Is Elvis Presleys in the ghetto the whitest song ever ?

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bobby hill's already won the case brutha!

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:34 (twenty years ago) link

It certainly wouldn't be Elvis, and it certainly wouldn't be this song.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:35 (twenty years ago) link

yeah for real theres a certain kind of nerd ass white pride poppin up now in the 20-something musically-geirish anime geek contingent nowadays, theyre SO proudly uncool theyre allowed to whine about disctinctive whiteness (good job, clean neighbourhood, economically secure)and use comedic hiphop slang (learned from dave chappelle and the mp3 of the 'gangsta' delta commercial) 'safely', its not racist cuz WE'RE THE UNCOOL ONES etc etc shut the fuck up you unfunny racist custos motherfuckers

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:44 (twenty years ago) link

fnord

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:47 (twenty years ago) link

Word trife. You da man!!!

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:48 (twenty years ago) link

what foulness hath i invoked?

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:51 (twenty years ago) link

the anti trifeness has a weird snowball effect where like if one person says shit everybody else wants to get in on it even if what im sayin is straight truth

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:56 (twenty years ago) link

and im not pretending this is some sorta divine revelation i posted but its not 'foulness' you shitlicks

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:58 (twenty years ago) link

my truth is queerer than your truth.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 04:59 (twenty years ago) link

we're saying the same thing!!! dont underestimate the underdog appeal of letting black people have 'cool', it allows white herb culture to foster, it lets racists be the disadvantaged ones because 'they' have natural rhythm and giant dicks!! sorta like a dumbed down version of the kkk on affirmative action being 'a threat to the white race'

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:03 (twenty years ago) link

haha "dumbed down version"

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:06 (twenty years ago) link

(that's not a knock, btw, ethan)

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:06 (twenty years ago) link

i know we're saying the same thing, or at least similar things, and in fact i for once used some trifean invective. it's the persistence and monomania of your shtick that causes my eyes to roll. but oh well.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:09 (twenty years ago) link

yes your superior elitist attitude about 'persistance' in anti-racist action is surely the answer, gee if only someone couldve told mlk to cut out the monomania maybe he wouldnt gotten shot

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:16 (twenty years ago) link

i agree w/everything you say trife.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:17 (twenty years ago) link

trife must be excused for the air is thin on the mountaintop.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:19 (twenty years ago) link

trife - you can pretend amateurist's dismissal of you has something to do with anything besides you but it ain't so. not taking you seriously /= elitism. sub-momus at best.

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:20 (twenty years ago) link

yes blount people in caddyshack are white i get it

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:24 (twenty years ago) link

yes everything on this thread was absolutely salient to its original subject line

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:25 (twenty years ago) link

i havent read the thread or its subject line

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:27 (twenty years ago) link

yes trife thinking you're an asshole means thinking mlk deserved to get shot I get it

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:27 (twenty years ago) link

then shut the fuck up, ethan

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:28 (twenty years ago) link

I started a thread a while ago called something like "Why do white people criticize one another for being white" but then Sterling said I was making it up and someone else said "because everyone knows black people make better music" (those are the bits I remember) and than it sort of faded out.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:29 (twenty years ago) link

Then > than. "In the Ghetto" is a weird-ass song in today's context, obviously, with its weird picturesque touristic vibe, like "The Ghetto: An Emotional Part of Our Great Nation, Stop and Think About It Man."

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:31 (twenty years ago) link

shut up nitsuh, stop being so persistant!!! just leave it alone man!!!!

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:33 (twenty years ago) link

Obviously there are the horses to reckon with, too.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:34 (twenty years ago) link

it actually reminds me of "tally's corner" or one of the other great society-era classix i read in sociology 101.

elvis presley: "major contributors to youth delinquency" b/w "the theatrical metaphor: form and function"

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:35 (twenty years ago) link

all we need is trife and another amateurist post to derail this lil thread completely.
-- oops (don'temailmebitc...) (webmail), June 30th, 2003 11:38 PM

Just call me the White Moses

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:38 (twenty years ago) link

btw matos chill you ilm thread rockist, all with that 'read the subject line' yo WHATEVER!!

