- Author Preston Lauterbach’s new book “Before Elvis” explores the Black artists who influenced Elvis Presley’s music.
- The book highlights R&B performers like Little Junior Parker, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, and Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup.
- Lauterbach examines the complex relationship between music and race in the 1950s, including issues of copyright theft and media segregation.
With 2025 marking what would have been Elvis Presley’s 90th birthday, there will be considerable focus on honoring the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” But for author Preston Lauterbach, it’s also an opportunity to celebrate the many Black influences that shaped Presley’s creative vision and musical style.
The Virginia-based Lauterbach — a former Memphian and one-time staff writer for the Memphis Flyer — recently published “Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King” (Hachette Books). He will discuss the book, in conversation with fellow author Robert Gordon, during an event on April 4 at the Memphis Listening Lab.
In the book, Lauterbach examines the Black artists who laid the foundations for rock ‘n’ roll and influenced its best known exponent in Presley, exploring the lives and careers of R&B performers like Little Junior Parker, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, and Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. “I definitely want people to appreciate the stories of these artists,” said Lauterbach. “The whole reason that they need to be told is that they’ve been in the shadows far, far too long.”
Lauterbach is well suited to tell the story of Elvis’ Black musical forebears. Hailed by historian Greil Marcus as “the most valuable chronicler of African American music as a fulcrum and a center of American culture,” Lauterbach has written a series of crucial histories of Black music.
His books include 2011’s “The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and 2015’s “Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis.” He has also collaborated on memoirs by the late Hi Rhythm drummer Howard Grimes (“Timekeeper”), blues legend Robert Johnson’s stepsister Annye C. Anderson (“Brother Robert”), and The Blind Boys of Alabama (“Spirit of the Century: Our Own Story”).
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
Lauterbach said it was the 2022 Baz Luhrmann-directed “Elvis” biopic — which features a fictionalized scene where Elvis mingles with a host of famed Black artists at a Memphis nightclub — that prompted a new generation of fans to wonder about the key influences on Presley’s music and style.
“Reading the responses to the film it was like, ‘Hey, we need to know more about these figures and what Elvis’ relationship to them was.’ And I thought I can probably do that. In a way, it was the easiest book pitch that I’ve ever put together, just because Elvis is really easy to work off of.”
In “Before Elvis,” Lauterbach looks at figures like Parker, Thornton and Crudup, as well as lesser-known Presley influences like Beale Street guitarist Calvin Newborn and Memphis gospel artist Rev. Herbert Brewster.
In the process, Lauterbach also delves into the thornier and more complex aspects of music and race in the 1950s, including the injustices of copyright theft, media segregation and how so many white artists and producers benefitted from the pioneering work of Black talent. “Elvis has historically been such a lightning rod for appropriation when it comes to white people getting rich off of Black music, but there’s a more complex story there too.”
ELVIS AT 90:Decade-by-decade milestones in the life — and afterlife — of the King
Mostly though Lauterbach delves into the art of Elvis and shows how performers like Newborn influenced his stage style, while singers like Crudup and Brewster would help define his sound. “Elvis had this storytelling style as a singer,” said Lauterbach. “And so when you hear Arthur Crudup, whose songs Elvis covered early on, you can really hear Crudup’s emotional attack — how every little breath, every little grunt, every little howl has so much meaning. That storytelling power was something Elvis drew on heavily.”
Lauterbach noted that Presley’s signature drawled out “Well…” was directly influenced by the music of Rev. Herbert Brewster, a regular on local Memphis radio broadcasts in the early-‘50s that Presley tuned into. “Elvis called Black gospel his first love,” said Lauterbach. “There were all these subtleties of his style that he picked up from Brewster and that music in general.”
Ultimately, Lauterbach hopes the book will help expand the understanding of Presley’s art and honor the works of the artists he drew on. “I think readers will enjoy learning about those people and learning about Elvis at the same time,” he said. “So music fans in general and Elvis fans specifically can both benefit.”
Preston Lauterbach in Conversation with Robert Gordon discussing ‘Before Elvis’
Presented by Memphis Listening Lab and Novel
6 p.m. April 4 at the Memphis Listening Lab, 1360 Concourse Ave., second floor of Crosstown Concourse
Go to Memphislisteninglab.org.
