Early September 2003
- New Elvis Song Uncovered
By Izaddin Syah
(jaffa.com.my, dated 18th August, found September 10, 2003)
Elvis fans will be treated to a pleasant surprise when they next buy Elvis Presley's Greatest Hits compilation due for release later this year. An unreleased track called "I'm a Roustabout" will be included in his second compilation, "Elvis 2nd To None", a follow-up to the hugely successful "Elvis 30 #1 Hits".
"I'm a Roustabout" was originally written for the circus-themed Presley movie, "Roustabout" in 1964, in which he starred with Raquel Welch. However, the producers later opted for a different song for inclusion in the film as well as the album of the same name. The song finally resurfaced after the songwriter, Winfield Scott, stumbled upon the gem thrown in with a bunch of other demos and songs of his personal collection. The song was also penned by Scott's fellow musical collaborator, Otis Blackwell, whose credits include songs like "Don't Be Cruel" and "All Shook Up". ...
- BMG snaps at Warner's heels in music rankings
By Merissa Marr
(forbes.com / Reuters, September 9, 2003)
Hits from Avril Lavigne, Elvis Presley and Pink helped Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) boost its global market share to within a whisker of its potential merger partner Warner Music, industry data showed on Tuesday. BMG, which is exploring a tie-up with its music rival, was the biggest market-share gainer among the big five music companies in 2002, closing the gap on a flat Warner Music, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said. The data provides further ammunition for BMG as it enters the final stretch of talks over a possible combination with Warner Music in a bid to counter a crippling industry downturn that has seen Internet downloaders and CD-burning ravage sales.
After months of secret talks, top executives from the rival music companies are meeting this week after the summer break to discuss key sticking points that could make or break the deal, sources familiar with the negotiations said. Those points still include valuation, the sources said. If Warner and BMG were to merge, they would have had a combined market share of 23 percent in 2002, ranking them second behind industry giant Universal Music, the data showed. Warner and BMG currently rank as the world's number four and five.
According to the IFPI, BMG lifted its market share three points to 11.1 percent in 2002. Warner, meanwhile, was static at 11.9 percent of the $32 billion market. Universal Music, part of France's Vivendi Universal , was another winner in the rankings, retaining its number one spot with hits from Eminem, Shania Twain and Nelly which boosted its share to 25.9 percent from 23.7 percent.
- Lawdy! Less hunk, more hound, please, Elvis guys
By Gene Grant
(abqtrib.com, date unknown, found September 9, 2003)
Let me now sing the praises of white soul brother No. 3 - Elvis Presley. Nos. 1 and 2 will not be revealed here, out of respect for the King and for the recent casting call for the movie "Elvis Has Left the Building" at Albuquerque's Golden West Saloon. Something between a tremor and a serious ground-shaking occurred there, and it's all due to the power of the Big E. In case you missed it, the production company doing the film put out the word that it was looking for some 50 Elvi - the proper way to refer to multiple Big E's - as extras in the comedy, to be filmed in Albuquerque. The call was heard. Around 100 showed. Not all were in costume, and that was a good thing, to tell the truth. If I had gotten swished with one more plastic-jeweled rayon cape, there would have been trouble. Young, old, the infirm and everyone in between gave it a go. The Big E juju was thick. You'd have to have been a real party pooper to not get caught up in it.
The funniest part of my night was when, while chatting amiably with a Big E from Raton in full regalia, I realized I was chatting amiably with a Big E from Raton in full regalia - as though it were the most normal thing in the world. There's a point where 100 Elvi in one small club become deliciously absurd. If you love spectacle, and I'm an addict, this was just too good.
It was absolutely appropriate that this casting call took place at the Golden West on Central. Lesser lights would have tried this in a hotel. The fact is, you've got to have the complementary tang of beer and cigarettes when there's that much Brylcreem on the hoof. A squeaky-clean hotel ballroom would have been too stifling, artistically - and, make no mistake, being Elvis is an art. Like all art, some is good, and some, to be charitable, is not so good. But therein lies the opportunity.
