{"id":45282,"date":"2011-12-13T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T14:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=45282"},"modified":"2011-12-13T17:07:26","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T22:07:26","slug":"rod-argent-elvis-voice-sounded-transcendent-in-those-first-three-years-i-still-think-it-does-actually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=45282","title":{"rendered":"Rod Argent: “Elvis’ Voice Sounded Transcendent In Those First Three Years. I Still Think It Does, Actually.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thank you, Kate, for alerting me to this wonderful interview on NPR<\/a> with the founding members of the British Invasion group The Zombies, Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent. Rod Argent was asked, “What turned him on to rock and roll in the first place?”<\/p>\n

Rod Argent of The Zombies replied:<\/p>\n

The guy that really turned me on to rock and roll – I grew up for the first 10 years of my life not liking pop music, but then I heard Elvis sing “Hound Dog” and it absolutely spun my world around and I just wanted to hear the rawest rock and roll I could lay my hands on. You have to realize that in that time, in 1956, America and the music that was coming from America, felt like a parallel universe. It felt like absolutely another place to anything we could imagine. And Elvis’ voice sounded transcendent in those first three years. I still think it does, actually. I’ve still got the records of those first three years on my jukebox at home. In ’65 we decided to visit Elvis. We were still kids, we were 18 years old. We were playing in Memphis on our first tour and I said to Colin, “Lets go and visit Elvis.” So we walked up his drive – there was no security at all – we opened those famous gates, which were a bit rusty I remember at that time. We walked up the drive, knocked on the door, and this guy came to the door who I’m pretty sure was Elvis’ father Vernon. And we said, “Hello. We’re the Zombies from England. Is Elvis in?” And he said, “No, Elvis is away filming, but he loves you guys, and he’ll be real sorry to have missed you. Take a walk around.” And I thought, “What a lovely bit of Southern hospitality. Elvis obviously doesn’t know who the hell we are. What a lovely piece of Southern hospitality.” Anyway, I was telling this story more than 30 years later to an Irish DJ and he stopped me and he said, “I can’t believe you don’t know this. Did you not know that Elvis had your songs on his jukebox?” And I was absolutely flabbergasted and in fact Ken Sharpe yesterday on the phone said the same thing to me. And this dreamlike existence where … this god who just seemed so remote and who completely changed our lives and changed my life – there he was with a song I’d written and that we sung – on his jukebox. Absolutely extraordinary.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n