Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

much like Christian Nolan digging Stanley Kubrick while not making Kubrickian movies, people can be hugely influenced by a singular artist while taking that energy into entirely new directions

Christopher Nolan even

But also: it’s not quite the same thing but I have 2 friends, one my age and one 10 yrs younger. We were talking abt Michael Jackson & she just didnt get our love for him bcz by the time she was old enough to know about his music he was full tilt boogie weird.
If you werent there when the wave hit, it’s hard to explain what that feeling was like & how that joy compounds over time & carries you through the weirdness

When I went to see a tribute band play Michael Jackson, the crowd responded proportionally by age/generation depending on whether the music was Motown, Off the Wall, Thriller or Bad.

But much more than, say, someone like Kubrick, Elvis (like the Beatles) demarcated a clear cultural before/after.

Esp. for people in palookaville, I imagine. Did anyone look at (insert pre-Elvis musical star here) and think, that could be me? That is my way out of middle of nowhere poverty?

When I went to see a tribute band play Michael Jackson, the crowd responded proportionally by age/generation depending on whether the music was Motown, Off the Wall, Thriller or Bad.

when i was in full Thriller mania, learning to moonwalk etc, a younger friend of my parents said, you know how you feel about Michael Jackson? that's how i felt about Michael Jackson when i was your age

The way he says “Dylan” in the take above, it’s an incantation.

Did anyone look at (insert pre-Elvis musical star here) and think, that could be me? That is my way out of middle of nowhere poverty?

Hank Williams? i think the lack of grooming and willingness to not shy away from southernness & stereotypes about hillbillies was pretty unique and somewhat democratizing.

however im not sure if there was even a pre-Elvis music industry marketing infrastructure to support a popular idea of music as a ticket to riches. like that way of thinking was probably true for Hollywood (and to that effect Elvis is a bit old school by also being a film star) but i dunno.

also this was an era before LP as album & recorded music automated most things, i'd imagine there were lots more opportunities for working musicians. perhaps it was more of a legit career path back then than the "you'll never make it as a giant star" all-or-nothing sort of success chasing we have now.

that unchained melody clip just left me speechless....six weeks before he died...jesus, he's just giving everything to get through it

Hank Williams? i think the lack of grooming and willingness to not shy away from southernness & stereotypes about hillbillies was pretty unique and somewhat democratizing.

There's a great book about the history of country music (and "country music") called Don't Get Above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class; definitely worth checking out.

Is there any documentary that covers the more tawdry aspects of his celebrity – ie, the karate/friend peanut butter and banana sandwiches/super young girlfriends, etc. I appreciate that this doc tried to focus on his artistry as it can be lost among that stuff. But I realize I don’t really know much about it and my sense is that it’s not exactly irrelevant.

peanut butter and banana sandwiches are very good and not tawdry

^ also true of karate

there was a Geraldo-led 20/20 special from 1979 but it's about the "cover up" of his death

Had to do some work at the library today, and discovered this in the stacks:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41PFAWG6bgL._SX366_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

A Novel About Elvis By William F. Buckley

If you’re looking for sensationalism and hearsay, you may enjoy the Goldman biography

Is there any documentary that covers the more tawdry aspects of his celebrity – ie, the karate/friend peanut butter and banana sandwiches/super young girlfriends, etc. I appreciate that this doc tried to focus on his artistry as it can be lost among that stuff. But I realize I don’t really know much about it and my sense is that it’s not exactly irrelevant.

― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 5 May 2018 14:59 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is what you're looking for: Arena, 1996, The Burger and The King.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b5LQ-rNSd8

To say that Elvis was more expressive than his contemporaries or that there was a yearning in his voice isn't really enough. I know it's common knowledge but all the spending and gift-giving, his jealousy and possessiveness of friends and lovers, the hyperactivity and almost constant joking and punning you hear in-studio, and of course the drugs—all of it was maintained to keep a profound pain at bay. That's what I hear even in some of his goofiest stuff and what for me elevates him as an interpreter and performer—a need to go down into what is painful about music, to locate what hurts in a song and stay there and suffer it, maybe in the hope the pain will abate when it's over.

― DACA Flocka Flame (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, April 26, 2018 4:02 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The recording sessions book says he recorded this one in a couple of takes, then listened to the playback in the studio over and over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pljYD7ncmSU

Another painful stab at loneliness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLj0aLPLsys

and the live version with "listen Cilla" interspersed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZaFihDRjZs

My stab from a couple years back at soundscaping a young searcher's stomping grounds, jumping between WDIA and WHBQ and meandering up and down the the dial, skipping back and forth across the tracks with Dewey Phillips spots, news bulletins, jingles, good and bad weather, miscellany postwar ephemera.... pm me for a link!

http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo346/HadrianVIII/EAP_1941-1953_zpsgqdjuhly.jpg

oh that was big. anyway:

