I mean, did you just hear that a year ago? or in the 80s? I think the first time I heard Blue Moon was in the Jarmusch film.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 April 2018 21:01 (six years ago) link
and there was a *lot* of Elvis kitsch about in the 80s
obviously it's a great song and performance, v sinister and wierd
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 April 2018 21:06 (six years ago) link
not everything is about you yanno
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Friday, 20 April 2018 21:16 (six years ago) link
i bought a cassette of elvis's sun sessions as a cynical late teen/early twentysomething w/ no real interest in the guy, i was into the clash and the fall and dylan and what i thought of as "real" music, and it really did blow me away. not just the spookiness of "blue moon" but the crazy intense energy of stuff like "blue moon of kentucky," the menace of "milkcow blues." even the ballads felt pure and sincere in a way i wouldn't have expected from elvis's later stuff. i can see ppl maybe not responding so much to the familiar 50s hits or having trouble understanding why it was such a big deal when a guy swiveled his hips, but the sun stuff seems p timeless and wonderful to me still.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 20 April 2018 21:47 (six years ago) link
having trouble understanding why it was such a big deal when a guy swiveled his hips
there is continually controversy over this sort of thing. the artist being free to use sex in their performance is a more relevant topic than ever. we still have debates over Miley Cyrus and Janet Jackson. twerking is mainstream now but only a few years ago it was a revolutionary or underground thing (from my understanding). ofc Elvis is a man and they are women and etc. that's another discussion & one worth having...
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 April 2018 22:19 (six years ago) link
some Elvis songs hit deeper as you get older i find. after you have been in relationships or traveled or lived life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUKP8SF-mYs
kinda a lovely song. a little nostalgia and 60s soul pop vibe. you can see him punching the air while he sings like a karate instructor.
there is a live video of "Polk Salad Annie" i post all the time that i wont post again but he is prowling around the stage like a 80s hardcore singer and deep throats the mic at one point. he had the original dgaf attitude. people know what's real - you can't fake that.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 April 2018 22:23 (six years ago) link
lol @ 2:26 shaking Rodney Dangerfield's hand
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 20 April 2018 22:26 (six years ago) link
This is the clip in question, for folks who haven't seen it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGpjNnXNY4A
And yeah, Elvis is amazing in this clip, but I also want to point out Ronnie fucking Tutt, the drummer, who was completely locked in with him onstage.
― grawlix (unperson), Saturday, 21 April 2018 00:31 (six years ago) link
I was thinking about the conundrum they raise a few times in the doc, why DID he stay with Parker when he was obviously so creatively stifled & restrictedI wonder if part of it just comes down to the combination of growing up poor & being stunted emotionally. Growing up poor creates the fear of losing it all if he breaks away from Parker. Having all that incredible wealth & fame IS the dream, theoretically, and in that kind of mindset “happiness” is a luxury that runs second fiddle. You might secretly dream of doing something more fulfilling but those thoughts get dismissed as being greedy or hubris etcBut also he seems quite stunted emotionally. Between the army & “movie gulag” he completely skipped the important & best part of early adulthood: independence & burgeoning creativity. Like it’s not even that he didn’t choose it: it wasn’t available. And the death of his Mom in between those phases perhaps led him to subconsciously avoid it, and instead latch onto a new influential presence in her absence ie Tom, *because* he’s feeling so lost (but doesnt have the emotional maturity to know thats whats happening & never really deals with his grief in any kind of normal way). Crucially, as a result he wasn’t free to find himself, learn, fail miserably, create, meet new people to inspire you, broaden your horizons the way many of us do in our 20’s; we take that for granted. But what if you just skip from your teens to your 30’s without it & you’re trying to constantly live up to an ideal ~of yourself~ ? What if you live your whole life like an orchid trapped under a glass: captured & preserved & forced to stay the same, rather than grow & become a fully formed person. It’s so unnatural & it makes me so sad when I think about it. I think he bought into the image of himself being pushed on him because it was safe. for all his stagecraft & charisma, he is not confident within himself off the stage. Parker knew it, and excavated that seam until it was an open-cut crater, til there’s barely any Elvis left. in his whole life he’d never been independent for very long, except for brief glimpses here & there growing up. Once he’s stuck in the machine & sees what he doesn’t want he wants independence but he’s too far in. And deep down he knows he doesnt know the first thing about actually BEING independent. It’s an abstraction by then.(forgive my romanticism obv)
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 21 April 2018 03:10 (six years ago) link
Wow
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 03:13 (six years ago) link
Absolutely otmfm, VG. Brilliant post.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 21 April 2018 06:25 (six years ago) link
:)
Funny, and a little sad/ironic that Tom Petty's the one asking that question of why he stayed with Parker.
Petty's the poster-child for independence, practically from birth he was willfully striking out on his own & ultimately blazing a trail with his merry band of misfits hoping somehow that fame would be around the corner somewhere eventually, but also secretly somehow SURE of it.