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:38 (twenty years ago) link

mammy how i love ya how i love ya.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:40 (twenty years ago) link

in nu ilm speak 'derail' means to turn a thread from braindead endless lists to a horrible music-killing, ugh, DISCUSSION

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:45 (twenty years ago) link

well fine, keep on talking to yourself and convincing yourself everyone disagrees with your stance.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:47 (twenty years ago) link

like, why don't you start your own threads where you can spew your sanctimonious BS?

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:48 (twenty years ago) link

in trife speak 'braindead' = 'anyone not talking about ME', and 'discussion' = 'let's talk about ME'

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:49 (twenty years ago) link

dumbed down Momus

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:50 (twenty years ago) link

you know, after all of the fuss and fury in this thread, i still can't figure out (a) how EP's "in the ghetto" is a "white" song (much less his "whitest" song); or (b) by what criteria anyone judges the "whiteness" of any given song.

and isn't this sort of a creeping-rockist question anyway?

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:51 (twenty years ago) link

how EP's "in the ghetto" is a "white" song

Odd thing is that at this point for a few seconds I thought you were referring to Trife's real initials there.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:53 (twenty years ago) link

now that would be quite something

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:54 (twenty years ago) link

yeah blount, so!?!!

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:57 (twenty years ago) link

the closest that i can figure out about "in the ghetto" being "white" is what amateurist mentioned upthread -- lyrically, it's rather late 60s/early 70s michael stivic/meathead-style liberal-sociologist. musically, i don't get the "whiteness" angle at all -- it sounds like typical late 60s elvis-in-the-studio, which itself sounds like late 60s studio-pop. which is, i guess, "white" in that it doesn't sound like motown or isaac hayes or stax-volt, if that's what one means by "black" music that would contemporaneous w/ "in the ghetto."

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 30 June 2003 05:58 (twenty years ago) link

ok honestly i dont get ilm anymore like ever, ok i made an observation, like a simple character study kinda and not about anybody on this thread!! and suddenly everyone gets all pissy moaning and groaning about shit, oh there goes trife again, what an asshole etc etc cmon the race card had been played and shuffled back into the deck like six times in this damn thread already before i even thought about posting

― trife (simon_tr), Monday, 30 June 2003 06:01 (twenty years ago) link

here's your first post:
yeah for real theres a certain kind of nerd ass white pride poppin up now in the 20-something musically-geirish anime geek contingent nowadays, theyre SO proudly uncool theyre allowed to whine about disctinctive whiteness (good job, clean neighbourhood, economically secure)and use comedic hiphop slang (learned from dave chappelle and the mp3 of the 'gangsta' delta commercial) 'safely', its not racist cuz WE'RE THE UNCOOL ONES etc etc shut the fuck up you unfunny racist custos motherfuckers
-- trife

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 06:03 (twenty years ago) link

"in the ghetto" could easily be an isaac hayes record

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 30 June 2003 06:03 (twenty years ago) link

i didn't mean to post that

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 06:07 (twenty years ago) link

i remember back when u.s. "lad" was just starting which i guess was "mook" and it was cute at first and sorta a breath of fresh air and maura i thought was a bit sky-is-falling about it but now i look around and the gate cracked a little and gender shit has been thrown back DECADES in america and the self-conscious "yeah i'm a guy and i like sexy girls, okay?" thing turned all smug and ugly.

