Gonna travel, gonna travel wild and free_x000D_ _x000D_ I'm gonna pack my bags because this great big world is calling me
Elvis PresleyRead
The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the influence and legacy of African American culture in music.
Elvis Presley acknowledges the deep roots of his music in the traditions of African American artists, emphasizing that he inherited this musical style from those who came before him. This recognition serves to honor the contributions of these artists while also pointing to the broader cultural exchange that shapes music as an art form.
In practice
In a speech at a music awards ceremony celebrating diversity in music.
Gonna travel, gonna travel wild and free_x000D_ _x000D_ I'm gonna pack my bags because this great big world is calling me
I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.
Maybe I didn't treat you Quite as good as I should have Maybe I didn't love you Quite as often as I could have Little things I should have said and done I just never took the time You were always on my mind You were always on my mind
Since I was two years old, all I knew was gospel music. That music became such a part of my life it was as natural as dancing. A way to escape from the problems. And my way of release.
Happiness is knowin' you've done a good job, whether it's professional or for another person.
Tomorrow will be too late, it's now or never.
I am playing the violin, that's all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing. You just practice every day.
What came first β the music or the misery? Did I listen to the music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to the music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?
My songs speak for themselves. The musicians who play on them and the way they sound and where they were recorded and the way they were recorded is the old Nashville way ... they sound as country or more country than a lot of things that are on country radio.
I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.
I could beat my mike stand into the stage, but I was still in pain. Maybe fans liked it, but sometimes people forget you're a person and they're more into the entertainment value. It's taken a long time to turn that around and give a strong show without it being a kamikaze show.
People don't want rap to be anything other than it is. But genres expand. My contributions, no matter how they sound, will always be rap, because they'll always be black.
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