When Greil Marcus cranked out his classic exploration of the significance of rock and roll music called “Mystery Train” back in 1975, my initial reaction to it was why didn’t he have a chapter on Bob Dylan, who was, to my mind, a lot more interesting than say, Harmonica Frank, who opens the book.
While I loved the chapters on Robert Johnson and The Band, I couldn’t quite buy the Sly Stone stuff. Now, I certainly appreciated Sly’s irresistible hits — who didn’t? — but couldn’t quite connect with the mystic depth and profound thought Marcus seemed to find in his music. This would also happen with Marcus’ “Invisible Republic” (it’s original and best title) on Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes which was a wonderful topic for a book and was insightful but again, there were some wild digressions, long walks out on the literary parapet that I couldn’t quite follow or buy.
But then I got to the concluding chapter, “Presliad” which Marcus himself said he couldn’t quite believe he had written. And I agree. I don’t know that I’d ever read anything about Elvis that did a better job of capturing his vast, all-encompassing, ground-breaking achievement as well as his historic importance. It’s the kind of closing essay that makes you re-read it again and again so naturally, when I got around to teaching higher level students in Advanced Placement Literature and we were going to take a dive into the world of Elvis Presley, “Presliad” was where we would go.
I’m including the actual assignment as I dished it out here. For those teachers out there wondering about their next semester, this might be helpful. For those who were bored to tears in their English classes, you can see that there are other ways to teach, other than opening a textbook. At least, that’s how I saw things.
First, some conceptual things to get them thinking big, some words that they might not be familiar with, then the essay and some follow-up questions and writing assignments. This came later in the year, of course, so my students were somewhat familiar with my arcane and exotic ways of teaching.
But I was proud to share this exceptional bit of writing with them. And thought then, as I do now, it’s important for them to know about Elvis Presley, where it all started.
(THIS NEXT SECTION MIGHT BE MORE TEACHER-ORIENTED)
TOPIC QUESTION
BEFORE READING:
How did the career rise of Elvis Presley exemplify the American Dream?
PREDICTIVE WRITING
Predict how Elvis’ improbable rise from Memphis truck driver to international star could be seen as a classic demonstration of the American Dream
VOCABULARY FRONT LOADING
Words introduced in this section:
banal = mundane, routine
brooks = connects with
purveyor of shlock = someone offering corny entertainment
potency = power, male
transcendental = rising above the everyday
affirmation = approval
aesthetically = artistically pleasing
ponderous = heavy, weighty
complacent = self-satisfaction, unwilling to change
YOUR READING:
PRESLIAD
By Greil Marcus
Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. He is honored equally by long-haired rock critics, middle-aged women, the City of Memphis (they finally found something to name after him: a highway), and even a president [Richard Nixon]. Beside Elvis, the other heroes of [rock music] seem a little small-time. If they define different versions of America, Presley's career almost has the scope to take America in. The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues; reviews of his concerts, by usually credible writers, sometimes resemble Biblical accounts of heavenly miracles.
Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of shlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American.
Twenty years ago, Elvis made his first records with Sam Phillips on the little Sun label in Memphis, Tennessee, there was a pact signed with Colonel Tom Parker, shrewd country hustler. Elvis took off for RCA Victor, New York and Hollywood. America has not been the same since.
Elvis disappeared into an oblivion of respectability and security in the sixties, lost in interchangeable movies and dull music; he staged a remarkable comeback as that decade ended and now performs as the transcendental Sun King that Ralph Waldo Emerson only dreamed about – and as a giant contradiction. His audience expands every year, but Elvis transcends his talent to the point of dispensing with it altogether. Performing a kind of enormous victory rather than winning it, Elvis strides the boards with such glamour, such magnetism, that allows his audience to transcend their desire for his talent. Action is irrelevant when one can simply delight in the presence of a man who has made history and who has triumphed over it.
When an artist gives us an all-encompassing Yes to his audience (and Elvis Yes implicitly includes everyone, not just those who say Yes to him) there is nothing more he can tell his audience, nothing he can really do for them, except maybe throw them a kiss.