01 Night Train To Memphis (3:39) Roy Acuff 1944
02 All She Wants To Do Is Rock (3:54) Wynonie Harris 1949
03 Up Above My Head (2:27) Sister Rosetta Tharpe 1949
04 Ida Red Likes The Boogie (2:17) Bob Wills 1950
05 Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb (2:31) The Soul Stirrers 1950
06 Blue Moon Of Kentucky (2:04) Bill Monroe 1947
07 Gotta Let You Go (2:39) Joe Hill Louis 1950
08 Rolling, Riding, Rocking (1:51) Blackwood Brothers 1953
09 Standing in the Safety Zone (2:22) Professor Johnson 1950
10 That's All Right (2:57) Arthur Crudup 1946
11 That's When Your Heartaches Begin (3:23) The Ink Spots 1946
12 Satisfied (2:41) Martha Carson 1951
13 Rocket 88 (3:01) Jackie Brenston 1951
14 The Hot Guitar (2:59) Eddie Hill 1952
15 When the Swallows Come Back [....](3:19) Billy Ward &The Dominoes 1952
16 Booted (3:02) Rosco Gordon 1952
17 La Fiacre (3:05) Giselle Mackenzi 1951
18 Call Me Fool (3:12) Mario Lanza 1953
19 Sixty Minute Man (2:53) The Dominoes 1951
20 Didn't It Rain (3:20) Sister Rosetta Tharpe 1947
21 The Great Atomic Power (2:56) The Louvin Brothers 1952
22 That's Amore (3:05) Dean Martin 1953
23 Take a Trip (3:38) Utah Smith 1953
24 A Full Time Job (2:24) Eddy Arnold 1952
25 She Moves Me (2:55) Muddy Waters 1952
26 The Golden Rocket (3:53) Hank Snow 1950
27 I'm Gonna Murder My Baby (2:52) Pat Hare 1954
28 Joshua Fit The Battle (3:29) The Spirit of Memphis 1951
29 I've Got Five Dollars & It's Saturday[...] (3:35) Ted Daffan 1950
30 Mystery Train (2:26) Little Junior's Blue Flames 1952
31 Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy (2:43) Red Foley 1950
32 Rats In My Kitchen (3:04) Sleepy John Estes 1952
33 More And More (2:18) Webb Pierce 1954
34 Hound Dog (4:10) Big Mama Thornton 1952
35 There's a Man In Jerusalem (2:21) Southern Jubillee Singers 1951
36 Shotgun Boogie (2:32) Tennessee Ernie Ford 1951
37 Cotton Crop Blues (3:36) James Cotton 1953
38 Everybody Will Be Happy Over There (1:56) The Statesmen Quartet 1954
39 Keep Them Cold Icy FIngers Off Me (3:11) Fairley Holden 1947
40 Mess Around (2:51) Ray Charles 1953
41 I've Forgotten More (2:59) The Davis Sisters 1953
42 Work With Me Annie (2:42) Hank Ballard & Midnighters 1954
43 Cry (3:01) Johnny Ray 1954
44 My Kind Of Carryin' On (3:32) Doug Poindexter 1954
45 Love Don' Love Nobody (3:17) Roy Brown 1950
46 Fortunes In Memories (2:58) Ernest Tubb 1952
47 No Swallerin' Place (4:01) June Carter 1953
48 One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer (3:20) Amos Milburn 1953
49 One More Time (2:54) Dean Martin 1954
50 The Boogie Disease (2:38) Dr. Ross 1954
51 (What About) Frank Clement (2:58) The Prisonaires 1954
52 Thirteen Women (2:51) Bill Haley & His Comets 1954
53 Dear Lord Take My Hand (2:58) Maddox Brothers & Rose 1949
54 Sleepy Eyed John (2:35) Ole Rasmussen 1950
55 Blacksmith Blues (3:26) Ella Mae Morse 1952
56 Who Is That Knocking (2:55) Southern Wonders 1952
57 Better Cut That Out (2:56) Sonny Boy Williamson 1948
58 No Help Wanted (2:24) The Carlisles 1952
59 I'm My Own Grandpa (3:12) Lonzo & Oscar 1947
60 When I First Sought The Lord Sister (2:27) Rosetta Tharpe 1952
61 Rock House Boogie (3:31) John Lee Hooker 1952
62 Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (2:53) Joe & Rose Lee Maphis 1953
63 Just Married (2:23) Faron Young 1953
64 I'm Using My Bible For A Roadmap (2:28) Reno & Smiley 1952
65 Open The Door Richard (2:56) Dusty Fletcher 1947
66 Going To The River (2:31) Fats Domino 1953
67 Molly Darling (2:34) Eddy Arnold 1947
68 Feelin' Good (3:01) Little Junior's Blue Flames 1952
69 Why Should I Cry (2:50) Lonnie Johnson 1951
70 Tired of Your Lies (2:12) Mississippi Slim 1952
71 The Things That I Used To Do (3:23) Guitar Slim 1953
72 The Gold Rush Is Over (2:23) Hank Snow 1952
73 Mona Lisa (3:23) Nat King Cole 1950
74 Working On a Building (2:50) The Jordanaires 1950
75 You Hit Me Baby Like An Atom Bomb (1:58) Fay Simmons 1954
76 Merle's Boogie Woogie (3:00) Merle Travis 1948
77 If (2:48) The Ink Spots 1951
78 Lord Will Make a Way (3:37) Rev. Anderson Johnson 1952
79 Reconsider Baby (3:07) Lowell Fulson 1954
80 Hillbilly Fever (2:52) Little Jimmy Dickens 1950
81 I'll Make Sweet Love To You (3:00) Maddox Brothers & Rose 1952
82 Diesel Smoke (2:34) Doye O'Dell 1952
83 Swing Down Sweet Chariot (3:36) The Spirit of Memphis 1951
84 Tiger Man (2:54) Rufus Thomas 1953
85 This Train (3:03) Rosetta Tharp/Louis Jordan 1943
86 My Happiness (3:35) Elvis Presley 1953
87 Harbor Lights (3:30) Elvis Presley 1954

