We sent out wedding invites that she designed with Elvis from “Blue Hawaii” surfing on the cover. We were even married in front of an Elvis statue and had the reception in an Elvis themed restaurant. We listened to Elvis every weekend.
CBS SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN….CBS SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN…We are sorry to interrupt this article but we have just had a report that Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll has been seriously wounded. Our sources report that Elvis was in the process of arriving at a “meet and greet” for some of his top fans in Dealey Plaza in Dallas this afternoon.
I have written about Elvis Presley so much in the past six years, this 2009 piece seems equal parts obvious and quaint, why would I write something everybody knows? This was very early in and I was still announcing my tastes to my blog readers -you know who you are, and one thing remains true… if you don’t love Elvis, why are you reading rock nyc?
Heartbreak Hotel – Elvis Presley – # 1 in the charts the year I was born, this stark, grown up blues, is stunted in despair and stark as a threadbare transient hotel, everything about this is nightmare and horrifying, including the solo – A+
Tepper wrote many many popular songs. Minor league pop numbers but in retrospect, Presley’s movie tracks with tuneful, playful, self-effacing and often very very good. If Tepper was borderline novelty tunes, the operative word was borderline, and many of them have been part of our pop vernacular since we first heard them.
Baby, Let’s Play House – Elvis Presley – sexy and violent, and a warning and maybe the single blueprint for John Lennon from “You Can’t Do That” to “Jealous Guy”. Yup, it’s that kinda song – A+
White told his employees at Third Man Records in Nashville that the label will issue this on vinyl on Record Store Day… This piece is totally historic and unique, it’s the King’s first ever record, which was recorded on July 18th 1953 by a 18-year-old Presley at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service for only $4.
“I’d like to tell her what, I’m really feeling but…” when I made my peace with my Mom, I did it without really mentioning the past. She was 80 years old and I didn’t have the stomach for it. What difference does it make? But I wish I could have told her about watching her sleeping, sitting quietly by, watching over her. How much I had loved her. I guess it wouldn’t really matter, would it?
Santa Bring My Baby (Back To Me) – Elvis Presley – One of the all time greatest, this is Presley as popstar, it is like “You’re Right, I’m Left, She’s Gone” or “Teddy Bear” –a delirious hook filled hubba which channels Bing Crosby’s “bababba” going away – A+
Scientists have found that music stimulates more parts of the brain than any other human function, and we don’t know exactly why, but one thing is sure, it has a tremendous effect on women and girls,… we know that since Elvis Presley and Beatlemania, but was that always the case?
Though I am not really sure if any of these were great fits for the King. That mix of oedipal vulnerable and blue collar visceral is so specific it is hard to imagine him in anything not tailor made for his gifts.
‘The treatment, which Dr. Mason perfected by slicing a small section of the eyelid, has been dubbed by local fanatics as the “Yorke cut.” In the simplest terms, the $600 surgery gives fans a chance to re-create on their own person the trademark Thom Yorke amblyopic left eye.’
Love Me Tender – Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley – Awful act of necromancy, almost astounding in its lack of chemistry and sexiness and cool and warmth, uncool to an extent not knowable to the average person. Worst song ever – F
Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley – The first single post 68 Special was also one of the biggest hits of his career, re-arranged from the original that change of tempo during the bridge was money in the bank and this six minute version from the Vefas 70 show is more dramatic than that – A
This was a man who had found his place in the pop world and knew how to perform it. Playing Vegas was not playing Haight Ashbury and although Presley was only 35 years old, he was not embraced the way it should’ve been by the the generation he spawned.
