Elvis during his final year of life.
Sad, pathetic, sweaty, bloated...but still the king!
[Edited by Play With Fire]
17th April 2007 11:04 PM
Ten Thousand Motels
Discover Your Inner Elvis ... and Set Him Free
APRIL 17, 2007
Memphis Flyer
In a bid to boost tourism at Graceland, Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. (EPE), has launched a nationwide ad campaign with the tag line "Discover Your Inner Elvis."
Television spots feature a "soccer mom" in a replica Elvis bejeweled jumpsuit playing Elvis, while print, online and billboard adverts feature a Graceland visitor in a jumpsuit wearing Elvis-style sunglasses.
EPE spokesman Todd Morgan said the campaign tapped into people's sense of connection with Elvis, who was recently listed by Forbes magazine as the second highest earning dead celebrity after Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. Forbes estimated Elvis, who died on August 16, 1977, aged 42 of a heart attack, earned $42 million in 2005-2006 from marketing and product licensing.
"Elvis had a great ability to reach people, and there is usually an aspect of his character or his style that people connect with," Morgan said.
18th April 2007 01:09 AM
Kilroy
Elvis = The King.
18th April 2007 01:33 AM
Kilroy
quote:Play With Fire wrote:
Elvis during his final year of life.
Sad, pathetic, sweaty, bloated...but still the king!
[Edited by Play With Fire]
His one gift His voice never failed him, He basiclly did not have to come out an sing but he choose to, for that he was a great one. The King in my opinion
18th April 2007 07:19 AM
Gazza
quote:gimmekeef wrote:
Meg...your right...and I do like Elvis...at least the non Lounge Lizard version...But I just dont see him as King of Rock....Great singer..but more country than rock...Compared to Chuck Berry hes way down the road....
there's no comparison because he's miles ahead, round the bend and right out of sight. Last time I looked, rock n roll was supposed to be a fusion of various styles of music - country, R&B, blues and others. Elvis could sing anything. ANYTHING. And brilliantly. If Elvis was merely a 'country' singer, what does that make Chuck Berry?
Plus, its a cultural phenomenon and more than about just what it sounds like. To make rock n roll have mass popularity it needed a dominant central figure who had sex appeal and who could appeal to the younger audience it was aimed at. It wasnt going to get that with Chuck or anyone else. You CANT simply overlook the importance of that.
Dont get me wrong. Chuck was great and one of the most important artists in music history, but his music is too one dimensional and there are too many other cultural factors for him to have that 'king of rock n roll' label stuck on him.
You can justifiably argue about what rock n roll artist is your favourite musically, but love him or hate him there's pretty much no doubt as far as I can see as to who is the most significant artist in the history of rock n roll.
It simply wouldnt have developed as it did without him.
Elvis.
[Edited by Gazza]
18th April 2007 08:40 AM
justinkurian
quote:Gazza wrote:
there's no comparison because he's miles ahead, round the bend and right out of sight. Last time I looked, rock n roll was supposed to be a fusion of various styles of music - country, R&B, blues and others. Elvis could sing anything. ANYTHING. And brilliantly. If Elvis was merely a 'country' singer, what does that make Chuck Berry?
Plus, its a cultural phenomenon and more than about just what it sounds like. To make rock n roll have mass popularity it needed a dominant central figure who had sex appeal and who could appeal to the younger audience it was aimed at. It wasnt going to get that with Chuck or anyone else. You CANT simply overlook the importance of that.
Dont get me wrong. Chuck was great and one of the most important artists in music history, but his music is too one dimensional and there are too many other cultural factors for him to have that 'king of rock n roll' label stuck on him.
You can justifiably argue about what rock n roll artist is your favourite musically, but love him or hate him there's pretty much no doubt as far as I can see as to who is the most significant artist in the history of rock n roll.
It simply wouldnt have developed as it did without him.
Elvis.
[Edited by Gazza]
Damn, Gazza. That was the balls. Dead on.
Elvis is the king.
18th April 2007 09:21 AM
Gazza
quote:glencar wrote:
I didn't know the genius of Elvis until I went to Graceland. He rocked. As much as Mozart or any of those other dwegs.
Worth mentioning too that I think because he was so uniquely American that a lot of Americans maybe dont grasp what a huge (and positive) symbol Elvis was of your country to those of us growing up in other parts of the world.
An even more amazing accomplishment when you remember that aside from a couple of shows in Canada in 1957 he NEVER performed outside of the US.
18th April 2007 11:28 AM
slash1230
I was fortunate enough to see Elvis Presley at the Hilton in Las Vegas in 1972. He was phenomenal - dressed in a purple jumpsuit with high, pointy collars and huge bell-bottoms. He made women swoon down in the front by giving them sultry looks and sweat-soaked scarves. He did his kung-fu moves, and he snarled his lip when he smiled. He actually made fun of his lip-snarl by doing it repeatedly and then saying "I think they's somethin' wrong with mah lip".
I vividly remember how his voice would swell and just FILL the room when he bore down on certain notes. He covered "Never Been To Spain", and when he did the "Well I never been to heaven" line, the walls seemed to vibrate, and you could feel the power in that voice resonate through your whole body. I've seen 350 or so concerts in my life, and I've NEVER heard ANYONE come close to having that power, that presence, in their voice.
Charismatic, yet self-depreciating. Humourous. Movie-star handsome. Energetic and enthusiastic. And that voice...
This was when he was truly King.
It's too bad that people tend to remember the fat, bloated, incoherent parody of himself that he later became.
RIP, Elvis.
