Early February 2004
- The man who brought rock 'n' roll to the radio is hip, corny, irrepressible, and soulful
By MICHAEL SCOTT MOORE
(San Francisco Weekly, February 4 2004)
The new musical by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change) and Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan tells a story of the birth of rock 'n' roll in a Memphis radio station. A young white DJ, Huey Calhoun -- based on the historical Dewey Phillips -- electrifies and scandalizes Memphis in 1949 by mixing "race" records into a whites-only "blues" show. Calhoun goes on to play Elvis Presley for the first time, as Phillips did, and later hosts his own Rock Shop TV program, which (like Phillips') rivals Dick Clark's Bandstand for national syndication. The Southern jock is too wild for prime time, though: After launching not just a local blues singer but a new style of music, Calhoun loses out to Clark and lapses into obscurity. The story exaggerates Phillips' importance even as it revives his reputation; it feels like a Disney version of the real thing. But the feel-good tale works, thanks to a stunning lead performance by Chad Kimball. Kimball is perfectly cast as Calhoun -- he's hip as well as corny, irrepressible, with a strong soulful voice that improves a few of the songs. The most original number by DiPietro and Bryan is "Dick Clark," about the whiteness of Calhoun's nemesis. Almost every other big number starts with promising beauty -- "The Music of My Soul," "Sin, Degradation, and Communism," "Steal Your Rock 'n' Roll" -- but ends in a dumb conventional Broadway rave-up that does no credit to the talents of Kimball and other singers like Montego Glover and J. Bernard Calloway.
- JXL lines up stars for new album
(Ananova, February 4 2004)
Junkie XL, whose remix of Elvis Presley's A Little Less Conversation, has lined up an all-star cast of guests for his new album. ...
- West Point boy is Elvis in miniature
(Cullman Times, February 4 2004)
When Keeton Thomas, 8, is at school, he's like every other child in his second-grade class at West Point Elementary. He likes to play ball, swim and ride his motorcycle. But occasionally, Keeton takes on another persona -- the King of Rock and Roll. For the last five years, Keeton -- or Little Elvis as he is known -- has been impersonating Elvis Presley. He picked it up from a book his mother and grandmother brought back from a visit to Graceland. "I started looking at a book and listening to music when I got into it," said Keeton, the son of Mark and Tammy Thomas and grandson of Tressie and Tommy Wisener and Glenn and Macie Thomas. As Keeton's interest grew, Tressie Wisener would play Presley's music. "I hunted up my old albums," she said. Then she began renting Presley's movies.
"To tell you the truth, I never really liked his music before," said Tammy Thomas of The King's recordings. "But I've learned to like him." It was more like, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. His 16-year-old sister, Laura, doesn't really like Presley's music either. But she's been known to help Keeton learn new songs. Before long, Keeton was belting out "Jailhouse Rock" and "Heartbreak Hotel" as loud as his 3-year-old lungs allowed. Then he started getting the moves down, shaking his legs and hips and twisting his mouth into Elvis' trademark curl. That next Halloween Keeton didn't want to dress up as a Power Ranger or a Pokemon character. He wanted to be Elvis. Tressie obliged and created a jumpsuit with flared legs and sleeves that flashed with shiny sequins and a wide belt encrusted with rhinestones. A star was reborn. Since then, Keeton has been entertaining his family and complete strangers whenever he gets the chance. "He's well-known at Graceland," Tressie said. ...
- News in brief from Northern California
(Mercury News / Associated Press, February 4 2004)
The breast cancer stamp has two more years to beat Elvis for the title of most popular stamp in postal history - its creator's personal goal. The stamp is the brainchild of Sacramento surgeon Ernie Bodai. It's raised $36.3 million for breast cancer research since 1998. "I'm ecstatic," Bodai said Tuesday. "We have two more years of this wonderful fund-raising mechanism." So far 509 million of the stamps have been sold. That's only eight million less than the Elvis Presley stamp, which was discontinued in 1997. ...
