In Far Out’s Quick-fire Questions series, we have a recurring question that asks musicians whether they think The Beatles are overrated. When you look at the common consensus, the overwhelming majority agree that, absolutely not: the Fab Four, who changed the game for music as we know it, are anything but overrated.
Even asking the question is sometimes met with exasperated gasps and impassioned responses, but it makes complete sense as to why. Like many of the biggest legends in history, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, you name it, it’s impossible to dispute the impact they made on modern music, no matter the disparities that come with personal taste.
Presley, for one, has become a more polarising figure over the years, and despite his reputation as ‘The King’ and the ultimate symbol of rebellion who revolutionised music forever, time has birthed an array of clashing opinions about whether he was actually as innovative as people thought he was, one of the biggest criticisms being that he repurposed Black music for white audiences, which is fairly difficult to dispute when looking at the bigger picture.
Nonetheless, his impact still cannot be understated. In fact, if you look at all of music’s greatest heroes, Presley will always have a solid positioning when it comes to the real game changers, and not just in terms of how good his music was, but with the way he also inspired a mass surge of other musicians to follow in his footsteps.
Many of whom still cite him as a major influence, including Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty. As much as Fogerty seems like someone who spawned from his own pool of talent with little influence from outside sources, this was far from the truth. In fact, one of Fogerty’s biggest revelations was that the best music comes from the heart, but he only learned that from those he admired, including blues player Robert Johnson.
Presley, on the other hand, was someone he always viewed as one of the ultimate greats – a true trailblazer who no one could match, not even The Beatles. In fact, Fogerty said as much during Track Star’s Testing John Fogerty’s Music Knowledge, a strong statement that shows just how much the late legend impacted him as a young music lover.
Discussing Presley’s ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’, Fogerty described him as “the greatest”, recalling the first time he discovered the singer as a kid and thinking he was the coolest, most rebellious person he’d ever seen. “He was a classic version of juvenile delinquent,” he said. “He played all this wild music. They called it rockabilly, but it eventually just became rock ‘n’ roll.”
On how he surpassed the legends who came after, he added, “That early session of his life – I don’t think anyone has touched that, not even The Beatles. I don’t think anyone’s ever come close to [that version] of ‘Blue Moon’.”
When you get two forces as big and explosive as Presley and his British rock ‘n’ roll counterparts, comparisons are expected. However, many people hold the same opinion as Forgerty – likely also including many in our Quick-fire series – that Presley was, foremost, the first to come and disrupt the entire scene. And secondly, that he did it all on his own, the first major rock star who wasn’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers.
