Colin B wrote:Mojo Filter wrote:...I reckon James Dean's jacket is what inspired Elvis to buy a sparkly one himself.
What do you think?
You could be right !
I reckon
Elvis kinda saw himself as having a
James Dean-type persona !
Unfortunately, his management didn't...
In all the years of watching the Dean film it only just occurred to me about the jacket in recent months.
Elvis certainly loved Dean and called him a "genius" on the
Hy Gardener Show and admitted he would like to follow the kind of roles that Dean was doing if he was a good actor.
But management never understood the rebellious nature (or even cared) of teenagers of the time in films like "Rebel", and of course rock'n'roll music being in the same category.
And of course RCA was primarily a "Country Music" label where the music was clean and nice and didn't cause "bad publicity" like rock'n'roll. Unfortunately, they tried to carry on with this "clean" scenario right through the 60s when clearly things started to change in the perception of film making and music.
Also, it's all been said before, Elvis never took any interest in his own career, instead letting others run it for him.
"i don't think anyone set out to harm me, the image they had of me was wrong, I knew it. It's nobody's fault except for maybe my own" - Elvis Presley June 1972 in an interview for EOT about his movies.