i think for me, it's not just that he gets crowned "king" when there were worthy contenders out there "eliminated" from contention by sole virtue of the color of their skin; it's the insistence that elvis is so much better than he was/is.

there's been an awful lot of revisionist history in the 30 years since his death. i was little, but i do know that no one was talking about elvis or his music in the years leading up to his death. i knew who the beatles were and had barely heard of elvis. he was off in vegas performing for aging "teenagers" trying to recapture their youth. and back in the day, vegas was not where the "cool" people performed.

there's a reason the moneymen handling elvis' image only present the "jailhouse rock" era or the "aloha tv special" elvis, and downplay the guy who did all those awful movies or who was so drugged out at the end he couldn't sing. when he died all those same rock n rollers who love to shout out their love for him *now*, couldn't be bothered to attend his funeral. james brown, one of the few musicians who did, got more love from his peers when he died. moreover, i read somewhere that people magazine didn't even make elvis the cover story when he died. if so, i can only think of one reason: he was long off the musical radar for most people other than his diehard fans.

he may have more recorded songs than almost anyone out there but can you name them beyond a handful? outside of the two or three years he was on the scene before he went into the army and had those early hits, what has endured that anyone outside his most ardent fans can name, that's not kind of cheesy? viva las vegas? come on, it's a slice of velveta! in the ghetto, suspicious minds? hummable, but think of what other artists were doing in the late 60s/early 70s.

so yeah, for me, it's not only the cold slap in the face that whites degraded "race music" to the point of actually holding bonfires to burn the records of black artists only to turn around and "crown" elvis as the end all be all. it's the fact that i'm just not seeing what others see in him. even among white performers of his era, he wasn't as talented as buddy holly, for example. and he's far less talented than a *whole lot* of white performers who came after him - most in fact. i understand giving him his due, complex as it is, but i think the hagiography is suffocating, insufferable and unwarranted.

Timmy84 said:

You're being too kind.....imagine being pulled over by "Officer Elvis"? Or how about Richard Nixon making him the DRUG CZAR? How wacky was that?

I didn't see the special, but didn't Elvis beat up Hamburger James for stealing some checks and a sexy picture of Priscilla?

Rick James ain't got sh!t on Elvis!

uPtoWnNY said:

Lol.....Officer Elvis. I'm all shook up over that one.

uPtoWnNY said:

No, he confronted him. The guy who stole the pictures looked over at his "Memphis Mafia" and thought they were going to do something to him but they didn't.

Elvis is great. No debates allowed. This is like global warming folks.

i think elvis loved black folk, didn't he employ a couple of them to shine his shoes and what not?????


.....now as far as that peanut-butter and bacon bull shyt is concerned.

KidaSaurusRx said:

He had that shit grilled.

According to his cook, fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches was his favorite. How the f--k can you eat that sh!t? Jesus, what a lunatic.

uPtoWnNY said:

Beats me. I can never imagine it: peanut butter and banana sandwiches...and FRIED! YUCK!

abierman said:

Because alot of them who get ripped off end up without a job. See?

Tribute is kinda nice, but what about paying the bills? Lets be real here for a 2nd

Hell some of them don't even give a fuck about the artists they rip off(That boy who claimed he doesn't know The Isley Bros even though he ripped 'em off,,,ring the bell??? *whistling*).

Stymie, you raised MADHOUSE hell, dahling thats all I gotta say.

And on that note, FUCK Elvis again

Carry on.

