The image is iconic: Elvis Presley, lost in the throes of rock and roll, eyes shut, mouth open in full voice, legs wide, and his right hand poised to strike the strings of his guitar with almost aggressive passion. This photograph, gracing his first record album in 1956, cemented the guitar as a central part of the Elvis mystique, the essential tool of rock’s burgeoning royalty.
But behind the image, a question lingers. Was Elvis Presley truly a guitar player? The “King of Rock ‘n’ roll” undeniably possessed a voice that could move mountains, but could he wield the instrument so intrinsically linked to rock music? Was the guitar an authentic extension of his musicality, or merely a prop in his revolutionary performance?
To answer this, we must journey back to 1946, to a young Elvis on the cusp of his eleventh birthday. Legend tells us his heart yearned for a bicycle, but practicality dictated a guitar. For his parents, grappling with financial hardship, it was the more affordable option. His mother Gladys, ever supportive, framed it as an opportunity: “Wouldn’t you really rather have a guitar to use when you sing?” she asked, planting the seed for a musical journey that would resonate through generations.
Elvis’s vocal talent had been evident since toddlerhood, nurtured in the church choir and echoing through his school days. He absorbed the diverse sounds of country, pop, and blues radio, forging a unique vocal style that would soon captivate the world. However, the guitar presented a different challenge. His first instrument, described as a “little, itty-bitty, Gene Autry-type guitar,” became a constant companion, yet mastery remained elusive. A beginner’s book offered a glimpse into chords, but real guidance was needed.
Help arrived in the form of family and community. Uncle Vester, along with Gladys’s brother Johnny Smith, showed young Elvis some basic chords. The Presley family’s pastor, Frank Smith, further contributed to Elvis’s musical education. “I went over to his house a time or two, or he would come to where I was, and I would show him some runs and different chords from what he was learning out of his book,” Pastor Smith recalled, nurturing the nascent talent.
Early Struggles and First Steps in Memphis
After the Presleys relocated to Memphis, further guitar instruction came from Jesse Lee Denson, the son of a family friend. Denson remembered Elvis’s initial struggles with his instrument. “He couldn’t press the strings down on it, they was set so high,” Denson noted. He lent Elvis his own Martin guitar for practice, patiently correcting Elvis’s finger placement and chord formations. “He couldn’t really complete a song for a long time, couldn’t move his fingers and go with the flow of the music, but once I straightened him out he started to learn to do it right,” Denson explained, highlighting Elvis’s determination to overcome the initial hurdles.
Elvis Presley performing on Hayride, showcasing his early guitar playing skills and stage presence.
Denson would later witness Elvis serenading friends on his apartment steps, guitar in hand. Yet, his guitar playing often lagged behind his vocal prowess. Scotty Moore, Elvis’s early guitarist, recalled Elvis’s endearing way of handling such moments. “If he lost his way, he threw up his hands in exasperation and said with a sheepish grin, ‘I forgot the chords.’” James Dickerson, Moore’s ghostwriter, offered a further insight: “When he saw that got a laugh, he started doing it even when he knew the chords. Anything for a laugh. Music was a means to an end. It was attention he really wanted.” This hints at the emerging showman, understanding the power of performance and connection with an audience.
A high school woodworking class anecdote, shared by classmate Red West, further underscores the importance of the guitar to young Elvis. Assigned to repair an item from home, Elvis brought in his guitar. He meticulously sanded, glued, stained, and varnished the instrument, even using steel wool for a perfect finish. “Then he put the strings back on it and was tuning it just before the period ended,” West recounted, revealing Elvis’s care for his instrument, beyond just its musical function.
From Sun Records to Rock ‘n’ Roll Pioneer
In 1953, just months after high school graduation, Elvis’s rudimentary guitar skills accompanied his voice at Sam Phillips’s Memphis Recording Studio. He recorded “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” initially as a gift for his mother. It was his unique vocal quality, not his guitar playing, that caught the receptionist’s ear and led to Sam Phillips taking notice.