- Laughter, she wrote? Lansbury would like comedy on her resume
By Hal Boedeker
(Orlando Sentinel, February 4 2004)
Angela Lansbury is a Hollywood icon, yet at a CBS Super Bowl party for weary TV critics, she's not an obvious magnet for attention. After all, it has been nearly eight years since Murder, She Wrote left the CBS lineup. But the actress, 78, quickly charms listeners with her candor and wit. She has a new movie (The Blackwater Lightship) and a new career plan. ... Lansbury has left a wide-ranging gallery of performances on film, from voicing Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast to playing Elvis Presley's mother in Blue Hawaii. She was an Oscar nominee for The Picture of Dorian Gray and a vivid presence in The Harvey Girls, State of the Union, The Long Hot Summer, The World of Henry Orient and Death on the Nile.
- 'Editorial 02/04: The envelope breaks
(Commercial Appeal, February 4 2004)
A PERFORMER from Memphis is caught up this week in an overblown national controversy over artistic choices that force us to assess whether blatant sexuality in the arts is speeding America toward cultural doom. No, this isn't an editorial from the 1950s that mistakenly found its way into today's editions. The performer is Justin Timberlake, not Elvis Presley. Timberlake, for readers who just woke up from a coma, is at the center of a media firestorm - a tempest in a C cup approximately - for snatching a bustier cup off Janet Jackson's right breast during Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show. ... Elvis: Now there was somebody who could set off a controversy and change the culture. Justin is trying. When he learns that the Super Bowl is not the venue to make that kind of mark on society he could become a force. He's not there yet.
- New Elvis fan club will be 'one of the best'
(Bucks Herald, February 3 2004)
A NEW Elvis fan club has started up for the people of [Buckinghamshire], which is hoping to become one of the most successful Elvis Presley fan club county branches in the country. Aylesbury has been chosen to host Elvis In Bucks at the Railway Club on May 8. The branch aims to hold regular functions and party nights, as well as produce a quarterly magazine of Elvis articles. Pete Lucas, from Pitstone, explained that the Elvis In Bucks branch used to run in Milton Keynes, and when the organiser left Pete picked up the reigns, along with leader Lynne Brooker, after numerous requests to resurrect it. "It's a hobby for me" he explained. "I don't worship Elvis like some. I remember seeing him on film as a child. I saw his class and charisma at a young age and remember thinking 'this guy has got something'. I got my first Elvis album when I was 10 years old."
The branch currently has 25 members, some of whom travel quite a distance. "We are going to be one of the best branches around, we'll be very active and it will be fun to be a member" he explained. Controversially, the branch, like most fan clubs, doesn't encourage Elvis impersonators! Pete explained: "The media portray Elvis fan clubs as being tacky, which is totally unfair. They always ask fans if they dress up, which ours doesn't. Most of the clubs in the UK don't dress up, but we certainly wouldn't turn anyone away from ours, they just wouldn't get a reaction. "We don't want to encourage 'jumpsuit junkies'! It's not an enforced rule, simply a standard." ...
- 'Miracle' movie a winner despite predictable plot
By Don Doxsie
(Quad-City Times, February 3 2004)
It can't be easy to make a quality feature film when every person who walks into the theater knows how it's going to end. But the Walt Disney studios have managed to do it. In fact, Disney's "Miracle," which opens in theaters nationwide Friday, might just be the best hockey movie ever made. ... Brooks is played by Kurt Russell, who has portrayed Elvis Presley, Wyatt Earp and dozens of freewheeling, happy-go-lucky characters in a 43-year acting career. ...
- When he hit mile marker 50, Sting began writing memoir
By Ricardo Baca
(Denver Post / Associated Press, February 3 2004)
Sting, who was recently nominated for an Academy Award for a song he wrote for the film 'Cold Mountain,' will perform Thursday night at the Fillmore Auditorium. The show is sold out. He helped bring world music to the masses, sold almost 100 million records and is the only actor in the history of film and TV to have appeared in both "Quadrophenia" and "Ally McBeal." Early musical influences: Sting had a tough childhood in England, but his parents found solace in varying music styles. His father, a milkman, listened to the big bands of the Dorsey Brothers and Benny Goodman. But it was his mother (who was "proud and difficult to please," he writes in his recent memoir, "Broken Music") who brought rock 'n' roll into the house "on 78 rpm records of black acetate with brightly colored labels from MGM, RCA, Decca." Sting writes that Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Elvis Presley introduced him to rampant sexual innuendo. But in the '60s (and the book's third chapter), the then-alienated teen had snuck off to a Jimi Hendrix Experience concert, which was "an overwhelming, deafening wave of sound that simply obliterated analysis" and found the teen later that evening "with my ears ringing and my world view significantly altered." ...
