Ok...somebody has to start this thread.
This week its all about Elvis, TV, Radio...u cant run away from it. What do u all think about elvis?
Was he that important for the music?
I dont mind Elvis...he had some nice songs and i can even watch some of his movies. But was his talent so special that we have to remember him every 5 years like this?
Or is it all a commercial thing again.

I'm not very fascinated with his music (which he didn't even write himself)

BUT the man had good taste in food, peanutbutter and banana sandwich is my absolutely fav. Yum

elvis is the king of rock n roll and all ways will b

Peach said:

too funny!

[This message was edited Tue Aug 13 8:33:51 PDT 2002 by nuthinbuttamuffin]

RainbowPaintedSky said:

Pah-leeeze!

Elvis is THE most overated artist ever! He was manufactured and promoted the same way girl and boy bands are now. The difference being he could actually sing... well he had 2 b able 2 sing coz there were no computers to fix things in those days.

It has 2 b noted that, yes, as he progressed in his career he gained various musical skills and developed unquestionable charisma, stage presence and a powerful, original voice. There were good tunes (not written by him) but to label him as the king of rock and roll is laughable.

Other talent just didn't get a look in coz of the huge Elvis money machine. Hmmm feels a bit familiar.

RainbowPaintedSky said:

Explain PLEASE!!! In other words, elaborate on your statement.

Peach said:

U know i never tried that sandwich...gonna try it today...
it sounds nasty though...

Isn't Elvis a child molester?
I don't understand why people seem to always overlook this point. Marrying a 16 year old girl is not cool at all.
But that's your hero, be proud.

...i watched the e! true hollywood story about his last days the other day.

elvis is overrated nowadays. heck, at the iowa state fair in '97 there wuz a butter elvis...along with the butter cow.

Daywalker7700 said:

Mayte was 16 when Prince met her and said she'd be his wife and how old was Nona Gaye in 93/4?

Best Prince fans not throw stones from this greenhouse...

Elvis will always b the king of rock and roll and the music world will always honor him when his b-day comes around and the anniversary of his death!

When it comes to Elvis, I pretty much agree with the following article:

Night and Day - by Richard G. Carter
Debunking Elvis
The King of Rock 'n' Roll had no clothes

Another year has gone by, and with it another misguided set of inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'd like to clear the air on some salient but ignored aspects of the mishmash that marked the career of the Hall's most revered member, Elvis Presley.


Try as he might, Elvis couldn't carry a tune in a wheelbarrow. If you doubt it, go back and take a listen to his woeful rendition of "Blue Christmas." Ugh!

Elvis unashamedly stole his sorry attempts at song-styling from far superior black R&B singers of the day.

Despite ripping-off black music, Elvis' famous quote from his salad days still resonates strongly. Said he: "All black people can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my records."

Elvis was a redneck, down-home hick whose chokehold on white America in the 1950s and '60s is ironclad testimony as to how musically naive much of the majority was in the good old days.

Elvis' ongoing fascination among whites has more to do with their need to feel good about their youthful interests than recognition of, or appreciation for, honest-to-goodness talent.

Harsh? Unfair? Or, perhaps, sour grapes? Not really. Because the self-styled "King of Rock 'n' Roll" was a musical joke! Here's the real skinny on fat old Elvis and his times.
As fate would have it, Elvis came along when mainstream white America-aside from jazz lovers-was humming to the likes of Perry Como, the Ames Brothers and Eddie Fisher. This left their hot-to-trot teenage kids drowning in a sea of musical boredom.

A minuscule number of whites, including a few of my Milwaukee friends, were lucky enough to have been turned on to "Randy's Record Shop" on Clear Channel WLAC in Nashville. That's where you could hear the down-and-dirty stuff every night on the car radio while cruising Walnut Street or Lake Drive.

Ironically, the enlightened Randy Wood-a Gallatin, Tennessee record retailer-turned-dejay-was white. Along with nationally known black DJs such as New York's Tommy (Dr. Jive) Smalls, Douglas (Jocko) Henderson and Hal Jackson, Chicago's Al Benson, Daddy-o Daley and Sid McCoy, and Milwaukee's Mannie Mauldin Jr., Randy treated black America to the bluesy sounds of a whole host of nonpareil wailers.

In those days, pioneering blues talents such as Charles Brown, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Ivory Joe Hunter, LaVern Baker and James Brown were favorites of black adults and teens alike. In the trend-setting black community, taste for good music ran in the family.

And then, following a rash of record hits by the Dominoes, the Clovers, the Spaniels, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, R&B caught the fancy of another influential white DJ, New York's Alan Freed, who played it non-stop on big-time WINS radio.

However, as we happily moved and grooved to these and other authentic greats, we were unaware that a no-talent twerp from Memphis was about to swivel-hip his way to fame and fortune on their backs and with the music they created.

The burgeoning black music trend wasn't lost on some of the more astute good old boy recording company owners in the South, who jumped at the chance to promote black-sounding white singers. Enter young Elvis. He and his handlers embarked on a bid to make his reputation by parroting every black R&B vocalist he could.

And the rest of the story, aided and abetted by the Svengali-like Col. Tom Parker, is you know what ...

Finally hearing gut-level black music, albeit by second-class white wannabes, teenage white America predictably went ape. And why not? They had been so musically deprived that they were willing to eat anything. And they did. As a result, Elvis' name will live forever.

But isn't it interesting that the same kind of stuff he sang in his groaning, syrupy, often off-key fashion had been out there for at least a decade-only in infinitely better form by its black originators?

