The Mellotron Group

>   Bear in mind that one Elvis Presley was possibly the most alarming thing that the sheltered bits of the USA had ever seen at one point.  Mostly because he reminded people how babies are made.


This reads like the kind of baby-boomer hyperbole that I used to read
in "mojo" back when I bought it, or in NME in the 1980's. That popular
culture, pre rock & roll was sexless.  People used to watch films
starring people like Jean Harlow, Mae West and Barbara Stanwyck years
before Elvis signed to Sun.  People, even people from sheltered bits
of the USA - used to watch fare such as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akET7aP01_8&feature=player_detailpage#t=270s

..before Presley was even born.  I doubt that such people needed any
reminding of how babies are made.  It is useful to cite it as received
wisdom if you are a proponent of the classic view of rock & roll I
suppose, but that doesn't mean that it is right.

>
> EXHIBIT 1: http://cdn.crooksandliars.com/files/uploads/2010/04/genesis_petergabriel_live_2954b.jpg
> EXHIBIT 2: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Millennium/General/1999/02/25/codpiece.jpg
> EXHIBIT 3: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/94/240935102_c05b4e74ac.jpg
> EXHIBIT 4: http://www.keyboardmag.com/uploadedimages/keyboardmag/articles/emerson_opener_web.jpg
> EXHIBIT 5: http://yesmuseum.org/images/RickOnIce.JPG
> EXHIBIT 6: http://cdn.babble.com/famecrawler/files/2011/02/groundhog_day.jpg
>
> I can stop any time you like.

One might reply that it is better to be OTT and stupid-looking, even
if you do wind up looking like an idiot, than to get up onstage in
plaid and scuffed trainers or the like, like just about everybody else
does.  I mean, personally, Todd Rundgren posturing in his pink hair
with ankh-spaped electric guitar is more likely to keep my attention
that Liam Gallagher in a hoody, squatting onstage like he's about to
take a dump.  It's more interesting to look at.   this is a false
dichtomony, black & white, yadda-yadda.  If ELP's mighty stainless
steel drumkit and persian rug, or Yes' fibreglass mushrooms is OH NO
BURN IT W/FIRE WAGE KULTURKAMPF UPON IT then what is actually OK for a
band to adopt as a look I wonder.