Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

i can’t watch those final shows, it feels too much like car crash footage. (cannot get over the fact that he was only 42)

blows my mind too. dude recorded like 3700 songs, shot 40 films and was deployed for a while. one of those "people used to be older when they were younger" things I guess

I agree he was best in the 70's...not only that but some of the backing bands he got were awesome. I saw a documentary about him and some of those drummers were insane

one of the things i loved about the Guralnick “Last Train To Memphis” was the session musicians who would roll their eyes at having to work with Elvis, “this fuckin guy” energy. And then they’d be 100% on board once they saw how he would respectfully talk to them on their level, like they’d been playing together for years, how much he loved & knew about music, and how talented he was when it came to performing. it surprised them.

Yeah almost every anecdote of people meeting him shows him to be very kind, respectful and humble person.

I can’t remember the source but there’s a story of him being deeply hurt and crying to someone (iirc someone from his family) because the media where bullying him for being fat and he didn’t understand at all why people were suddenly turning against him when he kept being very professional and loving to his fans.

Unrelated to the current discussions, but I watch early clips and just marvel at the absolutely criminal amount of charisma he had as a performer. He is so fucking fun to watch. We've heard everything they said about him a million times, but it's all true:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tiBYUzRLmI

my god he was hot

There was some quote from Ian Hunter in The Book of Rock Lists, but my copy long ago crumbled into dust from overuse. Hmm. Let me see.

"Elvis had animal magnetism. He was even sexy to guys. I can't imagine what the chicks used to think." — Ian Hunter

This looks interesting. https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_night_mott_the_hooples_ian_hunter_sneaked_into_elvis_presleys_home

Except it isn’t really

like if beyonce did an elvis album that would be kind of fucking awesome

i hold out some hope that somebody might rediscover and re-reappropriate elvis old and new back into pop culture

Unfortunately, it'll probably be a hologram.

Funniest bit in that "Ready Teddy" performance is Elvis standing stock-still for a couple of seconds at 1:15.

Haha love that.

And that clip reminded me of what a fantastically driving guitarist he was, as seen to better effect here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_t20f4PiRM

About the only time he played lead guitar, right?

I watched the comeback special on DVD through Netflix about 15 years ago. I can see where U2 learned the concept of the smaller stage.

and ooh boy this is lovely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMCr3cFvMU4

xxp Yeah, he's kind of underrated as a guitarist - it may be lead, but it really showcases his skills as a rhythm guitarist, and he's just flat out awesome. That whole sitdown portion on the DVD set (previously released in audio-only on the Tiger Man CD) is my favorite part of that DVD.

And yeah, "True Love Travels on a Gravel Road" is marvelous - the whole Elvis in Memphis album may be his only album-by-design (not a compilation, not stitched together from a grab bag of sessions) that I would call a masterpiece.

Hard to argue with, although the original version of that album was missing several of the big singles. Still love this story.

In particular "Suspicious Minds" and "Kentucky Rain." Still a good album without them though.

thank you guys for all these great videos.

just confirms again that more than anything i would just love to see an 'elvis in the studio' streaming thing a la get back. surely the man had so much footage taken of himself, something could be found??

Can I pause this thread to say Elvis has the best one of these videos by far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jd9AmepgdM

XP Probably as close as we're gonna get:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7piUjpXDgNw

Plus all the MGM studio rehearsals for those shows.

lol @ the shreds video

thank you c grisso but i'm spoiled now, i need that sweet peter jackson AI upscaling

...and Elvis apologizing for farting.

Lol yeah love that musicless elvis video, my favorite one is probably the bowie and jagger one though and the lionel richie “hello” one always makes me laugh, he’s such a creep on that one.

LMAO, didn't know they did "Hello." It stops just short of this Onion article.

I think it's really one of the great what-ifs of rock history to think about Elvis releasing From Elvis in Memphis as a double album including "Suspicious Minds" and "Kentucky Rain" plus the studio tracks that came out on From Memphis to Vegas / From Vegas to Memphis. That would have been considered an undisputed masterpiece. And it did come out that way in the '80s when RCA released the CD The Memphis Record] but by then the moment had passed.

Most of the Memphis tracks on From Memphis to Vegas... aren't quite as strong, so I'm kind of glad they didn't go for a double album. As great as the singles were, especially "Suspicious Minds," I can accept their single-only release as common practice, especially during the '60s. At least Elvis proved he could match the Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks et al at putting out a masterpiece while saving more great stuff for 45's.

fun to hear them finally nail "little sister"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWPr3iMMA2o

I mean you could probably make at least one classic 5 star album if you were to play god and select a very concise 12 track album just from his 1969-1970 recordings. There’s at least 50 songs to pick from. There’s 11 singles, 3 live albums and 5 studio albums just in that small frame of time according to rym.

Yeah but even just choosing from what he recorded in American Sound Studio in Memphis in January/February 1969, that should have been a tour de force album. Instead it was portioned out in dribs and drabs for an entire year.

