That's true ChilliD, but that name was dropped by the time that we got the album, and I didn't have access to what had come before. But that name alone speaks volumes in terms of Jeremy's role.
Kieth Richards is a very good example of the evolutionary process that was taking place. And I've rarely heard him criticized for it. It was all a matter of taste.
Elvis was considered to be the king of rock and roll, and I think that there is merit to that statement.
Chuck Berry and Little Richard had some hit records but did not recieve the recognition that Elvis did.
I do not believe that because Elvis didn't write the songs or really play an instrument, takes away from his greatness.
When he first came out his singing alone was enough to give him his title. It wasn't until he became commercialized and went to RCA that his creativness began to decline.
His first recordings were as raw as any of those other artists. He was emulating Arthur Crudup and other Delta blues singers that he liked. So he did the same thing that Green, Clapton and Spencer did, but he did it first. Then he took some of Little Richards songs and did a damn good job on them.
The artists at Sun Records or anywhere else for that matter, had no idea that Little Richard or Chuck Berry would have any more chance of coming out of obscurity than Arthur Crudup or any of the other blues artists at the time.
So for Elvis to cover that stuff was really the beginning of breaking down the racial barrier that was firmly intrenched in music and in society in general at that time. And further advancment would not come until the early 60's. This was 1955.
Of course Little Richard never saw it that way, but Chuck Berry was a little smarter.
Chuck Berry has said that he emulated Louis Jordan and some others. Little Richard also had his mentors who influenced him.
Chuck Berry, Elmore James, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Elvis. What's the difference, it's all a matter of taste and hopefully a knowledge of what really happened. Not just picking up bits and pieces here and there and telling yourself you know the story. That lack of knowledge is what leads people not to understand what is really behind something. Of course we all arent going to persue things to quite the same level.
That is a general statement and not directed at anyone personally.
So for Jeremy to have Elvis as his mentor is not surprizing, I felt the same way. He was actually lucky to have found Elmore when he did, and to have had the style mastered when it was the current rage.
The problem with the Elvis thing was that the music business had just gone through a whole period of Elvis wanna be's and sound alikes and it was becoming a little tired for all but the most adamant fans.
So what happened, the trend shifted from Elvis to Chuck Berry and proliferated with Kieth Richard to Bob Seger and others.
It's all a matter of taste, but none of it's new.
Doc