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The African American Musicians Who Made the King
by Preston Lauterbach
In this thought-provoking book, the Black musicians who influenced Elvis Presley's music finally receive recognition and praise.
After Baz Luhrmann's movie, Elvis, hit theaters, audiences and critics alike couldn't help but question the Black origins of Elvis Presley's music and style, reigniting a debate that has been circling for decades. In Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King, author Preston Lauterbach answers these questions definitively, based on new research and extensive, previously unpublished interviews with the artists who blazed the way and the people who knew them.
Within these pages, Lauterbach examines the lives, music, legacies, and interactions with Elvis Presley of the four innovative Black artists who created a style that would come to be known as Rock 'n' Roll: Little Junior Parker, Big Mama Thornton, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and mostly-unknown eccentric Beale Street guitarist Calvin Newborn. Along the way, he delves into the injustices of copyright theft and media segregation that resulted in Black artists living in poverty as white performers, managers, and producers reaped the lucrative rewards.
In the wake of continuing conversations about American music and appropriation, Before Elvis is indispensable.
"Elevated by punchy prose (Crudup 'his voice around like a fist in a brawl'), this is a fascinating celebration of a vital moment in music history." —Publishers Weekly
"While Elvis generally credited gospel, R&B, and a few artists by name, he was fundamental in fusing aspects of American culture from disparate racial traditions when segregation was beginning to lift. His appropriation, explored here, remains polarizing." —Library Journal
"Preston Lauterbach has long since made a place for himself as the most valuable chronicler of African-American music as a fulcrum and a center of American culture. But here, with astonishingly detailed and serpentine storytelling, with no road of intellectual inquiry ever closed, he has outdone himself. And with humor, the cool eye of a hanging judge, and the flair of a dancer, he has lifted his ongoing argument to the realm of Mark Twain, Damon Runyon, Chester Himes, and Percival Everett." ―Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train, Lipstick Traces, and Folk Music
This information about Before Elvis was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Preston Lauterbach is author of the American music classic The Chitlin' Circuit, as well as two secret histories of Black culture, Beale Street Dynasty and Bluff City. Preston has also co-authored three memoirs with significant figures in Black music, including Brother Robert (with the stepsister of bluesman Robert Johnson), Timekeeper (with Memphis soul drummer Howard Grimes), and the forthcoming Spirit of the Century (with the Blind Boys of Alabama). His works have earned "Book of the Year" recognition from the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Rolling Stone. He lives near Charlottesville, Virginia.
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