A rehearsal scene from Elvis: That's The Way it Is.
Posted on 08/10/2007 10:25:20 PM PDT by LdSentinal
ONE of the songs Elvis Presley liked to perform in the ’70s was Joe South’s “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” its message clearly spelled out in the title.
Sometimes he would preface it with the 1951 Hank Williams recitation “Men With Broken Hearts,” which may well have been South’s original inspiration. “You’ve never walked in that man’s shoes/Or saw things through his eyes/Or stood and watched with helpless hands/While the heart inside you dies.” For Elvis these two songs were as much about social justice as empathy and understanding: “Help your brother along the road,” the Hank Williams number concluded, “No matter where you start/For the God that made you made them, too/These men with broken hearts.”
In Elvis’s case, this simple lesson was not just a matter of paying lip service to an abstract principle.
It was what he believed, it was what his music had stood for from the start: the breakdown of barriers, both musical and racial. This is not, unfortunately, how it is always perceived 30 years after his death, the anniversary of which is on Thursday. When the singer Mary J. Blige expressed her reservations about performing one of his signature songs, she only gave voice to a view common in the African-American community. “I prayed about it,” she said, “because I know Elvis was a racist.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
How does she know that?
Why would a "racist" , be influenced so much by music from the black community?
She must be a member of Hussein B Obama’s church.
Mary Blige could not be more wrong. The NYT, of course, gets it wrong.
One of his backup groups, “The Sweet Inspirations”, was black. They appeared with him at concerts on his recordings etc. for years.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22sweet+inspirations%22+elvis+&btnG=Google+Search
I will be glad when the world stops being defined around who is or is not or was never or has never been a GD racist.
it is asinine....it cripples our resolve to tackle the real threats to our way of life
the redress for racial wrongs which have been with us for all of recorded history is in my opinion more damaging than the evil they are in responce to
folks today don’t know what real white racism is...know why?
cause there is so damned little
the big racists today are yesterday’s victims rolling in high cotton ignoring their own collapse and selling racist wolf tickets as fast as they can print them
and sillyassed soft stupid (SSS) white fools are buyng it like a cure for cancer
by today’s standards everyone is racist....i know I sure must be....
but you know what?
frankly my dear I don’t give a damn
i feel emancipated ....jubilee!
(words & music by brown)
There must be lights burning brighter somewhere
Got to be birds flying higher in a sky more blue
If I can dream of a better land
Where all my brothers walk hand in hand
Tell me why, oh why, oh why cant my dream come true
There must be peace and understanding sometime
Strong winds of promise that will blow away
All the doubt and fear
If I can dream of a warmer sun
Where hope keeps shining on everyone
Tell me why, oh why, oh why wont that sun appear
Were lost in a cloud
With too much rain
Were trapped in a world
Thats troubled with pain
But as long as a man
Has the strength to dream
He can redeem his soul and fly
Deep in my heart there's a trembling question
Still I am sure that the answer gonna come somehow
Out there in the dark, there's a beckoning candle
And while I can think, while I can talk
While I can stand, while I can walk
While I can dream, please let my dream
Come true, right now
Let it come true right now
Oh yeah
It seems there are more black folk, (the minority) who are racist than in the majority, (White folk). Another great example of THE TYRANNY of the minority. I guess people of color are just like the rest of the folk, they hate that which masters them. (Uncle Sam’s Plantation)
Get over it and assimilate in the greatest, freest nation on earth already!
‘Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t and American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag.’ Theodore Roosevelt
Public Enemy branded Elvis a racist 20 years ago and thus it is “truth” from the streets, yo.
I’m guessing that’s exactly where Mary J. Blige got the idea.
B.B. King and other black musicians who actually knew Elvis from the start of his career to its end have said just the opposite about him... Mary needs to stop the hateration.
One glaring omission from the NY Times was about Elvis’s devout Christianity (yes, he fell short sometimes), and his objection to being called “The King” was quite public when some fans screamed it at him during a concert and he angrily snapped and said, “No. Christ is the King.”
As for this racist crap, these morons that repeat that can stick it where the sun don’t shine.
Let's Roll, are you literate? I being sincere, because I can't understand how anybody who can understand the English language, and who read the article could possibly understand it as poorly as you seem to have.
The article argues that Elvis wasn't a racist, despite popular perceptions in some quarters. I find it hard to believe that anybody who was able to read the article missed that.
Moreover (and to be honest, figuring this out may require somewhat more sophisticated reasoning abilities) this isn't a Times article -- it's an Op/Ed piece submitted by a music historian unaffiliated with the Times.
It seems to me that he became a racial suspect because of the idea that he “stole” black music. I remember an SNL bit by A. Whitney Brown promulgating the notion. He started talking about “a talented young man etc.” and it sounded like he was describing Elvis, but then he said, “but at about the same time Elvis Presley released etc.” and so of course the “talented young man” was a black artist unfairly displaced by Elvis. The audience didn’t like it.
