"A singer, at work, is usually thinking only about making it through the song without flubbing it. Look what's involved: breathing plausibly, remembering the lyrics, nailing the high notes, staying with your band or chorus, maintaining a soulful facial expression and looking good. You might also be whacking a guitar. And -- because Presley did -- you also have to move, oscillate, arm-wrestle with the microphone, throttle it, skid across the stage on your knees, fling your head back and spread your arms; and then you want to salt it with what you possess of art...he flings his voice up beyond the grip of gravity, and then surrenders, like a skater in a leap."
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Actors from MississippiAmerican country singersSinger-songwriters from the United StatesGuitarists from the United StatesGospel singers
Original Language: English
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Sources
Catherine Rankovic, poet, essayist, instructor, as well as manuscript editor and music and writing coach, as excerpted from her review of Presley`s live performance of "I want you, I need you, I love you", in the "Steve Allen Show", (1956), and as published in "The Missouri Review", Volume XXIV, Number 2, 2001
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
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Elvis Presley
film actor, singer, composer
1935 – 1977 · United States
(8 January 1935 – 16 August 1977) was an American singer, musician, and actor. Popularly known by his first name as "Elvis," as "The King of Rock and Roll" or simply as "The King," he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century.
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