They've both got rhythm, patterns, pitches and a sound that distinctively remise culture. They both are studied in schools, universities and enjoyed in homes across America. They are the literature written of our past in books and the songs that are sung by non-other than Elvis Presley himself.
The Tuesday Sept. 29 lecture at the Jule Collin Smith Museum featured that of both literature and the rock and roll icon, Elvis, as they are both reviewed to be an essential element to understanding southern culture and how they broke boundaries to an decade that we know today.
Barbara Baker, director if the Women's Leadership Institute at Auburn University and author in areas of Southern culture with specialties in African American literature and music, said Elvis emulated blues metaphors that have been found as characters in American literature.
"He was trickster, outlaw, mamma's boy, dream lover, and sexual predator," Baker said quoting Lucinda MacKthen's "Encyclopedia of Southern Literature." "He was a redneck, hillbilly, good ole' boy, white trash, good nothing people and just plain folks."
Baker said that Elvis is mentioned, fictionalized or discussed in literature in over 1,500 books.
Elvis was born in Tupelo, Miss. whose style, as Baker said, encompassed the whole American culture in which we study the literature of his music and films today in relation to the Blues genre of music and the South.
Elvis was one man in a long white sports coat with a majestic gelled comeover who songs such as "Hounddog" and "Heartbreak Hotel" melted the great divide of black versus white and men versus women and young versus old.
Baker said Elvis brought songs to the world for those who couldn't by singing Blues songs that were first heard by his favorite African American icons. His music became a common thread for both black and white Americans in a segregated society.
"His version of "Houndog" was number on black and white rhythm and blues tracks for a full six weeks," Baker said.
It was clear that because of Elvis' song, dance and demeanor, radio stations were reluctant to play his music. Elvis didn't appear to be fully white or completely masculine with his sultry eyes and thin lips.
"He looked just that, black and white and he dressed like blacks," Baker said quoting author Linda Pratt. "All the blacks dressed in zoot suits with pinstripes and pink darts."
Elvis was from a mixed background of Jewish, Scotts Irish, Fench and Native American Indian which made him too stand out in fiery race related decade.
Elvis never denied the influence that southern black culture notably immolated many gospel African American singers such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
Baker said scholars believed Elvis encouraged women to freely display sexual actions during a strict masculine society that broke a traditional 1950s era.
Elvis has also been noted to have awakened race records to mainstream America and opened the door for black music.
It was, as Baker said, musical and literary icons in this time that spoke beyond the south to be universal and timeless and question our thoughts on humanity.
Baker is the author of "The Blues Aesthetic and the Making of American Identity" and has published many journal articles, reviews and is the editor of the "Albert Murray and the Aesthetic Imagination."
The lecture featuring "Black and Blue Elvis in Rock and Roll Lit" is the second of an eight part series of Elvis' America supported by the Alabama Humanities Foundation which is state's affiliate of the National Humanities Endowment Program.
The National Humanities Endowment Program began in 1974 to provide the public with lectures, workshops and film in the area of humanities.
The next lecture in the series "Elvis' America: 1956" will be Oct. 6 at 4 p.m. by speaker Ashley Callahan.
"I think it is important (to go to the lecture series) because I think the college experience should be about experiencing ideas," said Constance Relihan, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Liberal Arts. "Going to lectures you might not usually think about is a way to open yourself up to areas that you might want to pursue."
Scott Bishop-Wagoner, curator of education, said he encourages students to become members of the Jule Collin Smith Museum. Memberships are free and can be obtained by registering online. Members will receive invitations to openings and updates on upcoming events. To register online visit http://jcsm.auburn.edu/index.php.
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