Login Here
I was really happy to come across this article by Peter Guralnick in the New York Times the other day because I love Elvis Presley. It's bummed me out for years hearing the unsubstantiated "Elvis was a racist" rumor . This article clarified a lot of things for me and I definitely recommend the read.
I found some quotes on my own from Elvis's contemporaries:
"Elvis was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldn't let Black music through. He opened the door for Black music." - Little Richard.
"I wasn't just a fan, I was his brother. Last time I saw Elvis alive was at Graceland. We sang ‘Old Blind Barnabus' together, a gospel song. I love him and hope to see him in heaven. There'll never be another like that soul brother." - James Brown.
I've pulled together some clips of Elvis and his Attraction in honor of the 30th anniversary of his passing yesterday.
Share This 
Spotlight
zunoed?
Yes! Hi Donita! Hi Fini!
Hey there dakine01!
his last show was in Indy, wasn’t it?
30 years, hard to believe…
Donita!!
I was dancing to elvis all night at the Blackhearts cafe in Second Life last night.
Thanks for the music.
I love Elvis.
Hi Donita.
I like some of the Elvis music. But I first learned it from Stitch & Lilo.
I’ve always had some mixed feelings about Elvis. Some of his stuff is among the greatest music ever made and some of it is pure cr*p. I think a lot of folks put the divide as pre-Army and post-Army but some of his after Army music was great so I have no idea where the break point is.
Ok everyone….. is it “Elvis’s contemporaries” or “Elvis’ contemporaries”?
Just watched the first video - is that what it’s like just before YOU go out onstage, Donita?
Donita Sparks @ 10
My English teacher said both are OK.
OT: Texans
HOUSTON (AP) - Fuel trucks are headed toward coastal towns and evacuations routes are being cleared as Texas braces for a possible direct hit from Hurricane Dean.
Donita Sparks @ 10
apostrophe after the one s… Elvis’
jacqrat @ 11
Exactly, only I have one person blotting my sweat and another putting more powder on.
ccmask @ 13
My brother is down there! They set up his unit in Harligen so they can help with evacuations.
Donita Sparks @ 15
(squeals) Ooooh! I can just SEE it!
Keith Olberman’s conversation with Uri Gellar and the speculation about Elvis being alive just cracked me up. Charlane Harris has written a series of vampire novels and one of the vampires is “The King,” who was brought back from the brink by a vampire EMT on the fateful night of his alleged demise. Unfortunately “Bubba” came through the process with most of his memories gone, and is portrayed as a bit of a halfwit. To be honest, that is one of the best “Elvis is alive,” theories I have heard. It is certainly entertaining.
jayt @ 4
Yessiree, we have a huge marker and everything. In fact my friend Dan Niswander just did a video addressed to David Letterman on YouTube about this. That is Market Square Arena in that first video. I know a bunch of people who were there.
I will never forget where I was on that day in ‘77. Tulsa, OK, across the street from Oral Roberts University. We stayed up late and watched an extended Nightline on ABC. My mother cried and cried, then she cried some more.
ccmask @ 13
Oh like we need more rain down here, huh? Jeebus. We only got eight plus inches yesterday in San Antone after having the second rainiest Julys after having the rainiest first seven months of a year. Sure, why not more rain?
Donita Sparks @ 10
Strunk & White say it’s Elvis’s.
jacqrat @ 14
Hmm… I don’t know if I trust you Jacqrat
for my money, the best elvis tunes were the sun sessions. very raw, almost primal, undiluted by background singers, etc.
Donita Sparks @ 23
(crestfallen)
This is the new way: apostrophe after the one s… Elvis’
This is the old way: Strunk & White say it’s Elvis’s.
My teacher said either one is fine.
elvis is dead, and donita’s just pretending, badump-bump!
