Late January 2004
- MPD looks for information into burglaries
By Sarah Horner
(Daily Review Atlas, January 26 2004)
The Monmouth Police Department is asking citizens in Monmouth and Warren County for help in resolving two cases. The first case, Burglary, occurred between Friday, January 2 and Sunday January 11 when an unknown suspect(s) entered The Lady Fair Hair Salon located at 214 West First Avenue, Monmouth. Upon the entry into the building, the subject(s) took numerous Elvis Presley collector's items. The following was taken during the burglary, Elvis Aloha Tapestry, Avon Elvis Airplane, Elvis Aloha Music Box, Elvis golden cover necklaces, two Elvis gold plated knives, Pricilla Presley perfume, Elvis beach towel, Elvis doll, two Elvis snow globes, two Elvis music boxes with figurines, Elvis statue, Elvis gold/silver necklace, Elvis silver necklace, Elvis silver necklace and earrings, Elvis Graceland plate, Elvis AM/FM radio and an Elvis ornamental jukebox. The total value of the listed items is estimated at around $500. The police currently have no suspects in this case, but are asking anyone with information to please contact the police department. ...
- EMU spices up halftime acts
By JAMES JAHNKE
(Ann Arbor News, January 26 2004)
One night, multitudes of Frisbees soar through the air in an acrobatic routine. The next, karate kids chop and kick whatever they see. This week, hypnotized subjects will shake their stuff while pretending to be Britney Spears or Elvis Presley. So it goes in the wacky world of halftime entertainment at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) men's and women's basketball games. ...
- Elvis fans flood event
(Shreveport Times, January 26 2004)
Amber Treidel, 11, has been an Elvis fan since she visited Graceland at age 2. Sunday she and her mother came from Campti to Shreveport for a different kind of Elvis sighting. Treidel and others were looking for Elvis - The Hayride Years '54-56, a book that chronicles Elvis Presley's time on the Louisiana Hayride, before the king became the king. A steady stream of fans came through the Southern Maid Donut Co. on Hearne Avenue. Some love Elvis, some love all '50s music, and some, like Felton Pruett, a steel guitar player on the Hayride, were there from the beginning. Reprinted posters advertising an upcoming performance by Elvis at the Hayride hung on vending machines. Those who bought a book could take a poster home along with a compact disc of Elvis' music from the Hayride. Frank Page and Joey Kent co-authored The Hayride Years and signed it at the doughnut shop. The location was chosen because when he was on the Hayride, Elvis frequented a now-closed Greenwood Road shop. Southern Maid was the only product Elvis ever endorsed, Kent said. The doughnut shops sponsored the Hayride and some of the treats are immortalized in the Hayride book. ...
- Suddenly in spotlight (3rd item)
(St Louis Post-Despatch, January 25 2004)
In the seven weeks since Pope John Paul II named [Raymond Burke] to head the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Burke has exploded onto the national stage through a series of bold pronouncements that have captured the attention of the nation's media and have inadvertently knocked some other bishops on their heels. As a result, one national Catholic publication, Inside the Vatican, has named him among the top 10 people of the year, along with actor Mel Gibson, who directed the controversial movie "The Passion," and Dolores Hart, a Benedictine nun who was the first woman to kiss Elvis Presley on screen and would later give up her film career for the church. ...
- FAMOUS GRAVE SITES: Home for Eternity: Many celebrities choose Las Vegas Valley as a final resting place
By JOHN PRZYBYS
(Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 25 2004)
... Plenty of famous people come to Las Vegas. Ben Affleck stops by a lot. So does Britney Spears. So do numerous B-level celebs who visit Las Vegas often enough to make their comings and goings regular fodder for entertainment columns. But they are merely transients. If, on the other hand, you're looking for celebrities who come to Las Vegas with the intention of hanging around a while -- a really, really, long while -- look no further than Sonny Liston, Bo Belinsky and Harry James. The boxer, the baseball player and the bandleader are just a few of the famous people who've chosen to repose for all eternity in Southern Nevada's cemeteries and mausoleums. ... Findagrave.com's Tipton concedes that finding celebrity graves can be tricky even if you know the deceased's row, section and plot number. ... Not every lead pans out, either. For example, Findagrave.com lists a reader's submission that Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager, is buried at a Las Vegas Palm property. However, Palm's Phillips says he could find no record of that.
