Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis exhibits the younger “King of Rock and Roll” hanging out with blues legend B.B. King, and the movie has sparked debate over the true story of the connection between Elvis and B.B. King. In Luhrmann’s trademark type, Elvis is a dizzying and dazzling two-and-a-half hours that weaves collectively previous and new. However, many have claimed that the movie misrepresents Elvis’ position as a civil rights advocate and inflates his relationships inside the Black group, specifically with B.B. King. In truth, some lesser-known particulars define simply how shut they have been, together with phrases from B.B. King himself.

As proven in Luhrmann’s biopic, Elvis grew up in a poor, dominantly Black group in Tupelo, Mississippi, the place he found his musical inspiration on the native gospel church. Elvis and his household then moved to Memphis in 1948 in an residence advanced close to Beale Street the place Elvis and B.B. King meet up in Luhrmann’s Elvis. The pair pal round, joke, and marvel on the unimaginable music earlier than King offers Elvis recommendation concerning the music trade. Elvis unmistakably exhibits Elvis and King as pals, a relationship that King himself verified a number of instances all through his life, however the true historical past is disputed.

Is There Historical Evidence That B.B. King And Elvis Were Friends?

The Real-Life Duo Had Many Documented Meetings

When it involves the looks of B.B. King within the Elvis film, the query most viewers have is that if the pair have been pals in actual life, or if their relationship was exaggerated for the film. While Elvis generally performed issues a bit loosely with the reality when it got here to the lifetime of the King of Rock n’ Roll, Elvis and B.B. King have been certainly pals in actual life, and met many instances.

The pair first met once they have been youngsters as proven within the biopic, with many of the proof of this era of the musician’s lives coming straight from B.B. King himself. However, whereas they crossed paths in Memphis of their youth, it wasn’t till they met as adults, once they have been each skilled musicians, that their friendship absolutely took form. In specific, B.B. King frequently praised Elvis’s forward-thinking angle in the direction of race relations, and his angle in the direction of race usually, which was extremely progressive for the period during which the pair lived.

What B.B. King Has Previously Said About Elvis

King Revealed Elvis Booked Him On His Shows

Born in a river cabin in Berclair, Mississippi, B.B. King (performed in Elvis by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) instructed a reporter in 2010 (by way of the San Antonio Examiner), that he felt a kinship for Elvis as a result of each of them “have been born poor in Mississippi, went by way of poor childhoods and we realized and earned our method by way of music.” That kinship and mutual wrestle fostered a friendship between Elvis and B. B. King, with the pair often speaking about music collectively. In the interview, King discusses how he and Elvis agreed that:

“Music is owned by the whole universe. It isn’t exclusive to the black man or the white man or any other color. It shared in and by our souls…”

In B.B. King’s autobiography, Blues All Around Me, King additionally remembers how Elvis orchestrated a present for him on the Hilton Hotel in 1972. Despite Elvis being beneath the thumb of his tyrannical supervisor Colonel Tom Parker, King claims (by way of the San Antonio Examiner) that Elvis “put in a call” and booked King a present within the lounge whereas Elvis performed within the resort’s foremost theater. This was one thing Elvis did a number of instances all through his profession. King speaks fondly about their exhibits collectively, saying that they’d usually wind up in Elvis’ suite after the exhibits, speaking and enjoying music:

“I’d play Lucille (his guitar) and sing with Elvis, or we’d take turns. It was his way of relaxing’…’We were the original Blues Brothers because that man knew more blues songs than most in the business – and after some nights it felt like we sang everyone one of them.”

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Elvis Ending Explained (In Detail)

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic ends earlier than Elvis Presley’s dying, as a substitute ending with The King’s Unchained Melody efficiency in Vegas. Here’s why.

Why Elvis & B.B. King’s Friendship Is Up For Debate

King Also Refuted Criticism Of Elvis Stealing Black Music

Despite King’s frequent claims, the Elvis film’s accuracy in regard to the friendship between Elvis and B.B. King continues to be a matter of scorching dispute. Author Alanna Nash, who has written a number of books about Elvis, claims (by way of USA Today) that King and Elvis have been solely “acquaintances,” and that their affiliation was nothing however temporary interactions, a view that King’s writings and quite a few interviews appear to strongly refute.

