In the early days of modern US popular music, female artists fought for the approval of their male peers. Thus a new marketing trope emerged. It referred to jazz trumpeter Ernestine “Tiny” Davis as “the female Louis Armstrong”. Big band drummer Viola Smith became “female Gene Krupa”. And rockabilly pianist Alice Faye Perkins became Laura Lee Perkins, “the female Jerry Lee Lewis”.
But no artist inspired more female counterparts than the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. “There seemed to be a particular urge to find a ‘female Elvis’ on several different record labels,” says Leah Branstetter, a musicologist specializing in women in the first wave of rock ‘n’ roll.
Among the many female Elvis Presleys, there was only one who took the role literally. She brushed her hair back and styled it to look like sideburns. She carried a low-slung guitar and became known for her unrestrained spins. And she took the stage name Alis Lesley, so only a few consonants separated her from the king. “I don’t know of anyone who stuck to the ‘female Elvis’ part the way Alis Lesley did,” says Branstetter.
While this approach brought Lesley some early success, her music career was short-lived. In 1959, at the age of 21, she left rock ‘n’ roll. In the decades since, she has reportedly only given a single interview. But this year Lesley was unexpectedly thrust back into the limelight when she was revealed to be the character between Little Richard and Eddie Cochran on the cover of Bob Dylan’s new book, his first since 2004’s Chronicles: Volume One. The Philosophy of Modern Song is out in November and features 60 essays by Dylan on songs by other artists. The press release states that the book’s imagery has been “carefully curated,” prompting speculation as to why an artist as obscure as Lesley should have been chosen for the cover. Of course, Dylan didn’t comment.
“I don’t know of anyone who stuck to the ‘female Elvis’ part like Alis Lesley did”…pictured in Australia, 1957. Photo: Courtesy Derek Glenister/John DixonLesley started during Dylan’s formative years, so it’s possible he knew her or even saw her traverse on the US tour. She started out playing local nightclubs in a band called the Arizona Stringdusters in her hometown of Phoenix. But her big break came in 1956 when she was invited to perform with bandleader Buddy Morrow. During an uninhibited rendition of Blue Suede Shoes, Lesley kicked off her shoes. Audiences loved it and tour plans were soon made.
When Lesley was performing in Las Vegas, Presley himself came to see her. He was reportedly impressed enough to recommend her for Little Richard’s upcoming tour of Australia. The press began to take an interest, stating that Lesley was “destined for long-term fame.”
She released her first single in April 1957. Unfortunately, it was also to be her last. The record, titled “Heartbreak Harry,” invited an obvious association with Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” the best-selling single of the previous year. And while it received a positive review from music magazine Cashbox, calling it “a great rock ‘n’ roller,” the record failed to capture public attention. By the time of the Australian tour with Little Richard a few months later, Lesley was already talking about quitting. “I don’t grow old in show business,” she told a reporter. “I’m thinking about the future.”
Other press reports at the time alluded to her ambitions to write original material. Branstetter posits that this may have been a factor in her disillusionment with the music business. “I think interviews with Alis Lesley show that she had a lot of ambition and had no intention of being the ‘female Elvis’ forever. Maybe the desire to write my own songs had something to do with it.”
When Lesley returned to the United States, she spoke even more openly to the press. “I don’t particularly like show business,” she said. “But I can’t get out of my contracts for at least two more years.”
She continued touring for the next two years, performing a setlist peppered with Elvis hits – Hound Dog, Don’t Be Cruel and Blue Suede Shoes. She once split the bill with Bobby Darin just as he was rising to superstardom. And she seems to have been particularly popular in Quebec, Canada, where she has visited four times.
Lesley’s last attempt at a big break came in late 1959 when she was recording at Sun Studio – right where Elvis got his start. She cut six takes of the Charlie Rich song Handsome Man, but the deal never materialized. By the end of the year, Lesley had finally left the music scene.
What little we know of Lesley’s later years comes from a single interview she gave to researcher Will Beard, excerpts of which Hank Davis published on the CD box set Memphis Belles: The Women of Sun Records. According to her statement, Lesley returned home to take care of her ailing mother. She earned a degree in Education and worked closely with Native American communities as an educator and missionary. She spent her retirement “travelling the world” and survived cancer in the 1990s.
Lesley is now 84 and still lives in Phoenix. And though she stays out of the public eye, she fondly remembers her music career: After local journalist Ed Masley wrote about her in the Arizona Republic earlier this year, she wrote to him to express her gratitude for being reached out to remembered, and said she looks forward to the publication of Dylan’s book.
But if Lesley has any theories as to why Dylan might have chosen her picture for the cover, she hasn’t shared them yet.
“She had a lot of ambition and she had no intention of being the ‘female Elvis’ forever” … Alis Lesley. Photo: Era Records/Courtesy of John DixonDefinitely Dylan podcast host Laura Tenschert, who also serves on the board of directors of the University of Tulsa Institute for Bob Dylan Studies, suggests that the choice of imagery may not be about Lesley, but about her combination with Little Richard and Cochran. “It seems like a recognition of the diverse roots of modern American music,” she says.
She argues that “the three characters on the cover may represent different sides of Dylan’s own musical identity.” For Lesley, this representation might lie in her assumption of another artist’s personality. Dylan took a similar approach in his early years, modeling himself on folksinger Woody Guthrie. But where Dylan was able to go beyond that and carve out his own identity, Lesley’s ambitions seem to have been completely overshadowed by the “female Elvis” persona.
More broadly, the cover could be seen as an acknowledgment of the ephemeral nature of what Dylan calls “the modern song.” Branstetter notes that all three artists on the cover left the music scene “within about two years of the taking of this photo.” Little Richard quit to join the ministry. Lesley traded in her guitar for a quieter life. And Cochran died in a car accident at the age of 21.
Dylan’s career has enjoyed a much longer lifespan. But he was always aware of the ephemerality of popular music. When asked what he thought about Rolling Stone magazine declaring his song “Like a Rolling Stone” the best of all time, he just shrugged and replied, “Who’s to say how long this is going to be?” (Indeed Rolling Stone downgraded Dylan’s song to fourth best in a recent update.)
Perhaps some of Dylan’s attitude is contained in that cover photo. The faces of Alis Lesley, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran smile at us with youth and hope at the center of a musical revolution – unaware that it would all be over before any of them could have expected it. Dylan pays homage and homage to those rock ‘n’ roll pioneers that came before him. But maybe he also appreciates how brief their moment was — how “the present will be over now later” and today’s “modern song” is tomorrow’s story.
Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song will be released on November 1st by Simon & Schuster. To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Shipping costs may apply.