Seventy-Four Years Ago TODAY!

In 1954 he made history blending gospel, country, and the blues and had the nerve to rock. There have been a lot of faux rockers since, a lot who've used the term "rock' in lyrics who wouldn't know rock if it bit them on their hip pocket! Most musicians are so innate today, they feel they have to fall into one of the founding building blocks or into genres unknown in 1977 when Elvis left us that bore me to tears for their repetition and lack of originality. Crackers, trying to sound like they're from "da hood," including the little whiney spoiled bratt Matthers, who's stage name sounds like the candy that doesn't melt in your hands. There's a "kid" who doesn't rock, who started out that way and is trying to cling to an audience, repackaging a Skynrd classic and getting away with it.
But enough about them. This is the day Elvis was born. Hard to believe that was seventy-four years ago.
The "Grand Ole" Opry still owes his family an apology for the words of stupidity that flowed from a clueless Jack Dempsy, "Why don't you go back to driving a truck!" Elvis Presely is and always will be the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but the magic is, he was not liminted to ANY genre. He could sing it all and every song became his own and no other artist should have dared to touch that song, once the Elvis touch had so electrified it. There's no other artist that can be said about living or dead!
Music is once again a polarized joke without Elvis around. You got rap and country. Combine them and you have CRAP. Oh yeah, they come up for other words to try to get you to listen to the junk. It's all marketing now...the art, if there IS any is drowned out in a sea of mediocrity.
They call some stuff "hip hop" that's neither hip, nor does it hop. R&B USED to stand for rhythm and blues, but you listen to what's labeled that and there is no rhythm...no blues.
For gosh sakes, country isn't even country any more. It's just old pop with hick-accent singers. Just as when I first heard Hank Williams, SENIOR, I say again now, "Why would anyone sound like that on PURPOSE?" Some genius will say, "To make MONEY!"
It's not really that good authentic music is not being recorded, it's just that record labels and promoters are dishing out this material suitable, possibly for growing some world class tomatoes, when mixed into the soil. No, it's worse than that...it's audio pollution!
McCartney still writes and records good stuff as does Clapton, when he strays a little from the blues rut he continually falls into, but hey, he loves the stuff! At least he's being true to himself.
Gwen Stefanie has shown a talent vocally, but often sells out to the "hip hop" crowd with a touch of cheerleader thrown in. There was Fiona Apple's "Criminal" that borrowed heavily from Cher's phrasing that dropped at the end.
Cher her self is arguably one of the most talented females of all time, but she has resorted to displaying parts of her body that had BETTER be shaved on a Navy destroyer in a video. There we were, saying, as the expression goes, "REPRESENT, girl!" But she fell into the recycled disco trap.
No, Elvis, I'm glad I have your stuff to listen when all around me is manure!
The world is quite ripe for a rockabilly revival. It always comes along when we least expect it. I agree with (John) Lennon when he said, "Before Elvis, there was nothing!"(musically speaking)
When rock'n'roll went corporate with the sellouts like Bobby Darin and Fabian, along came the Beatles, just in time, recycling old Carl Perkins tunes and songs of Chuck Berry.
When the next lull came, there was Creedence Clearwater Revival with the original Sun studio sound and Scotty Moore-like guitar licks. Robert Gordon, TRIED to give it to us, but RCA didn't promote him well enough back in 1978, right after EP died.
Brian Setzer did it with the Stray Cats. I'm sure there've been others.
Elvis "tribute artists" have become a cottage industry. There's a reason for that.
The saddest thing, is the prostitution of Elvis legacy by those who give us the ultimate pablum, American Idol(atry). The cow-eyed French-Canadian bone rack, Celine Dion defiling Elvis' hit "IF I Can Dream"on that disgusting show. I did not see it, but was YouTubed it incessantly by those rubbing it in like salt in a fresh road rash wound. I would almost SWEAR I heard a primal scream eminating from Graceland late that night, "PLEASE! That's not what I MEANT!"
Christmas saw videos and an album of equally talent-free wannabes singing duets to recordings of the King.
As Les Nessman proclaimed when the live turkeys were plummeting to earth from the WKRP in Cincinatti helicopter, "Oh, the humanity."
But we can't let the mishandlers of Elvis' Legacy and the pablum-pushing corporate recording industry get us down. We STILL can listen to the original and say, "Good gracious, that man could SING!"
He's in a place where none of that matters, now. Having, according to his half brother Rick Stanley "rededicated his life to Jesus Christ in January of 1977." Elvis' last words to Rick, "Those people who tell you about Jesus are the ones who CARE about you!"
I shall always remember the man, who when approached with a crown that a woman presented, when she said, "...'cause you're the KING!"
He said, "No, Honey...I'm not the King...CHRIST is King. I'm Elvis."
Need I say more?
The preceding was opinion...MY opinion! If you want to give YOURS, get your own blog!
By the way...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, E!