You know, Elvis isn't THAT bad....

[Taverner]

I used to deride Elvis, thinking he was just a white boy who copted the blues. I held more admiration for the Beatles, who took music in a COMPLETELY different direction right around the Revolver and Rubber Soul albums, and more admiration for the Beach Boys who, with Pet Sounds, reinvented rock and roll.

But lately I've been listening to Elvis radio on sirius, and you know - he's not half bad!

[LostInAnomie]

1. He's no Johnny Cash.

eom

[Taverner]

2. No indeed, he is no Johnny Cash

And he's no Hank Williams Sr. or even a Buddy Holly....

But his voice isn't half bad...

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. No, but he's not THAT good, either

He was a decent enough talent, did some cool stuff, did some silly dreck stuff, was ultimately defeated by his manager, which is sad. Great voice, not a great musician. Could have had a better career than he did, but wouldn't, I don't think, ever reached the heights of musicianship or relevance that a lot of people think he did reach.

But certainly had a huge impact on country western music; and absolutely had a huge impact on a lot of lives.

Which is funny, cuz they call him the king of rock, but he really didn't rock, and you only hear him (mostly) on country stations any more.

And a very good gospel singer. That's where his real talent was.

[unblock]

4. i agree. elvis costello ROCKS!!!!

:P

[McKenzie]

7. hugely under-rated talent

probably doesn't appeal to a wider audience because of his weedy/geeky appearance. Songs such as "Watching the Detectives" and "Shipbuilding" are classics.

[unblock]

9. he also refuses to americanize his lyrics

many britishisms and british allusions, far too many for american audience. our limit is one, at most, per song. or maybe per cd.

[bettyellen]

13. Elvis sang a whole show right to me, when he was on Sessions on

West 54 th on PBS with Burt Bacharach. I was the spot he was staring at for three hours. Sommeone said they could see me reflected in his glasses....
I still get goosebumps. I wish I has taped it.

[Taverner]

14. Wow...when was this?

I'm sure you could find a tape of it somewhere - have you checked PBS.org?

[bettyellen]

15. A bit after Painted from Memory came out... they did that entire album,

plus some old bacharach, Little Red Book was so good, perfect for elvis. and some old Elvis, too.
Burt was being waaay picky about the tempo... he was slowing down the L... there were a lot of re-dos. which i loved. it went on over three hours. i think the show was just an hour.
i've only seen that one really sad song is included on the Best of Sessions CD. a producer friend promised to get me a cd of the pre-edit, but she never came through. i want all of it, dammit. i have the CD, but it's not enough.

[McKenzie]

5. The Sun Records releases were good

but after that he went slowly downhill imho.

Wonder if he'd have sold so much if he'd been fat and ugly?

[Taverner]

6. Also his comeback show in the late sixties was good

Schmaltzy but good....

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. You know that Page and Plant offered Led Zep as a backing band...

...and were turned down, right?

I guess the reason Plant eventually did the "Honeydrippers" thing is that he had to get it out of his system somehow.

The whole "Dread Zeppelin" thing was one part absurd joke, one part riffing on a missed opportunity.

I can imagine Presley, right after the '68 comeback special, bellowing "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy dowwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn insiiiiiiiiide...WOMAN...youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu NEED...

dun DUN......

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE."

Hey, stranger things have happened. The Dread Zep version of that song offers proof.

:toast:

[Taverner]

10. Really? That would have been good

Very strange, but good....

[WI_DEM]

11. He was good

The Sun Record days, even some of the early movies like "Jailhouse Rock" and "King Creole", then the Col. made him do all those "Elvis Travellouges" such as "Blue Hawaii", "Paradise, Hawaii Style" ect. He should have stood up to the Col. but he just didn't have it in him. He did have one glorious late career moment--the '68 comeback special was excellent and he looked great in it and sounded very good. Then he threw all that away and became a Vegas Lounge lizard and ate himself and doped himself to death. I think it was gradual suicide.

[Taverner]

12. That is, unless Bubba Ho Tep was true

in which case he died fighting off a soul-sucking mummy...

[SarahB]

16. You know, you're probably right.

I was definitely not of the Elvis era and my mom outright hated Elvis (why I'm not sure, but she's grouchy in general), so I just never thought one way or another about the guy really. Then I read more recently and learned more stuff about the guy. He had a lot of inner turmoil and sadness I think to have let drugs take over his life so much. A lot of people though got hooked on prescription drugs back in the 50's and 60's though. I mean, "if the doctor prescribed it, it must be okay" was the train of thought back then, so with unlimited funds, it's easy to see how a spiral like this could occur.

That Sirius channel is pretty cool though- one thing I'll miss when I'm out of the Belle household is this with our satellite dish. I'm not much of a TV person at all, so I probably won't have even basic cable, but it picks up a nice variety of music.

I know it probably has a lot to do with getting closer with someone who likes Elvis a lot and sort opening my eyes in a new way, but surprisingly, we've never really discussed at all really.