Charlie Patton
You said:
"blacks create, and whites discover, rob, buy or steal, then market and profit from the creations."
Since whites persons and non black people have created and discovered things like electricity, the transistor, the computer, the LP, the 8 track, the cassette player, the CD, (all the technology needed to mass market music), I am assuming you will one day write an editorial on how blacks have robbed and stolen these products and profited by them with out duly compensating the inventors.
You could titled it "Michael Jackson led the way in copying white technology"
Maybe one day you will be able see past the color of people skins and see the content of their character.
Regards,
It has nothing to do with whether the influences were from black hands or white hands. Innovative artists are so because they take existing musical styles and add an interpretation to them that is unique and compelling. All musicians have influences, but artists take their influences and create something unique. Bill Monroe took mountain music and traditional Celtic music places they may not have gone, but that doesn't mean bluegrass music is a copy of that music, and a theft of the form from its true creators.
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
You're wrong, it's very deniable. What kind of skill does it take to chant in a Mary Had a Little Lamb cadence over a disco beat?
This is pretty funny. He starts off his tirade going on how Elvis "copied" black music(and everyone at the time knew he was a white man playing "that jungle musice" as many called it), but that was bad somehow. But in this paragraph, he excuses the outright lazy theft of musice and ideas because he see's it as "fresh", and aslong as their is recognition and compensation. What strikes me as funny is that the author is so full of hate and vile that he can not even begin to see the difference between forwarding a style of music and the direct copying of anothers work, adding a few beats, and calling it "your work".
The fact that he was capable of delivering in such a manner that the audience outside of Memphis couldn't tell the difference was Elvis' major contribution to American pop culture for which would always be famous had he never signed with RCA or made a single movie.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Elvis was a huge fan of what was then called "black music," specifically, black gospel music. If you visit the (Memphis) Commercial Appeal's Elvis archive, you can see a photo of a black gospel show at a Memphis auditorium, circa 1949. In the front row, there's a single white face in the crowd, a very young Elvis Presley. Elvis always acknowledged the influence of black artists on his music, and I've heard several African-American gospel artists say that Elvis had an encyclopedic knowledge of that musicial genre and its artists.
There's no doubt that many African-American performers and songwriters were ripped off by record companies and song publishing firms in the early days of rock and roll--continuing a practice that dates from the earliest days of recorded music. But to blame Elvis for those financial shenniangans is simply wrong. It's also worth remembering that some of Elvis' best songs were written by a couple of Jewish guys from New York, Leiber and Stoller. I suppose someone will say that those guys ripped off black artists, too.
One more thing: Elvis' seminal early work wasn't a rip-off of anything. It was the pop music equivalent of splitting the atom, or cold fusion. It was the first great synthesis of gospel, rockabilly, rthymn-and-blues and something called rock-and-roll. For my money, rock began in the Sun studios in Memphis with Elvis, Sam Phillips, Scottie Moore, Bill Black, and the other founding fathers.
John Lennon said it best: "Before Elvis, there was nothing." A fitting tribute for the man who brought it all together, and paved the way for those who followed, black and white.
Thanks for pointing out the absurdity of this statement. In fact, blacks living in the U.S. can credit their quality of life and freedom to none other than white folks. Ironic, isn't it.
Reply from Mr Carter (the person who wrote the editorial)
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Did you read the sentence before that? I said that people of all races have created wonderful artistic expression........and you can't tell me that the pattern I mentioned in that sentence you referred to has not been the case in America.
Charlie Patton
The real King of Rock'n'Roll!
Wynonie Harris