Mid October 2003
- Fremont man loves his musicians: Tombstones of his favorite singers adorn front lawn of his home on Halloween
By Robert Airoldi
(Oakland Tribune Online, October 20, 2003)
"Rock 'n' roll may never die, but rock stars do," reads a sign that will grace the front lawn of Sonny Deleon's home on Halloween. To remember some of his favorites, Deleon has erected 23 "tombstones" of dead musicians and singers. Maurice Gibb and Frank Sinatra will be added soon. "I'm a big fan of rock 'n' roll," said Deleon, 49, admiring his handiwork. "I do it for their spirits and to remember them." The tombstones are made of particle board, stand about 2 feet tall and are painted white. They adorn the neatly manicured front lawn of Deleon's modest one-story home on Stevenson Boulevard between Sundale Drive and Besco Drive.
On Halloween, Deleon will place a candle in front of each tombstone and position a life-size coffin in front of his house. When trick-or-treaters approach his home, a zombie will open the coffin lid and scare the kids. Those laid to rest on Deleon's front lawn include Selena, John Denver, Karen Carpenter, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Jim Croce, the Big Bopper, Elvis and Minnie Ripperton. The tombstones include dates of birth and death, garnered from research on his computer, Deleon said. "I enjoy their music very much," Deleon said. "From Carpenter to Elvis to Croce." ...
- Music fans roam vinyl frontier
By Marcy Nicholson
(Brandon Sun, October 20, 2003)
Richard Sturtz slips an Elvis Presley record out of its jacket, pulls off his glasses and studies the LP's surface. "I'm checking the record for any scuffs and scratches," says Sturtz, holding the record only inches from his face. The blue label in its centre tells this experienced collector that the record is a re-issue and not an original. Yesterday, a steady flow of music lovers filed through thousands of LPs, 45s, cassettes and eight-track tapes at the Park Community Centre. "I think there's actually a trend back to vinyl," says Sturtz, who organizes bi-annual LP sales in Winnipeg. ...
- Golden Tigers clinch third straight region crown
By Jason Houston
(Franklin County Times, October 19, 2003)
It was a game Elvis Presley would have loved. Russellville head coach Perry Swindall said his team's goal going into Friday night's game against winless Brewer was to take care of business. Well, to borrow the King¹s famous slogan, the Golden Tigers took care of business in a flash. After jumping out to a 43-0 first-quarter lead, Russellville drubbed the hapless Patriots 50-10 at Tiger Stadium to clinch its third straight Class 5A Region 8 title. ...
- Rock and Roll Hall of fame celebrates five-millionth visitor
(wkyc.com, October 18, 2003)
CLEVELAND -- Elvis's jumpsuit, John Lennon's report card and the Supremes' dresses may reside at the rock hall. But Saturday, all eyes were on one woman who was the five millionth rock fan to walk through the doors. That enthusiastic woman is Bonnie Mueller from Atlanta. ...
- Elvis repackaged
By Simon Petch
([Melbourne] Age, October 18, 2003)
No one can place the recording of the King's new single and that makes it ideal remix material. The new Elvis Presley single, Rubberneckin, is - or was, until its recent remix - the forgotten track from a legendary recording session. In January 1969, buoyed by the success of his recent television comeback, Elvis took his next recording session to the American Studio in Memphis, instead of his usual haunt, the RCA Studio in Nashville.
There was some risk in opting for home town over home ground - a new producer, unfamiliar studio musicians - but the gamble worked. As any knowledgeable Elvis fan will tell you, this session produced the successful singles of his final phase - In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds and Kentucky Rain, as well as his great double album The Memphis Record. But you may need a CEO, or Chronic Elvis Obsessor, to tell you the most important single thing about that session: Elvis was unwell. His sore throat and his strained voice lent these recordings a rawness of sound that is unique in his studio music.
Meticulous Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick doesn't so much as mention Rubberneckin in his encyclopedic biography, or in his booklet accompanying the RCA CD collection Elvis from Nashville to Memphis: The Essential 60s Masters, or even in his liner notes to the just-released Elvis 2nd to None.
