Martin - b*gger Elvis, where did you get that smilie?!
Presley’s problem was his lack of a good whistle player. A traditional fiddler wouldn’t have hurt either. No wonder he was all shook up.
I can’t say I’m exactly pining away for Elvis. I was around when he was big and didn’t care for him much even then (except that he was nice to look at). But he (or his legend) doesn’t deserve the freak show he’s become and I wish everyone would just let him RIP. Sorry, no candle here.
Susan
Hi Susan,
On the 25th anniversary of his death, I’m just recognising his talent, and that his style has been one of the factors that revolutionised rock music.
Trying to play the guitar break in “Hound Dog” on the whistle is a great way to practice your rhythm, ornamentation and phrasing!
BTW, the smilies are from “The Ultimately Pointless Website”.
Slan,
BB
On 2002-08-16 08:53, susnfx wrote:
I can’t say I’m exactly pining away for Elvis. I was around when he was big and didn’t care for him much even then (except that he was nice to look at). But he (or his legend) doesn’t deserve the freak show he’s become and I wish everyone would just let him RIP. Sorry, no candle here.
Susan
I thought by the time he was big he wasn’t so nice to look at anymore.
Actually I wasn’t thinking of, or criticizing, this thread when I wrote that we should let Elvis rest in peace. I had just been looking at the newspaper and the Elvis tattoos, Elvis memorabilia, even Elvis mowed into a huge farm field! That’s what I meant by the freak show he’s become. It’s gotten so far away from his music. In the '60s when he was part of my world he looked pretty good – I might not have ever bought a record (remember those?) but I did go to his movies. Oh to be young again…
On 2002-08-16 12:06, susnfx wrote:
Actually I wasn’t thinking of, or criticizing, this thread when I wrote that we should let Elvis rest in peace. I had just been looking at the newspaper and the Elvis tattoos, Elvis memorabilia, even Elvis mowed into a huge farm field! That’s what I meant by the freak show he’s become. It’s gotten so far away from his music. In the '60s when he was part of my world he looked pretty good – I might not have ever bought a record (remember those?) but I did go to his movies. Oh to be young again…
Yeah, it’ll be Elvis smilies next…
D’Oh!
On 2002-08-16 08:53, susnfx wrote:
I can’t say I’m exactly pining away for Elvis. I was around when he was big and didn’t care for him much even then (except that he was nice to look at). But he (or his legend) doesn’t deserve the freak show he’s become and I wish everyone would just let him RIP. Sorry, no candle here.
Susan
Amen
The “Elvis industry” is a loss and a mystery to me - I agree, RIP. It’s all got a bit hysterical with the hype for me this week.
Piling on with agreement about hype.
But having spent my life in music, I cannot forget that he had phenomenal vocal talent, though it got pretty messed up by the end from self-destructive practices. Its a voice that touches me whenever I hear it unlike any other. i was totally bummed out the day he died.
Its a lot easier to praise an opera singer because it falls with a defineable framework. Pop singers with vocal genius are never seemingly understood or perhaps, praised for the right reasons, to my satisfaction which perhaps lead to this weird kind of worship. Elvis, Patsy Cline are quick examples. Though not in the same league, old Bing did an awful lot with not much, as does Willie Nelson.
But for perspective: Princess Diana idolization was/is pretty similar, but without any comparable accomplishment as Presley, as far as I can see. jackie K O too.
Isn’t that a coincidence! I was just standing in line at the grocery store when I glanced at the tabloids - there was Princess Di plastered all over everything and I thought the very same thing. How long until we have Princess Di sightings? Too bad these people can’t just leave their lives and legacies – and the rest of us get on with life and leave them in peace.
Susan
On 2002-08-16 13:59, The Weekenders wrote:
Piling on with agreement about hype.But for perspective: Princess Diana idolization was/is pretty similar, but without any comparable accomplishment as Presley, as far as I can see. jackie K O too.
I don’t understand the idolization of those individuals either 
I don’t think there is anything wrong with celebrating Elvis’s contribution to pop music (as was Martin’s intent with this thread) but the whole Elvis phenomenon has gone crossed the line of good taste and common sense. I suppose a part of western culture, especially American culture (sorry but it’s true), is about taking everything to excess.