- Wonderland Magic (3rd item)
By Liz Smith
(newsday.com, January 25 2004)
... ELVIS LIVES! Well, his music does. Tuesday at Nola Recording Studios (111W. 57th St.) a special event happens. Mike Esposito, president of Master Tape Collection, presides over the "cut" of the legendary 1954-55 Sun Sessions tapes - raw, young Elvis before fame found, gave and took from him. Pieces of these tapes - deteriorated beyond saving - will become limited-edition collector's items, mounted on plaques. For more, e-mail gparenteau@aol.com ...
- Beatles shaped a generation
By JEAN SPENNER
(SAGINAW NEWS, January 25 2004)
Even before the Beatles arrived on the American scene 40 years ago, there were signs of a coming youth rebellion. Still, the changes they helped bring about were profound, both musically and in the way young people viewed the world and themselves. "There really isn't anything today that can compare with what they
did," said Gary Hoppenstand, 49, a professor of American studies at Michigan State University. "It went far beyond just their music alone. They became cultural icons, what
was cool and what was hip." ... But the social consciousness they provoked as their careers progressed may not have survived into the new
millennium, say those who have studied and lived through the Beatle era. ... Though solo performers such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley had inspired such reactions, this was the first time that a band of boys had captured the imagination of young girls. ...
- Rossville singer cuts a song at legendary studio: Irena DeMario records the single at Sun Records studio in Memphis, where Elvis' career was launched
By ROB HART
(Staten Island Advance, January 25 2004)
Elvis Presley. Johnny Cash. Roy Orbison. Rossville resident Irena DeMario. What do all of these people have in common? They all cut tracks at Sun Records studio
in Memphis, Tenn. -- founded by legendary producer Sam Phillips in 1952, where Elvis' career was launched and the rock 'n' roll era was introduced. "It was such an amazing experience," said Ms. DeMario. "Just wondering who else had worn the headphones I put on was a thrill." ...
- Jimi Hendrix bassman's heir fights for priceless music relics
(Yahoo! News, January 25 2004)
The Danish son of the bass player in iconic 1960s rock band the Jimi Hendrix Experience is fighting for his share of his late father's belongings which could contain priceless relics of the flower power music era. Noel Redding, who played bass with electric guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, died last May, leaving a huge house in Ireland, a diary, instruments, tapes and films as well as claims against a music publisher. Noel, who had a wife, Danish school teacher Susanne Redding, and a son, Nicolas, nevertheless named as sole heir a Canadian, Deborah McNaughton, who lived with him for three years before his death. But Irish law calls for children and spouses to be taken into consideration after a death, which allowed Susanne to secure her share of the inheritance, Danish news agency Ritzau reported Sunday. ... Depending on their content and quality, the tapes and films could be worth a fortune, as Jimi Hendrix is considered a 20th-century rock legend in the same league as Elvis Presley and the Beatles. ... Hendrix died following a drug overdose in 1970.
- No Future, For You, For Me - Or Johnny Rotten
By Ian Bell
(Sunday Herald, January 25 2004)
The decision of the former anti-establishment icon to take part in a reality TV show reveals a lot more about us than we might care to admit. I suspect I got over being betrayed by pop stars in 1977. That was the American summer, the August in which Elvis pulled the stunt worse than any of his movies. We had long understood broken promise, the horrible contrast between the music and the man. But a fat fool stuffed with prescription drugs, half human and half hamburger? We sat on the steps of a college library, the papers with their banner headlines spread around us in the sunshine, pretending not to care. ... If you had seen The Sex Pistols by that date, shambolic but funny with it, you understood that there are many things in this life that Americans simply do not get. If you had seen The Clash, the permanent triumph of punk, you sensed that Elvis had picked just the right moment to die. ... Still, it was all a long time ago. These days, even pop stars with knighthoods no longer arouse a flicker of contempt. ... A Celebrity, the only use, is as a guide to how tawdry British life can possibly get. But I would happily celebrate anyone who refused to be recognised as a famous nobody. If you don't want to be treated as a performing chimp, stay out of the jungle.
E-mail the Sunday Herald with your comments.
- He would know: Bo says he is the King: Bo Diddley returns to New Mexico - his former residence - for his 75th birthday bash
By Brad Yablonsky
(abqtrib.com, January 24 2004)
Bo Diddley doesn't need any influences. After all, he says, he's the originator, having put the rock in music long before anyone thought to call it rock 1n' roll.
... Tribune: What is the Bo Diddley beat?
Diddley: I can't explain that to you. It's just something that I created.
Tribune: That beat incorporates the clave. Was there somebody or something you were trying to emulate?
Diddley: No, I tried to learn how to play the Gene Autry tune `I Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle' and stumbled up on that beat. It has become known worldwide.
