zphage
|
ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 15:42
|
Lester Bangs said he was the last thing we all agreed on.
Hendrix sketched him at 14, after seeing him in concert.
Tom Petty met him at age 11.
Beatles met him August 27, 1965.
Dylan met him once in Las Vegas in the mid 60's or 70's , and then once again in a dream.
Led Zeppelin saw him play live, then met May 11, 1974.
Bruce Springsteen fresh with success climbed the walls of Graceland, only to be told he wasn't home.
He served as a Rosetta Stone for a generation's rockers.
He was the one wearing the sneer and black leather.
Unfortunately, came the white jumpsuits and death.
Is he still relevant?
|
Jim Tones
|
Edited Dec 18, 2007, 15:52
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 15:51
|
I thought he was great ;-)
After the '68 comeback though it was all gone - the burgers won over
|
zphage
|
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 15:59
|
|
Some of the Follow That Dream fan club releases are very interesting outtakes undubbed from late 60's through 70's. Including his last sessions in 'the Jungle Room'
|
dee
|
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 16:03
|
Yeah, you bet!
In reply to:
ELVIS (zphage) |
|
Vybik Jon
|
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 16:10
|
|
Who?
|
zphage
|
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 18:24
|
|
Has anyone replaced him? Brian Wilson?
|
Dog 3000
|
Edited Dec 18, 2007, 18:38
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 18:38
|
He wasn't really the first "pop star" (that would have been Frank Sinatra), and he wasn't really a complete break with the past either (he bought into the premise that after becoming a successful singer, the next move is doing movies in Hollywood -- like Sinatra.)
But he was the symbol of some huge cataclysmic mid-century cultural shift. He had a peculiar male/female, traditional/modern, black/white sexy glamour thing going on in the conservative cold war 50's (contemporaneous with the civil rights movement and the explosion of teen consumerism that came with postwar boom, while heralding "sex lib" to come -- it's been said the 60's couldn't have happened without him.)
He'll always be a big deal, though more for his iconic "persona" than the actual records (which get remixed with hot new beats these days.)
Though of course a lot of those records really were great -- all the Sun sides, most of the singles up until he went into the army, and occasional flickers of life in the early and late 60's (though in the mid-60's his material was the worst crap imaginable, and in the 70's he was the king of MOR.)
In reply to:
ELVIS (zphage) |
|
anthonyqkiernan
|
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 18:45
|
|
What do you think? It'd be nice if you gave us an opinion as opposed to just positing these questions all the time.
|
IanB
|
Edited Dec 18, 2007, 19:08
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 18:57
|
He's an icon. An emblem of a virile, pre-Vietnam America. So yeah always relevant but those early Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis sides have just as much sweat and spunk spattered about them (probably literally). The pelvis thing doesn't do much for me but his band were really really good.
I guess it all depends where you were in your life when you first heard him and what stage Elvis was at.
My Welsh cousins were mad for Elvis of the Blue Hawaii period (and still are though are well into their 50s) whereas my brother and sister (both much older than me) were into Motown and the many and various blues boom acts that played the North London pub circuit. Ne'er the twain would meet.
I remember thinking the Elvis of the saturated hyper-coloured album covers was well creepy (very David Lynch and being repelled by them was an early Blue Velvet moment of sorts) but then my favourite records aged 6 were "Hey Big Spender", "Come Fly With Me" and "Yellow Submarine" so what did I know?
I imagine history will find a place for him as more of a style icon than a musical figure and the likes of James Brown will be in with a shout from the perspective of their respective creative legacies.
Of course you could argue No Elvis. No Beatles. No Beatles. No Stones, Kinks or Jimi. Hence no Iggy. No MC5. No Pistols. But that pre supposes that no other white artist could ir would have opened the door that allowed country blues and explicit sexual double entendre into the pop charts. Some other good looking guitar slinger would have come along sooner rather than later. No doubt in my mind about that.
In reply to:
ELVIS (zphage) |
|
riotmaster
|
Re: ELVIS
Dec 18, 2007, 18:58
|
replaced him in what ?
vegas ?
|