Harlepolis said:

thank you mama.

uPtoWnNY said:

i was reading a quote from one of the cooks, maybe the same one you're referring to.

she was talking about how much he loved to eat toward the end. she said something to the effect that she would bring him bacon and eggs (or some such) in his bedroom, with the windows all blacked out, and she remembers how the butter would just drip down his arms, and he would be so happy.

she was trying to be complimentary, or thought it was a funny story, but even i who can't stand the guy, thought it was really, really sad.

another cook was talking about his favorite peanut butter, grape jelly and BACON sandwich whereby you get a whole loaf of unsliced bread, hollow out the center somewhat, slather with PB and jelly and loads o' bacon. mmmm....tasty!

elvis was definitely "country". reminds me of that summer i spent with my grandmother from arkansas years ago. i never had a salad or veggies the entire time i was there, but fried balogna (sp?) on white bread? oh yeah, lots of that!

kibbles said:

... what .. in the heck kinda sandwich is that?

Flowers2 said:

I guess he figured it will eventually get mixed up in his stomach,,,why not get it over with from the jump street?

Harlepolis said:

i tell ya.. that's some kind of combination .. peanut butter, grease and jelly (which is sugary) .. ewww lol

Flowers2 said:

He def put Chinese Food in its place with that mixing

Flowers2 said:

It was something either he or his momma made up. They said the sandwich was an appetizer and it's likely he might've gotten the taste from it from his momma cooking it for him and when he moved to his home in Graceland, he told the maids he hired to cook it the way his mama did it, lol.

Harlepolis said:

Elvis was a country singer who happened to sing blues songs too. Should we make a big deal about the black musicians who play classical, country, or other music invented by white folks?

Rock n roll was a combination of the talents of black and white people together because a lot of the stuff that came out early on was just blues called by a different name. Chuck Berry was a blues musician who just happened to be called rock n roll. Hell, a white guy INVENTED the term rock n roll. Alan Freed, a DJ. If you want to argue that point, Google it.

The bottom line is, it wasn't Elvis that ripped those musicians off, it was the industry itself. The music business has ripped off TONS of people, black, white, and any other race you want to bring into it. It's what the music industry DOES. Don't blame Elvis, blame the industry. Elvis was just a guy trying to make a living.

Yeah the industry was very racist (still is to some degree) but especially back then. So of course they would pick the "pretty boy" over the veteran acts, who happened to be black.

The music categorized as rock & roll was created between 1948 and 1953 with people like Wynonnie Harris, Ike Turner and Fats Domino, Alan Freed gave it the name "rock & roll" in 1951. Rock & roll in fact was a black slang for sex and in other means it could also be another name for rhythm and blues music.

I love Elvis. I don't have a problem with him. He had a great voice. I think Elvis was just playing music he heard growing up. He liked gospel and blues songs.

PANDURITO said:

Settle down kids. Presley's been dead 31 years. You don't like him? Don't go to Graceland. It's easy.

sunsetdriver1999 said:

That underaged girls thing I'll give you. But a fraud and phony? How do you figure?

uPtoWnNY said:

Well if that's gonna be your reason for hating an artist, let's see....

Rick James
Jim Morrison
James Brown
Janis Joplin
Prince
Brian Wilson
Stevie Nicks
Michael Jackson
and on
and on
and on

all fuckups in their own special ways. If you're going to dislike an artist because of their personal life, I'd suggest you just plain stop listening to music.

magnificentsynthesizer said:

Nice try, but the dude never said that. Ever.

Like I said, hate Elvis all you want, but don't go believing in bullshit just because it supports your assumptions.

GNS said:

Thanks for the link.

Mara said:

I didn't take offense so much as I think that it's insanely stupid to hate an artist for something that's not true.

Dislike the guy's music, or his public persona, or his style, or his goofy-ass movies, or some combination of the above. But don't hate the guy for being racist when there's never been any reliable account that he was.

Stymie said:

They weren't mentioned in that thread, but they've all been brought up before in discussions here and out in the real world about Presley.

kibbles said:

See, THAT is a fair reason to dislike Elvis IMO.

Thanks for the response.

uPtoWnNY said:

It's just like a grilled cheese sandwich, except with pb and bananas in the middle. It's done in a frying pan, not a deep-fryer.

meow85 said:

But grilled cheese is delicious!!! I can't imagine myself eating grilled bananas.