Some things there’s just no debating: In all of the 20th century, Elvis Presley delivered music and culture their most devastating right hook. The Mississippi-born, Memphis-bred singer dropped all contenders in the ’50s, and then spent the next decades taking victory laps in the stripped-down, sexed-up vehicle he’d helped build: rock ’n’ roll.
Presley was a lightning rod, catching every charged element in the turbulent atmosphere of postwar
America
: hillbilly abandon and the raw nerve of urban R&B, impatient youth’s pounding on the windows for change, and, most of all, the country’s pent-up lust to cut loose after years of bad news and hard times. His image alone — an eye-rolling, crotch-thrusting cat with sideburns and a wild-striped sports coat — seemed to flip a middle digit to all that was reserved and righteous.
Among his first strikes were “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hound Dog,” two shotgun blasts out of ’56 that took all the restraint out of popular music. The former’s a naked blues that riffs on romantic desperation without a hint of relief; the latter is two minutes of hell-bent vocals, red-hot guitar, and machine-gun drums that became the de facto Declaration Of Independence for the new teenage nation. By the late ’60s, Presley had matured but lost none of his pure, uncut power, slamming home hits like the soul-stoked “Suspicious Minds” and “Kentucky Rain.”
Put it this way: Without Elvis, there would be no Beatles, no Dylan, no Stones, and no punk rock. With him, America, pop music, and the world as we knew it changed forever.
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For more on Elvis Presley, go to www.Elvis.com.
