“Elvis was a hero to most/But he never meant shit to me you see/Straight up racist that sucker was/Simple and plain/Motherfuck him and John Wayne.” – Public Enemy, “Fight the Power.”
“Though I’m not the first king of controversy/I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley/To do black music so selfishly/And use it to get myself wealthy.” – Eminem, “Without Me.”
The lyrics above encapsulate the long and widely held view, especially among African-Americans, that Elvis simply stole Black music and profited from it. (It should be noted that Public Enemy’s Chuck D. has in the years since “Fight the Power” was released elaborated more deeply on Elvis’ relationship with Black music in interviews, including in Eugene Jarecki’s 2018 documentary The King.) Just last year music icon Quincy Jones called Elvis racist.
But there were also Black artists who personally knew Elvis – such as James Brown, B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, and Jackie Wilson – and didn’t view him as either racist or a thief. One has to dig into archival interviews from the 1950s, such as his chat with Jet Magazine in 1957, to find evidence of Presley’s on-the-record acknowledgement of how black music influenced him and that he didn’t invent rock & roll. Nevertheless, the specter of cultural appropriation still looms large over Elvis and his legacy.
Director Baz Luhrmann and the cast of his new film Elvis understand this, and so the film directly addresses the influence Black culture and music had on him. Legendary Black music artists B.B. King, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and Big Mama Thornton all appear as characters in the film.
As I stated in my Elvis review, “Luhrmann’s film takes pains to show Elvis’ upbringing as a poor white kid living among poor African Americans in Tupelo, Mississippi, and how Black juke joints and gospel music revivals hooked him at a tender age. This film’s Elvis clocks in a lot of time on Memphis’ Beale Street (‘the Home of the Blues’) and at the Handy Club, where he openly acknowledges the talents and influences Black artists have had on him.”
During the film’s recent press junket in Presley’s hometown of Memphis, I asked Baz Luhrmann and his cast, including Elvis actor Austin Butler, about the importance of Black music and culture on Elvis the recording artist and performer. Here’s what they had to say.
Austin Butler (“Elvis Presley”):
“No, you can’t tell Elvis a story without [exploring] that. We don’t have Elvis without Black music and Black culture, his style or walking down Beale Street and him saying, wow, that’s one of the coolest guys I’ve ever seen. Where did he get his suit? And, I mean, that impacts the way that he dresses.
His sanctuary was going down to Beale Street and getting to, that’s the place where I feel he felt the most pure in a way. Where he touched into his inspiration being in gospel churches as a little kid when he is back in Tupelo, and seeing juke joints and the whole combination of the sacred and the profane that is the juke joint and the gospel church, all of that. And I’m so proud of the fact that we get to be a part of this film that puts his life in context, specifically around that, because credit needs to be given where credit is due.
There’s that scene in the film where you see him in Club Handy saying, I’d love to record one of Little Richar’sd songs. And B.B. King says, if you do, you’ll make a whole lot more money than that kid could ever dream of. And to see that hit Elvis, and the realization of the disparity there and the unfairness. … You can’t tell the story without it. And I’m glad we get to be a part of that.”
Baz Luhrmann (Director/Co-Writer, Elvis):
“Well, it’s even separate from important. It’s not possible to tell the story of Elvis Presley without dealing with the issue of his relationship to Black music, Black culture, and in…
Read More: Elvis Team: “Credit Needs to Be Given” to Rock & Roll’s Black Pioneers