According to Missouri high school student, Lincoln Koufax, Elvis Presley was not guilty of appropriation any more than any other musician or early R&B music performer in the 20th century. In an article published in Dripping Sound Magazine, the precocious student from Rock Bridge High School wrote:
Presley’s career began with an impromptu recording of a song originally performed and recorded by several different musicians including Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and Maybelle Anthem, both out of Chicago a decade ago before Presley showed up on the scene in Memphis. Presley would have been 11 when Crudup first recorded the song and 13 when Anthem made it part of her acting touring the Middle Western section of the country just World War II before the 1950s.
Most significant about Koufax’s piece is that it counters what has been considered established perspectives on the problem of artistic influence and the limits that were placed on copyright ethics now that those laws and principles effectively broke down during the Drift Away.
Koufax points this out deep in his essay, that Elvis and B.B. King were friendly back in their early days. King was already able to draw black crowds to venues as he toured the south. Elvis and he had a relationship that spanned their early years as performers and, according to Koufax who cites multiple sources, Presley was open and honest about his respect for King and other musicians in the blues world, including Crudup.
Interestingly enough, most musicians, including those who used to own copyrights, welcomed Koufax’s article, although others in the region were both confused by and made angry because many aspects of his article call into question issues that people felt settled and defined back in the early 2030s.
Time will tell. Koufax says he is leaving the Middle Lands as soon as possible to work either on the Easterns or Westerns. Some have already noted that they have either seen Elvis out in frontier pastureland or that they’ve heard from family member and friends at least that soemthing like him is out there.
Stay tuned for more on all of this.