Please excuse me while I set the record straight. Lisa Marie Presley was on Larry King the other night. Larry asked her if her father, Elvis, wrote any of his songs. She said "No, no, he didn't. I'm sure (he) could have. I don't think it was, at that time, people weren't really writing their own music, I don't think anybody was." Hmmmmm. Lisa Marie, you ever hear of Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Eddie Cochran, just to name a few? And that's only the first few years of Elvis's career. How about Hank Williams who died years before Elvis ever even made a single record? Then, during the 60's just about everyone wrote their own stuff. You may have seen a few songs with "Elvis Presley" included in the writing credits, but those were most likely just for publishing purposes to bring in a bigger cut from sales. Some record producers elsewhere have used this trick by placing their own name in writing credits to get a bigger piece of the pie. I'm not saying all of this to take anything away from Elvis, I'm actually a fan. He was an incredible singer and is certainly a legend. But her saying that nobody wrote their own stuff back then is just wrong! I can understand that Lisa Marie wants to defend her dad, but it kind of waters down the greats who DID have songwriting talents "back then". Yes, even in those early days of rock.
Hey thanks, BigStoneFan! I really appreciate the link and comment. I'm a bit too young to really remember the 60's, but I'd like to revisit that period. The music and TV shows were the best. Music will never be that great again, sadly. The vast majority of today's music is junk.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to you as well.