The People Speak

In my day job, I cover politics and frequently report on public opinion polls. Today, I got an email from Public Policy Polling, a pollster we often cite, with results of a poll they conducted on music.

Some highlights:
Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and the Beach Boys are overall very popular: All three have favorability ratings in the 70s and unfavorability in the teens. Not so for Michael Jackson, who's 48 favorable, 44 unfavorable. And Madonna and Kurt Cobain are under water in terms of favorability -- more people have unfavorable views of them than favorable views. They even polled on Morrissey, who scored a 17 percent favorable rating versus 31 percent unfavorable (with 52 percent not sure).

Now, when you break things down by political persuasion, things get interesting. Democrats overwhelmingly have a favorable view of Michael Jackson, while Republicans do not. And when you ask people who their favorite Beatle is, Democrats say John Lennon while Republicans say Paul McCartney.

Finally, Republicans say the 1950s were the best decade for music. Democrats say it's the 60s. No surprise, there. But overall, three quarters say the best musical decade was either the 50s, 60s or 70s. My favorite musical decade -- the 80s -- only got 15 percent. But at least that beat the rock-and-rap 90s, which had a paltry 6 percent! Sorry, Limp Bizkit.

Elvis and The Smiths

It's no secret that The King of Rock influenced Johnny Marr's compositions with The Smiths. Perhaps the most blatant example of Presley's influence can be heard on The Smiths track "Rusholme Ruffians" -- as Tony Fletcher writes, it "displayed such an obvious doff of the cap to Elvis Presley's "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame".

Hear it for yourself.
Here's "Rusholme Ruffians":

And here's Presley's "His Latest Flame":

City Limits - Memphis

If I have to choose one city for all my music it would have to be Memphis. Not only is it the birthplace of rock and roll and the home of The King, Elvis_Presley, Memphis also produced many other outstanding artists. The Box Tops featuring Alex Chilton are from Memphis. So are Booker T. & The MGs, the famous house band for Stax Records. Memphis also produced Al Green, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. Elvis has so many great songs, I could handle the desert island with just his recordings, but throw those others in and its an easy decision. Although technically not from Memphis, I think Sam Cooke is close enough to include (he is from Clarksdale, MS) too.

I gave some thought to San Francisco (Grateful Dead, Green Day, Chris Isaak, Metallica) and my hometown of Philly (Jim Croce, The Roots, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes), but between Elvis & Sam Cooke, I think I'll survive.

Court has picked some good cities for sure, but some of the best artists are from nowhere special, like Asbury Park, NJ (Bruce Springsteen), or Hicksville, NY (Billy Joel). New York, LA and London have all produced great musicians, but when you think about it, weren't they all just trying to be Elvis?