31 years ago today ...

[auntAgonist]

Elvis Presley died.

:wow:

aA

[Pierre.Suave]

1. and it is still not common knowledge that

what he did is steal an art form from African Americans, repackage it, and because he was white, he became famous...

[ForrestGump]

5. It's not common knowledge because it's

utter crap.

Unless you consider Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Charlie Pride, and many others thieves of the primarily white musical idiom we know as country. You may, for all I know. You'd be wrong about that, too.

Something these gentlemen and Elvis had in common was that they were all influenced by the various musical forms that they grew up admidst and, given that they all grew up in somewhat similar situations, those influences were primarily gospel (black and white traditions), country, R&B (the real deal, the Delta blues, not that stuff that goes under the name since the '80s), and pure pop. Elvis' and Ray Charles' musical influences, for example, were essentially the same, right down to appreciation of musical forms far removed from their immediate surroundings (Dean Martin, for example, was a huge influence on teenage Elvis and he also loved Mario Lanza's voice and had some Caruso records).

If you want to know what Elvis DID, what he did was just be himself, and let the music flow naturally from inside. He was a 19-year-old kid who loved music and the movies but had no fiendish master plan to steal an entire musical heritage. "That's All Right" and subsequent rockabilly foundations came through serendipity in the studio, as a spontaneous melange of all those disparate musical influences, and very easily could have been lost forever in Elvis' drive to mimic every single damned singer who'd ever influenced him (a characteristic also seen in Ray Charles' first attempts at recording).

Your assertion is an old, tired, logic-challenged one that's occasionally still tossed out by people who fancy themselves iconoclastic hipsters but who really know fuck-all about music. At best, you're thinking of Pat Boone -- the case could be made to an extent, but even then you're looking at a man with his own innate talents (and, yes, I think he's a putz).

[auntAgonist]

9. thank you ForrestGump!

Very well said.

:hi:

aA

[ForrestGump]

11. No problema

And thanks. :D

:hi:

[johnnie]

10. LOL

You said it much more eloquently than I did. But I think we said the same thing.

[ForrestGump]

13. I like your version, too

You poser, you, learning so much about American music just so you can, like, not be an ignorant dupe who repeats tired clichés.

:D

If all goes by the usual plan, some time in the next 24 hours or so someone here is going to cite the "shine my shoes" myth, right?

In the meantime:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44rSo7W7tUQ

I thought that was fairly nicely done, with a nice song.

[auntAgonist]

15. thanks for the video link ForrestGump n/t

[johnnie]

8. LOL

He didn't steal shit. :eyes:

He grew up in Tupelo, Miss and Memphis, Tenn. in the 30's and 40's and *lived* that scene. He attended churches that sang that type of music and he was also influenced by the county music of the area. It was his real life, not some bullshit Stevie Ray Vaughn "blues".

I hate the racist comments when it comes to Elvis Presley. He fucking lived the real life that people say he stole. Sure he was influenced by some of the black music of the time, but he was in the middle of it.

You, along with many other people, should learn their fucking history instead of repeating the same old racist bullshit. Here is a hint, the black man did not invent music. Rock and Roll came from a long history of county music, blues music, jazz music, bluegrass and a few other forms of music. Traditional blues came from what the slaves were singing in the feilds (most of it was codes sung to each other) and what the "white man" was playing. A lot of the white man's music came from Celtic music brought from their homeland. The whole history is fascinating and well worth taking the time to learn.

Elvis just did what he did. He didn't steal shit and if anything, he blew the doors open for "race music" to be played on "white" radio stations. And he also took a hell of a lot of shit for doing it back then and never once backed down.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

16. No

In Peter Guralnick's definitive bio, he sets forth how Elvis was exposed in his early years to different styles of country, gospel, blues, etc., liked them all, and did what today would be called a mash-up of the styles he admired.

[Midlodemocrat]

2. Whoa. 31 years?

:wow:

How are you this morning, K?

[auntAgonist]

3. Hey Midlo!

I'm doing alright. Been kinda sick and waiting for the Dr's office to get off their butt and do what they are supposed to do, go figger :)

It's a beautiful day here in MI. How are you and yours?


yup, 31 years. August 16th 1977, also the day I became engaged to marry my first husband.

:hug:

kesha

[MilesColtrane]

4. Bullshit

I saw him at the Waffle House just last night.

