How Did Elvis Get Turned Into a Racist?

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.”






http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/opinion/11guralnick.html

Sam Phillips was making a decent living putting out records by black artists Howling Wolf, Rufus Thomas, Jackie Brenston et al. He realized that if he could find a white man that sounded like those guys that they'd all make millions of dollars.

Of course this led to some resentment by folks who felt that black artists weren't given their due.

Look at these eyes, baby blue, baby just like yourself, if they were brown, Shady lose, Shady
Sits on the shelf, but Shady's cute, Shady knew, Shady's dimple's would help, make ladies swoon
Baby, {ooh baby}, look at my sales, let's do the math, if I was black, I would've sold half, I
Ain't have to graduate from Lincoln high school to know that, but I could rap, so fuck school,
I'm too cool to go back, gimme the mic, show me where the fuckin' studio's at, when I was
Underground, no one gave a fuck I was white, no labels wanted to sign me, almost gave up, I was
Like, fuck it, until I met Dre, the only one to look past, gave me a chance, and I lit a fire up
Under his ass, helped him get back to the top, every fan black that I got, was probably his in
Exchange for every white fan that he's got, like damn, we just swapped, sittin' back lookin' at
Shit, wow, I'm like my skin is it starting to work to my benefit now, it's


-White America

Now, Colonel Parker was another story.

They had Big Boy Crudup holed up in a hotel in Memphis churning out all those songs and Parker getting the credit (and songwriting royalties).

Parker was the reason Elvis never performed overseas. That old con man would've been thrown in prison in most countries in Europe and he wouldn't let Elvis perform without his presence.

"You can pay me any way you want, as long as it's cash up front."

Elvis and Eminem to a lesser extent were resented because they "appropriated" the black man's music and became more famous than the people they "appropriated" the music from...


Elvis really belonged to my older cousin's generation but I found him to be a great character; especially the way he was depicted in "Walk The Line"... When the actor who played Jerry Lee said about Elvis' character "he's always talking about poon."

I believe he recognized how the corporate media could easily distort the truth in order to further their own agenda and to aid in maintaining the view of regional stereotypes. The usual divide and conquer strategy in order for them to maintain power.

The title of this New Your Times column is one small example, at first glance, it makes Elvis seem as if he did in fact turn racist instead of the opposite. No doubt someone will see the heading, not read the column and conclude he did become a racist. For example, the heading could just as easily have been "How Did Elvis Get Turned Into a Renaissance Man?" as he came from a dirt poor Mississippi family, this would've been a much more intriguing approach, but it probably would've broken too many pre-conceived frames.