Elvis Was The Male Wanda Jackson

I respect the writer of the article’s preferances, namely that she gets much more enjoyment from listening to Wanda Jackson than she does when listining to Presley, but when it is said that she “could really play the guitar from the very beginning of her career”, what that actually means is that the mix in her songs allows us to better hear her playing the guitar, on record, than was the case in, say, the early stages of Presley’s career.

Otherwise, why would someone alike Johnny Cash, who could play the guitar quite well, and not just knew Presley from the early days, but toured with him as well, would say the following about Presley’s 1954 guitar playing, I repeat, about 1954’s guitar playing, and I quote

“ That night at the “Eagle’s Nest”, I remember, he was playing a D-18 Martin acoustic guitar and he was dressed in the latest teen fashion, but the thing I really noticed though, was his guitar playing. Elvis was a fabulous rhythm player. He’d start into “That’s All Right” , with his own guitar, alone, and you didn’t want to hear anything else”
Johnny Cash, in “Cash, the autobiography”, recalling the first time he saw Presley perform, at the “Eagles Nest”, in Memphis, TN (1954)

Comment by Jim Burrows — June 11, 2008 @ 2:37 pm

I believe that, I’m no expect.  So why did he say in the ‘77 concert special that he faked guitar for a long time?  Was it just that he hadn’t played in awhile?

-Terry

p.s. I’m a he.

Comment by Terry Sawyer — June 11, 2008 @ 4:18 pm

Hi Terry!! You have to understand that Elvis Presley was the most modest person that ever walked up to michrophone. When he said what he said, in the 1977 TV Special, even an expert on Presley, such as myself, began wondering whether he was losing that balance he always had, namely, that of been modest, but accurate.

But the internet, and you.tube in particular, is full with early interviews (and by that I mean 1955, 1956, and 1957), where reporters keep asking him questions that only an extremely modest person such as he really was, could answer in the way he does.

They keep hammering on what he thinks makes him as popular, what is it, that he had, that no one else had, about his voice, etc, etc, etc, and his answers are so incredible modest, that I know of no instant where Presley talks about himself, other than to say that he came along at the right time, that he was extremely lucky, or that his voice was rally ordinary. 

He was also known to put on certain reporters, as in the famous answer he gave to one that was really abusive, hitting her with “I don’t know a thing about music, in my line of business, you don’t need to”.

This from a 22 and a half year old whose “musical hard disk”, was already the fullest that has ever been, his encyclopedic knowledge of every music idiom that was ever heard in America ( up to that point, save for Jazz), proven beyong reasonable doubt by the omcredible ecclectic choice of material he picked, first in the 14 months he was at SUN, and later by what he did in his first 14 months at RCA, which is when this particular reporter got that answer from Elvis.

He knew every chord, of the basic ones. When he said he only knew three that was just his way of facing an audience he knew was shocked by how he looked, a way of lowering the stress he certainly suffered, at that moment, in front of 20,000, but with TV cameras capturing what he knew was indeed a very sad image.

There is abundant visual proof, in those early appearances, all available at youtube, where you can see him playing the G, C, F, A, D, E and B chords, the basic ones I mean. 

Regards
@

Comment by Jim Burrows — June 12, 2008 @ 12:51 am

Hi Terry!!

For some reason, I forgot that you had asked me about his mentioning his “faking it for a long time”, which he mentions right after his saying that he “only knew three chords”.

The matter about faking it, is a clear reference to what he would mostly do with a guitar, while he was being filmed doing the movie songs, namely from “G.I. Blues” (1960)onwards.

In his first four movies, all shot before he went into the Army, he’s actually playing chords as he is being filmed, the sole exception being during his rentidion of the title song for “King Creole”, which highlights a close up of Scotty Moore during the guitar break, but making it appear as it is Elvis who is doing it. 

In most of his sixties movies, he would move his left hand to places in the neck of the guitar he could not have gone, since all he knew where the basic chords, all located at the other extreme of the neck.

That’s what he meant with faking it…

Comment by Jim, Burrows — June 12, 2008 @ 1:13 am

All very good to know.  Thank you.  Elvis’ is a lot more complicated than I gave him credit for being. 

-Terry

Comment by Terry Sawyer — June 12, 2008 @ 8:32 am

Terry,
First of all, Wanda Jackson is really a mainstream unsung heroine. I totally love that you highlighted her, and the above clip is fantastic.

I hesitate to join in with street gang here defending Elvis’ honor, but it’s just impossible to compare anyone with him. Not to say he was “better” than others, he just occupies a singular place in pop history that is frequently misunderstood (or rather, yet to be understood).

Um, if you’re at all interested, here’s a link to a short post I did on the notion of Elvis’ death which might shed light on the impassioned reaction of your commentors:
http://popfeminist.blogspot.com/2008/05/gravity-of-popular-culture.html

Comment by Pop Feminist from New York — June 12, 2008 @ 2:59 pm