John Lennon might have developed his passion for playing music by listening to American rock ‘n’ roll stars. But by the time he was famous enough to be asked to appear on television, he had no problem denouncing those same artists for a laugh. In June 1963, the artist in Lennon’s crossfire was the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley.
Lennon was invited to appear on the BBC television program Juke Box Jury, in which celebrities would rate new singles a “hit” or a “miss.” Although The Beatles were technically one year out from their major debut in the States on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Fab Four were already sparking Beatlemania across their native United Kingdom.
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To the delight of the crowd (and to the surprise of no one who knew Lennon), the Beatle dubbed every record a “miss,” including Elvis Presley’s latest single, “Devil In Disguise.” Lennon remarked that Presley was “like Bing Crosby now.”
John Lennon’s Shift Toward Elvis Presley Started in the Late 1950s
John Lennon expressing his disinterest in Elvis Presley’s music was nothing new by the time his 1963 appearance on Juke Box Jury rolled around. According to the Liverpudlian musician, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll had lost his crown the first day he reported to the M & M Building in Memphis, Tennessee, to enlist in the army. He was drafted in 1958 and served through 1960, after which Lennon believed his music had changed. Or at least, Lennon’s idea of him did.
“Elvis was for me and my generation what The Beatles were to the Sixties,” Lennon later said. “But after he went into the army, I think they cut ‘les bollocks’ off. They not only shaved his hair off, but I think they shaved between his legs, too. He played some good stuff after the army. But it was never quite the same.”
“It was like something happened to him psychologically,” Lennon continued. “Elvis really died the day he joined the army. That’s when they killed him. The rest was a living death.”
Their creative paths didn’t stop diverging from there, either. Presley struggled to maintain his foothold in mainstream music throughout the latter half of the 1960s, when The Beatles were riding high at the apex of their career. By 1970, Presley was visiting the White House and calling The Beatles “a real force for anti-American spirit.”
“I felt a bit betrayed by that, I must say,” Paul McCartney said later. “But I still love him, particularly in his early period. He was very influential to me.”
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