I’m torn too on the apostrophe. I’ve used both rules, but FWIW the Associated Press Stylebook says both are acceptable.
dakine01 @ 21
Well, Dean will be dropping a whole lot more water onyou, unfortunately. Better get ready (battery backup for tv & laptop, clean bathtub, fill water bottles, stock up on tuna & saltines, etc. etc. etc.) I was going to do all that Sunday but if you are getting it instead, well…
My Nephew is on leave for 3 days (based in Georgia). I just hope he isn’t coming to tell us he is leaving for Iraq. He is the only son of my sister who died of breast cancer. I’m so nervous. I’m driving to Boca in the morning. I wonder if the storm can still turn this way (Gulf of Mexico/Florida?)
OT for Cassie
from end of prior thread:
Re allan at 90
Hi, Cassie.
I agree with allan: get as much math (including statistics) and science as you can stomach.
A good research project might be to examine how the MSM has ignored all the good research and analysis that’s been done on the John F. Kennedy assassination. (There has been lots of bad analysis that has been trumpeted by the MSM.)
And to examine why the MSM has behaved this way.
For more info on the assassination, see (for example) the Assassination Science website maintained by Professor James Fetzer.
Of all his songs I just love A Little Less Conversation,
Marretta @ 18
The book “Is Elvis Alive?” is really great and comes with an audio cassette of Elvis’s phone messages from the late 1980’s. He talks about how he’s “been doin’ alot a karata”.
My brother went down to the gulf yesterday for ERIN but just when they were finished, they were given 6 hours to sleep and now they are on duty for DEAN.
Donita
English lesson aside, the clip of Andy Kaufmann is a mindblower. Wow. never saw that, mesmerizing. His voice is actually really good. You a fan of his as well?
Thanks Jonathan.
Donita Sparks
I never heard those. Had they really been that widespread?
You need to watch the Andy Kaufmann video!
Absolutely a dynamite Elvis!! I remember when it was on. Hard to believe 30 years!
Millineryman @ 29
Mine is “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You”
SnarKassandra @ 26
What can I say.?.. I’m old school.
Thanks
(see Jacqrat!)
Millineryman @ 29
I’m partial to Viva Las Vegas but A Little Less Conversation is a close 2nd. I think as he went Vegas he actually became a better singer than in his early career from a technical perspective. He was breathing properly and increased his range considerably and also kept up the performance aspect despite not being a youngster anymore and couldn’t gyrate his hips like he could when he was 20.
ccmask @ 29
Well, I was living outside of Tampa in ‘04 and went through Charlie, Frances, and Jeannie so Dean won’t be that foreign an experience. It just gets real old since I haven’t quite gotten the gills and web fins fully grown in as yet.
I was in Negril knocking back a bowl of conch chowder and a Red Stripe when it came over the radio. He was a favorite when I was a kid but his Nixon connection and schlock soured me.
Cassie-there are some messages from you downstairs–including from ET (and me)….As someone else said, write on….
nicelyput @ 34
Huge Andy fan. I think that clip is touching as well as funny. Andy was a big Elvis fan. The fact that he was performing that in front of a Johnny Cash audience is so amazing. A true performance artist.
Donita Sparks @ 39
Hey Snark, please check back in the last thread for a little comment about “Dispatches”.
Elvis began his career by standing on street corners in Memphis and singing. His family was fairly poor and when the Colonel found him it all began. Are any of you old enough to remember his first appearance on Sullivan show?
finifinito @ 38
That’s an intersting perspective I never thought about it that way.
I’ve always thought that the persistent rumors about Elvis being alive came from fans stuck in the denial stage of grief. He was one of a kind, which makes it all that much more amusing that there are so many impersonators out there.
Donita Sparks @ 15
Do you still get stage fright? OK, that’s off topic. You don’t need to answer.
Twain @ 46
Yup
Some of my Elvis favorites (which I have on original vinyl):
It’s Now or Never
A Big Hunka Love
Are You Lonesome Tonight
Elvis is everywhere, man.
OK, I went back and looked. Thanks for the advice.
Jonathan @ 51
In the Ghetto
Millineryman @ 31
I like that one too. Someone did a remix a while ago. I’ll try and find it.