This Luhrmann movie looks like it could be ok, but the casting of Hanks as Col. Parker seems like a major mistake, compounding by having him do a stiff Dutch accent and wear thick make-up. There are precious few interviews with Parker floating around, but in one from the '80s his accent sounds indistinguishable from Southern American. I don't think he could have passed himself off as a good ol' Southern boy if he talked like Hanks does in that clip. Is it supposed to make him seem more menacing? They should have cast someone younger and ditched the makeup and accent.

Or maybe somebody European maybe. Such as Benedict Cumberbatch? *ducks*

Maybe casting someone Dutch or German who can do a convincing Southern accent would have been the way to go. Like Christoph Walz maybe? Too late now.

Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking, maybe a Scandinavian even. First thought of Max von Sydow, now thinking Stellan Skarsgård.

that baby what you want me to do is amazing, great rhythm guitarist. almost gets into some chaotic 90s fat possum, rl burnside type vibes at points

Who is up there besides Elvis, Scotty and D.J.?

Also think he just keeps coming back to "Baby What You Want Me to Do" multiple times and it never gets old.

Wonder how many people know that the actress who played a belly dancer in the Star Trek: TOS episode "Wolf in the Fold" also did the same on the Comeback Special. I'll bet at least one person knows that besides me, who just learned it.

I did not know that. So this Tanya Lemani was like a session belly dancer in the '60s.

Apparently. She also dated Shatner but maybe James Doohan was trying to steal her away at one point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDGeo-WpoxY

I picked up the Elvis in Nashville 2LP of the highlights from the CD set. Love it so much but particularly obsessed with "Wash my hand in the muddy water."

That's a good one.

Some member of the house band really shredding on this version of "Baby What You Want Me to Do."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WpVwbYiwlI

I enjoyed the new "Elvis" movie. Hanks's accent was a bit distracting at first (it sounded more German than Dutch), but after a while I didn't notice it. I'm not sure how much of the movie was exactly historically accurate - it seems some poetic license was taken for dramatic effect in certain key scenes - not to give spoilers. Luhrman can tell a story and although this was 2 hrs and 30 minutes long, I never got bored. His respect for Elvis's accomplishments seemed genuine. I liked how the movie showed that even into his early Vegas years Elvis was still capable of creative ferment. From the movie, it seemed that Vegas only became a trap after it dragged on for year after year and Elvis was unable to extricate himself from the grip of Col Parker, who comes across as truly villainous - psychologically perceptive, controlling, avuncular and unctuous when the situation called for it, but in reality callous and almost sociopathically self-serving, a toxic mix that reminded me a bit of our former president, which may have been intentional.

Posted about it in the Baz Luhrmann thread...Agree with a lot of that, though you were much more tolerant of Hanks than I was: couldn't stand the accent, though he was given way too much screen time (i.e., crooked and controlling managers are not unusual in music history; Elvis was unique).

Would have been more interested in a recreation of the Million Dollar Quartet--the interaction there--or the (maybe apocryphal) story of Jerry Lee Lewis showing up at Graceland with a gun, or Sam Phillips-related scenes, or lots of other stuff other than Parker.

Yeah I enjoyed it too although I'm not particularly a fan and only knew some basic things about him. It was quite exciting and even moving by the end (I'd say it's a bit too long though).
At first, after seeing the trailer, I thought that would be awful. I like some Luhrmann movies but some are too much for me, Moulin Rouge for instance. I also thought the choice of the actor to play Elvis was bad since he didn't seem to have the charisma and looks. I was very wrong though as he's spectacular (and grotesque at times as should be !). Hanks reminded me of Goldmember in Austin Powers.

in theory a movie that tells the story of col parker and/or tells the story of elvis through col parker could be a really great idea imho. its true that crooked managers arent exactly rare but still, parker was a strange & fascinating figure who is not super widely known to the genl public today. a movie that tells his story from his pov would at least something i havent seen before, while a movie about the meteoric rise and tragic fall of a legendary performer is something i've seen approximately a million times already. trailer makes it look like the movie is mostly the latter & not enough of the former for me to get over my aversion to luhrmann though.

Who is up there besides Elvis, Scotty and D.J.?
Just watched Jailhouse Rock properly over the weekend since TCM was showing it in relatiion to this movie coming out and smiled when I saw or was reminded that the classic band is supplemented by Mike Stoller on piano.

I didn't see the Luhrmann thread, is that on the film board? In any case, while I agree with you that Elvis was a far more exceptional person than Parker, I think Parker as played by Hanks was more interesting on screen than the Elvis character. Despite wearing the heavy makeup, Hanks was able to convey a lot of nuance by small eye movements. The Elvis actor was able to convey something of Elvis's physical magnetism and stage presence, though in the dialog scenes you didn't get a lot of insight into what was going on in his mind.