This pivotal moment led to the legendary July 4, 1954 meeting with Scotty Moore and Bill Black. Scotty’s wife Bobbie vividly remembered Elvis’s arrival: “He had on a white lacy shirt, pink pants with a black stripe down the legs, and white buck shoes. He was carrying a guitar.” Initially, neither Scotty nor Bill were particularly impressed with Elvis’s singing or guitar skills. However, they agreed to a studio session with Sam Phillips.
This session birthed a sound that would redefine music. As Dickerson recounts Scotty’s memories: “Around midnight they took a break… They had sort of lulled themselves into a post-session stupor when Elvis suddenly jumped up and started playing his guitar. Actually, as Scotty remembers it, he beat the hell out the guitar. He started singing a blues song, ‘That’s All Right, Mama.’ … The uptempo tune hit home with Scotty.” Elvis’s raw, energetic guitar playing, though not technically refined, ignited something in Scotty and Bill. Scotty, in particular, found a place for his pent-up guitar licks, realizing they perfectly complemented Elvis’s rhythm.
Despite his limitations, Elvis Presley’s guitar work became the catalyst for that groundbreaking recording. His playing spurred Scotty and Bill to join in, creating an organic, revolutionary sound. Scotty later acknowledged, “Elvis didn’t know all that many chords, but he had a great sense of rhythm.”
The Rise of The Blue Moon Boys
From this spontaneous combustion, The Blue Moon Boys were formed: Scotty on lead guitar, Elvis laying down the rhythm, and Bill on bass. Elvis played guitar in all eight of their Sun recording sessions between 1954 and 1955. “With only the three of us, we had to make every note count,” Scotty emphasized, highlighting the essential role of each instrument, including Elvis’s rhythm guitar, in their minimalist yet powerful sound. This held true not just in the studio, but also in their numerous live performances.
Scotty and Bill actively coached Elvis on his stage presence and guitar handling. Bill’s wife Evelyn explained, “They coached him on how to hold his guitar and do all this stuff in front of a mike,” contributing to the visual spectacle that became integral to Elvis’s performances.
With growing success in 1954, Elvis upgraded his guitar, trading in his old one for a 1942 Martin at the cost of $175, receiving $8 for his trade-in. He personalized it, just as he had his previous guitar, with his first name spelled out in metallic black letters across the blonde wood. Guralnick noted, “It came out smartly on a diagonal below the fret board, and the guitar looked a lot more professional than his other one, but, Elvis joked, he flailed away at it just the same.” This self-deprecating humor about his playing persisted even as his fame soared.
Country singer Bob Luman’s observation of Elvis on stage in 1955 offered a contrasting perspective, viewing the guitar more as a prop. “This cat came out in red pants and a green coat and a pink shirt and socks, and he had this sneer on his face… Then he hit his guitar a lick, and he broke two strings… and these high school girls were screaming and fainting,” Luman recounted, emphasizing the burgeoning Elvis phenomenon where visual spectacle and charisma were as potent as musical precision.
June Carter Cash, who toured with Elvis in those early days, corroborated the broken string anecdotes. “Red (West) and I used to sit backstage and try to change those strings because Elvis kept breaking them all the time. We spent all our time stringing that guitar and keeping it in tune,” she revealed, painting a picture of a raw, energetic performer pushing his instrument to its limits, sometimes beyond.
Elvis Presley performing on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, guitar in hand, captivating a national audience.
Diminishing Guitar Role at RCA and Beyond
When Elvis transitioned to RCA in 1956, the musical landscape around him shifted. Experienced session guitarists, like Hilmer J. “Tiny” Timbrell, were brought in, enriching the instrumental tracks and allowing Elvis to focus primarily on his vocals. Despite this, “Elvis Presley” continued to be credited with guitar on almost all recordings from 1956 to 1958. This might have been, as speculated, Colonel Parker ensuring extra session musician fees for Elvis, alongside his vocal earnings.
However, there were instances where Elvis’s guitar playing shone through even in the RCA era. Notably, on “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care” for the Jailhouse Rock soundtrack, frustration led bassist Bill Black to walk out. Jordanaire Gordon Stoker recounted what happened next: “Elvis thought it was funny. He picked it up and played it himself. He just picked up that bass, put his foot up on a chair, and played that song all the way through.” This spontaneous act demonstrated Elvis’s inherent musicality and willingness to step in, even on an instrument not primarily his own.