So good to see some recent ILM love for EP. Got to see the docu last night, ticked all my boxes. There was an ILM thread about doing sp0tify playlists for artists you liked, around 10 years ago. Anyway I did an Elvis primer. Hope links still work.

https://open.spotify.com/user/kwimper/playlist/425zoJTN0Cs6cv9aMOkHrB
https://open.spotify.com/user/kwimper/playlist/0g32rk60x8xf0oc3v0IpAh

Thanks, Hadrian VIII -- your mix will be road trip music next time I'm passing through Tupelo.

holy crap hadrian

what a service

truly my pleasure

hey someone sent me a request but forgot to include their email address. let me know!

Hadrian, it's awesome. Sent you a PM.

on it's way

its

Elvis Presley: The Searcher is all right, but it's no Radio Free Shake Rag

aw

hey someone sent me a request but forgot to include their email address. let me know!

― DACA Flocka Flame (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, May 8, 2018 12:37 AM (twenty-one hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's me! how do i do what needs to be done?

if Elvis had lived and they did American Recordings style covers album i would want to hear him do Beck's "Lost Cause" also some Nick Cave and Misfits

Maybe Sistinas by Danzig, although that might be a little on the nose

There's a whole flood of ballads from the last thirty years that flowed into my head in Presley's voice: Waits' "Downtown Train", Nina Nastasia's "How Will You Love Me", Cave's "Are You the One I've Been Waiting For", Parton's "Wildflowers", Bonnie Prince Billy "Cursed Sleep," Welch's "No One Knows My Name" and Neko Case's "Set Out Running" and "Star Witness".

i wanna hear Elvis sing "Hit Me Baby One More Time"

"My loneliness is killin' me, mama"

i suppose Fakeapp-style voice AI will make things like this possible in the near future. i can already see Stereogum in 2020 posting an Elvis version of "All Star"

Tried to email Hadrian, gave up on endless ilx captcha, oh well rock on DJ:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/elvis-presley-drummer-dj-fontana-dead-at-87-w521520

I'd love to hear Elvis with the big TCB! band doing "Black Dog". You could do a cool arrangement with the horns and all those background singers.

cool revive

RIP DJ Fontana :(

The "Hound Dog" snare, man oh man.

Ike and Tina Review circa 1972 give some idea what the TCB! band might have done with hard rock songs.

Tried to email Hadrian, gave up on endless ilx captcha, oh well rock on DJ:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/elvis-presley-drummer-dj-fontana-dead-at-87-w521520

― dow, Thursday, June 14, 2018 9:14 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aw dow I've been awol try me again

I might be able to assist to help you guys connect without robomail if captcha was the problem. Check your emails in a few.

Got it got it got it, thanks so much Hadrian &/via James!!!

if Elvis had lived and they did American Recordings style covers album i would want to hear him do Beck's "Lost Cause" also some Nick Cave and Misfits

― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, June 5, 2018 8:41 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hahahaha

Also a duet with Bob Plant on “kashmir”

Thus Sprach Zarasthrutha / Kashmir” (Overture)

Finally reading Careless Love and jfc those “movie gulag” years from like 63-67 really are way more grim than I realized. By the time they’re down to 14-day shoots it’s like wtf is even happening anymore. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that the 68 Special is on the horizon

My favorite thing is how every time he gets obsessed with something (motorcycles, horses) he makes sure EVERYONE has one too. It’s bananas. That whole cowboy ranch sidetrack was so weird, him wearing chaps & a cowboy hat on the regular LOL (but also oddly endearing)

Have you finished it? If you think the mid sixties are grim, just wait...

As bad as you think it could be, it's worse.

i’m about 1/3rd of the way in

i realize it gets way worse :)

but i don’t think I realized the true extent to which the 60’s was such a creative vacuum. there’s that sad revelation in the leadup to the 68 special & Elvis “busting loose” where it’s clear that the true chasm of understanding between them was that Parker thought Elvis’ voice *alone* was the key to it all, when Elvis saw that it was his voice & the music combined that created the electricit. All those recordings where the music gets pushed down & his vocals get pushed up to sell something that no-one’s even buying anymore. A decade’s worth of talent mostly wasted because of that. Among other things. It’s maddening to see it laid out in such minute detail.