I was
watching a re-run of the PBS Elvis Presley special, “He Touched Me” today, and
one segment was especially insightful. (Perhaps, “it went right by me” the
first and second times around).
J.D. Sumner met the not yet discovered
adolescent when he was singing with the Blackwood Brothers. Presley was 14 at
the time, and had shown up for a concert.
Sumner had, apparently, run into the
boy in the theater foyer, or an alleyway, and Elvis told him he didn’t have the
money to get in. The gruff-voiced 6’6” Gospel singer told him that anytime he
wanted to come to the stage door, anywhere he sang, he’d let him in for free.
Over the years, the two developed an increasingly closer bond.
As the segment closed, and gave way to
the next, the late great Gospel singer mused,
“After Elvis became famous there were
times I had to go to his stage door to get in, …‘cause I didn’t have any
money!” (Whether this is just an exaggeration for effect, who can say)?
Elvis was far from perfect. We are all
too familiar with his unfaithfulness to his wife, Priscilla, his wild parties
while he was on the road, his addiction to prescription drugs, and the
hypocrisy which surrounded what he might have described as his “Christian
faith.”
But whereas, the majority of what some
refer to as “backslidden Christians” tend to distance themselves from every
vestige of the Gospel, Presley seemed to do the opposite.
He even insisted on singing, “Peace in
the Valley” on the Ed Sullivan Show. Although, the producers of the television
production attempted to deter him, he responded with,
“My mama loves that song, and she
wants me to sing it; (and I’m going to sing it”)!
(And sing it, he did).
Pt. 2
Many preachers of that day, and time
spoke against Elvis and his music, not the least of which was his below the
waist gyrations. (He was sometimes filmed from the waist up, as a matter of
so-called “public decency”).
In one infamous sermon, southern Pastor
Jimmy Snow exclaimed, (paraphrased)
“I am concerned for the welfare of our
young people, and how certain factions are corrupting the morals of our
teenagers with their music. I’m convinced that the corruption of our society
is, at some level, influenced by the music of our society.
When they sing, you feel it down to
your toes. You ask one of our youngsters what they like about the music,
they’ll tell you, ‘the beat, the beat, the beat.’”
It is said that when Elvis got wind of
the criticism of certain vocal ministers throughout the country, he cried. And after he had time to “settle down,” he
said,
“I ain’t trying to corrupt the youth
of this country. I’m just doing what I’ve always done with my music. I’m doing
the exact same thing I do in church; only different music and different words.”
Whether you like Elvis or whether you
don’t, who can deny he will go down in the annals of international recording
history as the greatest singer who ever lived.
He left us far too soon, and he left a
void in the world that has never yet been filled.
(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 80. By William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending.
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