Late December 2003
- Music has no color'
By Nekesa Mumbi Moody
(Record Online / Associated Press, December 29 2003)
Watching newcomer Fefe Dobson jumping around onstage to the rhythm of thrashing guitars, she looks like the typical pop-rocker girl, with a tough attitude and sneering voice. Typical in every way but one. With her caramel hue, the biracial Canadian is unusual even in 2003. Musical acts are still tightly compartmentalized by genre and race - and few are able to break the mold. But artists like Fefe and another teenage newcomer, Joss Stone - a white British singer with the voice of an old soul veteran - are trying to break out of the musical stereotypes in an industry where image and artistry are inextricable. "When people are like 'Oh, you sound black' and all this, I'm like, I sound like me," says Joss.
It's possible for artists to cross over, in either direction. The white singer Justin Timberlake got plenty of urban radio airplay with his disc "Justified," and black acts such as Living Colour, Lenny Kravitz, Macy Gray and others have appealed to rock and alternative radio formats. Still, it's rare - and rarer still for two high-profile teenage girls to come along at the same time in the "wrong" categories. ... [Joss] can't understand why it's become such a big deal. "Music has no color. How can it have a color because you can't see it? How can you say that I sound black or white, or purple or pink or whatever?" she asks.
... Elvis Presley caused an uproar in his early days for "sounding black"; one of the early criticisms of Whitney Houston was she sounded "white" because her music wasn't heavily R&B, plus her voice didn't linger or riff on many notes. ...
- Memorializing a still-dead King; celebrating 'Mona Lisa' extras
By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan
(Boston Glove, December 29 2003)
THE KING AND YOU
If not for the booze, the pills and all those fried peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches, Lisa Marie Presley's old man might still be alive today. Alas, the King is dead, and he's not coming back. To celebrate Elvis's 69th birthday, Presley impersonator extraordinaire Steve Connolly is throwing a party at Boston Rocks on Jan. 8 (and staging an all-Elvis concert two nights later at the Berklee Performance Center.)...
[Couldn't find an-email to send comments to for a balanced opinion]
- Beating the holiday blues
By Henrylito D. Tacio
(Manila Times, December 27 2003)
ELVIS Presley sang "Blue Christmas" about languishing in front of a decorated tree, pining for an ex-flame. But for most people suffering from holiday stress, it's about far more than 48-hour heartsickness. "It's the season for it," points out Dr. Eric Warren, a psychiatrist of the Singing River and Ocean Springs hospitals. "The holidays can put people over the edge." ... [article about seasonal affective disorder (SAD)]
- On New Year's Eve, Beale Street will be rockin' with Times Square
By Bill Ellis
(Commercial Appeal, December 26 2003)
For those ready to shake, rattle and celebrate 50 years of rock and roll in the city where it began, a bang of a launch comes New Year's Eve on Beale Street. To ring in 2004 on Wednesday, the historic entertainment district will not only offer plenty of local live music and festivities - to be broadcast on WMC-TV Channel 5 - but will be part of a tie-in with the 32nd annual Times Square countdown from "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," to air locally on WPTY-TV Channel 24. (Both shows begin at 10:35 p.m.) Kevin Kane, for one, is excited by the exposure. "I don't think there's any question about it, it'll put a spotlight on the city, put a spotlight on an exciting entertainment district and put a spotlight on our great musical heritage," says the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau president, who has helped spearhead the city's 50th anniversary of rock and roll campaign, which centers around the date that Elvis Presley recorded ''That's All Right'' in Sun Studio on July 5, 1954. ...
- Country Music Sustains Major Losses in 2003: Johnny Cash Among Six Hall of Fame Members Who Died
By Calvin Gilbert
(cmt.com, December 26 2003)
The circle remains strong, but there's no denying that the year 2003 took a heavy toll on the country music family. The loss of Johnny and June Carter Cash dominated the national news although the past 12 months marked the deaths of more than a dozen people who made significant contributions to country music.
Johnny Cash was just one of six Country Music Hall of Fame members to pass away in 2003. Others include:
- Felice Bryant: Felice and husband Boudleaux Bryant wrote some of the most famous songs in country and pop music, including "Rocky Top," "Love Hurts" and the Everly Brothers' hits "Wake Up, Little Susie," "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Bye, Bye Love."
- Bill Carlisle: A Grand Ole Opry member since 1953, Carlisle was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002. Carlisle, 94, made his last Opry appearance just five days before suffering a stroke in March.
