Jerry Lee Lewis' beardo phase was hawt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RHpX76Ly94
― Yarl Kastremski (bendy), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:21 (ten years ago) link
Jerry Lee Lewis was my crush of shame at one point.
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:23 (ten years ago) link
His own cousin couldn't resist him. What chance do those outside his family have?
― DavidLeeRoth, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:25 (ten years ago) link
i just went back and looked at the other youtubes itt and everybody's seen this right NO
people say they don't understand what made young girls go completely batshit but it's kind of obvious in that performance
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:58 (ten years ago) link
There's a reason The Birthday Party and The Fall have covered Gene Vincent.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:58 (ten years ago) link
No doubt as to who Eric Burdon would choose:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8t387oPwQI
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 19:59 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, Cat Man was such a perfect song for the Birthday Party to cover - obviously a big influence.Better hide your sister, man!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuYWvounKck
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:09 (ten years ago) link
gene vincent, but a hard choice
― ohhhh lorde 2pac big please mansplain to this sucker (jjjusten), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:10 (ten years ago) link
what do you have to do embed youtube vids now?
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:10 (ten years ago) link
just remove the s after http
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:13 (ten years ago) link
^ & the high-pitched audience screams in old rock and roll videos are fucking unreal
― smhphony orchestra (crüt), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:19 (ten years ago) link
this statement about elvis is immeasurably wrong.
I'm loathe to make this whole poll about Elvis but... he just seems to have done a different thing and played a different role than these other dudes. He's not much of a guitar player. He's not a songwriter. He doesn't have a SOUND the way some of these guys (esp Bo and Chuck) do. He had a phenomenally expressive voice (which is why I called him out as more in the mold of a traditional crooner), altho I agree with Tarfumes that he applied it with more facility in the 70s.
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:24 (ten years ago) link
but as a live performer, especially in the 50's, he kind of blew them all away
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:28 (ten years ago) link
also not sure about the "he doesn't have a SOUND" thing - Sun sessions Elvis most definitely has a sound, as does later Scotty oore + Jordanaires stuff
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:30 (ten years ago) link
oh I dunno about that re: live performance
I guess how I think of it is some of these other guys (Bo, Chuck, JLL, Little Richard) seem like forces of nature, they sprang forth fully formed, so to speak. whereas when I listen to Elvis' 50s stuff, I hear the synthesis, I can see the seams in the stitching. It's still great, but in a different way.
xp
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:31 (ten years ago) link
yeah I see the point you're making there about how visible the country/r&b/pop synthesis thing is in the early stuff - but I guess it's kind of subjective then because I totally hear a force of nature thing happening there at the same time
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:35 (ten years ago) link
and as far as who was the best performer, I know competition is fierce here buthttp://www.missumgs.dk/SirCliffShadows/ElvisPresley/ElvisPresley/ElvisLive54.jpg
― brio, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 20:37 (ten years ago) link
to me, the suggestion that elvis isn't on the musical level as the others gets into a wider argument -- which probably doesn't need to be had on this thread -- about whether a pure vocalist is a musician or not. to me, the answer is a slam-dunk yes, but opinions vary on that, obviously. but elvis in any case had some guitar facility and some piano facility -- though he was certainly not a chuck berry on the former or a jerry lee on the latter -- and his vocal chops were as good as any in popular music in the past 60 years. and, more important to this particular argument, he had absolute command of his best records in the same way that, for example, pure vocalist michael jackson had absolute command of his.
as for the seams in his stitching, yeah, his blues and pop and country and crooner roots were all obvious, but i'm not sure they were any more obvious than, say, bo diddley's blues and latin roots or buddy holly's country and rockabilly roots.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 22:08 (ten years ago) link
Not only that, but he was kind of a de facto producer on some of his biggest records.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 22:31 (ten years ago) link
he had absolute command of his best records in the same way that, for example, pure vocalist michael jackson had absolute command of his
vocalists are absolutely musicians but lol yeah you ain't gonna get very far with me with MJ comparisons, who I consider vastly overrated
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 23:37 (ten years ago) link
What was the title of this thread again?
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 23:43 (ten years ago) link
imo elvis in the sun era is every bit as interesting and idiosyncratic and original musically as any of these guys, tho it's maybe got as much to do with scotty moore, sam phillips et al as with elvis. even his approach to ballads ('blue moon' especially) was very different then, nothing like the more straightforward crooner-y approach he took later on.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 23:45 (ten years ago) link
Bo Diddley is Jesus
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 23:51 (ten years ago) link
The people who are making this about Elvis are the haters, not the fans, and they should be making arguments in favor of their favorites I sets is essentially derailing.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 23:57 (ten years ago) link
This is my favorite '50s rock and roll song not by someone listed above (including, maybe, Elvis...would have to think about that):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDyeePUXN18&feature=kp
Between "La Do Dada" and "Susie Q," I'd probably take Hawkins over Eddie Cochran.I
― clemenza, Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:01 (ten years ago) link
bo diddley is jesus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxXQYtBa65Y
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:15 (ten years ago) link
Almost voted for Berry, but then I watched a couple of those Bo youtubes and now I'm not sure.
