Wednesday, June 29, 2016

That's All Right, Scotty

Many musical historians downgrade Elvis Presley's icon status because he rocketed to fame covering other people's music. Today, his practice of rerecording music from African-American performers and selling it to the prejudiced audiences of the 1950s would probably earn him condemnation for "whitewashing."

But just as there would have been no Elvis without early blues musicians like Robert Johnson and rock-n-roll pioneers like Chuck Berry, the modern rock music scene would look nothing like it does today without Elvis.

And without Scotty Moore, the guitar wizard whose skill and dynamic playing gave Elvis the musical fuel for his vocals and wild charismatic performances, it's hard to imagine rock guitar playing looking anything like it does today either.

Tuesday, Scotty packed up his Gibson and headed off to jam with his former bandmates, passing away at 84.

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