![\"Elvis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Elvis-Presley-Singer-Actor-1968-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ MGM<\/p>\n
Sat 8 August 2026 22:00, UK <\/p>\n
Mercifully, the world never got to hear Elvis Presley<\/a>\u2019s opinions on much of the contemporary rock landscape, given that \u2018The King\u2019 left the building back in 1977. <\/p>\n Before he went, though, Presley did get to witness the shifting sands of the scene he had been essential in starting, but whether he liked what he heard was a different matter altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n You might have expected such a key figure in the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll revolution of the 1950s to be a little more open-minded to emerging artists and the changing sonic spirit of the scene, as the years marched on. In actuality, Presley was famously disparaging about much of contemporary rock post-1964, by which time his own heyday was rapidly drawing to a close. The Beatles, for instance, did not endear themselves to Presley during their rise to global domination \u2013 calling the band \u201canti-American\u201d<\/a> during a chat with the similarly anti-American Richard Nixon. <\/p>\n Eventually, though, Presley came around to the appeal of The Beatles, even performing some Lennon-McCartney covers during his rhinestoned, Las Vegas years. Aside from that, though, the performer didn\u2019t often delve into his own musical opinions, particularly when it came to the emerging rock sound of the 1970s. <\/p>\n Admittedly, it would have been rather bizarre to see him pictured in CBGBs<\/a>, rubbing shoulders with The Ramones or Television. If The Beatles were \u201canti-American,\u201d lord knows what he thought of punk rock. <\/p>\n While Presley spent much of the 1970s at his Las Vegas residencies, or eating those famous peanut butter and bacon sandwiches, he did manage to take note of some emerging rock acts, albeit on the more commercial end of the spectrum. According to his stepbrother, Billy Stanley, in fact, Presley was an appreciator of bubblegum hard rockers Kiss during his later years. <\/p>\n \u201cI got it cranked up, playing air guitar,\u201d Stanley, who would have been in his early 20s at the time, recalled. \u201cElvis comes down [and asks] \u2018What are you listening to?\u2019 \u2018It\u2019s a band called Kiss.\u2019 And I showed him the album cover, and he said, \u2018Uh, OK.\u2019 He sat down on the couch, looking at it, and he said, \u2018OK, I get it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Not only did Presley \u201cget\u201d the stylings of the New York outfit, make-up and all, but he also found a particular appreciation for one of their 1974 hits. \u201cHe said, \u2018So play that song again that you was just playing.\u2019 It was \u2018Let Me Go Rock and Roll,\u2019\u201d Stanley continued. <\/p>\n Adding, \u201cI played it, I actually played it two times for him, and I was surprised when he said, \u2018Play it again.\u2019 I played it again. I said, \u2018What do you think?\u2019 He said, \u2018Well, I understand the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI understand the whole thing\u201d is hardly a ringing endorsement of the group, nor is it a review that any up-and-coming rock band would hope to receive, even by a figure as important to the fabric of the music as Elvis Presley. <\/p>\n Nevertheless, it does appear as if \u2018The King\u2019 was an appreciator of Kiss during the mid-1970s<\/a>, perhaps appreciating their ability to create a hard rock-adjacent sound with mass, commercial appeal \u2013 just as Presley had struck upon a rockabilly sound with mass appeal two decades prior. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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