― Alvarius B. Goode (WilliamC), Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:15 (ten years ago) link
i don't think it's weird to spend a little time on elvis in a thread about '50s rockers! plus, it's a convenient way to avoid making the impossible choice that the thread presents.
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:17 (ten years ago) link
Considering voting for pretty much every artist here except the first and the last. For me Jerry Lee's wildman antics often overshadow the records. As far as Fats, feel like the New Orleans thing was done better by Little Richard and all the artists that didn't have so many hits- Benny Spellman, Ernie K-Doe, Chris Kenner, The Showmen, to name a few, plus Richie Cunningham ruined "Blueberry Hill" for me for life.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:28 (ten years ago) link
So much ruining with all these guys
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:33 (ten years ago) link
Ha, exactly. One reason I'm thinking of voting for Carl Perkins.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:34 (ten years ago) link
crüt otm with that video. Was just recommending that movie and trying to describe that very scene.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:44 (ten years ago) link
James Redd, I don't know what to say. You've probably heard those artists more than me. I know "Mother-in-Law" and "Lipstick Traces" and "It Will Stand" and "I Like It Like That." I don't perceive a world where Fats Domino is not top drawer.
― timellison, Thursday, 1 May 2014 02:09 (ten years ago) link
(Not to say those other records are not also top drawer, naturally.)
― timellison, Thursday, 1 May 2014 02:13 (ten years ago) link
Bria's Elvis photo says it all, but I'm sure there are Berry and Little Richard fans who think they were more important to Rock's birth than Elvis. But I would have voted Elvis every time.
― jetfan, Thursday, 1 May 2014 02:45 (ten years ago) link
bo diddley just barely over chuck berry and fats domino. woulda voted elvis pretty easily.
― balls, Thursday, 1 May 2014 02:49 (ten years ago) link
http://www.geni.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/birthcertificate_original-600x489.jpg
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 1 May 2014 02:52 (ten years ago) link
http://www.elvisinfonet.com/image-files/Elvis_Presley_grave.jpg
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 1 May 2014 02:53 (ten years ago) link
Don't think I knew or forgot that
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 1 May 2014 02:57 (ten years ago) link
Sorry *middle* name was Love.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 1 May 2014 02:58 (ten years ago) link
I'm glad Elvis isn't among the options, even though, like MBJ, I'm a much bigger fan of his work starting with From Elvis in Memphis. The '50s stuff is undeniably great, but doesn't have the twitchy, bug-eyed insanity that also-rans like Charlie Feathers and Sonny Burgess had. Anyway, still definitely voting for Chuck Berry. I really need to get those Hip-O boxes of his complete Chess recordings one of these days when I've got a few hundred bucks to spare.
― Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 1 May 2014 03:12 (ten years ago) link
xpost according to that document, you were right the first time.
― Mark G, Thursday, 1 May 2014 04:11 (ten years ago) link
BO DIDDLEY has won my heart and I can never give it to another.
― Hinklepicker, Thursday, 1 May 2014 04:53 (ten years ago) link
Interesting point on the rockabilly also-rans over Sun-era Elvis - much like how the wildest 60's rock n roll came from the garage bands, not the Beatles and Stones. Not necessarily "better" but definitely more bug-eyed, twitchy and insane. Been listening to Sonny Burgess a lot lately, and Ain't Got a Thing and Red-headed Woman definitely hold their own with any of the best of the guys in this poll.
― brio, Thursday, 1 May 2014 14:52 (ten years ago) link
Poll is too difficult
― A frenzied geologist (Tom D.), Thursday, 1 May 2014 14:54 (ten years ago) link
these guys are all great, I guess for pure impact Bo, CB, Rich and JLL are the kings
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 14:54 (ten years ago) link
Love Sonny Burgess. Ald although he didn't record much, every Joe Clay song I've heard is incredible.
― A Perfect Ratio of Choogle to Jam (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 1 May 2014 14:56 (ten years ago) link
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UP93tRdP89g/Uz2_3uH4UVI/AAAAAAAABeY/BdcG7B-Lyug/s1600/genevincent1958_Yakima_Washington_2Small.jpg
Gene Vincent, people!
― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 1 May 2014 15:31 (ten years ago) link
Hard to believe we made it this deep into a 50's rock convo without a Link Wray mention. I'm really only familiar with "Rumble", but he's got to have his fans around these parts.
― DavidLeeRoth, Thursday, 1 May 2014 15:34 (ten years ago) link
Yeah Link Wray's a genius.
― ▴▲ ▴TH3CR()$BY$H()W▴▲ ▴ (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 1 May 2014 15:35 (ten years ago) link