[bigwillq]

6. It's also a day

when my friend's mom, who is a huge Elvis fan, found out she was pregnant with said friend.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. (Insert mandatory MIB quote) -nt

[yardwork]

12. I remember it well. He was the same age as my parents.

[auntAgonist]

14. Elvis and Priscilla barbie dolls too!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/08/13/elvis.priscella.dolls.ap/index.html



"...the high bid of $6,800 when the autographed box set was auctioned to the fans as a fundraiser for Presley Place, an apartment building in Memphis for homeless families."

[johnnie]

17. Here is a good one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LRWkbcR9fk&feature=related

[auntAgonist]

20. thank you for posting this.

:hi:

aA

[lizziegrace]

18. I was living in Memphis when he died

only a couple days before starting my senior year in HS. Every station on the radio broke with the news and I was turning into my neighborhood when I heard. In Memphis, people remember exactly where they were the moment they heard...

I dated a guy from another HS closer to where Elvis lived and we'd cruise by his house, especially during the holidays. He had a beautiful life-sized nativity in the front yard and colored flood lights at the base of every tree.

The media, who had been less than kind to him in mid-70's suddenly elevated him to icon status. Rick Dees, who was on AM Radio at the time, was the worst offender. He was ruthless.

I remember the funeral procession, Memphis Police guarding the original gravesite because people were trying to dig up the coffin and the family making the decision to move him to Graceland for security reasons.

He gave everything he had to his music, fans and family. I can't believe it's been 31 years.

[auntAgonist]

19. hi Lizziegrace!

I visited Graceland so many times in the late 70's early 80's. I was always so taken by the number of people coming and going. Many just standing quietly at the grave sites. I used to pick up in Memphis and while waiting for loads I'd drop my trailer in West Memphis Arkansas and 'bobtail' over to the shopping plaza that is (was?) across from the gates ...

There are a lot of memories associated with August 16th for me. Very bittersweet day.


I hope you're doing well my friend.

:hug:

aA

[edbermac]

21. As John Lennon commented 'Elvis died in the Army'

Early Sun Records Elvis was great. After his hitch in the military he started making those shitty movies, became a pill junkie, got fat and turned into a Vegas lounge singer.

A great talent who pissed it all away.

[ForrestGump]

22. There was a lot of good stuff after the Army. Probably much of his best.

Yes, the Sun records are something else, pretty much the pop-culture pot of gold, but Elvis never stopped turning out some great material because what was inside him then was still inside him when he died, movies and all the other trappings aside (though it seems the movie have attained greater legitimacy now, as kind of a 'cult' thing, probably because so many people grew up with them being on TV -- I've got a soft spot for many of them but, yes, they were largely a squandering of his talents and it's appalling that they took over as they did). Of course there are hits the obvious post-Army hits of worth like "It's Now Or Never," "Suspicious Minds," and "Burning Love," but if you start looking at the more obscure songs of that period -- 'obscure' with someone like Elvis being a relative thing, meaning maybe only 100 million or so people would recognize the song -- you'll find a ton of great stuff that you might not expect and that contrarian John ignored when he uttered that quote.

As a couple of examples, from two '60s studio sessions:

Tomorrow Is A Long Time (1966)

I'll Hold You In My Heart (1969 - not a scheduled track but an impromptu studio jam by Elvis (something he habitually did, sometimes for hours), with him on piano

Doesn't sound too dead, at least to my ears, in either case.

As far as probably needlessly pointing out his undiminished prowess as a live performer in his 'lounge singer' years, I won't show a snippet of Elvis in any of the pro-shot projects of 1970, 1972 or 1973, when he was still tearing stages up with a physical performance, because that would be too easy and I'm not sure too many with even basic knowledge of his career would dispute that he still had 'it' in spades up to age 40. Instead, here's a clip from his last tour, when his prematurely-aged 42-year-old body was quickly on its way out -- indeed, it's from a show during which he was noticeably more lethargic, tired, and puffy than he was at tour's end, a mere five days later, but I'd suggest that he still had a spark of that charismatic young Hillbilly Cat inside him even that night:

You Gave Me A Mountain (6/21/77)

If getting fat (or swollen by edema, which was the bulk -- no pun intended -- of the problem) is a criticism, then I guess your assessment is valid. And it very much was and remains an obvious point of criticism, probably because ELVIS was, I think, subconsciously held by many as something other than mortal and in his decline too many saw their own mortality looming. Elvis was supposed to remain eternally youthful, the rocking Adonis, and in his failure to do so he betrayed all of us. I agree that he did essentially waste or underutilize a lot of his talent (regardless of any culpability others may have held in that effort), but he still left us with some pretty nice stuff to pick through in his own legacy and, along the way, influenced just about everybody who's ever released a rock, pop, or country record or picked up a guitar and played to the mirror.