- Don Gibson: If he had only written "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You," Gibson's place in the history books would be secure. However, he was a successful artist and wrote other classics, including "Oh Lonesome Me," "(I'd Be) A Legend in My Time" and "Blue Blue Day."
- Sam Phillips: Phillips changed the world of music in 1954 when he produced Elvis Presley's first commercial record at Sun Studios in Memphis. He also discovered and produced early recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison and others.
- Floyd Tillman: An artist recognized for his distinctive vocal style, Tillman is best known for his songwriting. The catalog includes "I Love You So Much It Hurts," "I Gotta Have My Baby Back," "Slipping Around," "It Makes No Difference Now" (co-written with Jimmie Davis) and "They Took the Stars out of Heaven."
- Johnny Paycheck -- who died in February -- hasn't yet achieved Hall of Fame status, but he was one of country music's most successful artists during the '70s. And while other country artists were considered "outlaws," Paycheck could literally claim that identity. With hits such as "Take This Job and Shove It," "She's All I Got" and "Someone to Give My Love To," Paycheck will remain one of the most distinctive and enduring voices in country music history.
...
- Always famous: Time melts away in Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
By DON HAMMACK
(Sun Herald, December 25 2003)
Michael Rubenstein wears many hats as executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. One of them is that of being the face of the facility in terms of money-raising and promotion. ... Rubenstein says "there's no place with more success stories under one roof in the state." Keeping it all going takes money. Admissions generated only 11 percent of the museum's income last year. Rubenstein said that he's been told only two facilities pay their way on admissions alone - Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, and Graceland, Elvis Presley's home. ...
- Odds on finding martians slashed to 100/1
(Ananova, December 25 2003)
The possibility of aliens being found on Mars is now 100 times more likely than Wolves winning the Premiership, according to odds from a leading bookmaker. Space probe Beagle 2's attempted landing on Mars has sparked a rush of interest in extraterrestrial life bets, William Hill confirms. The company has cut the odds that proof of the current existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life will be confirmed before the end of 2004 from 500-1 to 100-1. Meanwhile, Wolves, who lie stranded at the bottom of football's top flight, are 10,000-1 to launch an unlikely fightback to win the title. "We just hope that if there is life on Mars, it isn't Elvis Presley hiding up there' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe. "For Hills to pay out on this bet, official confirmation of the current existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life has to come from the then current UK Prime Minister." ...
- What's a Ute fan to do in Memphis?
By Loren Jorgensen
(Deseret Morning News, December 25 2003)
Memphis, Tenn., unlike Las Vegas, isn't within driving distance for Utah fans. Plus, there isn't a single direct commercial flight from Salt Lake City. The Liberty Bowl - in contrast to games in Arizona, southern California and Florida - is not in a locale that's almost certain to provide warm weather in late December for those already tired of winter. But even though it may not be easy to get to and it may end up being cold, Ute fans who make the journey to see the Mountain West Conference champs take on Southern Mississippi should have no trouble staying busy before the game - if they know where to look. So for the benefit of the several thousand Ute fans who are making the trip (and to let the many thousands who aren't going see just what they are missing) here's an unofficial list of the "top 10 things to do" in and around Memphis this week:
1. Pay tribute to a King
This encompasses two of the biggies from Memphis history - Elvis Presley and his Graceland home and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who was assassinated in Memphis. Elvis' mansion is the top tourist attraction/trap around. It's a bit pricey, to be sure - a "Platinum tour" costs $22.50, while a mansion-only ticket is $16.25 for adults. Still, any trip to Memphis would be incomplete without seeing the "Jungle Room." You can also tour the King's private jet, see his cars and spend a quiet moment at the Meditation Garden, where Elvis is buried - unless he's still alive, of course.
The National Civil Rights Museum is housed at the site where the U.S.'s most famous civil rights activist was slain. It includes interpretive exhibits, audiovisual displays and the renovation of the boarding house where the fatal shot on King was fired. ...
- TV Museum Showcases History of Pop Music
By Carla Hay
(Yahoo! News / Reuters / Billboard, December 25 2003)
Al Green, James Brown, Britney Spears, Elvis Presley and the Monkees are among the artists who will be featured in the "American Pop" series presented by the Museum of Television and Radio in New York and Los Angeles. The two-month series -- which begins Feb. 6 -- will focus on pop music's history on television. ...
