Elvis Presley Is Gone, but the Arguments About Him and His Music Are Not

If Elvis had simply stolen rhythm and blues from Negro culture, as Mr. Johnson and others have for years maintained, there would have been no reason for Southern outrage over his new music (check your history, Mr. Johnson).

In the mid-’50s, no one complained about Benny Goodman’s, Johnnie Ray’s or even Pat Boone’s expropriations of black styles. But Elvis did something more daring and dangerous.

The Southern (Northern also) outrage against Elvis’ rock ‘n’ roll was because he proved that black and white tendencies could coexist, and that the product of their coexistence was not just acceptable, but thrilling!

Elvis was not a “wanna-be” or a “poser”; he had no interest in becoming a “white Negro,” like Norman Mailer and his beatnik buddies. In 1954, Elvis would have been humiliated and angered at people such as Mr. Johnson, who states that Elvis attempted to imitate and emulate the “black sound.” At that time, a poor, white Southerner like Elvis would be hard-pressed to imagine a greater insult!

For Mr. Johnson to say that Elvis . . . “didn’t encounter barriers to his music being distributed across the nation . . .” is ignorant. Elvis was shunned by countless radio programmers in his outset days.

White deejays wouldn’t play his records because they sounded too Negro.

Black deejays didn’t play his records because they sounded so much like country.

If Elvis Presley had been black, he might not have had his 38 Top 10 hits, but he would surely have been recognized for having one of the best country honky-tonk and rhythm ‘n’ blues voices our planet has heard.

He would have been a black man who sounded like a mixture of Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Ray Charles.

GREG MAIER

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