The revolution of Elvis Presley

To the 20th anniversary of death (1997)

Archival project "Radio Liberty this week 20 years ago." The most interesting and significant from the Archive of the Radio Freedom of twenty years ago. Incomplete story. Still living hopes. Could Russia go the other way?

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Mel Gordon - musicologist, Shila James - spokeswoman for the Graisland Museum, James Cooni - imitator of the singer, Boris Paramonov - philosopher is told about Elvis Presley. Author and presenter Marina Efimova. For the first time on August 23, 1997.

Ivan Tolstoy : In August of this year, the attention of modern music lovers was riveted to the American city of Memphis. About this - the program of Marina Efimova.

Marina Efimova : "Elvis - number one!", The audience shouts. "Elvis is alive! Elvis is alive!" It was the official motto of the anniversary, whose main celebrations were held in Memphis, in the former estate of the King of Rock and Roll, and now the Graisland Museum. These days, it turned out that over the twenty years that passed from the death of the singer, who died in 42 years from drug addiction, the number of admirers did not decrease, but increased, and in the night of the candlelight, held on the eve of his death day, twenty thousand people took part. However, judging by the press, the true theme of the anniversary was not so much the legacy of Elvis as his inheritance. True, Presley himself, as expected to the artist, died, leaving only debts. But for twenty years, the Elvis Presley Enterprise Corporation, led by the former wife of singer Glovalla, who divorced Presley long before his death, committed an economic miracle. With an iron hand, the corporation takes its percentage from all mugs, t-shirts, earrings and brands with the image of Elvis, from the rental of all CDs, all films, from the sale of all books about it, and even from the Barbie doll, holding Elvis's photograph. Elvis Presley Enterpraise Corporation successfully judges those who portray Elvis Presley in blue jeans, because he never wore them, and no less successfully judges those who call him the “king” because Elvis considered this nickname blasphemous and said that the king is only one in heaven. So now it can only be called the king of Rock-n Roll. All these steps turned the corporation into a multimillion enterprise, and newspapers willingly published the amounts that this company earned on the 20th anniversary of the artist’s death. In a word, the anniversary of Elvis Presley, full of purchase and sale, was a vivid example of what is happening when love degenerates into a cult, and art into business. But we will return to art.

The name "rock and roll" was born in the wilderness, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. It was invented by his radio journalist Allan Frit in return for the name of the rhythm end-blouse, a style that already existed in the 1940-50s, but was associated only with African American music. The new type of "rhythm and blues" attracted the audience with just white and youth, so youth that the critic Naele Kofis wrote:

Announcer : "In the early 50s, specific music for youth first appeared in America, for those who have not yet become a voter, but already became a buyer. And at the first steps, Elvis Presley was the undivided property of adolescents."

Marina Efimova : says musicologist Mel Gordon.

Mel Gordon : It seems to me that in the 1950s, after the war, in the USA and in the Soviet Union, similar phenomena occurred - centralization of culture. Everything became similar and standardized. And Presley was the first to break out of the post-war standard, he brought sexuality to the stage, he was the first white, 20-year-old boy, dared to sing Negro music. It was a completely new music. Generally speaking, Presley was a white performer of the state chants, but he combined church chants with the Negro blues and rhythm, and partially borrowed the Negro manner of performance or, as we say, "Negro musical idiom." In addition, he mixed there and country ending. The result was a completely new sound, a new style, which became rock and roll.

"And Presley was the first to escape from the post-war standard, he brought sexuality to the stage, he was the first white, 20-year-old boy, dared to sing Negro music"

Marina Efimova : Now musicologists are safely called Presley King Rock-n Roll, and in the chaste 50s the songs themselves, and the dead manner of Presley caused shock in adult Americans. He played so obscene hips that on the most popular TV show Ed Sullivan, where he was invited, the viewer was shown only the upper half of his body. Here is an example of Presley's first hits: "I want to be your Teddy bear. Not a tiger, not a lion - they are too fierce. I want to be a teddy bear, which is always with you." So, prepared and - "Let's Rock"!

(Music)

Strictly speaking, Elvis Aaron Presley, a 20-year-old driver of the Memphis truck, was not the first performer of rock music, who is given to Bill Haley, some of the Cornetts group, some Jackie Brandon. Presley did not start rock and roll, musicologists say, he made rock and roll an era.

(Music)

Professor Gordon, as I understand it, the attitude to Presley among specialists, in general, is now controversial. In 1976, critic Benny Green wrote: "Rock is a spoiled rhythm end -blouse, which he himself was in turn spoiled by blues, so rock is already vulgarization of vulgarization."

Mel Gordon : I really like this definition, but it does not cancel the genuine and creative nature of rock and roll. In my opinion, each next direction in the musical world is piercing the previous or neighboring world. I do not think that the blues are higher than rock and roll. As in any other direction, you can find rock and roll inelated and, indeed, very vulgar, but the blues can be monstrous. What else seems important to me - there were always two sides in Presley -musician. On the one hand, he looked like a dangerous seducer, a vulgarizator, a rebel, and, on the other hand, his songs were very tender and sentimental - a shy provincial, but with the manners of a bully. No wonder he was called "Dangerous Mamenkin Son."

(Music)

Marina Efimova : It was for such religious content of the song as “Crying in the Chapel”, for the State Pedagogical University, Elvis Presley received all his Grammy prizes, not for rock and roll. According to most experts, he did everything that Presley did from 20 to 25 years old, and at the same time he created one of the most popular attractions of America - Graisland. About this - Raya Weil and spokeswoman for the museum Shila James.

