|
 Elvis Presley would have been 80 years old on Thursday, an
occasion that will be marked with a multi-day celebration in
Memphis, Tennessee at his Graceland mansion. The party will
include birthday cake, movie screenings and an auction of
artifacts like his first driver's license and first acetate
recording.
Even though he died in 1977, Presley remains one of the
best-selling artists of all time and still deserves the title of
the "King of Rock and Roll," according to fellow musicians and
fans.
“He has stayed on top all these years," said Scotty Moore, 83,
of Nashville, the guitarist and last man standing from the
recording session that yielded the 1954 hit "That's All Right."
That first session at Sun Studios in Memphis changed everything
in popular music and culture, said Peter Cooper, writer and
editor for Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
“It changed all of our lives, even those of us who weren’t born
yet. It changed the way we dress and the way we wear our hair
and the way we talk," said Cooper. "It was a reset button for
the United States of America."
Presley was born in poverty in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935, and
as a teen moved to Memphis with his parents and absorbed the
mixture of blues, rhythm and blues, and African-American gospel
from which rock music emerged. His influence has been cited by
top pop acts from The Beatles to Justin Timberlake.
[to top of second column] |
“You could hear Dean Martin in his voice, you could hear black
gospel, you could hear country music," said Nashville-based musician
Bill Lloyd, one half of the country-rock duo Foster and Lloyd.
Country Music Hall of Fame guitarist Harold Bradley, 89, who played
on many of Presley's RCA recordings on Nashville’s Music Row,
remembered Presley as "a terrific guy" with a tremendous influence.
“I think we still play some of the licks that he and Scotty Moore
and that group that kind of invented rock 'n' roll played," said
Bradley.
(Reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville; Editing by Mary Wisniewski
and Eric Walsh)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