I thought doing Elvis should be fairly simple - a hip shake and a "Thank you, thank you very much." But something was very much missing at the saloon. After about the 13th rendition of "Teddy Bear," it came to me like a flash: These guys aren't sexy - just like ex-Mayor Jim Baca isn't sexy.
The sign? Not one took on the appearance of the ultimate Elvis - the sleek, black-leather-from-head-to-toe, 1968-TV-special-comeback Elvis.
What we had here, folks, was an age problem. No one there under 40 - and still in shape - saw the opportunity. They were led astray by the regrettable orthodoxy of the white cape, circa 1977.
Admit it: The dude was hot in that black leather get-up. Think about every picture you've seen of Elvis on that small stage ringed with adoring girls. He was feeling it, baby. He looked as though he was going to unleash a wicked karate kick any second. His snarling lip curl was back. Is there a deeper meaning to this? Was the lack of any sexy Elvi a negative mark on our collective Albuquerque maleness?
Guys hung in there with safe picks for songs, such as "Good Luck Charm," and generally avoided the smoky stuff.
If you take a swing at "Stuck on You" and try to sell the sinewy line, "I'm gonna run my fingers through your long, black hair," you'd better have some libido. Same for "Surrender," another one no one dared to touch. A few gave "Little Sister" a run, but, again, the sexual wink just didn't come across. By the way, I'd like to ask the guy who warbled his way through "In the Ghetto" just what he was thinking.
The final insult was when Amanda Kooser, the wonderfully talented lead singer for local acoustic band Edith Grove, strode onstage with her guitar, black wig, jacket and pants, stared 100 fat Elvi in the eye and proceeded to smack the cover off "Blue Suede Shoes."
OK, maybe I'm making too much of a bunch of old guys who were just looking to get into a movie. But, somehow, there's got to be a Big E renaissance - a re-discovery of what made the King a subversive danger to society.
In order for the species to propagate, we desperately need the wild energy of youth to reinvigorate the Elvis icon.
Sexy Elvis is a franchise just waiting to be grabbed. Come on, lads, buy some leather and get in the game. We can't let it end like this.
- New Elvis Song Uncovered
By Izaddin Syah
(jaffa.com.my, September 8, 2003)
Elvis fans will be treated to a pleasant surprise when they next buy Elvis Presley's Greatest Hits compilation due for release later this year. An unreleased track called I'm a Roustabout will be included in his second compilation, "Elvis 2nd To None", a follow-up to the hugely successful "Elvis 30 #1 Hits". I'm a Roustabout was originally written for the circus-themed Presley movie, "Roustabout" in 1964, in which he starred with Raquel Welch. However, the producers later opted for a different song for inclusion in the film as well as the album of the same name. The song finally resurfaced after the songwriter, Winfield Scott, stumbled upon the gem thrown in with a bunch of other demos and songs of his personal collection. The song was also penned by Scott's fellow musical collaborator, Otis Blackwell, whose credits include songs like Don't Be Cruel and All Shook Up. According to reports, a reporter discovered the existence of the record after beingtold about it by Scott in an interview. Officials at RCA Records later decided to include the song in the upcoming compilation after a producer got a tip off from the reporter. ...
- Hippy theory revives mystery
(nzoom.com, September 8, 2003)
One of Britain's most enduring criminal mysteries has been given new life with the publication of a book claiming to explain the disappearance of aristocratic fugitive Lord Lucan. Lucan went on the run in 1974 at the age of 39 after his children's nanny Sandra Rivett was found beaten to death in the basement of his London home.
Since then sightings of the vanished Lord have become as frequent and fanciful as those of Elvis Presley after his death. He has been reported in Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland and South Africa, sometimes in two places simultaneously. But Lady Lucan on Sunday rejected the claim by author Duncan MacLaughlin that her former husband lived out the rest of his life as a hippy in Goa, India before dying in 1996 from liver failure. "None of it fits," she told Sky News television. "It is unutterably boring. We have no body. We have nothing. I am sure we are never going to know actually what happened." ...
