Late November 2003
- Joyful noises abound: The king of rock's CD celebrates the King of Kings
By Mark Brown
(Rocky Mountain News, November 27, 2003)
Elvis Presley has a new collection of Christmas songs this year. So why does anyone else even bother? When you think "Elvis" and "Christmas," you think Blue Christmas. Maybe you toss in Santa Claus is Back in Town. But don't forget that over the years, he recorded traditional Christmas carols (Silent Night, The First Noel, Silver Bells) and plenty of religious hymns (Amazing Grace, His Hand in Mine, In the Garden). So Christmas Peace divides those between two CDs, depending on what mood you're in. And every one is fun. It's that voice, doing these songs. He starts singing Here Comes Santa Claus and you start chuckling, because he is so Elvis. Winter Wonderland is jaunty and cocky. Merry Christmas Baby smolders with as much sensuous passion as the double entendres in Santa Claus is Back in Town do. This cat swings.
The only challenge to The King this Christmas is from a bunch of pretenders to the throne. American Idol has a TV special and a double-disc set, The Great Holiday Classics, where the performer's ham-handed, klaxon-horn vocals and wavery whispers are unleashed on saccharine-string-wrapped Christmas staples. ...
- Seattle council may allow costumed cabbies
By Philip Delves Broughton
(Associated Press, November 27, 2003)
The Seattle City Council will consider the Elvis cab ordinance next month. It would allow cab drivers to wear costumes. Drivers are now required to wear black pants and crisp shirts. The proposed ordinance was prompted by cab driver Dave Groh, who was forced to stop wearing his Elvis costume. Under the proposed change, costumes would have to be approved by the cab companies and reported to the city. Masks, too much face paint, floppy shoes and skimpy outfits would still be forbidden. Drivers would still have to post their I-D in the cars with pictures of themselves in and out of costume.
- Hallyday rape charge 'like a bad novel'
By Philip Delves Broughton
(Arts Telegraph, November 26, 2003)
An accusation of rape against France's treasured rock star, Johnny Hallyday, has prompted charges of witness tampering, slander and suspicions that senior political figures are applying pressure to protect a national icon. On Monday morning, Hallyday pulled up in his black BMW at Nice's high court to give evidence in an investigation into whether he raped an attendant aboard his rented yacht. Hallyday spent three hours putting his side of the case and emerged without being charged. "I am relieved," he said, comparing the affair to "a bad novel". He added: "To be accused of rape is dishonouring for me, my wife and my family. In this kind of thing, even if you are innocent, something always lingers.
"My name has been dragged through the mud for a seedy little story. It is time to say 'Enough'. I want an explanation for all this."
The story has received scant coverage all year despite the fact that Hallyday is the most famous entertainer in France. He is Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Elton John and Sir Cliff Richard rolled into one and is often referred to as the French Elvis.
- Could I Get That Song in Elvis, Please?
By BILL WERDE
(New York Times, November 23, 2003)
Imagine having a singer with a world-class voice at your disposal, any hour of any day. Imagine having a singer with a world-class voice at your disposal, any hour of any day. She's just standing at the ready, game to perform whatever silly song you might make up for her: a ballad about her love for you, a tribute to your best friend's golf game, a stirring rendition of the evening's dinner menu. Close friends of Madonna or Mariah may already have had that pleasure, but for everyone else a new technology called Vocaloid may offer the next best thing. Developed at Pompeu Fabra University in Spain and financed by the Yamaha Corporation, the software, which is due to be released to consumers in January, allows users to cast their own (or anyone else's) songs in a disembodied but exceedingly life-like concert-quality voice. Just as a synthesizer might be programmed to play a series of notes like a violin one time and then like a tuba the next, a computer equipped with Vocaloid will be able to "sing" whatever combination of notes and words a user feeds it. The first generation of the software will be available for $200. But its arrival raises the prospect of a time when anyone with a laptop will be able to repurpose any singer's voice or even bring long-gone virtuosos back to life. ...
- CD reviews: Bruce Springsteen and more
(Arts Telegraph, November 21, 2003)
This week's pop, world, jazz and folk music releases ... Sam Cooke
Portrait of a Legend 1957-64 (CD); Legend (DVD); CD £13.99, UMTV; DVD £14.99, Universal-Island
The oft-quoted description of Sam Cooke as "the black Elvis" doesn't even begin to cover it. Beyond his heart-throb and superstar status, he was a producer, songwriter, business mogul and role-model for black and white teenagers worldwide. Without him, no Beatles, no Stones, no Motown. ...