This new compilation carries Rubberneckin as a bonus track and one of the album's producers claims that the song originally came from the 1969 film Change of Habit. As a card-carrying CEO, I should be able to verify this. I can't but what's important is this: no one seems to know just how to place Rubberneckin, but the fact that it's a nowhere song in the Elvis canon makes it brilliant remix material.
From the perspective of 2003, Rubberneckin can be seen among the seeds of Elvis's second coming. It was originally released as the flip-side of Don't Cry Daddy, a song of saccharine sentimentality that the grace and dignity of Elvis's voice somehow helped to No. 6 on the US Billboard Charts in 1970. Don't Cry Daddy (you can hear it on the new album) was written by Mac Davis, who had also written Elvis's previous hit In the Ghetto, as well as A Little Less Conversation (for the 1968 movie Live a Little, Love a Little). This was the song that would become, in 2002, the first and hugely successful Elvis remix. So Rubberneckin is there, beneath the workbench, waiting to take its place in the prefigured resurrection plot.
Elvis 2nd to None is the second compilation (after last year's Elvis 30 #1 Hits) to come out on the back of a remixed single. It's the better of the two albums. While it has fewer chart-toppers, the selected songs sample almost the full range of Elvis's music. There is the country singer, in Always on My Mind; the bluesman, in I Feel So Bad; the Las Vegas balladeer, in You Don't Have To Say You Love Me; the definitive cover singer, in Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes or Chuck Berry's Promised Land; and, of course, the out-and-out rocker, in such gems as Wear My Ring Around Your Neck and I Need Your Love To-Night. That's almost but not quite the full range, because there is no gospel song. If the second coming keeps on coming, somebody's going to have to deal with that.
To a CEO, the interest in the CD liner is in how Elvis is being marketed for a new generation. There could be no better introduction to the body of Elvis's work than Peter Guralnick's compressed account of his career as a singer. But interleaved among these eight unsurpassable pages is a series of bold - and bold-face - claims designed to educate anyone who still thinks Elvis was a fat old druggie. I found it oddly uplifting to be reminded that Elvis was the first to create fan hysteria, the first to be censored, and so on, but the final item in the list took the wind out of my sails. I had no idea that "Elvis was the 1st to have his own CRIB". The capital letters and the underlining have convinced me of its importance, but I'm afraid I still have no idea what it means.
There is only one problem with the album and that is the uneasy relationship between the remixed track and the whole compilation. Rubberneckin is challenged by the collection it fronts, carries and justifies, because they have nothing to do with each other.
The "bonus" track, you might say, gives the game away. Repackaging Elvis for today's music buyers involves remixing his music for a globalised economy. This takes it from the rich Southern roots of its origins. From the beginning in Sun Studios to the end in Graceland, the whole Elvis thing never drifted too far from the Mississippi Delta. The appeal of so much of the music is its provincialism, its unfamiliar aura, its exciting redolence of the back blocks, indeed the black blocks, of Tennessee and Mississippi. Future remixers and compilers should listen to the first words of Rubberneckin, "Stop, look, and listen, baby" because they could get it badly wrong.
Let's hope they don't. They haven't yet. I can't speak for all CEOs, but for me the Rubberneckin remix is better than the original. Paul Oakenfold has respected and retained the best of the Memphis recording, and while I don't go for all the buzzes, bumps and whistles he's added, they never swamp Elvis's voice. The total effect is terrific and my feelings about it are pretty much what they are for sun-dried tomatoes. Something's been done to them and I'm not quite sure exactly what, but they can be astonishingly good, and sometimes I'd choose them before the originals - without which, of course, they wouldn't exist.
In the words of the song, "It's all right with me", and I like to think that's what Elvis thinks too.
Elvis 2nd to None is out now.
- $5 lunch: Sandlot fare fine but no home run
By Karen Erstad
(Capital Times, October 17, 2003)
Elvis is out and Bucky is in. When the old Steven's bar at 301 North St. [Madison, Wisconsin] was sold and remodeled into The Sandlot Bar and Grill a few months ago, the mass of Elvis memorabilia left the building, and loads of University of Wisconsin and Packer football decor was moved in. ..