Man oh man my Momma just loved Elvis. I did too but not like her. She also loved Freddie Fender.
Freddie made it longer than Mom, but she only beat Elvis by three years, they are all gone now.
RIP, all of ‘em.
raven @ 52
And at about the same time (late 1960s):
Cold Kentucky Rain
Dakein01: Those three storms were unbelievable. Crazy times, for sure. I’m in Lake Placid and we never get hit but that year every one of them hit us.
Jonathan @ 57
Right before he went republican :)
Twain @ 36
There’s so many classics. In the Ghetto had a profound impact on me as a kid. To this day whenever I hear that song it brings me back to the first time I heard it.
Seriously, is there anyone male or female who can watch young Elvis in Jailhouse Rock and it doesn’t get them going?
When I was a little kid — and I mean a little kid, like 4 years old — my babysitters got me into Elvis and my minister dad would take me to the Saturday matinees at the Fitchburg movie theater to see Elvis movies. He would come home a bit bewildered by all these young girls who just pulled each others’ hair and screamed through the whole film, but he kept taking me.
As a fellow poor kid from Tennessee, however, I think he always kinda felt “good on ya” for ol’ Elvis.
Hmm.
My mom is a huge Elvis fan herself. I grew up with the movies as much as the music as well. I think right now, the favorites that stick with me are:
Return to Sender
A Little Less Conversation
I grew up to those songs on the car radio. I grew up learning to sing to classic rock as well as the usual nursery rhymes. Made for a very interseting childhood. hehe. I was born about 10 days after he died, so i’m obviously a bit young to do much more than ponder in wonder over the concert reruns, the movies and the wonder of it all.
Music is Music, and Elvis is one of those i respect for what he ushered in. *grins*
SnarKassandra @ 26
I like your English teacher, Cassie!
Language Log is one of my faves. Bunch of academic linguist types being snarky and informative. But don’t tell jacqrat…they’ve completely discredited Strunk and White many, many times over.
FunnyD
I heart Elvis.
Not as much as I heart Bill Monroe, but pretty damn close.
raven @ 57
And went to the White House. Met with Nixon (unplanned). And asked to become a U.S. marshall to wage war against drugs in the U.S.
Donita Sparks @ 53
That would great. I think it was very innovative for Elvis, and for music in 1968.
Nixon and Elvis
And I’m Father Flanigan of Boys Town.
Donita Sparks @ 54
Junkie XL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNvzT_yWg9Y There’s the vid. :D
happy friday donita!
my mom was in sitting in an outdoor cafe in Italy when the waiter said to her: “did you hear—the king is dead!” my mom thought he was talking about some old crusty royal……he then added: ELVIS! she told me her eyes welled up and she just sat there—in shock, crying.
that line in Public Enemy’s “fight the power” always irks me…..
love,
nora
Do drug addicts get treatment more in places where drugs are legal?
Actually, that wasn’t the vid. *ponders* Lets see if i can find the orignal on youtube somewhere. But that IS JunkieXL’s remix. Not the vid i remember from M2 at the time.
Jane Hamsher @ 61
Jailhouse Rock was on TCM last night - I think yesterday was Elvis day on there. Except I think my favorites are GI Blues and Blue Hawaii
Found IT! bhahaha~
Go Here!
I always liked the video cause it was fairly clever, and the remix is just stellar.
Bossa Nova Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-yZifpgCR0
Aloha, Ya’ll!!! Happy ‘Admissions Day’!!! 8-)
FunnyDiva at 61
Writing for the public is tricky.
Here on FDL, where there’s a range of ages from Cassie’s to Mayfly’s, pretty much anything goes.
If, OTOH, you’re writing for well-educated folks north of age 70, of which I do a lot, better stick to old school.
SnarKassandra @ 70
Thats a tough question honey.
A lot depends on the geographic location, ie, close to big cities that have more resources.