The plain truth is that if white kids in the '50s had been as thoroughly exposed to the real thing as they were to Elvis, the silly Elvis phenomena might never have materialized. Had they heard "Please, Please, Please" and "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," for example, Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel," "Hound Dog" and "All Shook Up" might have been recognized for the pedestrian efforts they were.

Of course, what really propelled Elvis-and assured his place for years to come-were his mid-'50s TV shots with Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan, and his many films. These were venues few black singers could aspire to. He made the most of them, even creating a phony sexual aura with embarrassingly bad swivel-hipping. A Michael Jackson he wasn't.

Speaking of his movies, everyone knows Elvis couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. A Presley picture was worth seeing only to ogle the beautiful women he was lucky enough to work with, a la Ann-Margret. But that's a whole different story.

So here we are in 2001, decades after a bloated, drugged-up Elvis went to meet his maker at Graceland. And although his demise wasn't very graceful, white America continues to genuflect to his name-fueled by recollections of its carefree youth and the marginally talented troubadour who was in the right place at the right time. A white singer who tried to sound like a black singer for white people.

Millions bought it because they knew no better. But other millions, notably black people, looked, listened and said "No Sale."

About the only thing I'll give Elvis credit for was serving in the U.S. Army. At least he did his patriotic duty when called, which is a lot more than a certain hillbilly Elvis-lover who made his way to the White House.

Finally, unlike the undeserving Elvis, when are more of the black R&B stars of the '40s and '50s who originated rock 'n' roll going to get into the Hall of Fame? Of the 175 current members, only 74 are black, some of them having little connection to rock 'n' roll as such. If, indeed, the counterfeit "King" Elvis still lives, I hope he realizes the huge injustice being perpetrated.

Janeau said:

I can.


How much time ya got?


If not him, some other White guy would have achieved it. His success was due in large part because of the racial climate at that time. And partly because he was a great performer performing music that had yet to get any mainstream exposure. I guess you could say his performance style was a physical liberation for sheltered teens of the 50s, but it was nothing more than what was happening all the time in southern juke joints.


It's not an every 5 year thing, it's the 25 anniversary of his death during the middle of the month. The hype and how he is worshipped all the time is nauseating, but that says more about his worshippers and the media more than anything else.

"All black people can do..." would be instantly discredited though by virtue of "black people" influencing his music, writing his songs and even onstage with him in his later years doing backing vox no?

I wonder if this quote is true although he never seemed particularly intelligent and as a product of the South rolling with his "Memphis Mob" I'm sure there was an element of that in the mix...

Essence said:

Is there not a difference between marrying a 16 year old and saying one would be one's wife? - Though, I'd keep my 16 year old away from an older man if I had one.

Anywho, I think Jerry Lee Lewis has Elvis beat on this one, didn't he marry his 14 year old second cousin?

Essence said:

As far as I know it's not been substantiated, though you could still take it either way and run with it.

Supernova said:

Jerry Lee Lewis's Cousin was 13.just like Bill Wyman's Bride.but it is so common in that Business.

Persona,Charisma,Good Singer not Great.dug some of His Stuff."suspicious Minds" is my favorite Song of His.He had His Issues no doubt but folks should read Books on Jackie Wilson that put alot of things about Elvis into Perspective on various issues dealing with Race.He was cool for His time Period.He had a Vibe about Him.

Krystystystyna said:

This right here is incorrect. There are 192 members of Rock's Hall, and 85 of them are Black. But remember, many of the members are non-performers; for example, the vast majority of label founders/owners during the industry's early history weren't Black. I tend to think the politics of the Rock Hall of fame are not racial, but musical. If you didn't cross over, it'll take a long time for you to be recognized (if at all). And still, that's in itself is a crime.

mistermaxxx said:

I don't think it's any more common in the music business than it is in life itself.
[This message was edited Tue Aug 13 12:32:18 PDT 2002 by Supernova]

Essence said:

Prince and Mayte did not start dating until she was of age, as far as the Nona Gay thing, I don't know anything about that.
The point is that Elvis was an ass hole for having sex with an underage girl, and if Prince did the same thing, he's an ass also.

Daywalker7700 said:

Yeah I agree, was just saying, Nona was 16/17 I believe.

.
[This message was edited Mon Aug 19 11:14:35 PDT 2002 by LadyLove]

Amongst the white rock n'roll pioneer, I dig Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran & Ricky Nelson (well not a pioneer but underrated imo)
Elvis songs are listenable until 1958 (well J Lennon said that Elvis is dead at his military service hehe), after ( "It's now or never" never!)

once again, eye must come 2 the rescue...


Elvis met Pricilla when she was 14 and he fell in love with her instantly, Yes he did mess around with her at that age, but then when she was 16 she moved in with him supposedly so she could be close to him and go to good schools. BUT, Pricilla says that he wanted to wait till they got married to have sex, and so they did. She was 21 or around there, when they got married. He cheated on her like crazy and even raped her when he was high as kite while they were married

Whether you choose to agree or not, Elvis is INDEED the King of Rock N' Roll!!!

Hey Krys, what you said has a whole lot of truth to it! It may be a little harsh, but the truth surely. My African-American Studies teacher, has several text on hand proving where Elvis gained his influence. It was from Black people! It's funny how no one knows who Chuck Berry, or John Lee Hooker are. Yet, Elvis is the KING of Rock 'n' Roll!



Blue
Dont play me
[This message was edited Tue Aug 13 17:19:05 PDT 2002 by TheBluePrince]

Fatastic musician & always had a wicked band especially during his las vegas tour. Ronnie Tutt can play the drums man

HellOnHeels said:

that's what i read too. except for the rape part. hmmm...