How could he take it seriously? How could anyone create when all one has to do is appear? 'He looks like Elvis Presley!' cried a friend, when the Big E stormed forth in an explosion of flashbulbs and cheers. . .It is as if there is nothing Elvis could do to overshadow a performance of his myth. And so he performs from a distance, laughing at his myth, throwing it away only to see it roar back and trap him once again. .
There is great satisfaction in his performance, and great emptiness. Only the man who says No is free, Herman Melville once wrote. We don't expect such a stance in popular culture, and those who do might best be advised to take their trade somewhere else. But the refusal that lurks on the margins of the affirmation of American popular culture is what gives the Yes of our culture its vitality and its kick.
Elvis's Yes is the grandest of all, his presentation of mastery the grandest fantasy of freedom, but it is finally a counterfeit of freedom: it takes place in a world that for all its openness (Everybody Welcome!) is aesthetically closed, where nothing is left to be mastered, where there is only more to accept. For all its irresistible excitement and enthusiasm, this freedom is complacent, and so the music that it produces is empty of real emotion -- there is nothing this freedom could be for, nothing to be won or lost.
“This is the mystery of democracy,” intoned Woodrow Wilson (dedicating the log cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born in words ponderous enough to suit the mayor of Tupelo, Mississippi, where he dedicated the birthplace of Elvis Presley) “that its richest fruits spring up out of soils which no man has prepared and in circumstances where they are least expected…”
“When I was a boy,” said Elvis not so long ago, “I was the hero in comic books and movies. I grew up believing in a dream. Now I’ve lived it out. That’s all a man can ask for.”
WORD ANALYSIS/USAGE
Throughout the article, find adjectives that reveal Marcus’ tone towards the life and work of Elvis Presley and how it relates to the American Dream.
TEXT MARKING - (TEACHER COMMENTARY)
Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life (Marcus makes it clear that to him, Elvis is a very important person in American life), one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons. He is honored equally by long-haired rock critics, middle-aged women, the City of Memphis (they finally found something to name after him: a highway), and even a president [Richard Nixon]. (In a long sentence, Marcus sets the boundaries of Elvis’ audience – i.e. everyone. This is quite a statement. )
Beside Elvis, the other heroes of [rock music] seem a little small-time. (Again, Elvis’ stature is reinforced) If they define different versions of America, Presley's career almost has the scope to take America in. The cultural range of his music has expanded to the point where it includes not only the hits of the day, but also patriotic recitals, pure country gospel, and really dirty blues; reviews of his concerts, by usually credible writers, sometimes resemble Biblical accounts of heavenly miracles. (Notice the broad appeal…all kinds of music to all kinds of people. A wide audience. )
Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of shlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American. (That is a wide range, isn’t it? Marcus is showing that Elvis means lots of things to lots of people)
Twenty years ago, Elvis made his first records with Sam Phillips on the little Sun label in Memphis, Tennessee, there was a pact signed with Colonel Tom Parker, shrewd country hustler. Elvis took off for RCA Victor, New York and Hollywood. America has not been the same since.
Elvis disappeared into an oblivion of respectability and security in the sixties, lost in interchangeable movies and dull music; he staged a remarkable comeback as that decade ended and now performs as the transcendental Sun King that Ralph Waldo Emerson only dreamed about – and as a giant contradiction. His audience expands every year, but Elvis transcends his talent to the point of dispensing with it altogether. Performing a kind of enormous victory rather than winning it, Elvis strides the boards with such glamour, such magnetism, that allows his audience to transcend their desire for his talent. Action is irrelevant when one can simply delight in the presence of a man who has made history and who has triumphed over it. (So here, Marcus defines the American Dream for us –here is a man who not only “made” history, he “triumphed over it.” That is, he came from very humble beginnings to the absolute height of success and fame – just by his God-given talent.)
When an artist gives us an all-encompassing Yes to his audience (and Elvis Yes implicitly includes everyone, not just those who say Yes to him) there is nothing more he can tell his audience, nothing he can really do for them, except maybe throw them a kiss. (So…if Elvis is saying – implicitly through his music – YES, I want you all to be my fans, YES, you can do this, too. The American Dream is here for YOU, TOO – his concerts are really, in Marcus’ eyes, a celebration of that American Dream each and every time it’s unveiled.)