Tribune: You would write a song and then people like the Yardbirds or the Rolling Stones - white musicians - would take it. People might not have even known it was yours.
Diddley: Right, well they don't know. A lot of people think that these guys created the whole thing.
Tribune: What do you think about that?
Diddley: I'm tired of being set in the background. I opened the door for a lot of people and they just ran right through and left me holding the knob. They copied because I had something worth copying and they recognized it.
Tribune: Do you feel like you've been given enough credit?
Diddley: No, never. I haven't gotten the credit because they're still (saying) Elvis Presley started rock 1n' roll. That's the biggest damn lie I ever heard in my life. He was 2 years behind me. They tried to shove me in the background, but, baby, I'm still here after all these years.
Tribune: Who were some of your influences?
Diddley: Nobody influenced me.
Tribune: Nobody?
Diddley: No, I'm self made. ...
- Elvis information sought
(Bastrop Daily Enterprise, January 23 2004)
Danny Kane & Ernst Mikael Jorgensen are currently doing research for a book and CD project about the first 18 months of Elvis Presley's career - from July 1954 through December 1955. The researchers must verify show dates, find photos and collect anecdotes from the many shows the young Elvis did in school gyms, beer joints, dance halls, drive-ins and football fields in Louisiana before becoming famous and signing with RCA. The duo would love to hear from anyone seeing Elvis during this period, especially if it was in Bastrop on Feb. 24, 1955 at South Side Elementary School or West Monroe Feb. 18, 1955 at West Monroe High School. The researchers also want to know if he was at any other venue during this 1954-55 time period.
Rare Elvis Presley cds will be awarded to the best submittals. Danny Kane is a musician and researcher from Louisiana and Ernst Mikael Jorgensen is a researcher and producer for Elvis Presley's record company RCA/BMG.
Anyone having information or photos can call Dan at 225-776-2011 e-mail him at dannykane@cox.net.
- Computer games can be good for children
By Jason Hill
([Melbourne] Age, January 23 2004)
The generation gap reliably produces criticism based on ignorance and the shock of the new. Anything outside a person's experience is fair game, particularly when the person is a baffled parent. The music of Elvis and the Beatles was foreign to parents of the 1950s and '60s, so many labelled the music harmful. Today it is computer games that are frequently attacked. Christopher Bantick's "Why computer games should worry parents" (Opinion, 15/1) blames interactive games for a litany of social evils and, ridiculously, even for the poor results of the Lego corporation. But his view that "computer games steal childhood" is as absurd as the once commonly held notion that a gyrating rock star would create depraved sexual deviants. ...
- (Not quite the) Beatles!: Five area tribute playing the best of the Beatles, Dave Matthews and others
By WALTER SKIBA
(Northwest Indiana News, January 23 2004)
In addition to Elvis and Sinatra impersonators, the Chicago area is home base for several tribute bands to groups ranging from the Beatles to U2. Here's a look at five of them, four of whom happen to be performing at local venues this weekend. ...
- Chris Riemenschneider: Tribute shows take on lives of their own
(Star Tribune, January 23 2004)
... tribute shows. They usually bring out as many casual, half-interested listeners as they do "diehards" ... Local concert promoter Jeff Taube, who organized the Vandross tribute as well as the Bob Marley Remembered shows coming up Feb. 6-7 at the Cabooze, thinks this sort of mixed-bag turnout is partly the appeal of tributes. "It's fun seeing the young people really get into Bob Marley or Jimi Hendrix for the first time," said Taube, who also puts together a local Hendrix marathon each year. "And you really don't have to be very young to have missed out on seeing those guys live."
However, Taube admitted that the danger in tribute concerts is "that they can turn out to be Elvis-impersonator type of shows." He said he's careful to pick the best musicians he can, "and not ones who do a good impersonation." ...
- Frame by frame: Irish rockers get to the heart of the matter with a new live set
By JEFF MIERS
(Buffalo News, January 23 2004)
These days, being a music critic is like searching for true love in a Chippewa Street bar. Fueled by a mix of warm desperation and cold beer, you can look but in all likelihood, it just isn't there.
If, as Elvis once testified, true love travels on a gravel road, it's probable that it isn't lit by neon nor straining to be heard above the din of a mechanized dance beat. ...
- Scarborough's seadogs out to defy the odds
(Yahoo! News, January 23 2004)
Elvis is more likely to be found alive than Scarborough are to win the FA Cup. At least that is the view taken by Britain's bookmakers, who offer odds of 5,000-1 against the non-league side going all the way to the Millennium Stadium in May, compared with only 1,000-1 against a confirmed sighting of the king of rock and roll. ...