Even when not formally “playing” guitar on recordings, Elvis utilized it as a tool. He used his guitar to develop arrangements, such as for “Hound Dog” in 1956. Furthermore, the released versions of hits like “Don’t Be Cruel” and “All Shook Up” feature Elvis adding a percussive element by slapping the back of his guitar, showcasing his rhythmic sensibilities.
The Guitar’s Gradual Fade in the 1960s
The need for a guitar remained as Elvis transitioned into his post-army career in 1960. Scotty Moore recalled visiting Graceland and Elvis’s concern about his old J-200 guitar looking worn. Scotty, leveraging his Gibson endorsement, ordered Elvis a new one, requesting “some extra inlay work on the front, nothing too elaborate, something a little different possibly that he would like very much.” This new guitar arrived in time for Elvis’s Nashville session, a symbol of his enduring connection to the instrument.
However, throughout the 1960s, Elvis’s name became increasingly absent from guitar session credits for RCA and movie soundtrack recordings. While credited for the 1960 “Elvis Is Back” and 1961 “Something for Everybody” sessions, he received no guitar credit for 25 consecutive recording sessions from 1961 to 1967.
In a 1965 newspaper article, Elvis himself acknowledged his guitar limitations. “People seem to think I’m married to the guitar but the truth is I’m not very good at it,” he confessed. “I usually get credited with beating up a storm on it, but usually I have another and much better guitar player backing me up when I play it. For me the guitar has just been something to do with my hands and beat time with. What I’m really studying to play is the drums.” The article concluded that Elvis was “virtually abandoning the instrument with which he long has been identified,” signaling a shift in his musical focus and public image.
Elvis Presley during his '68 Comeback Special, a significant moment featuring his guitar playing alongside Scotty Moore.
The ’68 Comeback and a Guitar “Flogging” Incident
Yet, the guitar was not entirely relegated to the past. For his iconic 1968 NBC-TV special, Elvis invited Scotty Moore to participate in the “sit-down” jam session, leading to one final, memorable guitar moment. Dickerson recounts Scotty’s story: Elvis and Scotty’s guitars were already on stage. Scotty’s Gibson 400 Sunburst and Elvis’s new Gibson J200. During the performance, “Elvis kept glancing at Scotty… Scotty’s brightly colored guitar shone in the camera lights. It was bigger than Elvis’s guitar, it was better looking, and it sounded better than his guitar. Elvis decided he just had to have it.”
Drummer D. J. Fontana continued the narrative: “Scotty was playing lead for a while and all of a sudden Elvis wanted to play lead. So he goes over and grabs Scotty’s guitar. I thought, ‘What are we going to do here.’ Scotty wasn’t very happy about that. Elvis was a flogger and I knew Scotty was afraid he’d scar up the guitar.” Despite any internal reservations, Scotty played on with Elvis using his prized guitar for the rest of the show. Dickerson concluded, “Elvis was the star, so he wanted the biggest, flashiest guitar.”
Conclusion: Player or Pretender?
So, was Elvis Presley a genuine guitar player, or simply a performer who used the instrument as a prop? The answer is nuanced. Elvis was not a guitar virtuoso. He himself admitted his limitations. However, to dismiss his guitar playing entirely would be inaccurate. In his early career, particularly at Sun Records and with the Blue Moon Boys, his rhythm guitar was integral to their signature sound. It was the raw, energetic foundation upon which their rockabilly revolution was built.
Even later, as his career evolved and session musicians took over the lead instrumental roles, the guitar remained a part of Elvis’s stage persona and creative process. It was a tool for songwriting, arrangement, and rhythm. And, crucially, it was an undeniable element of his iconic image.
Ultimately, perhaps James Dickerson’s words capture the essence of Elvis and his guitar: “Music was a means to an end. It was attention he really wanted.” Whether player or pretender, Elvis Presley understood the power of the guitar, both musically and visually, in forging his legendary status as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Alan Hanson | © November 2015 (Original article source)
