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OLS · 12-05-2011, 08:02 AM

Doesn't "get" Elvis, lol.

It's simple. In order to "get" Bix Beiderbecke, you have to have tolerated whatever came a generation
before him. In order to get Buddy Holly, you had to understand what came one or two generations behind
HIM. In order to "get" Elvis, you needed to know about Count Basie, the big bands, and 50 other 1940s acts
branching into whatever stuck up white milktoast music people were digging 20 years before him. In order to
get the Beatles, you have to get Elvis. Everything built on or was a Violent reaction to everything that came
before it. People who like Hip Hop listen to the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and think "people actually
LISTENED TO THIS??" Elvis was a gigantic innovator not only because of what he did, but what color he was
doing it. He took music that people wanted to get into (but couldn't) or wouldn't, because it was "colored
music" When they found out he was a white kid, the lid came off the whole deal. The Beatles listened to Elvis
and tried to copy and out-swing him. With music you either like it or not. No need to question why you don't
get it. But it is very enriching to study American popular music since the 1880s and see the tree grow.

You may not know this, but in England, before Buddy Holly and Elvis, the popular british bands at the
time were playing a music that equates to Dixieland Jazz (skiffle). Yes, the people in the Rolling Stones
were playing skiffle before they heard these records. Can you imagine what those race records did to
those kids when they heard them?? Talk about blowing the lid off of something.

12-05-2011, 08:02 AM	#48
OLS Suck It Join Date: Oct 2008 First Name: Brad Location: TN Posts: 7,912 Trading: (19)	Re: The Beatles: What am I missing? Doesn't "get" Elvis, lol. It's simple. In order to "get" Bix Beiderbecke, you have to have tolerated whatever came a generation before him. In order to get Buddy Holly, you had to understand what came one or two generations behind HIM. In order to "get" Elvis, you needed to know about Count Basie, the big bands, and 50 other 1940s acts branching into whatever stuck up white milktoast music people were digging 20 years before him. In order to get the Beatles, you have to get Elvis. Everything built on or was a Violent reaction to everything that came before it. People who like Hip Hop listen to the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and think "people actually LISTENED TO THIS??" Elvis was a gigantic innovator not only because of what he did, but what color he was doing it. He took music that people wanted to get into (but couldn't) or wouldn't, because it was "colored music" When they found out he was a white kid, the lid came off the whole deal. The Beatles listened to Elvis and tried to copy and out-swing him. With music you either like it or not. No need to question why you don't get it. But it is very enriching to study American popular music since the 1880s and see the tree grow. You may not know this, but in England, before Buddy Holly and Elvis, the popular british bands at the time were playing a music that equates to Dixieland Jazz (skiffle). Yes, the people in the Rolling Stones were playing skiffle before they heard these records. Can you imagine what those race records did to those kids when they heard them?? Talk about blowing the lid off of something. Last edited by OLS; 12-05-2011 at 08:16 AM.