The case for Elvis Presley

As a young person, I tried to listen to one of his albums (pre-1960s albums) and it feels so weird...

Don’t get me wrong, if you like Elvis, that’s good. But it is just so dated.

I don’t mind “dated” music, but there’s different kind of dated music and Elvis sounds way too old.

I don’t mind listening to Jailhouse Rock because it’s been played so much I can’t tell if this sounds dated or not, Can’t Help Falling In Love is a good track and my favorite of his, Always On My Mind also sounds good. And I can’t think of any other Elvis song I’ve heard in the last 6 months. Basically what I’m trying to say is that I don’t mind hearing his hits, but I would never buy any of his albums, I would never become a fan because I just can’t connect with his music, and in fact, for such a publicized artist and an icon, nobody my age cares about him at all. Nobody. The Beatles have lots of young fans, so do Pink Floyd, Queen, etc. And young people listen to their albums, but I have never met anyone my age or older that has ever listened to a song by Elvis that wasn’t a hit. Never. As I said, no one cared about him when I was in high school. Maybe they’ll discover him later.

By the way, the argument against Elvis isn’t about him being white and singing black music. Well, part of it is criticized, but most of the time I see people complaining about how he sang Hound Dog and never paid Big Mama Thorton a penny, she never had kind words for Elvis so that doesn’t help him much. That’s why I have more respect for artists like Janis Joplin, because she always credited the original singers, for instance, Erma Franklin never wrote Piece of My Heart yet she was always credited, Big Mama Thorton always spoke of Janis in a good way and she was grateful because Janis took her to tour. So yeah, there were plenty of white artists singing black music, but there’s a difference that matters between Elvis and other white artists (I could be totally wrong about Elvis though, so please correct me if I were).

Edit: I do see occasionally Elvis on instagram accounts dedicated to “vintage” people and photos. And I have to say it’s a pleasure to see his face because he was good-looking! (At least early in his career).

Just my thoughts.

 

He was a good friend of Sammy Davis Junior Junior's.

 

What is disturbing to me, as a great business partner Tom Parker was, he really didn't give a damn about
the health of his No.1 asset.
The guys had been in a nearly 20 year arrangement, for the love of humanity, you would have thought the 'Colonel' might
have tried to bring Elvis back to normality and straighten him out as 'a friend'.
It just seems as while the $$ was rolling in, that's all that mattered, even post death.

 

I never thought a case needed to be made for Elvis as a singer/performer, but if one needs to be made the blame lies at the feet of Elvis himself for his post 50s/army career choices, basically playing stooge to the colonel, and making himself forever uncool for future generations.

 

Again, I don't know, I think the films were half decent upto about 63 or 64'.
Those later films are pretty rough indeed!

 

Bob Dylan - May 24, 1941
John Lennon - October 9, 1940
Elton John - March 25, 1947
Mick Fleetwood - June 24, 1947
Leonard Bernstein - August 25, 1918
Rod Stewart - January 10, 1945
Mick Jagger - July 26, 1943
Little Richard - December 5, 1932
Jackie Wilson - June 9, 1934
James Brown - May 3, 1933
Paul McCartney - June 18, 1942
Roger Daltrey - March 1, 1944
Robert Plant - August 20, 1948
Bono - May 10, 1960
David Bowie - January 8, 1947
Bruce Springsteen - September 23, 1949
Issac Hayes - August 20, 1942
Al Green - April 13, 1946

With two outliers, most of these people were born between 1933 - 1948. That 15 year period is when most Elvis idolators were born which is indicative of one main thing - that Elvis was as much a product of his time as, say, Kanye is of his.

People born in the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's don't have anywhere near that level of appreciation of Elvis' music. I dare say most born after 1990 couldn't name any of his songs.

None of this is to disparage Elvis' music or his fan's love for him. I just want to make an observation that his influence was due to the times he lived in, and that legacy is now largely forgotten.

 

Yea, there was even an eye witness report that while Elvis was obviously not in any condition to perform (sorry my details are sketchy) and Elvis was virtually in state of complete shut down, Parker came in yelling about getting ready for the show, while to everyone else it seemed that calling a doctor would be the obvious thing to do. Parker essentially killed Hank Snow too.

 

I think that Elvis's place in musical and cultural history is quite secure. More than 40 years after his death, he still has a significant presence.

If anyone questions Elvis's continued relevance, take a moment and compare Elvis with Bing Crosby who died a couple of months after Elvis.