18th April 2007 11:57 AM
Ten Thousand Motels
04/18/2007
Where Tom Sawyer meets Elvis Presley
Record-Eagle.com
Ol' Man River, that Ol' Man River;
He must know somethin', but he don't say nothin';
He just keeps rollin', he keeps on rollin' along.
Oscar Hammerstein II
L. A. Suess leans back on the riverboat Mark Twain, crosses his right leg over his left, and takes his audience quickly back in time with the sweet, synchronized sounds of banjo and harmonica.
It has the feel of a scene from Show Boat, the long-running Broadway hit, but it is another entertaining day of music and tall tales on the chocolate waters of the Mississippi River.
"Music reflects the history and the culture of the river, said Suess, who has plied the Mississippi for years. "People still have an appreciation for old country stuff, for folk music.
Especially in Hannibal, Mo., where the Twain is docked and where author Samuel Clemens got his inspiration for characters like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson and Becky Thatcher.
Clemens, who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, spent his early years in Hannibal, the son of a justice of the peace. His boyhood home is now a National Historic Landmark, and a museum charts his storybook background, much of which is tied to the Mississippi.
It was the lure of the river that drew a young Clemens away from his familial surroundings, including a stint as a printer, and into the adventuresome career of a riverboat pilot. Eventually, of course, he became one of the 19th century's best-known novelists and humorists.
"When I find a well-drawn character in fiction or biography, I generally take a warm personal interest in him, wrote Clemens in Life on the Mississippi. "For the reason that I have known him before met him on the river.
If Mark Twain's tales and satire defined the rascals and river rats of the steamboat era, music described the hardscrabble reality of toting barges and lifting bales of cotton.
Folk, blues, soul, gospel, jazz and rock 'n' roll connect the dots between cultures and people along the lower Mississippi in places like St. Louis, Memphis, Clarksdale and New Orleans.
Memphis stands out. It is known as the birthplace of rock and roll as well as the home of the blues. It also helped plant soul and gospel music in the American conscience.
Elvis Presley is the best known local icon, but there were many others who made it big through the recorded sounds of Sun Records, the Memphis-based music studio known for discovering American idols long before the popular television show.
Johnny Cash, Ike Turner, Carl Perkins, B. B. King and Rufus Thomas, to name a few, trace their success to Memphis and the blending of blues, gospel and country.
Chuck Porter, an official at the Rock 'N' Soul Museum in Memphis, called it the "Memphis thang, a unique backbeat sound often heard in songs of the river.
"It's a sound that can be hard to learn to play, said Porter. "It's not something that somebody teaches you overnight. You need to get down and play.
The acoustics at the Sun studio help. It features the original hard tiles installed personally by founder Sam Phillips in 1950. No recording facility has been able to duplicate the distinctive background noise.
Where Beale Street meets the Mississippi is also the Memphis sound. That's where W. C. Handy wrote the first blues song in 1901. Today, blues bars and eateries populate the streetscape, officially declared the "Home of the Blues by an act of Congress in 1977.
Once a seedy hangout for drug addicts and prostitutes, Beale Street emerged as a tourist attraction in the 1960s, about the time Elvis Presley, Van Morrison and other white rock 'n' roll stars began showing up to jam with blues musician B. B. King.
"Beale Street was the black man's haven, said Porter. "They could come down here and they could play and enjoy themselves. But it was not a pretty place.
Beale Street underwent revitalization in the 1980s, and now plays host to one of the nation's premier music festivals for three days in the spring. Music lovers crowd Tom Lee Park to hear their favorite artists, and to drink to the beat of the night in Silky O'Sullivan's, Rum Boogie Cafι and The Black Diamond.
"There's not a lot of real, old-time blues musicians left, said Porter. "I mean the older guys who were there when a lot of the recording started.
What you experience now, he added, is "musicians that have been influenced by a lot of the old-timers. They're just trying to carry on a tradition.
Blues musician Johnny Cool, who peddles compact discs to tourists on Beale Street, said the tone and style of the music form is dying in the very city that gave it birth.
"It has been totally devastating to the people who come to Memphis to hear the blues, and find out that they don't hear the blues, said Cool. "They hear country and western or watered-down rock 'n' roll because the blues players who used to live here have moved on.
Some of them can be found down river in Clarksdale, Miss., where Cool said he grew up working on a plantation and learning about the hard side of life, an experience he called essential to emoting the blues.
"It has to do with adverse conditions, facing intense racism, said Cool. "I had to face all that when I was coming up as a kid. You see yourself (in the music) as being able to do whatever it takes to relieve such a very unpleasant environment.
If true blues needs hardship, it has found it at Red's Lounge, Clarksdale's oldest juke joint. Plastic tacked to the ceiling protects the musicians from a leaky roof. Big Red, the owner, sells T-shirts to raise money for repairs in a place with barely enough room to accommodate two-dozen patrons and a pool table.
But the people are friendly, the barbecue out front sizzles all night and the sound of the blues has a reputation of being consistently good and local.
This night, Robert "Wolfman Belfour, 66, holds court. He plays solo for the most part, and the sound from his guitar is so full that if you closed your eyes, you'd think he had a brass accompaniment.
"Don't nothin' but players play here, said Big Red. "You've been getting all that watered-down (blues) in Memphis. We got the real deal here. And it plays on and on until there's nobody left to listen.
"There's not even a clock, he said. "We don't give a damn about the time. We're like the casinos. We party until we're tired, then we go home.
Joe "Ice Man Williams, who jams at Big Red's, said the crowd is small but loyal. He said the same people come back night after night.
"It's a part of our heritage, he said. "We were raised with the music. Our parents loved it, we love it, it goes from generation to generation.
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