It's endearing in it's way that Petty couldn't grasp the idea of someone, ie Elvis his hero, *fearing* independence.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 21 April 2018 07:21 (six years ago) link
Parker was pretty adept at manipulating Elvis even from the early days (getting friends and hangers-on of Elvis to keep an eye on him for Parker). Was Parker involved in getting all those drug prescriptions and connections for Elvis too?
― well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Saturday, 21 April 2018 08:46 (six years ago) link
but yeah VG gets the core there of how Parker had such a hold on Elvis
― well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Saturday, 21 April 2018 08:48 (six years ago) link
Growing up poor creates the fear of losing it all if he breaks away from Parker. Having all that incredible wealth & fame IS the dream, theoretically, and in that kind of mindset “happiness” is a luxury that runs second fiddle. You might secretly dream of doing something more fulfilling but those thoughts get dismissed as being greedy or hubris etc Someone asked Eddie Murphy (himself an Elvis fanatic) about the string of awful movies he’d made, Pluto Nash, Daddy Day Care, Meet Dave, etc. He said something along the lines of, “Look, when you grow up with nothing, turning down offers of millions of dollars simply doesn’t make sense.”
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 21 April 2018 11:38 (six years ago) link
Yeah vg killing itt
Rap critics that say he's "Money Cash Hoes"I'm from the hood, stupidwhat type of facts are those?If you grew up with holes in your zapatosYou'd celebrate the minute you was having dough
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 21 April 2018 12:42 (six years ago) link
Skipping from teens to 30s makes a lot of sense. He also kept his little gang (Memphis Mafia) with him all the way into his 40s and some type of codependency developed there. iirc it was they who helped him get pills etc. & were involved in his personal business in all kinds of ways while of course they depended on him financially. Other celebrities have their entourages but are able to separate themselves from it, realizing who is the artist and who is the staff, but Elvis operated as if he felt his support group was integral to his success/lifestyle.
― Josefa, Saturday, 21 April 2018 14:23 (six years ago) link
yeah they became a sort of lifeboat for him.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 21 April 2018 14:49 (six years ago) link
Isn’t there one school of thought that the Memphis Mafia were not enablers but were actually trying to encourage him take better care of himself? I am will willing to entertain such a notion but...
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 15:11 (six years ago) link
it seems plausible, esp in the final years. his excesses would have been more than a little alarming to just about everyone close to him i would think
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 21 April 2018 15:15 (six years ago) link
And those guys got fired as soon as they started making a big deal about that stuff, hence Elvis: What Happened?
― Josefa, Saturday, 21 April 2018 15:35 (six years ago) link
VG et al. otm ... it's worth emphasizing how poor the Presleys really were, especially after Vernon did time for writing bad checks ... nothing against East Tupelo, but if you drive around that area today and imagine what it was like during the Depression, it becomes clear that just making it to Memphis was a huge upward climb
add to poverty and Vernon's patchy success as a provider Gladys' reaction to the death of Elvis' twin and the intensity of their bond, and her death the day after he got home from the army ... it's no wonder he clung to Parker and Graceland for the rest of his life
― Brad C., Saturday, 21 April 2018 16:51 (six years ago) link
Gladys is a huge key to his psyche, even long after her death. Kinda like those radiation shadows burned into the concrete after Hiroshima. the photos of him & Vernon the day of her death have stayed with me - ghoulish as it is to see that moment captured, there’s something about seeing such a tragic turning point imo https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f7/e0/f1/f7e0f14874980853a8f268e450900208.jpghttps://i.pinimg.com/736x/c4/f5/ab/c4f5ab956d8345cd8213c27de6a26615--elvis-death-family-homes.jpg
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 21 April 2018 17:19 (six years ago) link
Yeah, fascinated by that photo.
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 18:13 (six years ago) link
Also, loving the term “movie gulag.”And pondering this statement from Jon Landau: “Because I believe he was a genius from start to finish, even when he was recording the soundtrack to ‘Clambake.'”
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 18:17 (six years ago) link
The account of their grieving in Last Train To Memphis is pretty intense, in a grimly funny and extravagant way—“mama ain’t gonna feed those chickens no more!” Reminds me of Leland Palmer in season 1 of Twin Peaks.
― sciatica, Saturday, 21 April 2018 18:20 (six years ago) link
Also still pondering this Peter Guralnick quote about Sam Phillips:
Sometimes in the middle of the night he arrives unbidden. He even sets me riddles. In one dream he said to my bewilderment (both then and now), “I am nothing if not an idealist.… I am everything but an idealist.… The boy cannot fully understand.” I dream of Sam. I dream of my grandfather. I dream of Solomon Burke and the songwriter Doc Pomus. All gone. They come around less frequently now. But whenever Sam arrives, as often as not rattling at the window in the midst of a torrent of conflicting concerns, I always listen.
