Guardian article: Why Elvis memorabilia is plummeting in value

It's total bs. It's an alternative fact.

 

Well we cannot say goodbye like that. So just to please you, I thought I'd come back today.

Now much of the Jap albums still command pretty good prices especially if you have a 10" Love Me Tender or the first pressings of Loving You and King Creole. Those two sleeves are really superb and great to have in the collection. Even the soundtrack albums had gatefold sleeves and these can be hard to find in good shape. Sound on Jap albums has always been top notch too. Some of their EPs are pretty good with different sleeves although on some, they tended to doctor the images and gave him a bit of an oriental look. But worth having if you can afford them. But maybe you do have them.

 

Denial. From day one, through the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, Rock and Pop has been music for the kids of their generations. Those kids grew up up and stayed listening to their music whether they were kids in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Rock and Pop was not and isn't geared to adults and older generation. One might like to think so but the very essence of both genres is that the music is for kids. Both were invented as such.

 

The audience is whoever likes the music, which isn't limited to kids. If it was, the Steve Hoffman forum wouldn't exist.

 

The music most talk about here is the music they listened to as kids, Rock and Pop. When the music discussed here was new, it's first generation audience were kids. Fact.

 

Being that "rock" became popular more than 60 years ago, most of us grew up with it, so it's a little hard to avoid it being the music of our youth. What you seem to be arguing is that most people reject anything that was recorded after they turn 18. That's obviously nonsense. Fact.

 

You are Dan Quayle AICMFP.

[/Light-hearted aside in an otherwise rubbish thread]

 

Not at all. My original post was against the post that was saying that KISS was for kids, implying other Rock and Pop wasn't.

 

It's fair to say that a lot of rock/pop is aimed at the young and young at heart, but many artists reach for a greater level of depth and maturity.

 

Okay, I see where you're coming from now. Carry on.

 

Yep funny old word that. Singular/plural. My iPad doesn't intervene either.

 

^^^^ This! ^^^^

 

Speaking to some newbie fans recently i.e. Those who became fans in the 70s or after he died, they are far more into the 70s Elvis and love the RCA 70s Studio and live recordings and the FTD Soundboards than they are the 60s soundtracks. A few of the FTD Soundboards have been deleted and the prices have been creeping up steadily from their starting value of £20 with some selling for around £35/£40. Conversely, those who became fans in the 50s and early 60s are a little more selective on the FTD 70s soundboard stuff and do not consider it important enough to have in the collection, many citing the poor sound or repetive song lists. So whilst it is impossible to come to a complete positive conclusion to establish if there is a pattern regarding current and future collectibility, it seems that the number of new fans who have decided to collect all the albums is small and they do not want to hunt out original vinyl either, being happy to have the albums on CD. I think we are coming to a period where the early fanbase will start diminishing resulting in more collections flooding the market.

 

I have faith that any of the youngsters that may have missed the Fab Four in your youth will certainly get the Beatles Bug later in life! Timeless music, just like The King.

 

Exactly. The stupidity of basing the future on a tween before they had a chance to learn about the world let alone appreciate great music that you aren't going to get on one small listen.

You are complete and utter shallow person if you don't listen to Pet Sounds at least 3 times. Anything less than that (in the words of Tarantino about There Will Be Blood), amounts to words and thoughts that are just gibberish.

 

No disrespect taken. I love the Beatles, and always will. My point in all this is that as time goes by, great works of art fade from the view of the vast majority of new generations. A few people will seek them out, and they'll be deeply rewarded. But the vast majority of people do not read Shakespeare after high school. And he's almost universally regarded as the best writer who ever lived.

Time marches on, and all of us are forgotten. It's just the nature of life.

"I don't mean to belittle the Beatles when I say they weren't this, they weren't that. I'm just trying not to overblow their importance as separate from society. And I don't think they were more important than Glenn Miller or Woody Herman or Bessie Smith. It was our generation, that's all. It was Sixties music." -- John Lennon, 1980

 

Great quote! Yes it is nature of life...and it sucks. I am like Anakin Skywalker. I am going to throw a doing everything I can to make things stay the same. By "force" if necessary.

 

History and tons of artist have proven that John Lennon was totally wrong!

Also ask most artist and they will tell you that the Beatles are indeed more important than Glenn Miller, Woody Herman and Bessie Smith!

None of them absolutely changed the entire industry of the music they performed!

I grew up listening to all of them, my father loved that music, so I'm very familiar with it.

They were absolutely great artist, but how many of them influenced an entire generation to want to be them?

I was a kid listening to them and they didn't inspire me at all, I liked some of what I heard but that was it.

When I saw A Hard Day's Night for the first time, and I saw Ringo having the time of his life playing the drums, I immediately broke two twigs of a tree and started pretending I was him!

I've been playing drums ever since!

I've read tons of stories like that!

 

I didn't realize that the importance of an artist can be proven.

Glenn Miller was pretty darn big. I would say that his work is not so quickly "beat" because a few baby boomers say so.

 

Bessie Smith's success helped create a music industry as we know it. With sales of her various releases at a 100, 000 units or more, touring with a troupe and support crew of 40-60 personnel, during the 1920s. Her career enabled a music industry, she proved records could sell in viable quantities that would allow labels like Paramount, Okeh, etc., to exist. Let alone a whole parallel impact of being black, female and bisexual, simply she was a pioneer: Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter, Mary Stafford, Edith Wilson, Billie Holiday, etc., followed. Music wasn't going to be just a white male endeavor.

Wider listening range needed.

 

I admit fully there is so much more music I need to explore! Thank you John for helping to open our eyes.

 

Think about what the Beatles organization has done with their catalog and compare that to the Elvis estate over the last 5 to 10 years.

I'd say it's dying on the vine by comparison. An Elvis mono box would sell. It has to be produced, marketed and promoted. I think the demographic that is aging and hurting popularity are those running the business.

 

The thread that won't die. On and on and on and on...

 

Did you come back here just to voice your disapproval? What's the point of posting something like this?

 

Maybe he is just fed up with the Elvis vs Beatles thing that seems to be revolving around and around, but he didn't want to be that open.

Me, I'm thinking about what the Elvis organisation has done in the 5-10 years when compared to The Beatles organisation.

Would a mono box sell well. I know some fans would like something whilst others are really not that bothered at all. There isn't a great deal of difference in the mixing on a lot of the albums especially the soundtracks which were basically fold-downs. A couple of the '69 and early '70s mono singles are interesting. FTD have already released a few of the early 60s non soundtrack albums in mono including the '68 release of GR4. I'm surprised they didn't do mono with the latest Roustabout release which is something Roger Semon told me was they type of thing they would be looking at doing several years ago for albums where they had no outtakes, as they did it with Speedway. A bit of a surprise - maybe they will do it with Kissin Cousins.