THE ROOTS OF ELVIS

'An Essential History Lesson'

Reviewed by Piers B

To truly understand the importance of Elvis Presley, and how he radically changed the evolution of music and popular culture, we have to recognize where popular music had arrived at in the 1950s and also appreciate where Elvis drew his influences from.

Several CDs have already been released on this subject among them 'The King's Record Collection' and 'The Roots of Presley' - but this 2001 release from the Czech team, is a revelation.

It is an essential history lesson that cleverly combines Elvis' own words with the songs that played a vital role in creating his music. The 'Roots of Elvis' contains some of most influential songs that Elvis would have listened to on his radio when he was a child, many of them so important that Elvis' career would never have happened without them.

Both 'The King's Record Collection' and 'Roots of Presley' have tackled the same subject but not in such depth and without Elvis' personal comments. These are not only fascinating but also help to explain the relevance of each song.

Some original versions, such as Ray Peterson's 'The Wonder of You' or The Drifters 'Such a Night', are so light-weight and insipid that you "Thank God for Elvis" since he managed to take these very bland versions and from them create absolute classic tracks full of Soul and emotion.

However the strength of this Czech CD is that these kind of (uninspiring) songs aren't featured here, instead we get 26 tracks all of them classics in their own style.- Original influential versions that are as fascinating for us to listen to now as they would have been for the young Elvis when he first heard them.

The amazing reality is that Elvis managed to take these great songs and not only improve on them but also make them "his own". Important songs like 'That's All Right, Mama' and 'Good Rockin' Tonight' are featured as well as a intriguing collection of more obscure songs such as Ella Fitzgerald's 'My Happiness', Mario Lanza's 'Sorrento' (Surrender) and the fabulous Sister Rosetta Tharpe's 'Up above My Head'.

This music is so crucial that I can't believe that I haven't tried to discover these songs before and it also made me realise how much of the History lesson I have been missing out on. Hank Williams, Arthur Crudup, J.D Sumner + the Blackwood Brothers, The Ink Spots, Big Joe Turner, Fats Domino - they are all featured here. I can only suggest that if you don't own these tracks and you want to understand where Elvis was coming from, then this CD is an Essential purchase for your collection.

The Sleeve notes are extremely informative (FTD take note!) and amazingly there is also another big bonus - Not only is this CD a full 80 minutes but it's also a mid-price issue! Pavel and Arjan from the Czech team have surpassed themselves with this one. The highlights in more detail . . . . . The CD is divided into Gospel, Country, Blues, Pop and R'n'B- 5 important styles of music that would have influenced Elvis.

From the moment you hit 'play' you know this is going to be a special CD. Gospel is featured first and Elvis starts by saying…."From the time I was like, 2 years old I grew up with this, because my folks took me there. When I got old enough I started to sing in church. I knew J.D. from back when I was 15, that was when he first came to Memphis to sing with a group called the Blackwood Brothers. And I was a big gospel music fan, so they would sing all night, and I would stay there all night".

This indeed leads into J D Sumner and the Blackwood Brothers singing "It is No Secret", one of Elvis' first religious recordings.

This first of Elvis' explanations about his influences comes from an interview that took place in RCA studios during the 'On Tour' rehearsals. All his comments featured are incisive and come from interviews with him from as early as 1956 through to 1972.

All of them are a fascinating insight and yet there aren't so many that they become intrusive to the actual music of the CD. The second track starts with Elvis' in August '56 defending his spirituality saying…. "I was raised up in a little Assembly of God church, and some character called 'em Holy Rollers. And that's where that got started. I always attended church where people sang, stood up, and sang in the choir and worshiped God. I have never used the expression "Holy Roller".

This flows perfectly into the classic 30's version of 'Rock my Soul (Bosom of Abraham)' by The Golden Gate Quartet. - Delicious stuff. Red Foley's essential "Peace in the Valley" from 1951 follows and you can not only sense how Elvis would have soaked up all these beautiful songs as a child but you can also discover what depth and emotion he managed to put into his own version of the song.

The Country section starts with Elvis explaining that "Old Shep" was the first song that he ever sang in public leading nicely into Red Folley's original. Before Bill Munroe's charming "Blue Moon of Kentucky" Elvis says….."You see Country music was always a part of the influence on my type of music anyway. It's a combination of Country music and Gospel and Rhythm and Blues all combined. That's what it really was. As a child I was influenced by all of that".