Crosby was a giant of the previous era, his career lasted 50 years (more than double, Elvis') his recorded output also far surpassed Elvis, however his presence in today's culture is far, far less than Elvis.

I don't see any danger of Elvis's stature and place in history diminishing much in the lifetime of anyone reading this.

 

I like Elvis and grew up with him on the radio and on television. However, an historic figures importance is no guarantee of remaining popular and played.

He is not being played by my daughters and their boyfriends (all in their twenties) and I can't remember the last time I saw him on TV or heard a track on the radio. Apparently, the value of Elvis memorabilia is flagging.

I think part of the problem rests with the material. Even if you like Elvis as a singer you have to admit that after the early Sun and RCA recordings a lot of it is not essential. In an era of albums he didn't produce anything to compare with high-points from (at random) The Stones or The Beatles. When he is promoted these days it tends to be with images from the Vegas years. These images do not appeal to the younger generation. Too many "best of" packages have not helped either - these are seen as "uncool".

His image has been managed to the point where he is often seen as a middle of the road entertainer - not the revolutionary force that he once was.

 

I recently visited Graceland and the recently opened Elvis Presley Experience across the street from Graceland. Anyone who has any doubts of the importance of Elvis Presley needs to visit those and then get back to me.

 

Were the shops full of "young people" or old farts?

 

Certainly his image has been mismanaged to a degree, and I think the Vegas thing is always put forward because of a want from the media to try and snuff out his influence.
I would strongly disagree that after the Sun years he didn't have any albums of note

 

While the 50s stuff is outstanding, great playlists can be created from every decade of Elvis's career.

 

That is flat-out wrong.

 

Not heard of that guy, but in the case of Elvis Presley, never was one extraordinarily legendary career built on so few good records. The ratio of great records to extremely poor ones is miserably low.

 

Elvis was just plain cool...end of story.

 

A mixture, mostly old folks, but I was there on a weekday during the school year. I was really referring to the exhibits themselves. It's just overwhelming how much is on display. I also visited the birthplace in Tupelo on a cold rainy Wednesday in November and there were quite a few people there too.

 

Anyone with a career that long that was recorded that much is bound to have some clunkers. I actually don't think the ratio is as bad as you suggest. Not in my opinion anyway. There are gems sprinkled throughout his career. If all he had was his '54-'57 output, he'd be a giant. Add in his early 60s post-Army comeback, his late 60s Memphis sessions and his early 70s Nashville sessions, and Elvis is a god.

 

I don't have to admit any such thing. You're not wrong that the "younger" generation doesn't respond to Elvis as rabidly as older generations did, but the generation I came up with loved Nirvana and Pearl Jam so I learned to dismiss their opinion a LONG time ago.

 

As far as I’m concerned, Elvis doesn’t need a case made for him.

 

Can you name some for me? I am not trying to be confrontational - I would just like to know.

 

Why would the media want to snuff out his influence? Without Elvis so much of the music we love may not have been made - but I am not sure his influence is understood anymore (obviously we understand).

 

I feel like if he had ended his career when he went into the army he would be seen today as a Rock & Roll hero. As it is, he spent the rest of his career in the middle of the road and was completely out of step with everything that happened after after the Beatles. For most people who grew up in the 60's and beyond, he is remembered mostly for bad movies and Las Vegas. That should not diminish his importance to everything that followed him, but I think it does.

 

Elvis is back 1960 - absolute classic
Pot Luck - terrible title, terrible cover, great album
Blue hawaii - aside from a couple of novelty songs a great album and a huge seller and part of the reason the Colonel pursuaded Elvis to focus on those darn soundtrack albums
From Elvis In Memphis - is an absolute classic on par with anything anyone was doing in the sixties
Almost in love - may be a budget release and a little poorly sequenced, but a great album
Elvis Country - aside from the producer cutting up a song and using it as a link track between each song, this is a great album.

The fact of the matter is, although Elvis isn't recognised by the general public as being an album guy, that is really a little ignorant. I personally love lots of other albums, but those listed can't justifiably be dismissed as poor, or not up to scratch, or any other derogatory term.

That isn't even taking into account that the four Elvis Golden Records albums are brilliant collections of fantastic singles that were never issued on an album

 

I have no idea why..... I can only assume it has something to do with Elvis impersonators .... What other artists has had so many impersonators? and I don't think any of them ever had the b@ll$ to try and do fifties Elvis