The Elvis Effect

The Elvis Effect

The "Elvis Effect" has impacted individual rock 'n' rollers of diverse eras and styles in many ways, as they each sought to follow in Presley's big footsteps to fame and fortune.

American television idol Ricky Nelson turned to rock music as a second career back in the mid-1950s, because he was intensely jealous that his teenage girlfriend was more impressed by Elvis records than his own hit TV series.

Welsh rocker Tom Jones borrowed many of his stage moves from Presley's early hip swiveling days.

Billy Idol aspired to be the Elvis Presley of the punk era. He stole Presley's sneer and recorded the song, "King Rocker," with his early British pub band Generation X as a tribute to the iconic 50s rocker.

"The Elvis Effect" has had impact on Calumet Region music folks as well.

The following comments are excerpted from various interviews done both recently and over the years with a handful of regional musicians who have engaged in conversation about the whys and wherefores of "The Elvis Effect."

"It was his voice. Elvis' voice just reached out and grabbed you," said Art Of War guitarist Bill Stone, who learned to play guitar and sing to Presley's 1961 hit, "Little Sister."

"I still think Elvis has one of, if not the greatest voices in rock music. He started out singing gospel and blues and then moved on to do the rock stuff," Stone said. "Watch the old footage of Elvis on television, where he was filmed from the waist up. Elvis was the first one to dare to put it out there. He was the first rocker to dance and move. Parents thought he was dangerous and vulgar, but he was just feeling the music. People are still feeling his music all these years later, because of that passion he had."

Buck Daddy guitarist/frontman Randy Anderson, who remembers playing air guitar as a child to Elvis music, said, "I don't think you can be in rock 'n' roll and not feel a debt to Elvis.

"I only knew Elvis from his movies when I was little and I hated his movies," Anderson said. "But then I saw his 68 Comeback Special. Seeing him in his black leather and rocking as hard as he did that night, made me understand what he was really all about. I've been a fan of his music ever since.

"There is no doubt that Elvis played a part in my becoming a musician later in life."

Singer/songwriter Steve Vansak of Gary, who includes Presley's "Suspicious Minds" in his live shows, became a Presley fan at the age of 8 while vacationing with a friend's family in Michigan the day Elvis died.

"We went to a local record store and I saw a big display for Elvis' (then) new Moody Blue' album," he said. "I wanted to buy it, but only had so much allowance money to last the whole vacation. Elvis died that afternoon and stores everywhere were sold out of Moody Blue' and all of his records for several weeks.

"There were rockers before Elvis, but it took him to bring the music into the mainstream," Vansak said. "Elvis had the voice, the moves and most of all the charisma. He was electrifying to watch. Elvis was the vehicle that made it possible for the rest of us to do what we do."

Singer/songwriter Randy McKay, half of the region rock duo, Randy & Naomi, agreed with Vansak's sentiment about Elvis being the one to open the door.

"Little Richard and others were doing the music before Elvis, but he was the first one who connected with a white audience," McKay said. "Doing that opened the flood gates. Rock 'n' roll just couldn't be stopped after that. I'm not really a big Elvis fan, but I think anyone who plays in a rock band owes him respect for what he accomplished."

Don Baron, frontman of Bravo Johnny and hair metal revue Metalicous, said Elvis was the earliest musical influence he can remember as a kid.

"I became an Elvis fan through my dad," he said. "My dad would play his live concert tapes in the car.

"Just hearing women scream for him and the way the audience responded to him, you couldn't help but be mesmerized. As a kid I didn't understand the whole sexuality aspect of Elvis, but I knew he was connecting in a special way with those people watching him. Then later when I saw his TV specials and saw the charisma and intensity of his concert performances, it all made sense."

Baron turned to Elvis when he first started performing. One of his first on-stage gimmicks with the first incarnation of Bravo Johnny was wearing rhinestone and sequined painters coveralls and doing a parody of "Blue Suede Shoes" and "All Shook Up."

"I poked fun at Elvis on stage, but I've always respected what he did for rock 'n' roll," Baron said.

Dave "Biscuit" Miller, bassist and namesake of the region-based blues band, Biscuit & The Mix, said, "He was the first white guy that ever moved like that. As a little kid, I grew up watching Elvis and James Brown doing their thing on stage and I would try to dance and move like them. Then later when I got into the blues, I learned how Elvis covered blues songs like 'Hound Dog' by Big Mama Thornton and 'That's All Right Mama' by Arthur 'Big Boy' Cruddup and realized why I liked his music so much."

Miller spent much of his youth in the South and feels Presley's humble beginnings has much to do with his lasting popularity. "Elvis proved to everyone that even the most common folk can see their dreams come true. He was a poor kid born in a sharecropper's shack who became the King of Rock 'n' Roll!

"There is so much more to Elvis' music than the couple of songs you hear played on the oldies station," he said, citing Presley's passionate cover of Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie" as being one example of the King at his best. "It's mind-boggling how amazing and how captivating he was when he really got his teeth into a song like that."

Miller feels "the integrity of his music and his charisma" has kept Presley relevant three decades after his death. "There's nobody who can keep a person's eyes glued to them the way Elvis did. He was a natural born performer and truly one of a kind."

This writer was first introduced to Presley's music in the mid-1960s via my older sister Marie's adoration of him.

A few days after Elvis died on August 16, 1977, a harsh and nasty letter about his passing that was published in The Times' "Letters To The Editor" section, prompted my sitting down at a typewriter for the first time. The rebuttal became this writer's first ever published piece of writing

Thirty years later and now well into a journalism career, Elvis still has me sitting here at the keyboard firing off words to The Times.

Chalk it all up to "The Elvis Effect."

Tom Lounges

Times Correspondent | Friday, January 04, 2008 |

Great article The Elvis Effect sure worked on me :yahoo: