Professor Brian Ward asks: ‘Was Elvis the ‘king of cultural appropriation?’

Marking the the 40th anniversary passing of the King of Rock and Roll, Brian Ward, Professor in American Studies at Northumbria University raises the question: Was Elvis the ‘king of cultural appropriation’ or a tireless promoter of African-American music and culture?

After Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, the African American newspaper, the Chicago Defender explained that: “When Elvis Presley breathed his last breath and the press hailed him as the ‘King of Rock,’ Ol’ Man River cried out, ‘Naw he ain’t! My friend Chuck Berry is the King of Rock. Presley was merely a Prince who profited from the royal talent of a sovereign ruler vested with tremendous creativity. Had Berry been white, he could have rightly taken [Presley’s] throne and worn his crown well.’”

By contrast, James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul”, declared: “I wasn’t just a fan, I was his brother.” Brown – born dirt-poor in Barnwell, South Carolina, on the other side of the segregated south’s racial divide from Presley, who was born dirt-poor in Tupelo, Mississippi – was reputedly the only entertainer granted private time with Elvis’s body. “Elvis and I are the only true American originals,” Brown insisted. “There’ll never be another like that soul brother.”

Four decades after his death, how can we reconcile these two apparently contradictory black responses to Elvis? The conventional wisdom casts Elvis as one in a long line of craven white exploiters of black musical culture for whom African Americans had nothing but contempt. In 1989, this orthodoxy was summed up in Public Enemy’s rap anthem Fight the Power:

Elvis was a hero to most,

But he never meant shit to me …

Straight up racist that sucker was,

Simple and plain.