Long Live Rock and Roll

At the moment I'm reading the book "10 Songs that Changed the World" by June Skinner Sawyers. I should actually be reading that Sister's Keeper book, but that's another story... Back to the songs that changed the world, I'm only at number three, and I am totally engrossed with the amount of information that has been compiled for the songs. The book is a mixture of history and entertainment - so would that be histortainment or enterstory? Who knows. I'm not going to spoil it and announce all the songs here - you'll have to read the book yourself for that! I will say that the book is a trivia-night nut's delight! The question remains: will I be able to retain the information, and will I also be able to retrieve the information at the crucial time during a future trivia night? Only time will tell.

Sawyers' discusses the many aspects of the song "Hound Dog" in particular as sung by Elvis Presley, and how that changed the way we listened to and enjoyed music worldwide. Notably, she talks about the time Presley sang that particular tune on The Milton Berle Show in 1956. In Sawyer's words, "he slowed the rhythm right down to a licentious bump and grind to such an extent that everyone knew what was on his mind. The arbiters of good taste must have felt that the world was coming to an end, and all decency thrown out the window". Phew - thank goodness for the world of YouTube, because this "licentious bump and grind" I had to see for myself - could it have been so risque? Well, for 1956 it certainly was as Presley was only shown from the waist up in future performances, so as not to offend the television audiences...

Here's the clip from that historic performance, I won't spoil it and tell you when he slows that rhythm down, you'll simply have to see it all for yourself. Enjoy! Long live Rock and Roll!