- A better kind of stardom in a Jacko-less world
By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney
(Financial Times, December 23 2003)
Suppose Michael Jackson were a trim, middle-aged man with a greying Afro hairstyle and some gold discs hanging on his wall as mementoes of his childhood stardom in the 1970s? In this parallel universe, he retired from pop music aged just 17 in 1975, when his family group, the Jackson 5, left the Motown record label. Occasionally, journalists writing "where are they now?" features call him. He usually laughs nervously and explains he is too shy to answer. There would be some obvious consequences of his non-metamorphosis into the world's weirdest superstar. Thriller, the best-selling album in history, would not have been made. Moonwalking would be something Neil Armstrong did. Bubbles the chimp would have had a different owner. Various lawyers and plastic surgeons in southern California would be rather less wealthy.
What about more fundamental changes? Jackson likes to portray himself as the king of pop, equal in stature to the Beatles (the rights to whose songs he owns) and Elvis Presley (to whose daughter he was briefly married). But whereas pop music in a world without the Beatles or Elvis would be utterly different, the same cannot be said of a pop world without Jacko. Compare his early photographs with what he looks like now and the changes are startlingly clear. But the extent to which he has changed pop music is not so discernible. ...
- Hope Lange
(Telegraph, December 23 2003)
Hope Lange, who has died at Santa Monica, California, aged 70, made her screen debut in Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe, and later appeared in such films as Death Wish, Blue Velvet and A Nightmare On Elm Street 2; her greatest success, however, came in Peyton Place, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. ... In 1961, she played Irene Sperry, a psychiatrist treating Elvis Presley's character in Wild in the Country. The film - as was usual with Elvis's excursions on to the big screen - did not overtax the critical faculties of the audience, but proved to be one of the singer's more distinguished outings as an actor. Particularly notable was a scene in which Elvis and Tuesday Weld, having over-indulged in Uncle Ralph's tonic, turned a garden hose on Mrs Sperry's house. ...
- People from Near & Far: King acknowledged in Britain
(gazettenet.com / Associated Press, December 23 2003)
Elvis Presley is the all-time singles king in Britain, nearly a half-century after he first crashed into the pop chart here, according to a new list published Monday. ... [as below]
- Elvis tops all-time UK charts
[Item 5]
(CNN, December 23 2003)
Elvis Presley is the all-time singles king in Britain, nearly a half-century after he first crashed into the pop chart here, according to a new list published Monday. ... [as below]
- Elvis still the king in UK
(news.com.au / Associated Press, December 23 2003)
ELVIS Presley is the all-time singles king in Britain, nearly half a century after he first crashed into the British pop chart, according to a new list published overnight. Presley has appeared on 1193 of the weekly charts since 1952, when records began. At No 2 is crooner Cliff Richard with 1152 weeks in the charts, followed by The Shadows at 771 weeks. The singles chart in Britain has varied in length over the years. When Presley hit the chart for the first time in 1956, with Heartbreak Hotel, the British chart listed 30 records. In 1978, the year after Presley died, the chart stabilised at its present length of the top 75 singles. The rest of the top 10 are: Elton John, Madonna, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart, the Beatles and David Bowie.
- The Year in Country Music Books
By Chet Flippo
(cmt.com, December 22 2003)
If this was a banner year in many ways for country music scholarship, it also underscored the fact that the market for serious country publications is centered in the distant past. Not even the recent past. Not that country music's history is not fascinating. But, that seems to be where audience -- and publisher -- interest is centered. With that in mind, here are several country music books from 2003 that are deserving of special attention. ... The most thoroughly researched country book published this year is certainly The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley, by Alanna Nash (Simon & Schuster). Nash's exhaustive research provides the definitive work on the mysterious past of the illegal alien from Holland who transformed himself into "Colonel Tom Parker." She recounts Parker's takeover of Elvis Presley's career and how he managed the superstar for decades, continuing even after Elvis' death. Many wonderful and awful disclosures abound. Plus, it's a great read. ...
- City tourism officials, attributing a drop in convention bookings to...
(Sun Herald / Associated Press, December 21 2003)
TUPELO, Miss. - City tourism officials, attributing a drop in convention bookings to casinos in the region, are bringing in more sporting events to draw visitors. Since the first Mississippi casino opened in 1992, convention business has flocked to the gambling halls, said Linda Butler, director of the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Before they opened, Tupelo was really the only place in north Mississippi that could host a convention," Butler said.
... Tourism officials in Tupelo, which already boasts attractions such as Elvis Presley's birthplace and a new auto museum, decided sports tournaments would be a way bring back visitors. ...
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