The Black artists who preceded — and inspired — the king of rock ‘n’ roll
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The Black artists who preceded — and inspired — the king of rock ‘n’ roll
The king of rock ‘n’ roll is, of course, Elvis Presley. But who came before the king?
Elvis’ music and dance was influenced by many of the Black musicians who came before him. Did he take inspiration from them? Did he appropriate their style? Or was it a mix of both?
These are questions and themes tackled in Preston Lauterbach’s new book, “Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King.” Lauterbach joined “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio to discuss more. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
David Brancaccio: I had to throw away all my LPs some years ago before a move. I only have 25 of the dearest ones. And here’s Big Mama Thornton right here in this pile. She’s “Hound Dog” years before Elvis, “Hound Dog.”
Preston Lauterbach: Everybody knows that song, “Hound Dog,” right? I mean, I think that’s as well known the world over as any piece of music. Most people — I would say probably 90% of those people — identify with Elvis’ version. Big Mama cut it three years before Elvis, it’s one of those kind of “Oh, interesting” moments for a lot of people.
Brancaccio: Yeah. I mean, it had — I would say — more edge. Preston, what does everybody say? “Force of nature?” I mean, that’s usually the phrase that gets attached to Big Mama Thornton.
Lauterbach: Such a powerful vocalist and so gifted transmitting emotion, you know, through the little subtleties and inflections of a vocal. And I think that that’s something that Elvis really responded to.
Brancaccio: Now, her version — recorded in 1953 — did sell. I mean, I saw one figure, about a half million copies, but she would continue to say she didn’t make much money off that.
Lauterbach: Well, look, the estimates on those sales vary. If you ask her record company, it sold 500,000. If you ask Big Mama Thornton, it sold 2 million. So, the record companies were in the habit of depressing some of their totals, you know, for their own financial reasons.
Brancaccio: Now, Big Mama Thornton remained grumpy her whole life about the amount of money someone like Elvis made off of “Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog,” and what she made on her first version.
Lauterbach: Big Mama was not the songwriter on Hound Dog. She was not the copyright holder or the publishing rights holder. She was the the recording artist. So if you take that 178 RPM record that was issued in 1953 — one of which was in Elvis’s personal collection, I might add — for each one of those sold, she was entitled to the grand sum of a half of a penny per her arrangement with her record company.
Brancaccio: Big Mama Thornton speaking out got the discussion about appropriation into the wider culture. I mean, it had some benefits for her. When Janis Joplin does “Ball and Chain,” right, some of that goes back to her.
Lauterbach: Well, that’s where the ownership of the material comes in, and where the cash flow begins. And so it dates back to this really archaic way the music business operated during sheet music publishing. The publisher was the manufacturer of the product, and therefore entitled to the first cash flow that came in. Well, the same thing was true of records. And so to bounce back to “Ball and Chain” a little bit, she assigned the publishing to this company because it was “standard procedure” — which all you young musicians out there really need to question.
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