Why John Lennon Felt Elvis Songs Lived on Without Elvis
TL;DR:
- John Lennon discussed how Elvis Presley’s songs held up without Elvis being around to dance to them.
- He felt ideologies like Christianity and Marxism didn’t need a “package” to make them work.
- He said fans should focus on The Beatles’ music, not The Beatles as individuals.
John Lennon revealed his feelings about the way Elvis Presley’s songs held up after the “Heartbreak Hotel” singer’s death. In addition, he opined that fans should be indifferent to artists’ public images. It seems our culture didn’t listen to him.
John Lennon felt Elvis Presley was ‘a beautiful male animal who swung his pelvis’
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In it, John discussed his feelings about Elvis’ early work. For context, Elvis died in 1977, three years before John did the interview.
“The early Elvis records live on without Elvis being a beautiful male animal who swung his pelvis,” he said. “As I said, I didn’t see him [live]. I heard the music first. Afterwards, I saw that it did come in a package. But you don’t need the package. With Elvis, the basic thing, the basic energy, is on the records.”
John Lennon wanted fans to forget about thinkers and singers to focus on messages
John felt Elvis’ “package” wasn’t necessary, the same way the packaging of ideologies wasn’t necessary either. “Just like you don’t need the Christian package or the Marxist package or the Buddhist package to get the message,” he said. “It’s easier to identify with the package than with the message — and then you miss it completely. Forget about the teacher. Learn to swim.”
John then discussed The Beatles. “But as I was saying earlier, this doesn’t mean there isn’t validity in the message,” he said. “The swimming may be fine, right? But forget about the teacher. If The Beatles had a message, it was that. With The Beatles, the music is the point. Not The Beatles as individuals.”
Elvis Presley’s songs and The Beatles’ songs are popular today because of their images
John’s attitude toward Elvis and the Fab Four was right in one way and wrong in another. On one level, Elvis’ songs hold up, as do songs by The Beatles. The proof is in the way their music survives to this day. For example, Doja Cat’s 2022 hit “Vegas” heavily samples “Hound Dog,” a song most associated with the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Meanwhile, The Beatles continue to inspire covers by modern singers such as Billie Eilish, Melanie Martinez, and Katy Perry.
On the other hand, the “package” of both artists survives. Just last year, the world was treated to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, a film designed to introduce the singer’s life story to a new generation. Meanwhile, countless YouTube videos and articles tell anecdotes about The Beatles and the stories behind their songs. These singers, and all singers, are popular partially because of packaging.
John wasn’t a fan of artists’ images but they survive to the modern day.
