis Presley. Now, my memory is foggy as fuck, but I think he was one of the very first artists I ever heard and I still class him as the man who helped to give birth to my love of music. I remember being transfixed by him, his stage presence, his voice, just everything about the man. Of course, as time has gone by, I have learned things about him that I don’t agree with, but nothing will ever change my love for his music.
I think I was about 9 or 10 when I first watched the 1968 Comeback Special and, holy shit, what a concert, it is still probably one of the most important gigs I have ever seen. It was a few months after Martin Luther King died, IIRC and Elvis was evidently moved by his passing, or at least, what I can tell, anyway. It was also after the world had seemingly fell out of love with Elvis, so he had some points to prove, and boy did he prove them. There is a whole segment in that performance where it is him, clad in a leather outfit, with a backing band (I’m not sure if it was the Jordinaires or not so I won’t claim it is.) on a very small square stage, with no guardrails, the fans are right there. He bossed the stage in that one segment alone.
By the time he strolled out on the stage at the end and performed “If I can dream” I knew that I would be an Elvis presley fan for life, and, aside from a few years where I rather stubbornly (and rather foolishly) refused to listen to any of his music (It was after seeing the video with him and Richard Nixon), I still am now, in fact, I’m listening to one of my spotify playlists devoted to him as we speak.
He died in 1977, a full five years before I was even born, but even I knew, at a young age, the world had lost a legend on that day. Between 1956 and 1977 must have been a very fucking exciting time for those alive during that period.
Elvis Aaron Presley - 1935-1977
