Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

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.

HI DERE

:D

And it's weird when you hear recordings he did during movie gulag time of songs he actually liked and cared about - generally the ones not intended for movies - there's a night and day difference in the performance. Thinking of, for example, the 2nd gospel album and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time."

For sure

wow this is quite a read, fascinating:

https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/pain/other/brain-injury/elvis-presley-head-trauma-autoimmunity-pain-early-death

Heartbreaking.

Very interesting, thanks

Mac Davis just passed away after heart surgery. Probably best-known for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdXKk8dcfqM

Coincidentally, I watched Elvis's comeback special yesterday. I hadn't seen it in a while, and it's pretty amazing - the CD's and LP's don't do it justice, you really need to get the DVD and watch both the TV special itself and the informal "sit down" session. His movies aren't exactly a favorite, but you can see why he was able to make so many - he really had a tremendous screen presence.

Of course Elvis in Memphis came next, and IMHO it's really the one truly great LP he made that wasn't a compilation. There was still more great music to come and the experimentation on Elvis Country is commendable, but it's a shame he slipped back into complacency soon after.

(*a favorite of mine, I should say)

RIP Mac! wrote quite a few Elvis hits including Memories & Little Less Conversation

also did a perfect Elvis voice impression, as heard on a recent ep of Gilbert Gottfried's podcast

Of course _Elvis in Memphis_ came next, and IMHO it's really the one truly great LP he made that wasn't a compilation. There was still more great music to come and the experimentation on _Elvis Country_ is commendable, but it's a shame he slipped back into complacency soon after.

Suspicious Minds is great right
But can it be great if it’s so damn depressing?
Dude is simply sobbing out the verses

He’s sabotaging its greatness and doesn’t give a damn

yes, it totally can still be great!

my favorite sub sub genre is upbeat songs with sad lyrics/delivery

bridge over troubled water is the most mounful secular gospel song you ever heard

send one up for Ronnie Tutt

ty for taking care of business, drumwise.

Imagine living your life thinking Elvis is anything but a classic.

Tutt was so great. Knew exactly how to exploit the dynamics and subtexts of every song, no small feat for an Elvis collaborator.

I hope Baz Luhrmann’s take isn’t popular. He has a way of cheapening everything he touches.

Ronnie Tutt was the rhythmic pulse connected between Elvis, Neal Diamond and Jerry Garcia. That is crossing a couple different worlds.

Obviously Neil...must have had Cassady on the brain.

If not Patricia.

Now imagining Elvis as Hud.

“They call it polk…salad” *rimshot* “Hud!”

Listening to Tutt & the band on those early Vegas shows & it’s stunning AND entirely believable that they could do what, three shows a day? and just holding it down in the most incredible ways

like sure you prob have to take a ton of uppers to do it but you still have to play like a motherfucker to meet Elvis where he’s at and goddamn they all could, but especially Tutt

also loved his playing on the Roy Orbison black and white night concert

Trailer for Baz Luhrmann's new Elvis movie:

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

I doubt I was ever going to watch this. I've never liked Luhrmann - it feels like he uses every single idea that comes to mind as if none of them are awful when most of them are - but even if it wasn't him directing or writing, I'd be reluctant.

Does not sound appealing.

For a lot of it it seems like it's gonna be The Tom Parker Story, which would be a much better and more interesting movie. But yeah, it's gonna suck, in a hilariously inept way. Luhrmann sucks.

It's going to be amazing for all the wrong reasons. Can't wait.

i like Baz, especially when he taps into a personal obsession (like Gatsby)… i am open-minded & will definitely see it
i find what he overdoes visually sometimes (not always) can distract from how well he can get to the heart of a story

and i love an exploration of the Elvis myth

i loved Austin Butler as Tex in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, and the trailer is too choppy to tell but i think he has the abilityto pull off the necessary magnetism & childishness… but omg his face is so OVAL & plain. i am sad at the lack of prominent cheekbones & incredible angles possessed by E. alas, Butler is but a mere mortal :/

will it even be halfway as good as the Kurt Russell biopic?

i dunno...if you asked me what kind of elvis movie i always dreamed of seeing i'd say a respectful adaptation of guralnick's "last train to memphis," but interest in elvis seems to have dried up to such an extent that maybe what we really need is a reminder of how weird and unlikely and compelling this guy was, and i do kinda get that from this trailer. maybe elvis's story is just inherently powerful enough to me that it kinda works for me even when i cringe at the delivery.

There was also a Jonathan Rhys-Meyers thing at some point.

Yes, interest sort of varies. The ILM Elvis poll had something like 17 voters.

It looks like Luhrmann's taking The Dewey Cox Story as his model, with the jokes omitted.

i dunno...if you asked me what kind of elvis movie i always dreamed of seeing i'd say a respectful adaptation of guralnick's "last train to memphis"

Same here. That book had a big role in making me an Elvis fan. IIRC it inspired a very short-lived network TV series of Elvis in his youth that was cancelled quickly due to low ratings, and there have been attempts to turn the book into a movie but it's been languishing with different producers and may have had the rights kicked around different parties after many failed attempts at getting financing.

This one seems to be taking the opposite approach, but I liked how Guralnick brought Elvis down to earth. Instead of some grotesque myth of Americana, he portrayed him as a real, poor kid in the rural projects finding his way out through what he heard on the radio every day. Amusingly, Hanks read both Gulranick books as research for this new movie...to be fair he really only needed them for info on Colonel Parker.

There was also a Jonathan Rhys-Meyers thing at some point.

A TV miniseries! RANDY QUAID AS THE COLONEL!

ROSE MCGOWAN AS ANN-MARGRET!

I didn't see all of it, but the ending was pretty good, with a dejected Elvis--having just had his dreams of doing good movies and touring abroad quashed by The Colonel--pulling himself together and singing his ass off on the comeback special version of "If I Can Dream".

It's going to be amazing for all the wrong reasons. Can't wait.

Is there a bit with a carnival fire-breather in every BL movie?

Ha, must be.

I mean, of course I'd rather see a treatment of the Guralnick books. Teen Elvis bopping around Memphis, reciting MacArthur's farewell speech to anyone who'll listen.

But running the King through a neon pipe filled with Goldschläger and LSD, and featuring Forrest Gump as Col. Tom Parker? Whatever, I'm in.

I'm a sucker for this schtick anyways. Hope this new one also has some Alice Cooper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swBay5ARz6A

I want to watch that now, but seems like I would need a subcription to something called Stringray Karaoke.

Stingray Karaoke even