- Reds Fans Stand by Their Hometown Rogue, Pete Rose
By JAMES DAO
(New York Times / CINCINNATI JOURNAL, January 22 2004)
Every city has one: the celebrity, politician or businessman who seems to embody its persona, warts and all. Memphis was all about Elvis. New York has Rudy and the Donald. And Cincinnati, most people here would agree, is Pete's town.
Peter Edward Rose, a k a Charlie Hustle, was born on the city's working-class West Side, hard by the mud-brown waters of the Ohio River. ...
- Whiff of summer: Cleveland Mid-America Boat Show helps snowbound Ohio forget gray winter for a while
By Denise Grollmus
(Akron Beacon Journal, January 22 2004)
Visitors check out the Carver Yachts sold by Sima at the Cleveland Mid-America Boat show at the I-X Center. ... As the snow fell relentlessly Monday afternoon, hiding any promise of a thaw, Carl Jara meticulously carved elaborate sculptures of deceased rock legends into wet sand, as if in protest of the tundra outside. "It's really ironic that this is my job, living in Cleveland and all,''said Jara, 30, a graduate of Akron's Firestone High School. Jara is working with 20 tons of sand as part of the 47th Cleveland Mid-America Boat Show, presented by the Lake Erie Marine Trades Association at the I-X Center. As Jara slowly carved out the hands of Bob Marley, sitting cross-legged below an early Elvis with peanut butter and banana in hand, wide-eyed watchers shared their amazement at his sandy ode to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as the centerpiece of his art: a 24-foot-long glittery gold guitar boat, built in 1969. His creation, backed by a towering rendition of the Cleveland skyline, is certainly a sight for snow-sore eyes. ...
- Elvis Gospel Compilation Due March 23
(Yahoo! News / Reuters / Billboard, January 22 2004)
"Elvis Ultimate Gospel," an RCA compilation of Elvis Presley's gospel hits, will hit stores March 23, featuring such tracks as "Amazing Grace," "Crying in the Chapel" and "How Great Thou Art." The only artist inducted into the rock, country and gospel halls of fame, Presley had an affinity for religious music. He won his first Grammy for "How Great Thou Art" and two more for subsequent gospel recordings.
- Elvis Becoming An Action Figure: The King Comes With Stage, Guitar
(local6.com / Associated Press, January 22 2004)
Forget about those "Return of the King" action figures -- the King of Rock 'n' Roll is about to take center stage. McFarlane Toys has announced that it's teaming with Elvis Presley Enterprises to produce an Elvis Presley Super Stage action figure. The figure commemorates Presley's famed 1968 "Comeback Special" filmed for television in Burbank, Calif., in 1968. Presley is featured in black leather outfit and his accessories include a guitar, microphone and custom stage diorama base. The company said they expected to release the figure in May. ...
- Doing 'The King' thing: Elvis impersonator will shake his stuff at Fox Hills Saturday
By Suzanne Weiss
(Herald Times, January 22 2004)
Garry Wesley didn't just look in the mirror one morning and see Elvis staring back at him. Friends of his noticed the resemblance first. "I really didn't see it," Wesley admitted in a phone interview from his home in Necedah. A costume party at a Milwaukee nightclub more than 20 years ago changed all that. Friends convinced Wesley, then 19, to don Presley paraphernalia for the evening. He looked so much like the famed singer that he was invited on stage to sing with the band. ... That experience helped spark Wesley's 23-year career as a professional Elvis impersonator. "When I started, there were only about 800 around the world. Today there are 35,000 Elvis impersonators," he said. ... Wesley who estimated he owns about 15 jumpsuits, two gold lame jackets, two sets of leather outfits and a closet full of shoes and boots fit for The King.
Wesley's voice has grown along with his wardrobe. "When (Elvis) was younger, he had a high tone to his voice," he said. "As he went along, his voice got to be mellow and more smoother sounding. For the '68 comeback, he decided to get more raw with his voice. Elvis' voice in the later concert years exuded power, depth and range. "He had up to a five-octave range, which I have been able to imitate. That's not easy," said Wesley, a self-taught singer. "It's taken some time to develop the voice to do the early years and the concert years." ...
- Side dish (final paragraph)
(New York Daily News, January 21 2004)
Elvis Presley's granddaughter, Riley Keough, will star in David Yurman's ad campaign launching in April. David and Sybil Yurman, who just won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gem Awards Gala, will have Lisa Marie Presley's 14-year-old beauty co-starring with Kate Moss and Patti Hansen.
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