drunken poets' society

Chapter 59

"Think of Elvis Presley. In the end this is the only way we can explain his appeal: not in terms of what he 'stood for,' socially or personally, but by reference to the grain of his voice." --Simon Frith

"He wasn't like anyone. You start trying to compare Elvis to something and you can forget it... All you can do with a talent that big and that different is sort of point at it when you see it going by, and maybe listen for the ricochet." --William Price Fox

""The fascination was the reality showing through the illusion -- the illusion of wealth and the psyche of poverty; the illusion of success and the pinch of ridicule; the illusion of invincibility and the tragedy of frailty; the illusion of complete control and the reality of inner chaos. ...Elvis had all the freedom the world can offer and could escape nothing." --Linda Ray Pratt

"Elvis was always aware that he had to recognize himself as a recognition on the part of others. It's not like Elvis produced any of it, he's not the author of Elvis, he is ex-centric to his own Elvishood." --Duncan Smith

"If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars." -- Sam Phillips