Off the newly extended That’s The Way It Is, this rehearsal take is a masterful form of verbal gymnastics which Presley did, and this is why his outtakes are so awesome, he is relaxed and flexible and his phrasing is the stuff of gods… during a rehearsal 40 odd years ago – A
Invitation to The Blues – Emmylou Harris And Rodney Crowell – It is hard to go wrong with this Roger Miller song, it is part of the pantheon and every one from Ray Price to Reba McIntyre have covered it, indeed this isn’t even Emmylou’s first trip to the rodeo. S stellar band really sells it – B+
Bad Habit – The Kooks – When did these guys become the Arctic Monkeys? This is the sort of garage blues AM have been doing for years and I thought the Kooks had more going on, more like Squeeze, but they are one Alyson Camus review from hooking up with Josh Homme and visiting Burning Man – C
It has been five years since the jazz singer has released an album, including a stint in hospital just to keep us mortal, and to keep us more mortal, this is a tribute to his first mentor George Duke, who died last year. Guest stars join in on this lovely and loving tribute to the late pianist. ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
So here comes news that Lisa Marie (46 years old -gasp!) is in negotiations to give the rights to some of Elvis songs which treat hi with respect. Stories about his faith in God -that sort of stuff. It sounds kind of scary right. I read there are like three movies in the works at the moment.
Coming Of Age – Foster The People – This song makes a promise the album couldn’t keep, but this heavy textured beat and strong melodic mood seemed as though the band could move forward from “Pumpked Up Kicks” into a post-modern indie hybrid sound – A-
About Last Night – Sleeper Agent – Everything you wanted Paramore to be, everything Cage The Elephant claim to be, Sleeper Agent. This sophomore effort is astoundingly catchy power pop; one sure shot after another. Imagine Gwen Stefani leading Paramore, with a remarkable hit to misses count, if this doesn’t smash em through I’d demand a recount – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A
Before you ‘wtf’ this think about it clearly. Its possible their are similarities just in a hillbilly sense but ex wife ‘Cilla hasnt had enough media time lately so shes chosen a great way to get her name in headlines again.
Coming Of Age – Foster The People – Poppier than Imagine Dragons but that textured drum sound is familiar to both and Foster The People have better songs; this is above average indie pop with an eye on the charts – A
I am about as miserable as you’d expect and suffering from a terrible cold, all in all my I would be hard pressed to be much further down. The frigid temperature suits my mood (not to mention my writing abilities the past couple of days).
Olly Murs isn’t the only album that thrills me here, the Rebecca Ferguson sophomore effort will please you. She isn’t Emeli Sande but her song selection is very very strong and her voice splendid
Since life has no meaning, since it all boils down to “and what if I do? and what if i don’t?”, why fight the dream that everything matters including, and especially, me?
I love the idea of seeing musicians artifacts so to speak, I’m just not a fan of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Wait, you can actually just go to Graceland if you wanted to see Presley’s stuff. Memphis is amazing!
I can’t say I’m bothered by Robbie one way or the other, I am a big fan but this is awful thin gruel, otherwise this is all over the place and very English in many ways. Still, is EDM gonna lose its grip in 2014?
Sachs Media Group, in collaboration with photo restoration and manipulation company Phojoe, has published a series of portraits of musicians who died young, trying to figure out how they would have aged. And the results are quite realistic
1950s – Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley – the American songbook and the King Of Rock and Roll, and really, if there is a changing of the guards in 1956 it is between these two men. Incidentally, a sign of the time but neither wrote their own material.
I’m gonna go along with English TV who had a show wherein ordinary folks like you and me voted for our fave Presley tracks. As my friend Ted Cogswell noted, many of these wouldn’t be among my top songs but I don’t actively dislike any of them. I mean, it is Elvis, what’s not to like?
Reflecting the diversity of the era, there are entries by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Muddy Waters, and Hank Williams. Elvis Presley deservedly owned the era commercially and artistically, but one Charles Edward Anderson Berry could play a guitar just like a ringing the bell.
The Board of Directors at rock nyc typically restricts these lists to 25 songs, but I pushed this list to thirty so I wouldn’t have to artificially limit the number of Hank Williams entries. I have enough to explain to St. Peter without adding that oversight to my resume. OK, let’s start drinking and cheating, 1950s style.
Just out of the army, back in the charts, this is Presley, not an album artist, best album: it has the breadth of masterpiece, blues, pop, rock and roll, hits and deep cuts, It sprawls its way on to the charts and Presley, in an alternative universe, was using this as a gate to a future and not a goal post.
I’ve written about musicians I’ve never seen but wish I had but that isn’t this article! This is about musicians I didn’t see on specific tours or even concerts that I wish I’d caught. I mean more than wish, like dream of having been to