- Making sure piano doesn't get all shook up
By Peter Reuell
(Metro West Daily News, October 17, 2003)
Elvis may be long gone, but a little piece of Graceland is headed back on the road, thanks to the work of Ashland resident Ray Thomas. Thomas, the president of Future Case, a custom-case builder catering to the music industry, television and even the military, is this week tackling one of his toughest jobs -- building the case the King's piano will travel in.
... Founded in the late 1980s, after the dissolution of a stage lighting company, the list of the company's clientele reads like the back pages of Billboard magazine. Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Boston, Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa, the Four Tops -- you name the act, he says, chances are they've come through his doors. And now, he can add the King of Rock 'n' Roll to his list.
Thomas yesterday said his company was selected by the piano's owners to create a traveling case for the instrument, which later this year will go on tour as a piece of living rock history. Eventually, the piano will get a place of honor in the San Diego-based Symbolic Rock and Roll Music Museum. A portion of the tour proceeds and museum tickets will be donated to a research hospital in southern California.
For now, though, the piano resides in Thomas' workshop in an "undisclosed location" in Worcester. Just seeing the ivory-and-gold-trimmed grand piano gives him shivers, he said. Manufactured in 1927 by the Wm. Knabe Co., the Knabe (pronounced Ken-ah-bee) piano was purchased by Elvis in 1957 from Jack Marshall, the pianist for the Famous Blackwood Brothers Quintet. For the next dozen years, the piano stood in Graceland's Music Room and was often played by Elvis and guests. The instrument was later put in storage when Priscilla Presley bought Elvis a new piano for the couple's anniversary. Sometime between 1976 and 1981, Elvis' father, Vernon Presley, sold the piano, and it is now owned by a private collector.
... Apparently even tinkling Elvis' ivories is an experience. "It's like being Mother Teresa with nuclear first-strike capability," Thomas quipped, when asked what playing the King's piano was like.
- Rappers eclipse new Elvis release
(CNN / Reuters, October 17, 2003)
Rap trumped rockabilly on Wednesday as the latest album from hip-hop star Ludacris topped the U.S. pop charts and a new collection of Elvis Presley classics landed at No. 3, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The third major-label set from Ludacris, "Chicken N Beer," sold 430,000 copies during the week ended October 12, a career best for the "Dirty South" rapper who made headlines last year with a controversial but short-lived Pepsi promotion deal. Meanwhile, "Elvis 2nd to None," a follow-up to last year's chart-topping collection of Presley material, sold 181,000 copies its first week to enter the Billboard Top 200 in third place -- behind Ludacris and another rap act, OutKast -- some 26 years after his death.
Presley's latest posthumous sales figures paled in comparison to the debut of "ELVIS 30 #1 Hits," which posted first-week U.S. sales of 500,000 copies and shot to the top of the charts in more than two dozen countries. Joe DiMuro, a senior marketing executive for Bertelsmann AG unit RCA Records, said the label was "very happy" with "Elvis 2nd to None." He insisted the album was "meeting all its expectations" as a sequel to the blockbuster success of "30 #1 Hits." That album went on to sell 9 million copies worldwide. "It's amazing to think that there's so much of that still rabid following out there in consumption for Elvis Presley," he said, adding that RCA was looking to release more repackaged Elvis material in the future.
One track from the new Presley collection, a dance remix of his lesser-known 1969 recording of "Rubberneckin'," topped the commercial singles chart last month. Other highlights from the new album include Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes," "That's All Right," "Viva Las Vegas" and a never-before-released song he recorded nearly 40 years ago, "I'm a Roustabout." The King of Rock 'n' Roll also found himself eclipsed by the Grammy-winning hip-hop act OutKast, whose double-CD set, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," sold 187,000 copies in its third week of release, slipping a notch to No. 2. The sales tally for the duo comprising Antwan "Big Boi" Patton and Andrew "3000" Benjamin now climbs to 933,000 copies. But for the latest sales period, Ludacris sold more than OutKast and Elvis combined, marking his biggest debut yet. His last album, 2001's "Word of Mouf," opened at No. 3 with first-week sales of 282,000 copies and went on to sell a total of 3.3 million in the United States, SoundScan said.