so heed trife on this -- the "unhip" whiteness is a way of deepening the race divide. it never ceases to astound me how many ppl. are really that unconsciously fearful of cultural integration.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 30 June 2003 07:58 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, good point. Trife doesn't use very effective methods though, does he... anyway, Anthony please come back and explain.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 30 June 2003 08:06 (twenty years ago) link

buddha sack to thread

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 30 June 2003 08:14 (twenty years ago) link

sterl - I don't think people have any issues with heeding trife's 'argument' (they might have issues with him though); as was noted before he even posted 'haha us whiteys are lame = lame lame lame' was noted, tabled. perhaps momus can come here and defend 'exoticising/dehumanising non-whites as progressiveness thru transgressiveness' and I'm sure everyone we'll find it very interesting for the x millionth time, with the bonus attraction of momus and trife reducing politics to rhetorical flourish, but until then trife's "you can't handle the truth" act here is about as pointless as bursting in on a thread about water slides, pointing out water's wet, and then pouting if the thread doesn't immediately become about how water's wet (or, more accurately, how trife pointed out water's wet).

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 30 June 2003 08:30 (twenty years ago) link

Trife hates "Delta Ebonics" thus he = fool.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 30 June 2003 10:12 (twenty years ago) link

shut the fuck up you unfunny racist custos motherfuckers
Wow...I am now officially an adjective.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 30 June 2003 14:13 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 45 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

that should be "MAKE".
http://www.carolynsclinic.f2s.com/images/Steve_Martin_250.jpg

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 6 September 2003 21:48 (twenty years ago) link

There is no such thing as white music anyway, apart from the title of XTC's debut album, that is....

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 7 September 2003 07:57 (twenty years ago) link

Dude, you're not really Geir.

The *real* Geir would have put a ":-)" at the end of that post.

― Lewis J. Bateman (Lewis Bateman), Monday, 8 September 2003 06:07 (twenty years ago) link

I thought the first half of the statement a bit too important to put a :-) after the second half.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 8 September 2003 23:18 (twenty years ago) link

Article Response: I'll tell you what 'chutzpah' is. It's raising a foolish point about a song on an internet message board, having it beat down in a dozen different ways, and going on to write about the same song for an onliine publication.

In 1969 Elvis wasn't fat, btw.

― Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:06 (twenty years ago) link

SAAAAAAAAVE THE GOOOORILLAAAAAAAAAAAS!!!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 13:16 (twenty years ago) link

ten months pass...

so fuck all the bullstink on the rest of this thread and get to this:

In the Ghetto: classic or dud?

― Bumfluff, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Uh dud.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link

i still don't understand what anthony easton meant by this thread and resent him for it.

classic.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link

ihttp://www.play.com/covers/173022m.jpg

Disc 2, Track 6. Are you going to call Sammy "white" now?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Well it's the worst track on the Memphis album by a long way; so yeah dud. If "Suspicious Minds" was on there in its place it would be almost perfect. (or better yet "If I can Dream")

― de, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:38 (nineteen years ago) link

x-post
(So much for hyperlinking an image to a URL)

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Jessica Hopper thinks the new Magnetic Fields is a contender.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:41 (nineteen years ago) link

Surely Nick Cave's version of "In the Ghetto" is whiter? Or paler?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:50 (nineteen years ago) link

I hear there's a bluegrass cover of Beach Boys "Surfin Safari" out there, somewhere.

― Thea (Thea), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link

I think Merritt's career trajectory is sort of like Truman Capote's: starts of young and weird and amazing and full of feeling, progressed into weird upscale non-reactive creature seemingly involved in invisible patronage system / making-people-giggle game. Except so far as I recall, Capote's actual creative production didn't take any downward turns quite so dramatic as this recent Merritt one.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:13 (nineteen years ago) link

"i" is not THAT bad, guys...

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:15 (nineteen years ago) link

what do you mean by "invisible patronage program," nabisco?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:30 (nineteen years ago) link

don't think it's one of Evlis' best, but not a dud. fairly standard late-'60s liberal consciousness move and all. not as good as the spinners' "ghetto child" by a longshot. yeah, ell was "white." the whitest song ever? kind of a dumb question.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 00:46 (nineteen years ago) link

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