Up until about 20 years ago it was quite common for both Dixie and Battle Hymn of the Republic to be played or sung at conventions as a way of including both northern and southern participants. It was a sort of Civil War reconciliation. That's probably why Elvis included both songs in the medley, which at one point in his career also featured backup vocals by black women singers.
Clearly, Mary J. Bilge is a racist.
She will certainly never see a dime of my money.
It doesen’t have anything to do with “Bile” does it?
A rehearsal scene from Elvis: That's The Way it Is.
The Left loves anachronism when it suits their purposes.
For someone born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935, Elvis was remarkably un-racist. But, because he didn’t speak and act at all times like an enlightened 21st century liberal uttering politically correct pieties at all times, he’s a “racist.”
And you’d think that someone, somewhere, would mention that Whitney Houston grew up in luxury because of Elvis.
As usual, Mary Blige, and others like her have no idea what they are talking about. They just robot like speak “the message” of racism.
“But, because he didn’t speak and act at all times like an enlightened 21st century liberal... “
Yeah, Liberace had that bit. Of course, at the time, everyone thought he was joking.
Claim: Elvis Presley once said, “The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes.”
Status: False
http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/presley1.asp
“He wasn’t my king”
“For black people, Elvis, more than any other performer, epitomises the theft of their music and dance”
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/elvis/story/0,,774842,00.html
“Elvis Presley is overrated”
“I remember silently cheering the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten when he responded to news of Presley’s death with the words, ‘’Good riddance to bad rubbish.’’
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/08/ew.hot.elvis/index.html
I know Presley was controversial, but there is a lot of downright hatred for him out there. Sheesh.
in psychology there’e the term “projection”.
some blacks project that elvis was racist because he stole, they say, black music and became fabulously popular and successful while they were less so.
in a word, jealousy.
Who would believe any one with a name like PETER GURALNICK writing about things southern. The New York Times commenting on Hank Williams? It’s a joke.
Michael Jackson’s ex father in law racist? I don’t think so.
Ms. BILGE, you are a racist..........................
Quick bet; If somebody asked Mary Blige which party Abraham Lincoln belonged to, her first answer would be “Democrat”.
In his movie, “Girls, Girls, Girls”, Elvis is a Navy “E-O-D” man. Even if he is a squid, he is still EOD. What man can do any wrong after that.
Hey - I’m not registering with the NYT to read the article. As usual, the NYT did their intended damage with the headline and the lead. Even if what you say is true, I’m still glad to have countered the ‘headline’ which is all most people will see.
I realize that may take some fairly sophisticated reasoning on your part.
And is “I being sincere, because I can’t understand” what you call literate?
Mr. Guralnick’s two book series on Elvis is probably the best biography out there. I’m a Memphis native and professional musician that cut my teeth there and he’s well respected along with Robert Gordon as someone who does it right. I’m not calling you out but just saying that among my peers he’s considered good, accurate and fair.
A year in NYC or a subscription to the NYT would do it to anyone.
Shouldn't the "paper of record" make that 30 years after his alleged death?
I didn’t realize he had been made into a racist.
Also, I’m sick and tired of all of these ludicrous “racism” charges.
Well, I don’t think E would’ve approved of Lisa Marie marrying a strange White woman with a missing nose.
I Remember that, and it is what I Love about him: he Loved our Lord.
Then maybe you should refrain from commenting on it. Just a hint.
Even if what you say is true, I’m still glad to have countered the ‘headline’ which is all most people will see.
The only people who would decide they know what an article is about without first reading it are idiots, and lazy idiots at that.
And is “I being sincere, because I can’t understand” what you call literate?
You found a sentence with a typographical error. I don't think typos impugn my literacy, just my typing abilities.
Bilge water (Naut.), water which collects in the bilge or bottom of a ship or other vessel. It is often allowed to remain till it becomes very offensive.
Sometimes bilge water is simply called "bilge". If someone says that what you say is "bilge", he means that it is fit only to be pumped over the side and discarded - ie. it is of no value whatsoever.
Many, if not most, blacks consider ANY white person “racist”, which says more about the racism of blacks.
Because Elvis was white and Bilge is black.
That means Elvis was a racist. Duh.
I read the book, “Elvis: What Happened?” that was published mere months before Presley’s death in 1977. This book was a tell-all on Presley by those who knew him best: His Memphis Mafia, including his bodyguard who went by the name of “Red.” (Red also appeared in a few movies with Presley, often times as THE guy Presley was punching out.)
Anyway, for whatever reason, Presley’s Posse cut loose with this book (while Elvis was still alive, mind you) that lit up Presley like nothing before or since. They slammed “The King” on his (all alleged) drug use, numerous affairs, dietary problems, nasty temper - everything. They painted him as a pathetic recluse who was so drug addled and paranoid that he ended up not trusting anyone or anything.
Yet, throughout and from the best I can recall, the authors said Elvis Presley did not have a racist bone in his body.
Mary Jerk Bilge can say a lot of things about Presley, but a racist he was not.
Peter Guralnick is Elvis’ best biographer and is certainly not in the habit of calling him racist.
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