- An Elvis fable bites the dust
By Neal Rubin
(Detroit News Online, November 21, 2003)
The semi-fabled Wendy's in Kalamazoo where Elvis Presley showed up shortly after his demise will close next month and return to its roots as a flat empty spot near downtown. Wait, you are thinking. Wasn't Elvis spotted at a Burger King? Yes, he was, but in the initial phase of Deceased Elvis hysteria, he was also detected at a grocery store in Vicksburg and the Wendy's at Michigan Avenue and Edwards. At age 30, the first Wendy's in Michigan is obsolete and undersized. "The only way we would stay in a location like that is to raze it and build another one," says CEO Robert Schermer of the Meritage Hospitality Group, "and the site's not big enough." Meritage owns the land beneath 36 of its 48 Wendy's restaurants in Western Michigan. The Elvis Wendy's is one of the other dozen.
When the lease expires, Schermer says, the landlord will bulldoze the structure and sell the lot. So let pop culture zealots, Presley zealots and burger zealots be forewarned: It'll soon be time to say, "The building has left Elvis."
- It's a gas!
By Dave Hepburn
(Medical Post, November 18, 2003)
My daughter, appreciating my elite level of sophistication, bought me the best gift I've ever received (with the exception of an Elvis toilet seat). It is only a small black box about the size of, say, a square black kumquat, but it has enriched my life immensely. Known as the Gas Tank, this little device emits realistically rude reverberations that simulate sounds that, shall we say, might follow a feast at Bob's Boston Beanery
- U2's 'One' voted greatest song ever
(Irish Examiner, November 18, 2003)
U2's bittersweet meditation on love, One, was today named the greatest song ever recorded. Music experts placed the tune, which had only a brief and unremarkable spell in the charts, above high ranking efforts by Elvis and The Beatles. ...
- Dropping the other shoe: Toronto museum extends celebrity footwear exhibit
(Canoe / Canadian Press, November 18, 2003)
The Bata Shoe Museum is extending its exhibit of celebrity shoes for another six months until next September. Meanwhile, the owner of a large part of the exhibit says he's added a few new pairs of famous footwear to his own personal collection. Toronto podiatrist Dr. Hartley Miltchin had loaned many of his prized items to the museum, considered one of the more offbeat but popular tourist destinations in Toronto. On display from Miltchin's 300-plus collection are a pair of cowboy boots worn by Elvis Presley, some red high heels that belonged to Marilyn Monroe and a pair of Michael Jordan's basketball sneakers. Many of the shoes are autographed. ...
- Sony Japan Not Part of BMG Merger Plan, Bertelsmann Says
(Reuters, November 15, 2003)
The planned merger of the music divisions of media group Bertelsmann and Sony Corp will not include Sony Music's Japanese business ... German business magazine Der Spiegel said the decision to exclude Sony's Japanese business would make Sony Music and Bertelsmann's BMG more equal in size. ... The merged unit would be home to Sony artists such as Bayonce Knowles and Bruce Springsteen and BMG's Britney Spears and Elvis Presley.
- Jackson's growing pains
(BBC News, dated February 28, 2003; found November 14, 2003)
After personal scandal, family squabbles and numerous career quakes, Michael Joseph Jackson remains one of the planet's best known figures.
Born in 1958, Jackson has spent his whole life in the public eye as he began performing at the age of four. Though the youngest member of the Jackson Five, he became the group's lead vocalist, projecting a self-confident image which belies the private personality he shows today.
... But in 1993, allegation of sexual abuse were made by a 13-year-old friend of Jackson's, and police were called in. Jackson settled with the boy's family a year later, for an estimated $20m, and the criminal investigation was dropped in 1994. ... Despite his categorical denials of any wrong-doing, there was a media frenzy, heightened by Jackson's 1994 marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis' daughter, which some claimed was a publicity stunt. The marriage soon collapsed. ... Whatever the truth of Jackson's life, his musical career seems doomed to be eclipsed by the myths and legends surrounding him.
- 'Star Trek' star's story heads to Clinton library
(Houston Chronicle / Associated Press, November 13, 2003)
The autobiography of Star Trek actor George Takei will be among the books on display starting this month in a preview exhibit for the Bill Clinton Presidential Library. ... The book exhibit will run from Nov. 23 through Jan. 3 in downtown Little Rock's Cox Building. Along with Takei's book, the exhibit will feature books Clinton used at Oxford and Yale Law School, the volumes on his recommended reading list, gifts he received as president from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and his collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia.
- Neighborhood News from all over: Louis Armstrong's N.Y. house now a museum
By SCOTT HEWITT
(The Columbian, November 13, 2003)
He never sprung for a mansion like Elvis Presley's Graceland, or a vanity theme park like Michael Jackson's Neverland. Louis Armstrong, one of the greatest American musicians of the 20th century, did his best to live an ordinary life. He was at the height of his fame and fortune in 1943 when his new wife, Lucille, surprised him with the gift of a humble duplex in a modest neighborhood in Queens, New York City. Armstrong embraced the place with glee and lived there the rest of his life. ...