- The boy can't help it
By Helen Barlow
(Sunday Herald, September 7, 2003)
TALL, dark, handsome Italians are never in short supply in Venice; but at this year's film festival, Nicolas Cage still stands out. Okay, he's half- German, but he wears his Italian ancestry well, dapper and bronzed in a dark suit and crisp white shirt. He grins as he speaks, flashing his teeth and brushing back his hair to disguise creeping baldness. At over six feet, Cage is every inch the Hollywood star, despite his recent avoidance of Hollywood vehicles.
... Cage is probably relieved to escape the media heat in the US since the collapse of his marriage to Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie. "I feel at home in Venice," he says. "I relax here. I've gone out, had dinner and it's been terrific." ...
- Elvis is just one of the music legends inspiring furniture makers
(Jewish World Review, date unknown, found September 6, 2003)
Elvis is back in the building --- and so are Billie Holiday, Burt Bacharach and George Gershwin, all music legends who have become the latest inspiration for furniture companies. Elvis furniture may have started it all, but now fans have more music-inspired furniture: the just-released "New Standards: The Steve Tyrell Collection" by Pennsylvania House. Its Billie Holiday slipper chair, Bacharach sofa, Stardust chair and Gershwin sofa represent music greats associated with Tyrell. Tyrell, a jazz singer/composer/producer, has worked with a wide range of musicians, from Ray Charles and Otis Redding to Rickie Lee Jones and Elvis.
The Elvis furniture idea came to John Bassett, president of Vaughn-Bassett Co., when he couldn't get a rental car or a hotel room in Memphis during the annual August anniversary events marking Elvis' death on Aug. 16 in 1977. "They told my father there were 40,000 people in town because of Elvis," said his son, Doug Bassett, as he guided a small group around the Elvis showroom at last fall's semiannual High Point International Furniture Show in North Carolina. "The first thing my father thought is: 'That's 40,000 bedrooms!' "He imagined fans sleeping in a Love Me Tender bed or gazing into a Gold Record mirror and began the collection with two bedroom sets: Love Me Tender, a Victorian style, and a trendy Hollywood '50s look.
- Southern man: Charlie Daniels takes his politics as seriously as his music
By Ray Hogan
([Stamford] Advocate, September 4, 2003)
Charlie Daniels will always be most closely linked to his 1979 hit "Devil Went Down To Georgia." That song is likely a major reason he was asked to headline the Oyster Festival on Sunday evening. But Daniels, a fiddler and vocalist, has enjoyed a 40-year career that's seen him have one of his earliest songs covered by Elvis Presley in 1963, play on three Bob Dylan albums (including "Nashville Skyline") and command the Charlie Daniels Band for the past 33 years. Over the course of his musical history, the North Carolina native has become symbolic of conservative country values and uber-patriotism.
... Daniels' rise was earned. He was born in 1936 and playing in bluegrass bands by age 16. By the age of 19, he was already a veteran of several rock and r&b songs. In 1964, his song "It Hurts Me" was the b-side to the Elvis Presley single "Kissin' Cousins." He moved to Nashville in 1967 and worked as a session player who found work with Ringo Starr, Marty Robbins and Bob Dylan. "I loved every minute of it," he says of working with Dylan. "He had a great admiration for music: He wanted you to do what you do, that's why he invited you to play on the record. I have nothing but fond memories." ...
- THE WHOLE BEAN
(review)
By Jesse Hassenger
(Pop Matters, dated April 29, found September 4, 2003)
Childish Malice: If I were more Anglophobic, I think I'd feel pretty grateful for Mr. Bean. British pop art has a history of one-upping the U.S.: the Beatles trump Elvis and the Beach Boys, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" towers over "Laugh-In", and, thanks to the Sex Pistols, the U.K. can still claim the invention of punk rock as their own. "Mr. Bean", though, is a straightforward little slapstick creation, well liked but not worshipped. ...
- Kissing was all an act, but it was a picnic, too
By Jon Sparks
(Go Memphis, September 4, 2003)
Fast Eddy Davis calls to tell us about the time - actually several times - that he kissed Cybill Shepherd. All in the line of work. Or pursuit of art. ...