How could he take it seriously? How could anyone create when all one has to do is appear? (If Elvis is celebrated just by showing up – which is just what he described – why try to create, go somewhere new? The problem every successful artist faces. Do you keep doing what you’re famous for, what the people WANT or do you do what YOU WANT?)
'He looks like Elvis Presley!' cried a friend, when the Big E stormed forth in an explosion of flashbulbs and cheers. . .It is as if there is nothing Elvis could do to overshadow a performance of his myth. And so he performs from a distance, laughing at his myth, throwing it away only to see it roar back and trap him once again. .
There is great satisfaction in his performance, and great emptiness. Only the man who says No is free, Herman Melville once wrote. (Heavy insight here. If an artist tells his audience “No” – that is, he or she is NOT GOING TO WORRY ABOUT BEING POPULAR – he is free. If he tells them “Yes” then he is trying to meet their approval.) We don't expect such a stance in popular culture, and those who do might best be advised to take their trade somewhere else. But the refusal that lurks on the margins of the affirmation of American popular culture is what gives the Yes of our culture its vitality and its kick.
Elvis's Yes is the grandest of all, his presentation of mastery the grandest fantasy of freedom, but it is finally a counterfeit of freedom: it takes place in a world that for all its openness (Everybody Welcome!) is aesthetically closed, where nothing is left to be mastered, where there is only more to accept. For all its irresistible excitement and enthusiasm, this freedom is complacent, and so the music that it produces is empty of real emotion -- there is nothing this freedom could be for, nothing to be won or lost. (In other words, if there is no risk – If everybody likes everything – it’s not exactly freedom, is it? There’s nothing FREE-ing in meeting others’ expectations)
“This is the mystery of democracy,” intoned former President Woodrow Wilson (dedicating the log cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born in words ponderous enough to suit the mayor of Tupelo, Mississippi, where he dedicated the birthplace of Elvis Presley) “that its richest fruits spring up out of soils which no man has prepared and in circumstances where they are least expected…”
“When I was a boy,” said Elvis not so long ago, “I was the hero in comic books and movies. I grew up believing in a dream. Now I’ve lived it out. That’s all a man can ask for.”
(There you go: The American Dream: In a nutshell.)
AFTER DIRECTED NOTE-TAKING
· Relevance: Marcus demonstrates in “Presliad” that Elvis’ career shows the American Dream in action.
· Reliability: Marcus shows, through in-depth analysis of Presley’s broad-appeal, that the American Dream appeals to all sorts of audiences.
· Authority: Marcus sees Elvis as a very important cultural figure, not just because of his music but because of his triumph over the circumstances to which he was born.
· Purpose: Marcus intends to show Elvis Presley as a very significant, important American cultural figure that reinforces the myth of the American Dream.
FIRST WRITING RESPONSE AFTER READING
1. Do you see Elvis Presley’s rise to fame as an example of the American Dream in action?
QUESTIONS:
1. Can a popular culture figure actually be as influential as Marcus claims Elvis Presley is?
2. What do you think Woodrow Wilson meant by “the mystery of Democracy?”
3. Elvis Presley said he grew up imagining himself as the hero in comic books and magazines. What do today’s young people grow up imagining themselves as?
4. When Marcus talks about Elvis’ “Yes” – (an implicit acceptance of everyone in his audience – reaching out to everyone) what does he mean when he suggests that “(Elvis) presentation of mastery the grandest fantasy of freedom”…(yet) this freedom is complacent?” So…is Elvis really “free?”
THE QUOTE: CAN YOU USE IT?
“Elvis's Yes is the grandest of all, his presentation of mastery the grandest fantasy of freedom, but it is finally a counterfeit of freedom: it takes place in a world that for all its openness (Everybody Welcome!) is aesthetically closed, where nothing is left to be mastered, where there is only more to accept. For all its irresistible excitement and enthusiasm, this freedom is complacent, and so the music that it produces is empty of real emotion -- there is nothing this freedom could be for, nothing to be won or lost.”
