As I mentioned in another post on my blog, Elvis was born Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8th 1935. His youth was a life of poverty, rarely having enough to get by despite his family’s best intentions. Luck was rarely on their side and bad stuff did happen, such as when his father, Vernon, was imprisoned after forging a check. Still, Elvis went to church with his overly religious mother to hear gospel music. Furthermore, he listened to country music on the radios and heard the blues the local blacks would play. When Elvis was older, his parents saved enough to buy him a guitar. Music and singing became a regular part of Elvis’s life and when he was ten, he won second place in a talent show, winning a five dollar prize and free admission to certain fairground rides.
But even so, Elvis went through the regular school system. He wasn’t exceptional, but he did earn his diploma from Humes High School in 1953. And, like every other kid who gets out of the school system, he now had a greater problem – what to do next.
His father had got into trucking and so did Elvis. But this wasn’t anything special even back in the fifties so, meanwhile, the king-to-be also took an apprenticeship to become an electrician – a well-paid but normal job.
This might have been all for the rest of Elvis’s life – perhaps still physically the same and good-natured, but unremarkable and at the very most a sought-after tradesman. Then something incredible happened in 1953; Elvis took action and went to Sam Phillips’s small Memphis studio which allowed customers to pay to record themselves. Elvis allegedly went in to create his mother a birthday present. He sang a version of “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartache Begins”. The recording is still available, not the best by far, but you can still hear Elvis emerging through the verses as he backs himself up on acoustic guitar.
Perhaps it wasn’t the best recording, but Sam Phillips liked what he heard and, in 1954, called Elvis back to meet a couple musicians of his, Scotty Moore and Bill Black. They jammed around a bit and eventually, after a few months, created their first local hit, a cover of Arthur Crudup’s “That’s Alright Mama”. Elvis realised he preferring exploiting his talent in music more than anything he’d done before so gradually he stopped truck driving and halted his apprenticeship. Remember, this is the 50’s – the music business certainly wasn’t any safer then. If anything, it was probably harder to promote yourself then than now (no internet…). But Elvis burnt the ships and focussed on what he loved to do, did it as best as he could and created history along the way.
Elvis’s Lessons
Ø There will always be others to take ‘normal’ jobs. Exploit your talents, do what you love and be the best you can possibly be at it and you’ll do your bit in changing the world. And if you want to work 9 to 5 in office for the rest of your life – as long as you’re still exploiting your talent, doing what you love and being the best you possible can be – that’s fine, too.
P.S. If you're interested in hearing Elvis singing "My Happiness" in the recording from that first fateful day when he walked in to Sun Studios back in 1953, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTdFrFFdLM
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