Great interview with Keith Richards about Elvis Presley (and also Sam Phillips). “Here’s the King of Rock and Roll and some of his earliest records don’t even have drums on them.”
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Great interview with Keith Richards about Elvis Presley (and also Sam Phillips). “Here’s the King of Rock and Roll and some of his earliest records don’t even have drums on them.”
Terrific inside stuff, Sheila, thanks for that!
Great stuff, right?
Your Elvis posts got me somewhat reminiscent this evening and I put on The Band – The Last Waltz; a band, a part of music history that always seemed to me, to be this understated piece of concrete that kept the bridge between musical history, influences and pop music safely tucked away from the glare of too much light.
If you have never seen it, it really is worth the watch. These guys had connections to everyone. But for them, it wasn’t the fame, it wasn’t the spotlight, it was always about the music.
And if you don’t care for the late 60’s early 70’s pre-cursor to how our modern equivalent of calling it “roots” music has a place in our pantheon, that’s fine. The most telling are the interview clips; life on the road, the state of the music business, the importance and change of Tin Pan Alley, Neil Diamond, Carol King, Dylan, Jimi, Elvis; and how the emerging Rock’n’Roll life style was a “goddamn impossible way of life,” sayeth Robbie Robertson.
Levon Helm shares a story about how the travelling musical acts in the South of the late forties and early fifties ( and likely earlier) would play during the evening and tell people with families to clear and that the wild ones should come back later for the Midnight Ramble. Well that expression alone has a huge connotation for rock and roll; the Leadbelly song covered by many including CCR, the Rolling Stones’ song etc…;
And Levon and Robbie speculate about how Chuck Berry, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Bo Diddley, just didn’t come up with their moves out of thin air – but that they came from the Midnight Rambles… when things got a little wilder, the prettiest dancers got a little more suggestive, all of the duck walks, there would have been competition between performers to see how outrageous they could get… all very telling and interesting from some guys who had put a lot miles on. Again from Robbie Robertson, “So when these guys exposed the local entertainment to the rest of the world, it was like an unknown beast…”
And when you think about the connections, if Keith says Elvis turned him into Keith, then we wouldn’t have Dylan, The Beatles or Pirates of the Caribbean either! Although I think the contribution is a whole lot more than that!
Oh David, I love The Last Waltz, but you put into words perfectly why.