- Venture makes money out of dress-ups
By PETER WILSON
(Border Mail, February 3 2004)
NEED an Elvis Presley suit, a Kiss outfit or a super hero outfit? Head to Raggle Taggle Costume Hire at Beechworth. Ms Yvonne Hunter has established Raggle Taggle Costume Hire in premises above the WAW Credit Union in Camp St. She launched the business late last year and already has an inventory of 280 items, including hats and wigs. ...
- The day the music died
By RICH HOLL
(ASBURY PARK PRESS, February 3 2004)
"Now for 10 years we've been on our own," Don McLean sings in "American Pie," the song that gave us the phrase "The day the music died."
That day was Feb. 3, 1959 -- for 45 years we've been on our own -- when a single-engine, four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in a corn field in Clear Lake, Iowa, killing Buddy Holly, 22; Ritchie Valens, 17, and The Big Bopper, whose age has been pegged from 24 to 28, along with the pilot, 21-year-old Roger A. Peterson. "The day the music died" has become a catch phrase of pop culture, understood to allude to the plane crash. But a closer look suggests that McLean was using it to frame a much broader concept in the evolution of rock: the passing of seminal rock 'n' roll from the music scene.
When the RCA label began national distribution of Elvis' records with "Heartbreak Hotel" in January 1956, rock 'n' roll acquired a snarl and a leer. Presley opened the door, and a column of young musicians marched in. But before Elvis left Sam Phillips' regional Sun label in Memphis, he recorded with three other rockers under contract to Sun: Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. They called it the Million Dollar Quartet. Now, at 68, Jerry Lee's the only surviving member of that quartet, although there was a long time when hard drinking and fast living made him a good bet to be the first to go. Also in January 1956, Phillips released Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes." Perkins' song was a big hit, but on March 21, 1956, the end of the first -- best? -- stage of rock 'n' roll might have begun when he nearly died in an auto crash in Delaware.
Phillips had thought Perkins' potential was greater than Elvis', but after the crash his records had only lackluster sales. Little Richard Penniman likes to say he was the architect of rock 'n' roll, and his vast credentials begin with the opening a-wop-bop-a-lou-bop-a-lop-bam-boom of "Tutti Fruitti." But in 1957 Little Richard, in his mid-20s, gave up singing (and, as the story goes, threw his jewels into the sea and joined the ministry).
On May 22, 1958, Jerry Lee Lewis began a tour of England and the British press assailed him for having married a 13-year-old second cousin, and having done so without a divorce decree for his first marriage, or his second marriage -- or both. Despite a resume that included such hits as "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire," Jerry Lee was blackballed; no radio stations would play his records.
Flash back to when February made McLean shiver in 1959. On a previous tour Holly had formed a friendship with Eddie Cochran, whose contributions included "C'mon Everybody" and the original "Summertime Blues." After the plane crash in Clear Lake, Cochran recorded a tribute song called "Three Stars." But on April 17, 1960, on a tour in England, Cochran suffered a fractured skull in an auto accident and died. In 1961, after a second trial, Chuck Berry was found guilty of violating the Mann Act (transporting a woman across state lines for an immoral purpose) and sentenced to three years in prison. He had only one record on the charts between 1959 and 1964. ...