Ludacris drew controversy last summer when Pepsi-Cola of North America pulled a 30-second television spot featuring the Atlanta-based rapper, citing consumer complaints about his sexually explicit, profanity-laden lyrics. ...
- Upstate village mulls holding Elvis-themed event
(syracuse.com / Associated Press, October 16, 2003)
It's a thousand miles from Graceland, but an upstate New York tourist destination is considering staging a festival for "The King." Officials in the Adirondack village of Lake George are discussing the feasibility of holding an officially licensed Elvis Presley festival, The Post-Star of Glens Falls reported. On Wednesday, several business owners got together to hear from a woman who organizes an annual Elvis Festival in Collingwood, Canada. Yvonne Prince-Zieman said last summer's festival drew more than 50,000 to the northern Ontario town. "There's a lot of people out there who adore Elvis," she said. In Lake George, 55 miles north of Albany, Mayor Robert Blais said an Elvis festival would attract the kind of the crowd that gathers each year for Americade, which annually draws thousands of motorcyclists, only quieter. "There's no other Elvis festivals that we know of in New York," he said.
- Hayesites stunned by Tressel's emphasis on passing
By RUSTY MILLER
(timesleader.com / Associated Press, October 16, 2003)
Like an Elvis fan club, there is a faction of Ohio State fans that has never quite accepted the fact that its leader is no longer living. Woody Hayes, the ultraconservative and ultrasuccessful Buckeyes coach, died in 1987. His converts choose to remember his 205 victories and 13 Big Ten titles and not that he left the job in shame, fired after punching Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the 1978 Gator Bowl. ...
- 'Memories of Elvis and the Rockin' '50s' coming to the Globe
By Ruth Friedberg
(Odessa American, October 15, 2003)
Drummer D.J. Fontana will headline "Memories of Elvis and the Rockin' '50s" set for 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday at the Globe Theatre on the Odessa College campus.
And Fontana truly has memories of Elvis, having been the King's original drummer, playing on his early hits. Fontana and Presley met in 1954 at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Fontana's hometown. "We worked Texas quite a bit before he really got big," Fontana said. They first played Longview, Tyler, Kilgore and Henderson and then moved west all the way to El Paso. "He was the nicest man in the world," Fontana said of Elvis. He said Elvis would let loose on stage, but off stage, he was "calm and quiet." Along with Fontana, Presley's original band included Scotty Moore and Bill Black. Fontana played on 460 RCA recordings with Presley and was known as the "man behind the beat" for the first 15 years of Elvis' career.
Fontana also appeared - though he wasn't included in the film credits - in some of Elvis' early movies in the 1950s. Fontana was in "Loving You," "G.I. Blues" and "Jailhouse Rock."
... Thibeault and Fontana first talked about doing the show at the Globe about a year ago. "I knew the Globe needed a fund-raiser, and they're re-doing the whole thing and need all the money they can get," Thibeault said. So Thibeault called Fontana and asked if the drummer would like to come to Texas. They found a clear spot in Fontana's schedule and arranged the show. The first half will be '50s music, and the second half will feature Fontana and be devoted to Elvis tunes, Thibeault said. ...
- This Week's Hot CD: Wanda Jackson's 'Heart Trouble'
(Herald-Sun, October 14, 2003)
WANDA JACKSON
Heart Trouble (CMH Records)
Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson, a contemporary of Elvis Presley's, isn't just surviving 52 years into her career -- she's thriving. On her first U.S.-released studio album since 1984, the '50s icon who ruled the female side of rockabilly is backed by a distinguished cast of guest artists. Jackson shines on a disc that blends pure country ("Anytime You Wanna Fool Around") and gospel ("Walk With Me") with her raw, growling rockabilly ("Mean, Mean Man" and "Let's Have a Party"). That other Elvis -- Elvis Costello -- sings a duet with Jackson on the mournful Buck Owens classic, "Crying Time," and the vocals blend remarkably well (Costello's a big, big fan). Another treasure on the album -- recorded entirely in analog with vintage microphones -- is the Lieber and Stoller gem "Riot in Cell Block #9," featuring the Cramps. The 65-year-old Oklahoma-bred singer still can put on the hillbilly sass with her nasal, hiccuping vocals. (Gene Stout)
GRADE: A
- Couple's home is their Kingdom
By MIKE BOONE
(canada.com, October 13, 2003)
The question is not part of a traditional wedding ceremony's q&a: "Est-ce que Elvis est encore dans le building?" Graham Smith and Kathy Holland answered in the affirmative. Elvis Presley, as portrayed by Luc Bouffard, resplendent in a fringed white jumpsuit, was in their Baie d'Urfé home Saturday night as Smith and Holland celebrated their 10th anniversary by renewing wedding vows. Rev. Paul Evans could have seen Elvis in the house - Bouffard stands out in a crowd, especially West Island suburbanites. But the minister, who married Smith and Holland at Cedar Park United Church 10 years ago, was not in the building this time around. Evans's parish is in Ottawa. He presided at the Saturday ceremony via long-distance speaker phone. By the time the preacher came on the line, Bouffard had entertained the couple and with a rousing rendition of Viva Las Vegas, 35 friends and family joining in on the chorus. ...