When you listen to this track from 1947 and also Arthur Crudup's 1946 "That's All Right" you begin to grasp what a totally radical change in musical direction Elvis managed to "stumble upon" that fateful day in Sun Studios. Hank William's "I'm So Lonesome I could Cry" ("Probably the saddest song I have ever heard") from 1949 fits perfectly here too. In 1954 a young Elvis was in Memphis watching Eddy Arnold perform - (Arnold was also once managed by Colonel Tom).

At the same time he was admiring the backing vocalists who just happened to be The Jordanaires. Although hardly famous by 1954, Elvis went up to Quartet after the show and told them that he would like them to back him up one day! Here we have Eddy Arnold in 1946 performing the surprisingly jaunty "It's a Sin" - a song Elvis vastly improved on when he recorded it in 1961.

The Blues section features "That's All Right, Mama", with George Klein reminiscing on what it was like hearing his high school friend for the first time on the radio, and Rosetta Tharpe's 1948 classic "This Train". Willie Dixon re-wrote this number to become "My Babe" a song that Elvis performed in Las Vegas in 1969. It is fascinating to hear how such an early down-home traditional Blues song from the forties could involve into a Rock n' Roll classic - History indeed.

The Pop segment features an amazing cross section of musical styles - 8 originals that Elvis would have listened to on the radio. He says…. "But I liked all type of music, you know. When I was in high school I had records by Mario Lanza .. and the Metropolitan Opera. I just loved music. The Spanish .. I liked the Mexican flavoured songs".

This leads perfectly into Mario Lanza's 1951 Italian "Sorrento" which Elvis transformed ten years later into the outstanding # 1 'Surrender'. Tony Martin's "There's No Tomorrow" follows. This we know was the version Elvis sang of this song whilst at home in Germany in 1959 before Aaron Schroeder re-wrote it to become the extraordinary "It's Now or Never".

The classics continue with Ella Fitzgerald 's "My Happiness" - Try imagining Elvis listening to this beautiful song before he went in to record that historical acetate for his Mother in 1953. The Ink Spots "That's Where my Heartache Begins" is also here. He says… "I made the record. In fact we still got the record at home. The record I made was "My Happiness" and then one of the Ink Spots numbers ……You see I worked five days a week, Monday through Friday, and then on Saturday I called this recording company up and asked if I could make a record. … I had an old 20 dollar guitar, sounded like somebody beatin' on a bucket or something".

It is incredible to compare this very pure and clean sounding music of the time with what Elvis managed to create in his performances packed full of 'soul' and passion. The beautiful 1950's "Sentimental Me" by the Ames Brothers is a delight and it is also interesting to hear Bing Crosby's "Beyond The Reef". A lesser known song from Crosby and also an Elvis oddity. This was a song that Elvis used to play often at home and yet only recorded informally in 1966 - during the 'How Great Thou Art' sessions - as Elvis, Red West and Charlie Hodge unwound at 7am in the morning.

Six great Rhythm and Blues tracks end the CD. Elvis tried to explain its popularity in 1956 …. "Rhythm and blues is rock and roll. It's just music. Rhythm and blues, it's a craze, but it's a very good craze in that there is some very beautiful songs recorded in rhythm and blues. If people will just take time… some of the people that don't like it….. would just take time out to listen to it."

The immaculate 1948 Wynonie Harris "Good Rockin' Tonight" follows along with the intriguing Bill Haley's Saddlemen's 1951 version of "Rocket 88". (Jackie Brenston's original version recorded at Sun Records is often acknowledged as 'The first Rock n Roll song ever recorded' - whatever that means).

Although hardly 'a rebel' Bill Haley was of course pivotal in the early development of Rock and Roll. It was he, along with artists such as Fats Domino (also featured here with "Careless Love"), who passed on the 'musical baton' to Elvis who then continued to break musical boundaries and 'shake the tree' for the rest of his career.

Big Joe Turner, who composed 'Shake Rattle + Roll' and 'Flip Flop Fly' and who would have also been a great influence on the early Elvis, has one of the best songs on this album with 1951's "Bump Miss Susie". Here is a prime example of the early Be-Bop as it headed towards rock and roll - The lyrics - remember it is 1951 - are amazingly raunchy for the time… "Hey Miss Susie you sure look fine Tell me Miss Susie, What's on your mind ? …. Bump right now, before you go, Bump it on the ceiling and bump it on the floor, Bump Miss Susie all night long" I wonder what they were singing about ? !

No wonder when Elvis grabbed this great black Hot-blooded Southern rhythm music and shoved it, via the family TV shows of Ed Sullivan and the like, into the 'All American family lounge room' that everyone was running scared.

As the famous American composer Leonard Bernstein once said "Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution".

Here's your chance to find out where it all came from…….