Meanwhile, others, like former music editor for Pride Magazine, Helen Kolawole, declare that Elvis appropriated the songs of Black artists getting wealthy and well-known from different’s work. On that concept, King has additionally spoken out, writing in his autobiography (by way of Vanity Fair):

”
Elvis didn’t steal any music from anybody. He simply had his personal interpretation of the music he’d grown up on, similar is true for everybody. I believe Elvis had integrity.
”

So, whereas Baz Luhrmann could catch criticism for Elvis, the movie appears to painting a model of Elvis and B.B. King’s friendship that’s a minimum of correct to the latter’s portrayal of the nuanced state of affairs. Though it’s unclear whether or not the pair ever frolicked on Beale Street collectively as they do within the movie, King’s phrases and writings indicate that the 2 legendary artists maintained a friendship all through Elvis’ profession. Furthermore, King’s recounting of the mutual respect between him and Elvis, and Elvis’ endless love for Black music, appears to corroborate many points of the larger-than-life but tragic character portrayed in Luhrmann’s Elvis.

The Legacy Of Elvis & BB King’s Friendship

The Pair’s Connection Has Been Pivotal In Examining Racism In The Music Industry

Few names within the historical past of music are as broadly often called Elvis Presley, and B.B. King is rightly celebrated as a pioneering legend of blues (particularly relating to his abilities on the guitar, as he launched many staples of the style similar to string-bending). Both have been integral to the delivery of Rock n’ Roll, and every left a mark on the music trade in their very own proper.

Unfortunately, relating to the friendship that B.B. King and Elvis shared, the affect is much less notable. While the pair met usually and obtained on extremely effectively, there was by no means any collaboration between the 2. A music that includes each Elvis and B.B. King is undoubtedly the lacking puzzle piece that might have ensured their connection positioned its personal stamp on musical historical past, although sadly the King of Rock n’ Roll and King of the Blues by no means discovered themselves in a recording studio collectively.

However, this may increasingly partly be as a result of Elvis Presley’s premature dying. Had Elvis lived into his twilight years like his counterpart B.B. King, there’s each chance the pair would have collaborated. Sadly, it is solely potential to take a position on what this might have been like or when it will have occurred, however the duo bringing their influential sounds collectively would have cemented their relationship within the historical past books and rendered the affect they’d on one-another past doubt.

That being mentioned, the friendship of Elvis and B.B. King has been an necessary facet of the continued dialogue round racism within the music trade. It’s simple that Elvis loved far higher success at his peak than B.B. King, though they have been each revered musicians. This is one thing Elvis himself was all too conscious of, and Presley’s friendship with King and attitudes in the direction of the racism he and different Black musicians confronted laid the foundations for fairer remedy of African American expertise (even when there’s nonetheless, sadly, an extended technique to go).

Why It’s Important To Accurately Portray Friendships Like Elvis And B.B. King’s In Biopics

Misrepresenting Relationships Between Real People Can Create Problems

The true nature of the friendship between Elvis Presley and B.B. King stays debated to this present day, regardless of the proof that the pair have been shut and obtained on extremely effectively. This is why it is so necessary for biopics like Elvis to at all times painting them as precisely as potential. Elvis already noticed controversy with its portrayal of Colonel Tom Parker, so if it had over-emphasized the friendship of B.B. King and Elvis it will have created much more points.

Especially relating to such traditionally vital figures as Elvis and B.B. King, it’s important that their achievements aren’t mis-attributed to one-another. Just because it would not have been proper to insinuate that B.B. King was liable for Elvis’s success or any of his hit songs, it will even have been disingenuous to counsel that Elvis owed nothing to King and his different Black contemporaries.

For essentially the most half, Elvis managed to maintain issues comparatively balanced on this regard. The tightrope walked when displaying these sorts of friendships in biopics is extremely slim, nevertheless. Perhaps of all of the points of historic biopics, the moments when individually-recognized figures cross paths are those that require the utmost care when bringing to the display screen.

The Relationship Between Elvis And Black Artists Would Always Be Challenging For Luhrmann To Depict

The Biopic Chose One Version Of History To Follow Despite The Controversy Surrounding It

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis chooses to foreground Elvis’s reference to Black music and sympathy for the Civil Rights motion in a method that was certain to be controversial. While such an method, which incorporates using fashionable Black music in Elvis, addresses the critique of cultural appropriation head-on, it may be interpreted as overly flattering to Elvis and his followers by depicting the artist as extra progressive than he actually was. As a white Australian director, Luhrmann additionally does not precisely have an insider’s perspective on this challenge.

The relationship between Elvis and B.B. King is a microcosm of this problem. The extent of King and Elvis’s relationship is traditionally disputed, even by those that have been there on the time, which means that regardless of how Luhrmann depicted it, it will conflict with a minimum of one model of occasions. If he had chosen to go away B.B. King out of the film, Luhrmann may have been accused of ignoring the inspiration that Elvis took from Black musicians. As it’s, the Beale Street assembly between B.B. King and Austin Butler’s Elvis is probably not essentially the most traditionally grounded scene within the film, however it works as a technique to acknowledge Elvis’s connection to the Black musical tradition he grew up round.