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 18:54 (six years ago) link
/Growing up poor creates the fear of losing it all if he breaks away from Parker. Having all that incredible wealth & fame IS the dream, theoretically, and in that kind of mindset “happiness” is a luxury that runs second fiddle. You might secretly dream of doing something more fulfilling but those thoughts get dismissed as being greedy or hubris etc /Someone asked Eddie Murphy (himself an Elvis fanatic) about the string of awful movies he’d made, Pluto Nash, Daddy Day Care, Meet Dave, etc. He said something along the lines of, “Look, when you grow up with nothing, turning down offers of millions of dollars simply doesn’t make sense.”
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 21 April 2018 20:30 (six years ago) link
Earlier today was texting that exchange back and forth with a friend.
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 20:37 (six years ago) link
It's infectious and never seems to get old.
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 20:46 (six years ago) link
so classic. the fat elvis walk gets me every time
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 21 April 2018 21:06 (six years ago) link
reading that peter guralnick quote right after sciatica's post has made me realize that sam phillips would have been right at home, somehow, in twin peaks
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 21 April 2018 21:29 (six years ago) link
Was visiting a friend in Brooklyn. One of the girls from Girls lives around the corner and was having a sidewalk sale. My friend picked up a huge pile of Elvis trading cards, each packed with facts on the back. My favorite I saw re: the famous meeting with Nixon, captured in Black and White. But supposedly Elvis's suit was bright purple, like something Prince would wear!
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 21 April 2018 21:46 (six years ago) link
Well, Prince died the same year as David Bowie, who had the same birthday as Elvis and sent out various encoded signals throughout his career acknowledging this and so... *scratches chin*
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 21:51 (six years ago) link
Da Presley Code
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 21 April 2018 22:04 (six years ago) link
Exactly
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 21 April 2018 22:12 (six years ago) link
Haven’t heard every recorded note, but starting to subscribe to Landau’s “Clambake” theory. And still amusing myself thinking of Sam Phillips in Twin Peaks
― We’ll Take Chanhassen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 April 2018 18:54 (six years ago) link
We need an Elvis Presley poll.
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 23 April 2018 10:54 (six years ago) link
I can start it next week!
― droit au butt (Euler), Monday, 23 April 2018 11:43 (six years ago) link
Yes!!!!!
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 23 April 2018 13:59 (six years ago) link
watched part one, really well done
one thing that's I think making it pretty affecting for me on another level is there are so many quotes by Tom Petty and it's just so nice to hear him talk and hear him say things I've never heard before almost like he's alive ;_;
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 23 April 2018 15:56 (six years ago) link
yeah it’s a nice added layer
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 23 April 2018 15:59 (six years ago) link
Loved this HBO doc. As someone who was only familiar with the Sun Records era, hearing tracks like A Mess of Blues and Crawfish were revelatory for me.
― Darin, Monday, 23 April 2018 19:21 (six years ago) link
About 3 hours into this, how did everyone not know Parker wasn’t born in the States? When he speaks he sounds like Goldmember.
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 24 April 2018 20:42 (six years ago) link
Parker looks like such a cigar chomping sleazy manager type it's almost like he's a made up character
there was one photo where he was wearing this ridiculous jumpsuit with the Girls Girls Girls logo on it and he looked like a bad guy from the Batman series, like they tried to mix the Riddler and Penguin
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 20:52 (six years ago) link
Yeah he looks like such a total huckster
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 21:00 (six years ago) link
I just recently watched part 2. The whole thing is great, but there were some curious omissions.
For example, since they pin just about everything bad that ever happened on Col. Parker, why would they omit the fact that he was a degenerate gambler who lost just about everything he took from Elvis (a 50/50 split!) in the casinos? Wouldn't that be a relevant point if you want to show how bad he was?
Another issue is the relentless focus on his creative output, all those movies etc. I understand they were trying to stay away from the Memphis mafia, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, karate Graceland kitsch which has been covered ad nauseum, but that played a big part in his decline and demise. Blaming it all on his tour schedule doesn't seem accurate. He took plenty of pills at home too.
3rd, Larry Geller should have been interviewed. He plays a big part in Careless Love. He was Elvis' hairdresser, who was deeply interested in spirituality and mysticism. He got Elvis, who was always spiritually bent, even deeper into it. They spent a ton of time together in the 60s. It drove the Memphis mafia crazy. A bunch of good ol' boys who loved to party and chase women were losing Elvis to this guy.
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 24 April 2018 21:44 (six years ago) link
Yeah, also the doc frames the decision to record in the Jungle Room of Graceland in 1976 as some kind of bold creative choice on Elvis's part whereas Guralnick paints a more pathetic picture, suggesting it was at the Colonel and RCA's request given that Elvis had apparently "developed a pathological aversion to the recording studio."
― Josefa, Tuesday, 24 April 2018 23:08 (six years ago) link
Yes. The last 3 years of his life, based on Careless Love, were basically a death spiral, capped off by him dating Ginger Alden, who was cheating on Elvis with her high school boyfriend.
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 24 April 2018 23:15 (six years ago) link