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Thank you to everyone who tuned into my Bottom Reader Book Club conversation with Talamieka Brice and Preston Lauterbach earlier this month. Talamieka is an award-winning Mississippi artist and filmmaker who grew up on the blues—she was the perfect conversation partner for our talk with author Preston Lauterbach about his latest book, Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King. The book is a deep dive into the lives and legacies of the Black musicians (many of whom have ties to Mississippi) who influenced Elvis Presley’s music and stage presence. In our hourlong discussion, we touched on Lauterbach’s inspiration for writing the book, the incredible life of blues artists like Big Mama Thornton and Arthur Crudup, the psychic weight of being a musical impostor, the exploitative nature of the music industry, and more. Below I’ll share some highlights from our conversation, but I hope you can listen (or watch) the whole book club session!

Who Gets the Gold and the Glory?

Talamieka made a great comment about the book’s cover, and what a striking image it is to have Elvis’s silhouette filled in with a collage of the musicians profiled in the book. Preston agreed.

It's about the gold and the glory. The thing that I think we're really concerned about and have been for a long time is, “Was Elvis racist?” And while I don't necessarily think he was, I think that there are much bigger issues that this story allows us to explore that are way more pertinent to American culture. And that is who is recognized as important and who is compensated as important. And when you look at the faces of those people that make up that composite of Elvis Presley [on the book cover], I don't think anybody in there got any money nor much glory. So really, to me, this was an opportunity to spotlight those historic figures.

Big Mama Thornton’s Freedom

The story of Big Mama Thornton that Preston tells in the book is one that resonated most with Talamieka and me. Here was a woman whose legacy has been defined by her chart-topping song “Hound Dog,” which was later performed by Elvis, ultimately skyrocketing him to fame. As a Black woman trying to make it in the predatory music industry, she experienced a lot of hardship, a lot of unfairness. But she also ended up performing around the world to crowds of adoring fans. As Preston argues, Big Mama Thornton’s legacy shouldn’t be defined by the disparities between her and Elvis, because she didn’t see herself that way.

Elvis is on top of the world. Elvis has all the money. But in the years just before his death in 1977, Big Mama Thornton's out on the road. She's living a full life. She's completely free. And Elvis doesn't have that freedom. He's got the money. He's got the fame, but he's a prisoner. Big Mama was out doing her thing. She was being her true self in exactly the way she wanted to. She didn't make a lot of money. I'm definitely not here to suggest otherwise in terms of getting her due.

Again, I don't love narrative of, “well, we should pity this person because of these disparities.” No, we should celebrate how powerful the person was, how brilliant the artist was, how brave the artist was, and how unburdened the artist was from all this b******t we're arguing about. She didn't give a damn. She was going to drink her old granddad whiskey as she was driving down the road, trying not to hit anything and terrify her passengers. She was having a damn party.

On the Parallel Paths of Phineas Newborn Jr. and Elvis Presley

The story of the Newborn brothers—Calvin Newborn and Phineas Newborn Jr.—and their connection to Elvis Presley is one of the more surprising and circuitous tales in the book. Preston had a personal connection to Calvin, having interviewed him early on his career, and then returning to Calvin when he realized the tangible impact he had with Elvis. The Newborn brothers were more interested heading for the “jazz mountaintop,” but Preston makes a case for the parallels between Elvis and Phineas Newborn Jr., who is wildly hailed as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.

Nobody at that time realized that the king of rock and roll and the phenom of jazz were both rooted in Memphis blues, not just in a cosmic sense, but in a very straight, very real sense. They played in the same club. They had the same musicians around them. They had the same drummer giving them the beat. I mean, it's even more interesting than just saying, well, it was something in the water or it's in their DNA. No, they were at the same time playing with the same people. And you listen to the two artists and you would never know. You would never know that they come from the same scene. But it gives you a window of the excellence of Memphis music at the time.

And finally, Preston left us with a song recommendation. He says to check out one of Elvis’s favorite groups, the Spirit of Memphis Quartet, and the song “On Calvary” in particular. Here it is!

Thank you to Beth Kander, MS Liner Notes, Susan M Glisson, and many others for tuning into the live video. Big thanks to Preston Lauterbach for taking the time to talk to us about his book, and to Talamieka Brice for her incredible co-facilitation. I hope you enjoy the replay of this terrific and thought-provoking conversation.

Save the date! Our next book club conversation will take place live on Substack on October 21 at 7pm. I’ll be discussing the short story collection Bodock with author Robert Busby along with my co-moderator Shira Muroff.

You can listen to these book club recordings in the Substack app, in your web browser, or on Spotify. Subscribe to the show on Spotify to get notifications when new episodes are released. Recorded book club conversations are only available to paid subscribers, but the live book club sessions will continue to be free and open to all readers.

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