Elvis-related displays of affection
We also got this account from Barbara Z. Blair, even though it's not about Cybill or kissing: "The summer after high school graduation I was riding my bicycle to the library on Peabody and was waiting for the light to change at Madison and McLean. "A big car pulled up to the light and the driver winked at me. Back then you were supposed to give a look of disdain if a guy winked at you and I did just that. "Was I ever sorry when I recognized the driver. It was ELVIS PRESLEY! The light changed and he drove away. "That's my Elvis story and I'm stickin' to it."
Meanwhile, Geraldine Kyle writes to tell us that she has kissed Elvis's daddy, but we're thinking that maybe that's about as far as we want to digress in the area of celebrity osculation. ...
- Asteroid Doomsday 'Risk' Evaporates after Media Fan Flames
By Robert Roy Britt
(space.com, September 3, 2003)
A newly discovered asteroid that generated doomsday headlines around the world yesterday morning was, by the end of the day, reduced to innocuous status as additional observations showed it would not hit Earth. Meanwhile, a whirlwind of media hype has astronomers and asteroid analysts arguing among themselves -- again -- about how they should disseminate information to the public. ...
Like the return of Elvis
One thing has changed of late: There is increasing sarcasm in the media with each new asteroid alert. Some reporters and editors are getting wise to the long odds -- or perhaps tired of having to report on them -- and doing more than just sensationalizing the data. One story yesterday made light of the initial chances of 2003 QQ47 hitting Earth. Sky News, a British publisher, said a bookmaker was taking bets on the prospect. A spokesman for William Hill bookmakers likened the 1-in-909,000 odds of doom to the chance that a manned expedition to Mars would arrive and discover the Loch Ness Monster there, or the equally probably scenario that Elvis Presley would reappear and marry Madonna. We now know that the latter two scenarios are far more likely than the world ending in 2014 due to an impact by asteroid 2003 QQ47.
- Elvis Explosion coming to La Crosse Center
By GERI PARLIN
(La Crosse Tribune, September 2, 2003)
Get ready to swoon, sigh and grab for a sweaty scarf. The Elvis Explosion is set to detonate at the La Crosse Center on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 5 and 6. And, as any Elvis fan will tell you, this is as close to The King as you'll get in this lifetime. John Paget of Blue Suede Films will be there. As the producer and director of "Almost Elvis: Elvis Impersonators & Their Quest for the Crown," he's coming to get some footage for the sequel, "The King's Men."
Paget said he became fascinated by the phenomenon of Elvis impersonators while filming "Route 66: Return to the Road." Everywhere the crew stopped, he said, they encountered Elvis impersonators. "As a kid, I always liked Elvis, but I wasn't a fanatic. I was more intrigued by the impact Elvis had on our culture."
That impact is huge, Paget said. "I've heard estimates as high as 20,000 to 35,000 (Elvis impersonators) worldwide." As a filmmaker, he said, he couldn't resist. "It's funny and humorous, but it's also a serious cultural phenomenon unprecedented in the history of the world. There are white, black, Chinese, Japanese (Elvis impersonators). It's completely universal," Paget said. ...
- 'Jailhouse' tuner rocks this spring: U.K. production expected to feature 22 songs
By MATT WOLF
(variety.com, September 3 2003)
"Jailhouse Rock," the 1957 Elvis Presley film tuner, is set to roll its way to the West End in the spring as the latest in a long line of movies to materialize onstage.... (You need to subscribe to obtain more details)
- New "ELVIS" treatment for varicose veins
(Tampa Bay's 10 News, September 1 2003)
Millions of Americans suffer from varicose veins.
For many of them, the veins are simply a cosmetic concern. But for others, varicose veins can cause pain and discomfort. Now, a new treatment is providing some comfort.