Shila James : Elvis bought Graceland in 1957 for a hundred thousand dollars. He was then 22 years old. He promised his parents as a teenager that one day he would earn a lot of money, he would buy them the best house in the city, and they will never have to take care of how to make a living. And he fulfilled his childhood promise - he gave his parents a house, and he lived in Graceland for more than twenty years. The estate consists of several mansions. Here is the Elvis carriageway, which contains his motorcycles, bicycles, including his pink Cadillac 1966, the most famous car in America. Elvis’s house has twenty -two rooms, but only twelve are open for viewing. The living room, a banquet hall, where he often entertained guests, a gym with a pool, and so on. Many are attracted by a room called "jungle" - furnished with luxurious furniture, Polynesian sculptures, floor, walls and ceiling completely in carpets, and animal skins on them. And he bought all this in thirty minutes in one store. In the season, from April to September, up to three thousand people a day visit Graceland. Some come because Elvis is their idol, others - just out of curiosity, for the third Graisland is an embodied American dream: here is a guy from a poor family, but has become a world celebrity.

(Music)

Marina Efimova : Many people consider the Graisland estate with his leopard skins, rings, inlaid jeans and a pink “cadillac” - the riding of bad taste. As, however, the whole lifestyle of Presley at the time when the crowd’s love fell upon him.

Mel Gordon : My generation of Americans has a dual feeling for Presley. Presley of the late 60s became nothing more than a walking joke. He began to perform at the demonstrations of the mod in Las Vegas, he became a politically active conservative, but at the same time quite ridiculously. For example, Richard Nixon appointed him the head of the "Committee for the Combating of Drug Administration", while everyone knew that the singer uses drugs. He died of this. But when I listen to the voice of 20-year-old Presley, I again think about him as an artist who changed the culture of America in the 50s.

(Music)

Marina Efimova : One of the most curious manifestations of the cult of Elvis Presley was his imitators, who were registered in America in America. And I'm not talking about amateurs from home parties, I'm talking about professionals who, incidentally, competed at the anniversary celebrations in Graceland. With one of them, James Cooni, is talking to Raya Vail.

James Cooni : Elvis always sounded in our house. My mother loved him very much, and I grew up, listening to his songs. I imitated Elvis since childhood, and then this became my main occupation. I have the same hairstyle and, like him, I tint my hair black with blue. I have twenty -seven Elvis concert costumes, the exact copies of those in which he performed from 1960 to 1975.

Raya Vile : James is 28 years old. Eight of them he imitates Elvis Presley.

James Cooni : This is a real job. I have an orchestra - fifteen musicians. Four of them are from the original group of Elvis, they played for many years. We are restoring the programs of all Elvis concerts.

"It seems to me that they really believe that in front of them is the living Elvis Presley ..."

I know by heart all Elvis’s films, I constantly watch the recordings of his concerts, studied his behavior on stage, characteristic movements, laughter, jokes - we use all this in our show. The public likes it, especially women. It seems to me that they really believe that they are alive Elvis Presley, and I try to support this illusion. And, as the King of Rock himself did, I give them the neck shawls in exchange for kisses during the ideas. Various organizations, concert halls invite us. The show usually lasts about two hours. About one hundred and seventy such ideas per year. For each I get one and a half thousand dollars. It turns out about 250 thousand per year. This is a good job.

(Music)

Marina Efimova : The microphone has Boris Paramonov.

Boris Paramonov : The most sensational of everything related to Elvis Presley is the persistent legend that he is alive. I would not talk about the origin of a religious cult on this occasion, but it is undoubted that Elvis Presley acquired the features of an archetypal figure, the legendary singer Orpheus. The most detailed parallels can be traced. We will not forget that Orpheus did not recognize Dionysus God, for which he was torn to pieces by Menas. Dionysus God intoxicated, irrational abyss, going beyond. Orpheus worshiped Apollo - the god of light and measures, spiritualized beauty. Let us also recall that Elvis Presley, rightly considered the founder of rock music, retained the melody in it. This is not a heavy rock, not a Havi-metal, this music is not so much releasing the elements as it calms them down, and this is the art of Orpheus, who humbled wild animals and sea storms with his singing. In general, Elvis Presley is a transitional figure. At the same time, it was, of course, a stage, a stage phenomenon, a sign of radical changes. The cultural hero of the West was a young man with a guitar. He had previously appeared in one of the plays of Tennessi Williams, which was called "Orpheus descends to Hell."

"Elvis Presley is a kind of anti -gitler. This is the transformation of a totalitarian dictator into a pop idol is the most important shift in modern culture ..."

Ahead was the youth riot of the 60s, marked the end of the so-called "repressive culture", built on the suppression of primary, instinctual energies. Now these energies began to be released, and Elvis Presley began this process. On the other hand, the origin of this process can be traced back in the 20s of the 20th century, the famous "Age of Jazz." But he soon acquired, especially in Europe, the features of some organized barbarism, which went down in history under the name of fascism. It was a paradox: an anti -cyvilization riot, striving to free the primary, biological forces, but giving them a tough form of directed aggression. The new counter -cultural revolution associated with the phenomenon of rock music, the prophet of which Elvis Presley was undoubtedly, is characterized, first of all, by its private, private character - it will not organize anything and organize anything. The unity of people, it achieved is a short moment of sensual ecstasy. The crowd, united in this way, breaks up immediately upon the exit from the concert hall or stadium. In the worst case, several display cases will be smashed along the road and several cars will overturn. This crowd has no binding ideology, its couples go into a whistle, an idol to whom she worships - without complaints about the role of a leader. This is the hero of the scandalous chronicle, not political comments. Elvis Presley is a kind of anti -Hitler. This is the transformation of a totalitarian dictator into a pop idol is the most important shift in modern culture, striving to liberate the vital energies of mankind. As the experience of history shows, such energies can be destructive, destructive, destructive. But Elvis Presley did not destroy anyone but himself.