There are a ton of places that can help, I’m not so sure some states aren’t much harder to get to treatment because of the local laws being more draconian.
King Creole for me.
Bustednuckles @ 78
i meant other countries like in Europe.
That I couldn’t say, I stick close to home.
*g*
“Jailhouse Rock” also reminds me of those dancing Korean inmates you had here recently, Donita.
SnarKassandra @ 79
There have been mixed results, I suggest you look at Amsterdam
SnarKassandra @ 70
I believe that there is less addiction in places were drugs are legal. When things are normalized then they become less of a temptation. Therefore less treatment is needed.
Is Jenna really pregnant, or is that merely speculation?
Did Elvis ever try to get sober?
Donita: I’m still loving Tay Zonday from last week. Especially “Internet Dream“
Jane Hamsher @ 62
Very sweet memory there, and Jailhouse Rock gets me goin’ fo sho.
SnarKassandra @ 85
He was addicted to pills.
Jane Hamsher @ 79
Holy CRAP! Can you imagine the Filipino Fosse making the prisoners do Jailhouse Rock? AHHHHH!
Jonathan @ 76
Understood. As long as you’re not Grammar Policing around here, you’re safe from me!
Language Log is still well worth reading in any case. And it’s just posts, no comment threads, so relatively quick reading.
FunnyDiva
who sits on hands at the lake over
its/it’s and
there/their/they’re, etc.
Ed*ard Teller @ 83
it’s speculation… personally, I think she’s just eatin’ a few too many cheetos and drinking a few too many beers…
what I can’t figure out is why, in the Land of Traditional Values, her parents are jumping up and down and dancing for joy all over the media…
Did Elvis ever try to stop taking pills? Did he ever do treatment or NA or anything?
SnarKassandra @ 8
Heh. That would have to change one’s perspective, wouldn’t it???
Bob in HI
Ed*ard Teller @ 84
I posted a pic yesterday and someone commented she looked pregnant. I blamed it on beer because I didn’t want to spread any rumors. How bout that, heh.
Jonathan @ 66
heavily medicated himself, I’m sure.
SnarKassandra @ 92
I don’t think any of those “self-help” organizations except for AA existed then.
SnarKassandra @ 83
You should check out his 1968 “comeback” video. He is amazingly healthy and good. Fantastic live music in an intimate setting.
my favorite elvis tune is “jailhouse rock”. i’ve heard it covered several times over but the people singing are shouting rather than singing.
Thanks for a great thread Donita. I have to go. I always The Spin.
SnarKassandra @ 92
There was a ton of controversy over his being addicted to so many pills after his death.
IIRC he had a private physician who came under a lot of heat.
SnarKassandra @ 8
Heh. I was never into his music, my mother was. I’m old enough to remember this, but not old enough to have appreciated his music.
dakine01 @ 21
Oh you’re the folks taking our rain, then….
I can remember playing his 45’s over and over again on my little record player in my backyard. He was just so dreamy.
dakine01 @ 9
I put the quality divide on Colonel Tom, Elvis’ illegal alien carny ‘manager’…who actually made Brian Epstein look competent.
The testament to the talent of Elvis is that whether he was following his heart (gospel, rockabilly) or churning out dreck (Do the Clam, and 99% of the soundtrack songs)…He made it palatable.
Wow, the “Elvis is a racist” myth is debunked. I’ve heard that story all my life, pervasive to the point that I never seriously questioned it. Snopes has the goods here.
Thanks, Donita!
Well, what do you know?
NEW YORK - “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” whose phony news coverage has long included phony “remotes” from war-torn Iraq, will be reporting from Iraq for real next week.
raven @ 94
You got to examine the times. This was the Golden Age of Big Pharma getting their addiction grip on in the US. Rich white folks who had no qualms with locking up the long hairs for 20 years for possession of marijuana would in the same breath as condemning the DFH’s be throwing 4 V*li*m and a swig of Stolichnaya down their own throat without batting an eye. Pills are LEGAL therefore if y