- Y will launch drive Tuesday
(Herald-Sun, October 12, 2003)
DURHAM -- Elvis, Mr. T, Super Girl and other celebrity look-alikes will be on hand Tuesday to kick off the Durham YMCA's WeBuildPeople scholarship fund-raising campaign. The event takes place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Durham Marriott at the Civic Center, located at 201 Foster St. downtown. Those attending will be encouraged to dress as their favorite Hollywood star or character. Through the "Reach for the Stars" campaign, the Durham YMCA hopes to raise $120,000 to help residents who otherwise would not be able to afford YMCA programs, including outreach such as the Turning Point Gang Prevention Program, the High Hopes Teen Summer Camp, Y-Achievers and Y-Life. YMCA officials said all funds raised would remain in the Durham community. For more information, contact Nicole Methling at 493-4502.
- Elvis has left the building, chasing evil in his walker
(Ventura County Star, October 10, 2003)
Elvis vs. The Mummy.
That's not the name of the film, but it gives moviegoers a better sense of what "Bubba Ho-tep" is about. It's a simplistic description, however, considering that Elvis is alive, wearing his white rhinestoned costume and limps around a nursing home, and that he's teaming up with another old timer to do battle with an ancient evil that wears cowboy boots.
The movie stars Bruce Campbell (who teamed up with "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi in "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness") and Ossie Davis. It comes to one Ventura County theater Friday -- the Westlake Village Twin -- after its initial limited release Sept. 19. "How could you not want to see a movie about a senior-citizen Elvis teaming up with an old black guy who believes himself to be JFK, to stop an Egyptian mummy from sucking the souls out of the residents in their rest home?" writes Seattle Times reviewer Mark Rahner, who gave it three stars.
"Bruce Campbell is a hoot and a half as Elvis Presley, who's alive, not so well and living in a Texas nursing home, where he must contend with a broken hip, assorted nut cases and a soul-sucking mummy," writes reviewer Gene Seymour of New York Newsday.
In one scene, Campbell, in white Elvis garb, hobbles down the home's hall in his walker next to Davis, who rolls along in a wheelchair. "In that scene, our two heroes are heading out to battle the Mummy. It's sort of like 'Ride the High Country' with our two heroes going to the showdown," director Don Coscarelli said in an e-mail. Coscarelli, who also wrote "Bubba Ho-tep," wrote and directed the "Phantasm" and "The Beastmaster," as well.
Seventy-five percent of the 33 reviews (including the two above) summarized on www.rottentomatoes.com are favorable.
Campbell has already reached cult status with his "Evil Dead" series, and some aficionados believe this little movie will only affirm that status.
"The movie deserves its advance cult status because of its antic humor and, of course, Campbell's Elvis," Seymour wrote.
A movie trailer is on the film's Web site: http://www.bubbahotep.com, which says it's based on a short story -- a Bram Stoker Award nominee -- by author Joe R. Lansdale. The trailer shows an effective glimpse of a jaw-dropping mummy, akin to the mummy warriors that attack Brendan Fraser in 1999's "The Mummy." .According to http://www.indiewire.com/, "Ho-tep" ranks No. 3 in box-office sales on the list of Top 10 independent films.
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