Thursday, July 20, 2017

July 20 - Elvis's British Roots

The August issue of the English 'The Oldie' magazine has a front cover cartoon of Elvis Presley. Inside is a 2-page spread ('King of Britain'), intelligently and sympathetically written by Andrew M. Brown, with a picture of Elvis at Prestwick, Scotland.

From the publisher:
"It’s hard to believe that nearly forty years have passed since it fell to Reginald Bosanquet – at the very end of News at Ten on 16th August 1977 – to announce to the British people that there were unconfirmed reports Elvis Presley had died.

There was a commercial break and then, in an ITN newsflash, Reggie confirmed the awful news. Back then, all the newsreaders carefully spaced out the words ‘rock – and – roll’. Elvis probably only visited Britain for two hours, when stopping off for refuelling at Prestwick USAF base in 1960.

But he always had a peculiar affinity with the British, and he himself was more British than you might realise.  Along with those powerful genetic and cultural influences most people know about – the Red Indian ancestry, the black music that shaped him – the great bulk of Elvis’s heritage, like that of most white..."

(Source: Steve Morse on FECC / The Oldie)