- St. Maries' Paul Bunyan Days fit for a king: Elvis impersonator delivers fun show
(cdapress.com, September 1 2003)
By MARC STEWART
So this is where the aliens dropped off Elvis. In the middle of Paul Bunyan Days. "Thank you, thank you very much," said John Spencer, an Elvis impersonator, to the crowd as he wrapped up his set Saturday afternoon. The St. Maries resident moves and looks a lot like the king of rock 'n' roll. He sings with a lot of guts. "I am not to trying to be Elvis," said Spencer. "If I can bring back some memories or a smile, that's what this is about." The faux Elvis was a big hit with his audience. "I've seen a lot of Elvis impersonators and he's one of the better ones," said Velma Armstrong of Lewiston. "He's great." When he's not singing about blue suede shoes, Spencer wears U.S. Postal Service standard issue boots. "He delivers my mail," said Leon Armstrong of St. Maries. "His hair is real and he talks like Elvis on his route." Spencer's wife, Jeannie, convinced him he should let out his inner Elvis in January. "It sounded crazy," said Spencer. "When we started studying Elvis, we found out he had a heart of gold." Spencer is a lot of fun and knows how to work the crowd. He handed out teddy bears and invited women up for a peck on the cheek. "He's great," said Carol Forsman. "But he wants the ladies to wipe off his sweat. I can't do it."
- Priscilla on Elvis, Lisa Marie & Jackson
(Australian Women's Weekly, September 2003, pp. 50-54)
By Gerri Hirshley
... Priscilla talks about her family and the lessons of her amazing life. Her lecture tour is part of the "Smart Talk" Women's lecture series, which features speakers such as Corretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr, and environmental crusader Erin Brockovitch. ... Priscilla Presley has been living behind security gates for more than 30 years, ever since she was Elvis' bride-to-be cossetted in Graceland. ... Lisa Marie lives nearby with her children and their father, Danny (in a separate appartment), who sometimes home tutors the kids.
... As her daughter starts a recording career, Priscilla is launching an armada of new ventures herself. Besides the lecture tour, she is developing a Broadway musical centred on "my life, from my perspective", the Priscilla Presley Collection of fine jewellery and a Hollywood film project. Her charitable work centres on the Dream Foundation, which grants wishes to terminally ill adults. And she is still on the board of Elvis Presley Enterprises, which has ballooned under her stewardship to an estimated worth of $371 million plus.
... "No-one has really heared my side of the story, the adventure we had together, the transformation that I had, going from a schoolgirl to a woman overnight." Yes, she wrote a short memoir, "Elvis and Me" in 1985, but she hated every minute, she says, and only did it "for my daughter", to counter the infamous "Elvis" biography by Albert Goldman, a smarmy marathon of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll that revealed, among other things, the Polaroids Elvis liked to snap of his wife and other women. "The [Goldman] book was so appalling, just horrendous. I said 'I can't let this be a book my daughter could read about her father.' I wanted her to see her father was sensitive and wonderful, and every bit of what she thought of him as a dad."
... Both Priscilla and her daughter are stilll stung by the betrayals of Elvis' "guys", members of his tight, macho entourage, who have been peddling scandal - and stolen personal objects - for years. ... Priscilla is having to reassess it all as she works on the muscial, which she intends to be "uplifting", to celebrate the good times.
... This is what Priscilla Presley would like the Elvis mythologisers to understand: Act One was no grand American tragedy. Sure, she was devasted by her husband's infidelities, her own retaliative affair with her karate instructor Mike Stone, the divorce. Yet the couple remained close and she totally relied on him until his death when, as she puts it, "the sun went out". ... Act Two of her life, authored completely by Ms P herself, is upbeat and leavened with humour. Priscilla tried acting ... Navigating the more personal stuff is another matter. In 1995, the world watched, aghast, when Lisa Marie acknowledged her sexual relationship with husband Michael Jackson in a TV interview.
... one legacy from Act One that she understands she will never escape, regardless of all the good things in her life. "It's lonely. You have so much to share, you have so much to tell, you have so much you want to expose, so much inside that's learned from that life period. There are very few people I can share that with." Still, getting her musical produced - mounting a flamboyant, joyous tribute to all the good times before the dark - would be the best of balms.
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