- BMG Names Clive Davis to Head N. American Operation
By Derek Caney
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, February 3 2004)
BMG, the world's fifth largest record company, on Monday said it named Clive Davis to head its North American music operations, returning one of the most powerful executives to the upper strata of the industry. The 70-year-old Davis, credited with signing Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston and Alicia Keys to the various labels, will assume responsibility for the company's four labels: Arista, RCA, Jive and J Records. The promotion comes more than three years after BMG management, which is owned by Bertelsmann AG, unceremoniously asked Davis to relinquish control of Arista, the label he founded in 1975. Davis previously ran the BMG's RCA Music Group, which consisted of RCA and J Records, a label he founded after he left Arista. BMG's combined operations boast a catalog that includes Elvis Presley, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. His ascent comes as BMG prepares to merge with No. 2 record company Sony Music in one of the most tumultuous times for the music industry, as it combats flagging sales and competition from free song-sharing services like Kazaa. ...
- Red Hat ladies flaunt it with Hooters girls
(Herald Online, February 2 2004)
Last week, the Nifty Fifties Red Hat Society of Tega Cay visited the Rock Hill restaurant to show the cute young servers that life gets more fun after short shorts and tank tops. "Each month, a member chooses the site for our luncheons," said Sue Gulasky, who holds the title of Queen Mother to the Nifties. "I decided on Hooters so we can show that a little snow on the mountain doesn't mean a thing."
The Nifty Fifties of Tega Cay joined up with the Red Hat Society almost three years ago and set about turning area restaurants into quite the place to be, with their fancy red hats and brilliant purple suits and dresses. ... The Red Hat Society is intended to be outrageous for women over 50. Since many women are involved in community activities and civic groups, this society is just for fun.
There are no rules, just suggestions -- a red hat should be worn, the outfit must be bright purple and members must enjoy themselves. Going out for tea is the usual gathering, but nothing's amiss if a group decides to go to an Elvis impersonator and throw purple panties. South Carolina has about 20 Red Hat Society chapters, the closest in Rock Hill and Clover.
- Garage-sale lovers get their fix: Everything from Elvis pictures to Japanese slot machines can be found among booths
By Amos Bridges
(News-Leader, February 2 2004)
The temperature was far from balmy, but the weather was good enough for a garage sale Saturday. It helped that the 11th annual Greater Springfield Garage Sale & Marketplace was inside the E-Plex at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds. More than 400 booths, overflowing with everything from baseball cards to motorcycles, competed for the attention of bargain hunters' roving eyes. ... Garage-sale veterans who think they've seen it all might be surprised - in addition to the obligatory Beanie Babies and framed pictures of Elvis, vendors plied all sorts of uncommon wares Saturday. ...
- Why 'Dear Diary' confessional rock songs are resonating with today's young listeners
By Ricardo Baca
(Denver Post, February 2 2004)
Rock 'n' roll has long been the brash stepchild, the out-of-control teenager, the kid at the table abrasively slurping his soup out of elementary rebellion. But the music has taken a dramatic U-turn over the past two decades, and now we have emo, rock's feminine side that employs an almost uncomfortable brand of intimacy - one of the soul-baring, tear-shedding variety. Emo has solidified in the past few years as a unique trend that is changing rock and, more important, altering the way kids relate to the music. ... Rock's move toward a blatant, weepy tone seems subtle because such unabashed introspection isn't new to folk, country or hip-hop, even. But contrasted with traditionally macho rock 'n' roll, emo prefers tear ducts to testosterone. ... Rock has always been therapeutic. Be it the frenzied fandom of Elvis or the obsession with Metallica, music has been a central part of the teenage rite of release and rebellion. But only recently have rock artists completely made themselves available by opening up their lyrical diaries to detail-hungry fans.
"We have a totally different emotional connection with the artists, but more than anything, it's really the lyrics that do it," said Dan Rutherford, a 22-year-old Denver music fiend who claims being emo as a passion on his Friendster home-page. ...
- Aggravating/enjoyable travel of the week (5th item)
By Peter King
(Sports Illustrated, February 2 2004)
I guess this would qualify as a "travel" note, seeing as how I was on a media bus to Reliant Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday when it happened.