I think part of the Elvis hype can be explained by Western society’s never-ending worship of celebrities. We rejoice with them when they are up and we kick them when they are down (although, certain celebrities seem to do no wrong despite the repugnancy of some of their actions). Oddly enough, a person could assume that “celebrityhood” is only bestowed on people who actually earn it through some sort of talent or other contribution. Yet, this does not appear to be the case – for example, Britney Spears, and current US President George W. Bush. Frankly, I think celebrity worship is a sign of a society that has its priorities screwed up. For example, we pay professional athletes millions of dollars a year to play in stadiums subsidized by taxpayer dollars but we pay school teachers a pittance to teach in rundown schools with inadequate resources. Of these groups, who actually makes a greater contribution to society? Perhaps celebrity worship is simply a convenient diversion from our society’s real problems or from our own personal problems. I don’t know …
There will always be people who are provocative for looks, abilities, athelticism etc. In ancient days, they were the subject at the village well. Events are provocative as well.
Now the media is the village well. But the well was passive and life-giving, while the media is aggressive and profit-seeking.
Same old tendency, but with new tools.
I was talking with my brother one day about a newsworthy event. He hadn’t heard about it because he said he doesn’t watch the evening news on TV.
He said, “It disturbs the peace of my house.”
By extension, I think about local tragedies that become international (because of TV) and bring out the wool-gathering in people prone to addictive and co-dependent behaviors.
An example: that lady who drove her kids into the lake. That was pure tragedy but it affected the people in that community, not me. I never should have heard about it because I can neither properly mourn or share and sense of personal loss and they are strangers to me. Yet I am supposed to care somehow, ACCORDING to TV. And I witnessed a few predictable people feeling low that day…
What a waste. The tragedy is compounded by sapping the spirits of people who should be living in their LOCAL environment, not mooning for events out of their control.
To rant: I said it then and I say it now. I am sure somebody else was dying in a similar car-crash that same day, depriving someone of a wife, mother, daughter and so forth. It was that family’s tragedy, not a world tragedy. I wish people would have let them mourn on their own, aside from a proper state funeral, important to that society. And the quarterly profits were huge for the networks. A very profitable tragedy… Even worse.
Sorry for soapbox.
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-08-16 18:37 ]
Weekenders, well spoken.
Right, so on 911 you never should have heard about it on the West coast because we don’t know anybody there.
If someone dies in a car crash in a town you don’t live in and you find out on the news that it was someone whom you went to school with you shouldn’t mourn because you never would have found out in your community and it doesn’t affect everybody.
I agree that the networks are profit hungry, but so are the funeral homes where you buy a casket.
That was quite possibly the silliest argument I have ever heard. YOU don’t live in an isolated community the world at large and humanity as a whole should be your concern and every bit of information you receive about it should enable you to make it a better place.
There’s no hole in the Ozone layer above your head but you darn sure better be concerned about it no matter where it is.
My birthday: Madonna’s birthday and Elvis Presley’s death-day. What a red-letter day.
If he who hurrries walks without dignity, then he who gets upset over things beyond his control is undignified as well.
Don’t know what brought out such a visceral reaction on your part but I stand by my point even if you find it “quite possibly the silliest argument” you have ever heard?? Really. I am famous.
And I didn’t say that I don’t NEED to know important things. And there is a huge difference of a two-person car crash and 3,000 dead from a national attack. And there are newspapers and magazines that do a better job of reporting the facts as they develop anyway.
When I heard about 9/11, my sons (12 and 9) were at this exact moment in life where they would look to me for some kind of perspective or guidance.I felt a great sense of responsibility.
I did not run around and scream or cry in anquish at that tragedy but I suspect plenty in NY and with relatives did, rightfully so.
I told them that day that an awful thing had happened to our country but in fact, we are so strong and resilient that we were continuing our lives.
Quite frankly, Sean, the electric power blackouts in California had a greater IMMEDIATE impact on our daily lives than that terrible tragedy. That is perspective. Unless we had a relative, then its local and personal, just like I unsuccessfully tried to point out to you. And in fact, the fiddling Weekender was scheduled to meet with a fella on one of those planes that morning.. But I am not gonna hog into someone else’s loss and pretend its mine. That is just weird to me.
We live with the inevitability of a major earthquake here in the Bay Area. On that day, hundreds of thousands of houses will fall. Many will die. We will be camping out in the back yard, eating canned food and be forever affected. We have to keep our heads with us and deal with direct survival. Buying into the corporate socialist media view of the world and ITS priorities will not help for a great or small tragedy in our lives. That’s why I didn’t cry over Princess Diana and do question the relative importance of the lady and the lake.
Local tragedies, Sean, though i realize that is in the eye of the beholder. To think you can and should know EVERYTHING (as you stated) is much sillier than my argument, even if you find it somehow Luddite or otherwise anti-social. Or if you own stock in Kleenex. There has never been a shortage of wars, death and mishap in human history. Do you think its somehow different that you know about it by detail?
Live in the world right around you first is my point. TV is not real.
Best wishes.
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-08-16 17:26 ]