Elvis

[cj4258]

The King must be turning in his grave right now...

It's not that I overly adore his music, but Elvis did bring a few new things to the table. Maybe he bridged a gap between two different approaches to music. I like that analogy. Someone had to do it.

He DID do this: he took southern culture and threw it at a mainstream audience. The most credit Elvis is due is taking Gospel and the nuances of rhythm and blues and constructing a more tangible model or what became rock'n'roll. Before Elvis and his influence, Rock'n'Roll was in its infancy, still more "rockabilly" and jazz-based. But then again, the Beatles did a good job of that, too.

So, ok, he spawned a bunch of idiots to go out to Las Vegas and become Elvis impersonators. Jeez you guys are harsh.

[mmazz72]

i got nothing against elvis. i don't think he was anything special, though. i think of him more as an entertainer than a musician. he made lots of moves that made the girls go "WOOOWWWW!!!!", but that's about it.

and i really don't see why there has to be a war between elvis and the beatles. i mean, why did the beatles even enter this thread, other than that they were influenced by elvis?

i'm pretty sure the beatles would still have been the beatles, even if there had never been an elvis.

[greppson]

elvis costello?

[proudest_monkee]

Originally posted by Third Floor
all elvis did was copy black music at the time and change nothing. hes worthless. he brought black music to white people, but he didnt do it better than it was done for, he was just acceptable to the white public. he was not original or even the best at what he did. but yet he gets all the credit. give credit where credit is do.

So basically he started the whole trend that has continued thru til today. I hate to say it but...hello....Eminem ringin' a bell here? I think it is hard for most(not all) people to truly appreciate Elvis if you were not even born when he was alive. The Beatles were great, but the typical fan base is not the 18-24 y.o. listener. Same with Elvis. Face it, if it were not for Elvis the music we listen to today probably would not be what it is. So yeah, give credit where credit is due.

[Third Floor]

elvis brought black culture to white america, but he did nothing else, he is an entertainer, not a musician. he is no more of an musician than justin timberlake, except JT writes his songs. for all the credit that people in this thrad give to elvis songs, you must remember he didnt write them or record them first. he did covers. to paraphrase mos def "elvis presley aint rock nroll, chuck berry is rock n roll". copying someone doesnt make you great. and if buy trend you mean covering songs, people were doing it before him. and em is a poor example, the better example is the beastie boys first cd, but they went away from that with pauls boutique and every cd after that. but go on calling elvis the king. bow down to your overglorified cover band, cause thats all he is. give credit where it is due. elvis may have brought it to the mainstreem but thats it. he is the backstreet boys of rock n roll.

[jaytherevelator]

i like some elvis stuff..i even have an elvis autograph..my uncle sang in his back-up group

[DMBfan41]

he's been dead for 24 years now. And he makes more money than anyone alive. I'd give him a little respect.

[cj4258]

He must have done something right.

All those movies, records, concerts....

I read somewhere that his estate makes more money per year than he ever grossed per year while alive.

...then there's that Jungle Room... Damn, the man had good taste.

[jaytherevelator]

he was a nice guy too...i have a few stories of some random stuff he did for people that was really cool

[fleckhead]

I look at Jesus the same way I look at Elvis, I like a lot of what he's done...but I find his fans to be pretty annoying.

someone had that in the sig.

Nobodys going to win this arguement.

[DMBstandUP1984]

Anyone watch The Searcher documentary on HBO?

Im sure this was obvious but I had zero idea he didn’t write his own songs.

[Lee3691]

Favorite Elvis song is Suspicious Minds

[DMBstandUP1984]

Originally Posted by Lee3691

Favorite Elvis song is Suspicious Minds

I’ve listened to Crawfish about 75 times in the last 5 days.

[coldengrey12]

Originally Posted by DMBstandUP1984

Anyone watch The Searcher documentary on HBO?

Im sure this was obvious but I had zero idea he didn’t write his own songs.

That was much more common in that era.

There were songwriting teams who farmed them out to talent.

[pearljammer]

Originally Posted by DMBstandUP1984

Anyone watch The Searcher documentary on HBO?

Im sure this was obvious but I had zero idea he didn’t write his own songs.

Wow, last post in this thread was 15 years ago!

[BotheLaneFan]

Yeah. He’s still the best.

[DMBstandUP1984]

Originally Posted by pearljammer

Wow, last post in this thread was 15 years ago!

Lol yeah I really had to dig for just a straight up Elvis thread


Saw a ton of Dave Vs. Elvis

[WidespreadMule3]

Originally Posted by DMBstandUP1984

Anyone watch The Searcher documentary on HBO?

Im sure this was obvious but I had zero idea he didn’t write his own songs.

I wanna say he actually only had one song commissioned too. Which is wild considering he's one of the most legendary artists ever.

Everything else the powers that were in his life arranged for him to sing everything he did. Gospel was really all he wanted to sing but his management knew his money maker would be rock 'n' roll.

[DMBstandUP1984]

Originally Posted by WidespreadMule3

I wanna say he actually only had one song commissioned too. Which is wild considering he's one of the most legendary artists ever.



Everything else the powers that were in his life arranged for him to sing everything he did. Gospel was really all he wanted to sing but his management knew his money maker would be rock 'n' roll.

Yeah. Seems like gospel was what he was most interested in

The stuff about his manager being an illegal citizen and wouldn’t let Elvis do international tours was pretty crazy

[ricky towel]

Love Elvis.

[WidespreadMule3]

I lived and worked in Tupelo for several years and a lot of my job was selling people on visiting town to visit his Birthplace and the "Elvis experience" the town has created to honor his legacy.

Growing up an Elvis fan it was super cool to get to work with that and I even got to interview several of his childhood friends. They were insanely open about their time with him. Even one of them going so far as to tell me he was uncircumcised. Regardless of the TMI, it was cool hearing the stories that very obviously made him who he was.

One of them was a black guy who said they were super close and was certain Elvis would've remembered him. Anyway, Elvis was playing in Chicago in the 70s and he happened to be visiting town that weekend and he wanted to go say hello but security (naturally) wouldn't let him anywhere near Elvis. He said it really broke his heart that they were so close after all those years and they weren't able to reconnect.

I remember knowing the position was the job for me when I walked into the lobby and the first thing you see is two of Elvis' jumpsuits on display (they were on loan from Graceland). You could see sweat stains on them and they had them set up so you could walk all the way around them and see both sides. It was so cool to be inches away from something Elvis wore.