Incredibly Talented Elvis Sucks - Youtube!

In my ongoing effort to provide you fair reader with the most current online resources, I wanted to alert you to the website youtube.com. Youtube is a cutting-edge new site that allows anyone (you!) to post videos. It’s like TV on the internet, but it’s not filtered by anyone. Pretty much anything goes. There’s so much to see and learn! And there is no one making decisions about what is good!

In order to give you a better sense of what youtube offers, I wanted to share a personal experience I had on youtube. It has to do with Elvis. See, for almost all of my life I have hated Elvis. There is a simple reason for this: he stole all his music from black people. (I learned recently that this isn’t 100% accurate, but pretty much completely true.) I hated the idea of Elvis. I would rather listen to the Black artists who came up with the original songs. I didn’t really like his songs, and I wasn’t impressed with his little hip motion. Wow, he moved his hip. I understand that back in the 50’s this was mind-blowing, but for me, well, it just wasn’t that impressive.

I don’t remember how exactly, but about three months ago, I stumbled on a youtube video of Elvis performing live in 1956. And my God, it was a game changer. He looks about 18. Young, innocent, handsome, and having fun. It’s obviously before things turned bad and Elvis got bloated and started wearing sequins (circa 1957). In the youtube video, Elvis is singing Don’t Be Cruel, a song I now love. It was written by Otis Blackwell, a Black man.  According to wikipedia.org, another amazing source of accurate information on the internet, Otis was amenable to sharing 50% of the songwriting credits with Elvis.  I don't know the real story, but at least it seems Otis benefited from the deal.

Watching the youtube video, it's clear Elvis has more talent in a wisp of his perfect hair than 99% of musicians you hear on the radio today. He was one incredibly talented dude. Just born with enough charisma to knock over buildings. It's clear in the video, he's so young, he just wants to sing and have a good time.  In his early years, it's hard to fault him for wanting to sing great songs written by Black men and women.  But the white men around him that managed his career are guilty of stealing lots of Black music and getting rich having Elvis perform it.  In this video, the youthful Elvis is mind-bogglingly good.  Too bad it went so wrong so quickly.

Here, finally, is the video:

Don't Be Cruel

I have a performance coming up this weekend, on Sunday.  Second Sundays is a monthly event where local singer/songwriters have a chance to perform in a cafe/bakery, Sweet Inspiration on Market St. in San Francisco.  I've played the last four months of Second Sundays, and it has been wonderful.  This Sunday, I'm going to perform Don't Be Cruel along with two other original songs.  The show starts at 3:30pm.

much love,
Anthony

ps - A friend of mine, after reading this post, sent the following with the video:

boooooo boooooo elvis straight up racist...

Fight the Power!

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