- Song on final Cash album pleads with God: singer recorded stripped-down version of Gatlin's 'Help Me'
(CNN / Billboard, November 13, 2003)
Johnny Cash's final album will most likely include an emotional, newly recorded version of country star Larry Gatlin's "Help Me." Previewed for Billboard.com by producer Rick Rubin, the stripped-down, acoustic track proves a heart-wrenching listen, as it finds Cash -- just a few months before his death -- asking God for more time on Earth and wrestling with life after the May death of his wife and longtime singing partner, June Carter.
.. In the early '70s, Cash issued a more elaborate, string-laden version of the song, which has been recorded by the Gatlin Brothers, as well as Elvis Presley and longtime Cash friend and collaborator Kris Kristofferson. This version is sparse and features Cash singing while strumming an acoustic guitar. ...
- Papa Don't Preach: OrchestraX reinvents classical music in the Madonna mold
By GREG BARR
(Houston Press, November 13, 2003)
Lunch with John Axelrod is a frenetic experience. A man with exquisite taste, European flair and an all-black ensemble not available at the Gap, the conductor and artistic director of OrchestraX tosses out ideas and thoughts faster than he can finish a sentence. In both French and English, Axelrod subject-surfs, bouncing from his oft-repeated theory about why the paradigm of a typical classical music concert sucks to why Peter Gabriel concerts are cool, to how the graying of classical music's audience is killing its joie. In between, he finds time to deliver a sidebar on a particular Cabernet to the wine steward of an Italian restaurant near the Galleria.
... Because of budget struggles familiar to any arts organization in the wake of 9/11, OrchestraX will perform fewer concerts this season (three instead of five). The first, Classics a Go-Go, picks up where last season's May finale at a Richmond strip club left off. The orchestra will revisit the nightclub scene, this time at the spacious Metropolitan Ballroom, with go-go-girl cages, a dude dressed as Elvis and a finale featuring acclaimed jazz pianist Marcus Robert performing Gershwin's 1924 arrangement of "Rhapsody in Blue." We assume the Material Girl would approve.
- A legend's legacy remembered
By Billy Cerveny
(Washington Post, November 11, 2003)
Before performing at Monday night's memorial concert for Johnny Cash at the Ryman Auditorium, Kid Rock was asked about the country music legend's legacy. Nervously smoking a cigarette to the filter, Kid said he wasn't too good with words and asked what "legacy" meant. That's pretty much what this assembly of scores of Mr. Cash's closest friends, collaborators and peers was trying to answer: What had the man and his music meant to them? When Johnny Cash, 71, died Sept. 12 of complications from diabetes, country music lost one of its few living holy relics. Mr. Cash was raised dragging a cotton sack through government-issued land in Dyess, Ark., and he was among the last of a generation of country singers whose music was born in the hills and shotgun shacks of which he sang. Mr. Cash was part of Sun Records' freshman class in the '50s and rode to fame alongside the likes of Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. With Elvis, Mr. Cash was one of the few artists to be inducted into both the country and rock 'n' roll halls of fame. Monday night's memorial concert was a field of dreams, with everyone from Marshall Grant, Mr. Cash's original bass player in the Tennessee Two, to Kris Kristofferson emerging from the musical cornfield. ...
- Beckham is 'greater pop icon than Elvis'
By ANTHONY VIOLANTI
(Ananova, November 9, 2003)
David Beckham has been named the greatest pop culture icon, beating Madonna and Elvis. The footballer triumphed in a poll compiled from thousands of votes by music channel VH1 for a TV special. Madonna was runner-up in the list, while Elvis Presley was ranked third and The Beatles fourth. Beckham was 31 places ahead of his wife Victoria, who wins a place in the list for her role in the Spice Girls. He said: "I am really honoured that I have been voted number 1 in VH1's 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, especially when you look at the incredible list of people in this poll - many of whom I really admire."
Among those to sing his praises in the show, are Fame Academy judge Richard Park who said: "His style, his class and his quality that he exudes wherever he goes means that everybody wants a piece of that boy." And Victoria's former bandmate Emma Bunton said: "I love his style, he's just so cool."
While the top 100 is dominated by chart and screen stars, icons from other fields have a strong showing. Princess Diana ranks fifth and Martin Luther King is at number 12. Only Fools And Horses star David Jason sees his character Del Boy ranked higher than Hollywood big shots. Trotter is at number 46, while Robert De Niro managed just 50 and Brad Pitt 52. Baroness Thatcher also proved to be a greater icon than Tony Blair. She made it to number 65, while Mr Blair was down at 86. And Marilyn Monroe proved to have greater cultural appeal than many contemporary stars. The late actress finished in 11th place, above Kylie Minogue (15), J-Lo (18) and Kate Moss (88).
A panel of celebrities and experts - including presenter June Sarpong, newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy and GQ editor Dylan Jones - drew up a shortlist for VH1 earlier this year. Viewers spent two months voting for who they thought were the greatest greatest figures in popular culture. A two-and-a-half hour countdown of the top 100 is being screened by the station on Saturday at 8pm, presented by actress Anna Friel.
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