Was Elvis Presley a racist?

[Tomconroy]

26. I thought I'd do a little follow up since I still

Last edited Wed Jul 21, 2021, 06:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Find this an interesting topic. What I found makes me more convinced than ever that Quincy Jones is just making stuff up. He seems to want to disparage any musician that didn't work with him. Even his 2018 interview in GQ is wrong. There is a video on youtube of Elvis on the first Tommy James show. He brought his own band to play with him that night. There is an audio of the third show performance of Heartbreak Hotel. The Dorsey band can be heard loud and clear including trumpets. So if wikipedia is correct chances are Jones was playing that night. I've read an article from someone who's heard later performances (apparently video exists of all the shows Elvis appeared on but they aren't up on youtube) that says the band can be heard a bit in the background. So Jone's claim in 2018 that Dorsey and his band refused to play with Elvis is just garbage.
It's too bad that Jones' claims got a lot of coverage. They were picked up by the NY Post and several british newspapers as well as dozens or more websites. It's understandable how in years past the rumor that Elvis was a racist could spread. There was simply no way to verify information. But in the past what, twenty years, we have the web. You can see that Jones' 2021 story was inexplicably different from his 2018 story that in itself was factually wrong. You can see video of BB King, James Brown, Little Richard and Jackie Wilson (If you don't know who Wilson was, check out the recent movie One Night In Miami) expressing their devotion to Presley. Of you can find a single reference to someone who knew Elvis and said he was a racist, let me know, because I looked and couldn't find one.
Even on this thread there were a couple of people who opined that because he was white and grew up in the south he had to have racist feelings. But his experience was a bit different. His family was dirt poor and he generally had black neighbors (not true for many of us who grew up in the north). He loved gospel music and sometimes attended black Churches when he was young so he could hear it. He was a weekly attendee at what was then Memphis' only integrated event a group gospel sing.
Why do I think this is important? I won't go through all the quotes from all of the living rock legends who express their debt and admiration for Elvis. I'll refer you to the videos on youtube of his 1968 performance. It was before he became a charicature of himself in Las Vegas. They show why he was a rock and Roll legend.