DUDE BIT ELVIS

Roy Head passed away this past Monday. I found out about it from a friend who was friends with him. Not a blip on the news though, not that I saw anyways. Unbelievable. Dude killed it back in the day. Here's what I posted a little over a year ago:

 

Roy Head just seems a little crazy. Not really bat shit crazy, just a little who gives a fuck crazy. There's something about him that makes him just a classic American under-achieving performer. Not for lack of trying, the guy has achieved a lot, but he really should have been huge. What is it about him? Why did big time superstar status elude him? He had the voice, the showmanship, and he definitely had the moves. (Moves-wise, I can guarantee you that both Michael Jackson and Iggy Pop both took a little something out of his playbook.) So, what was it? Oh yeah, who gives a fuck.

 

There were a couple quotes included in the excellent bio at the Hound Blog that are pretty telling. "I beat up club owners, choked disc jockeys, and did a lot of things I wish I hadn't done. Just just screwed up."  Alright then, he screwed up. But, hell, lots of performers have. Judging by my trusty Jerry Lee Lewis Screw Up Intensity vs Frequency Guage, he ranks pretty high. There's something more telling here: "Hell, I've screwed up. I've got thrown off tours because I was having a little more fun than some of the other acts. I bit Elvis Presley on the leg when I was drunk one night and his bodyguards leaped on me, man, I had to go to the chiropractor for three weeks to get straightened out. I'm still not through. If there's one son of a bitch in the room that's paid to hear me, I'll work my butt off for them." It's that last two lines that really makes Head a classic trooper. He's been schlepping around stages for half a century. When the stages got smaller, he'd just ask the audiences to step back so he could party on their floor. One of his signature moves is the Gator, which entails him rolling around and dry humping the floor, be it the stage or where you just spilled your drink. He made that one up back in the day, when he fell off of a stage and tried to make the best of it. Someone asked him what the move was and he just came out with "gator". He didn't give a fuck.

Even though, as we've established, he's screwed up, there was this thing called timing. When his only real chartbuster "Treat Her Right" was released in 1965, the pop world was nutty about the Beatles and Stones, not some dude in a suit that danced like a freak. He was too soul for rock, and too rock for soul. He didn't give a fuck. But he put out some awesome records. If your whistle's sufficiently dampened, read the bio at The Hound Blog.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Roy Head - Treat Her Right mp3 at Rocky-52.net
Roy Head - Live It Up mp3 at Rocky 52
Visit:
Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right” Gets The Star Treatment In Quentin Tarantino’s New Flick at Texas Monthly
Roy Head - Excellent profile at The Hound Blog
Roy Head at Wikipedia