SONG TITLE: JAILHOUSE ROCK
PERFORMER: ELVIS PRESLEY
SONGWRITER: JERRY LEIBER / MIKE STOLLER
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1957
COMMENTS: Elvis worked out some rock and roll basics here. This would be a
good candidate for the Elvis Presley textbook "rock and roll"
song. This is some of the basic architecture on which this whole musical
form is based. He took the basic black blues and r&b forms and pumped
them full of his basic sexual abandon and overwhelming personal charisma.
One of the big assets here is a strong song underneath it all. This was
professionally written by a couple of nice Jewish boys. They gave him an
outstanding lyrical conceit, complemented by excellent details - such as Sad
Sack sitting alone in the corner on a block of stone, and the prisoners passing
up a chance to escape rather than miss this party. The melody is a
simple basic blue song, with carefully crafted hooks you likely won't forget
after the first time you hear them. Besides the big beat and all that
stuff,
the tune under "Everybody in the whole cell block..." for example,
will stick with you.
Then there is the giant swaggering beat of the whole thing. Starting with
the simple two guitar notes and drums, they set Presley up to come strutting
through like he's the cock of the walk. The stop and start quality of the
drums and guitar vs. the pure rhytmic momentum of the vocals contrast nicely for
the verses.
Ultimately I think the biggest thing that makes this record so special is the
pure full throttle abandon, not something he got from Muddy Waters or Leiber and
Stoller.
To Al's Main Music Sustains the Soul Page
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