I read the other day that Elvis Presley would be 75 years old, if he were alive today. (I'm assuming that all the “Elvis sightings” have been wrong.) Now I must admit that I have never been a big fan of Elvis' music. Nevertheless, my brother lived in Memphis for a time and we visited Graceland while on vacation. (For sake of full disclosure, I've actually been there twice.) Visiting his home, in some strange sort of way, caused me to have a certain appreciation for Elvis. He was a man of great contradictions. He was a product of the rural South, but transcended the region of his birth. No doubt, he was a greatly flawed individual. He had demons that he never conquered. But he was a man of deep,sincere faith. He was a man, who in many ways, never grew up, but was a perpetual adolescent. Yet, he had a profound impact upon his generation and our culture.
But I think that Elvis' greatest contribution to bringing about cultural change has often been missed. Elvis played a major role in breaking down the racial barriers between blacks and whites in America. Elvis took the music of the black culture and brought it to white America. This was no small thing. Though Elvis certainly never intended to bring about a societal shift. He simply liked the music. His impact upon the youth of America was a catalyst in bringing down the wall of separation. He created a bridge across a cultural divide.
Now I do not mean to imply that Elvis was alone in this. There were many others that came along around the same time that were doing a similar thing. Nevertheless it was Elvis who was the most popular and carried the greatest influence. Elvis was not a prophetic voice for his generation, in the way that Bob Dylan was, nor did he launch the revolution that the Beatles did. But Elvis played a part in the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's, without ever marching or writing protest songs. He did it by singing the songs of black America. I find it ironic that both Martin Luther King and Elvis died in Memphis. They were joined together in changing the racist fabric of our nation.
This brings me to an important point. One cannot separate cultural change from the music of the culture. For example, you cannot separate the cultural shift of the 60's from the music of that generation. It was the musicians who became the voice of change. The songs of that era were the anthems of cultural change. Woodstock was not merely a musicial event, it was a cultural "earthquake." At that point in time, at least with a generation, Jimi Hendrix was more influential in the shaping of our culture than Lyndon Johnson was. As I see it, the music not only reflected culutural change, it propelled it.
Don Walker is a teacher, counselor, and writer living in the Kansas City area.To contact Don please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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