Elvis and company
In 1957, we see why Elvis was nicknamed The Pelvis.
We also see – or at least I think I see – the roots of his dancing in James Cagney. “James Cagney?” you ask, puzzled. Not in Cagney’s tap dancing or his jumps – I love Cagney’s dancing, by the way – but some of his odd shifts of balance, particularly those starting at 2:27:
One more influence – whether Presley knew anything about him or not – could be early Bob Fosse (I really don’t think so, but it’s an excuse to put the clip up). This dance number was choreographed by Fosse for the 1954 musical “Pajama Game,” although this is a clip from the 1957 film. Fosse is not one of the dancers:
That “Steam Heat” number reminds me of this from 1976, although it has zero to do with Elvis Presley (as was perhaps true of the previous two as well):
Elvis was an incredible mix of dynamic charisma, versatile musical talent across rock, country, gospel, and romantic ballads, and smoldering sex appeal for the ladies. Truly one of a kind. I’ve always wondered what it would have been like had his twin brother Jesse not been stillborn. Can you imagine a world with two like this guy?
As much as I admire Gillian Welch and her elegy for Elvis…
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I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
Just a country boy that combed his hair
And put on a shirt his mother made and went on the air
And he shook it like a chorus girl
And he shook it like a Harlem queen
And he shook it like a midnight rambler, baby
Like you never seen
Never seen
–Gillian Welch, “Elvis Presley Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW8HMKk3r5Y
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I’d agree Presley “shook it,” but not like a chorus girl or a Harlem queen. That’s a whole lotta masculine shakin’ goin’ on — more in line with Jimmy C., especially that stiff-legged strut.
I wasn’t a big Presley fan, but that song can make me tear up.
Hello Huxley – if I may suggest, cue up a few clips of Elvis from his epic small set sequence with original bandmates Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana, plus a couple of boys from his Memphis posse on the Singer Special from 1968, widely referred to as the Elvis “Comeback Special”. Start with “Trying to Get To You”. You’ll realize you’re a fan after all. When this guy took the stage, he was a bomb just waiting to go off.
I spoke to Elvis. Took his breakfast order when he stayed at the hotel where I was working for my summer job before my senior year of HS. July 1973.
Later that afternoon we were hanging around the back door when he left to go to the auditorium. He was already dressed in the white jump suit. He was large. Could have reached out to touch him. But I’d have lost my arm and my job.
Scott:
Nice of you to think of me!
I like Elvis, I sure recognize he had *STAR* written all over him and half the great boomer rock stars say Elvis was The Man. But I don’t respond much to him.
Maybe it was because Elvis offered to narc for Nixon.
My tastes change and grow. I might have an Elvis phase ahead and I just don’t know it.
Lately I’m having a Jimi Hendrix renaissance. When I think of it, Jimi was a lot like Elvis. A complete natural God-like talent coming from the backwoods and unprepared for the mega-fame which electrified them both.
So tragic.
don’t know much about elvis but Bob Fosse, what a dancer. watch his early work in Holleywood on Kiss Me Kate, both as dancer choreographer
Yankee Doodle Dandy is one of my favorite films. Cagney is magnificent in it.
Cagney’s odd way of moving seems to be due to the specific way he was trained to dance: he was a technically precise dancer who maintained his balance by keeping his body in the same attitude while his legs did most of the moving.
A clip of Cagney tap-dancing with Bob Hope illustrates this well. Watch the differences between Cagney’s stiff, precise movements and Hope’s looser way of dancing, especially in the second half when they’re side by side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP0KD82t8WA
wolfwalker,
I don’t think there is a direct relationship, but what you write about Cagney “keeping his body in the same attitude while his legs did most of the moving” reminds me of traditional Irish dancing, or at least what I’ve seen the “Riverdance” folks claim is traditional Irish dancing. Cagney was Irish, but I have no idea if he was influenced by that style, or if it was common in the America of his day.
From Roger Ebert’s review of “Yankee Doodle Dandy:”
Rufus T. Firefly:
That reviewer couldn’t be more wrong. Edwin Jahiel is SO wrong there that I felt the need to look him up and see whether he had any dance background, training, or knowledge. I didn’t find any; he seems to have been a film critic.
So let me correct the record. Cagney is a DANCER by MY standards, which are fairly high and quite knowledgeable. He does recognizable dance steps – many of them – even in that short clip. I can even name many of them with with their French names from the ballet lexicon.
I may write more about this some time in a post.
I arrived at Friedberg Germany on Christmas Eve 1959 as a newly minted tank driver and found myself in the same battalion as Elvis. He was in the battalion scout platoon.
1959 was a different world in so many ways it seems like something I read about, like a memory of a world described in book whose name I have forgotten.
It was a Europe where a military ID let you go anywhere and where even enlisted pay let you afford almost everything.
It was the era of the draft and Elvis did his two years and did them well.
A new Studebaker dealership opened in Frankfurt in 1960.
The enthusiasm and optimism of that time was amazing.
Rufus T. Firefly: Some sources say that tap-dancing is descended from mixing Irish clog dancing with several other styles, and that the ‘motionless upper body’ aspect is deliberate, to allow for tap dancing when there wasn’t much actual room to move around in – sidewalk performances and the like.
I know little about dancing beyond “this looks good and that doesn’t,” but even I can see that Edwin Jahiel bit that Ebert quoted is wrong. Sure, Cagney wasn’t in Astaire’s class, but then nobody else was either. You need only look at the clip I posted earlier to see Cagney was a genuinely accomplished song-and-dance man — there’s just no way to fake that.
EP was such a big part of my early years. Singing along to the record player while looking at the mirror in my bedroom to see if I was actually twitching my mouth, etc. properly.
He was at the top of my list all the way to his very sad passing. Songs link to life experiences and for me many were EP’s songs.
My oldest son took me to Graceland a few years ago. Wow, it had an enormous impact on me. Happy, sad, fun… what a day.
Still THE KING and yes, Scott, The Comeback Special was very special and in my mind kind of a zenith event for him.
I have always felt that Cagney makes dance accessible to many who may not have a lot of background in dance, especially many men.
Cagney’s upper body rigidity directs our attention to his legs and expresses a certain insecurity in Cagney’s own dancing. It’s the opposite of Astaire who we know is utterly relaxed and always flawless.
Cagney holds our attention because we sense his concentration and effort. He tells us that we can dance just like him if we try hard enough.