I just recently discovered him, and I love him already. Despite my father's step-mother being a huge fan of him when I was little, and my sister really liking him a lot (though not owning a note of his music until that 30 #1 Hits thing from last year ), and being at Gracelend during the 10th anniversary of his death, I never really paid much attention to him, or thought about his music. But now, I can understand what the big deal is about.


Yeah, there's some cheesy/shitty stuff in the mid 60's and mid-70's, but still, overall, I now love him.


my favorite stuff, of course is the 56-57 stuff (plus the Sun stuff) and the late 60's stuff. i'm creaming over In The Ghetto (always liked this one before), Suspicious Minds, Kentucky Rain, etc.



anyone else here like Elvis? don't see him mentioned much.

I never got into elvis, however.. I did recently got to play on a piano that he used to practice on before he was famous..
[This message was edited Sun Jan 4 18:29:25 PST 2004 by Sdldawn]

nobody?

Not too into him, either. But I can appreciate him in small doses.

I like him.
I've been playing the 68 comeback special a lot lately

"You're only getting into him cuz Nathan is."

"You only like him cuz his middle name's Aaron."

Much like Madonna...I don't get what all the fuss was about

I've re-discovered Devil In Disguise because of Lilo and Stitch , you walk like an angel...
*
[This message was edited Mon Jan 5 10:39:36 PST 2004 by jn2]

Elvis was one of if not THE first to break the colour barrier in poop music. He's the King, and always will be.

garnis said:

what about Little Richard and Chuck Berry?

psykosoul said:

he took what they were doing and turned into something people wanted to pay attention to


if not for Elvis, we'd all be listening to some twangy shit and people would be saying "Little What?" "Chuck Who?"
[This message was edited Tue Jan 6 10:09:52 PST 2004 by AaronAlmighty]

noepie said:

'68 Comeback was the cool Elvis

AaronAlmighty said:

At least until the British Invasion when the UK discovered Blues

Slave2daGroove said:

without Elvis, they wouldn't have. there'd be no Beatles or Stones

AaronAlmighty said:

---
Of course without Elvis no one would have noticed Chuck Berry or Little Richard.(LOL) It is unbelivable in this day and age that people are still putting Elvis ahead of Chuck Berry.

The owner of Sun Records wanted to find a white man who could play black music. He was not looking for a blackman to play white music. That fact should tell you who the
creators were and who were the followers.

laurarichardson said:

which once again, coming from you, is beside the point. none of what you said counters what i said.

AaronAlmighty said:

In that PBS blues documentry there's a British episode which features John Mayall along with others that site their American influences. Elvis wasn't mentioned as an influence. Obscure blues artists that were recording before Elvis were.

I'm not saying that Elvis didn't influence the Beatles or the Stones. What I am saying is that when the Stones recorded their album at Chess records in the early 60's it wasn't because they were Elvis fans.

Slave2daGroove said:

no, but who Elvis was and what Elvis did gave them the opportunity to do it.

AaronAlmighty said:

And what I think Laura was trying to say earlier was that Chuck & Little Richard's ability to innovate gave Elvis the opportunity to do what he did.

psykosoul said:

Nah. He said poop music.

AaronAlmighty said:

"He took what they were doing and turned it into something people wanted to pay attention to."?

Sorry, but plenty of people were already paying attention. That's why Little Richard and Chuck Berry were such a big deal. Elvis simply took their stuff and -- in a manner of speaking -- put a face on it that was acceptable to a broader spectrum of people in a highly racially segregated culture.

And who's this "we" who'd be stuck listening to some twangy shit, if not for Elvis? Little Richard and Chuck Berry had done a pretty good job of de-twanging America. Those who had issues with Chuck's and Richard's complexions (certainly not their hair!) might have waited for Elvis to get de-twanged, but those of us who were -- shall we say -- naturally de-twanged were joined by a lot of the formerly twanged before Elvis hit the scene.

Supernova said:

I didn't even catch that.

OneMoJam said:

I dig Elvis...the kid could sang his ass off and had
mad charisma...probably the only MF that could fuck with Prince as far as that goes.

Elvis and a choir...makes your hair stand at attention!

OneMoJam said:

ah, but if not for Elvis, would the music they were playing last? or would it be nothing more than a fad? you can't listen to something that's no longer being produced.

OdysseyMiles said:

sorry, i can't be bothered enough to decipher her bitter ramblings. you're welcome to, but she's not worth noticing.

I respect what Elvis brought to the table and how it furthered popular music in general, but for me personally, the only Elvis that matters is Elvis Costello.

Yes, Elvis adopted black music in a time when black music was taboo and therefore helped to legitimize it with white society simply because he was white. That's a pretty big accomplishment, and in the climate of the period, that really helped R&B emerge and evolve in the 60s, so I give him props. Thousands of white acts at the time were doing the same as Elvis, however - only not on such a successful scale. You can argue and whine that they stole, or you can accept that they popularized and helped to make black music (and therefore black people) more acceptable to a young generation. Something to think about.

VoicesCarry said:

Odd. I didn't see anybody in this thread say that, or any whining going on for that matter. People just stating facts. Defensive much?


Not really.