The bus was crawling through heavy traffic. A half-mile from Reliant we passed a bar. A ton of guys were hanging out on a porch in front of the place. A 25-ish woman was wearing a Brady jersey, sort of preening for the guys, who were obviously hooting at her. The woman lifted up the front of the jersey to reveal ... a sports bra with the Patriots' Flying Elvis logo emblazoned on each cup.
- Canada's own 'Elvis Priestley' wants to challenge Stronach, resurrect PC party
By JAMES MCCARTEN
(Windsor Star, February 1 2004)
A gospel-singing, mutton-chopped Anglican priest who delivers his sermons as Elvis Presley is spoiling for a ballot-box battle with auto-parts heiress Belinda Stronach in hopes of bringing salvation to what's left of the moribund Progressive Conservative party. Rev. Dorian Baxter - also known as Elvis Priestley, the self-styled Bishop of Beale St. - is the first of what organizers hope will be several candidates who fly the old Tory banner in defiance of the party's merger with the Canadian Alliance. ... Baxter was hand-picked by former Tory cabinet minister and staunch merger opponent Sinclair Stevens as a candidate whose profile and media savvy made him a natural choice to help put the PC party back on the political stage. ...
- Kurt Russell carries a 'Miracle' on his shoulders
By Dennis Hunt
(Windsor Star, February 1 2004)
... A surprising number of people, of all ages, don't have a clue about the stunning, David-whips-Goliath victory by the U.S. hockey team over the seemingly invincible Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. "This will educate some people about that game and rekindle some great memories in other people," says Kurt Russell, referring to Disney's "Miracle," the docudrama opening on Friday. It's considerably more accurate and in-depth than the other movie about the team, the feeble 1981 TV movie, "Miracle on Ice," which starred Karl Malden as Herb Brooks, the coach who selected and trained the triumphant team. This time, Russell plays Brooks. "The victory didn't stick with some people over the years because it's hockey, which isn't important to a lot of people," Russell continues. "This movie not only places it in perspective, but shows how it was done."
Where does Russell rank this portrayal in the pantheon of his finest performances, which range from "Elvis: The Movie" (1979) through "Escape From New York" (1981), "Tombstone" (1993), "Breakdown" (1996) and, most recently, the rogue cop in last year's overlooked "Dark Blue"? "I'd say playing Elvis was the most challenging role of my career, because I had to learn so much," explains Russell. "But playing Herb Brooks is the best job I've ever done, and I'm not just saying that to promote the movie. It was a tough role .. I had to stay within parameters, because Herb is a real guy. For me, for my personal satisfaction, what I did in this movie is as good as it gets."
- COMMENTARY: MOVIES - Artistic license: Retouching real life
By Roger Moore
(Orlando Sentinel, February 1 2004)
The portrait of truth is a matter of debate when history meets Hollywood. ... From actors playing dead poets and lying journalists to documentaries taking us inside a family destroyed by child-abuse allegations -- or giving Robert McNamara a chance to tell his view of what went wrong in Vietnam -- TV isn't the only place "reality" is taking hold in entertainment. More than ever, the movies are taking on real life, real people and real events. But are they getting it right? ... agrees. ... "I surely do not expect Hollywood to get it right," Maxine Jones says. "They are in the entertainment and money-making business. Unfortunately, this is where a lot of us learn our history. Maybe the most we can hope from Hollywood is that movies will ignite an interest and viewers will go to the historical record for the real story."
Truth not up for grabs
That isn't good enough for Kurt Russell, who plays the legendary hockey coach Herb Brooks in Miracle. He's made several films based on real people and events, from sniper Charles Joseph Whitman and Elvis Presley to Wyatt Earp. He says the truth will set filmmakers free. "Do it right," he says. "You owe it to people. It happened. Why rewrite history? It's usually more exciting than anything a screenwriter can come up with. I knew with Miracle that the more we could find out about the real people, the better it would be." Though Russell has been praised for most of the historical figures he's played -- he made a great Elvis and is an accurate Herb Brooks -- the version of the gunfight at the OK Corral that Russell starred in, Tombstone, seemed to have more to do with a filmmaker's spin on current street gangs than the actual showdown. ...
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