Late February 2004
- Boca man, Elvis impersonator is 'King' of the Caribbean
By Alva James-Johnson
(
Sun-Sentinel, February 29 2004)
Never underestimate how much a good wig, a black cape and a gold-trimmed jumpsuit can do to transform a Jamaican into Elvis. Add some serious hip gyrations to the mix, and "the King" comes to life with Caribbean flair. "I'm keeping the legend alive," said C.B. Charlie Babcock Jr., a Boca Raton resident. "They've never seen an Elvis like this one." Since winning a karaoke contest nine years ago, Babcock, 43, the son of a legendary entertainer in Jamaica, has led a dual life. A home improvement contractor by day, at night he impersonates Elvis at private parties, hotels, cruise shows or Caribbean events to the screams of star-struck enthusiasts, some of whom tug at his clothes and are moved to tears when he sings songs like Bridge Over Troubled Water.
But it's not your average Elvis wannabe that the audience sees. They also glimpse into the heart of a man who is as influenced by his Caribbean roots and his flamboyant father as he is by the rock 'n' roll legend."I have the Elvis voice, but adjoined to it is the Caribbean beat embedded in my soul," he said. "It's a mixture of a culture, where two worlds meet. Elvis was not a Jamaican, but he could move. I just added the Caribbean rhythm to it."
- Two new novels offer dramatic scenarios
By SUSAN LARSON
(
Pioneer Press /Newhouse News Service, February 29 2004)
Who would think it? An Elvis impersonator in Nigeria? A poor white family to rival any of Faulkner's, living on the outskirts of Johannesburg? Two new novels offer those dramatic scenarios in two remarkable debuts.
GRACELAND
Nigerian novelist and poet Chris Abani's striking "Graceland" wins readers with its concept - an Elvis impersonator in Nigeria - and keeps them with strong storytelling and characterization. Elvis Oke, growing up on the outskirts of Lagos, in a suburb called Maroko, faces many challenges. Making a living is one; finding some sort of peace within his complicated family is another. Elvis, berated by his father and stepmother, loved by his grandmother, has to struggle with the consequences of witnessing a rape. Can he find compassion for some members of his family and justice for others so caught up in a cycle of poverty and violence? And the violence in his family is writ large in the world outside, when the very existence of Maroko is threatened. The struggle extends to Elvis' life on the streets. Dancing for tourists isn't exactly profitable, and his father's new wife is demanding rent. Elvis tries to get by the best he can, reading his late mother's journal (which he always keeps with him, puzzling over its recipes and plant lore); hanging out with his friend Redemption, who always has some scheme to make money; reading his beloved books (by such authors as James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and Rainer Maria Rilke); and showing kindness when it is within his power. ...
- Swiss Tech makes Fender parts
By RICK THOMAS
(
Coeur d'Alene Press, February 29 2004)
A half century of Rock and Roll owes at least some success to a few small, precision metal parts made at a stamping factory in the Riverbend Commerce Park. The year 1954 was full of pop culture benchmarks. Elvis Presley recorded his first single, the Miss America pageant was televised for the first time and Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for ''The Old Man and the Sea.'' And in a small factory in Fullerton, Calif., an inventor named Leo Fender created his Stratocaster. ...
- Clinton and a place called Hope
By DAVID HAMMER
(
Chicago Sun-Times / AP, February 29 2004)
After working to bolster tourism at its Little Rock location, the Clinton Presidential Library will seek to do the same for Arkansas' three other ''presidential cities'' before the library's November opening. Tourism officials in Fayetteville, Hope and Hot Springs are beginning to coordinate efforts with the Clinton Presidential Foundation, the organization building the $160 million library, museum, graduate school and park in downtown Little Rock. Former President Clinton was born in Hope and lived in two different homes there between 1946 and 1950. After his widowed mother remarried, Clinton moved to Hot Springs, where he attended elementary and high school.
... Skip Rutherford[, President of the Clinton Presidential Foundation,] is pushing partnerships with Elvis Presley's Graceland and the National Civil Rights Museum, two attractions in Memphis, Tenn., an international gateway to the mid-South that is a two-hour drive from Little Rock. "These two places combined bring in 1 million tourists, and most of them are interested in two important interests for Clinton: civil rights and Elvis,'' Rutherford said. ''We've found most international visitors spend two weeks traveling in the region. If we can get those people to Little Rock, we can get them to the other presidential cities.'' ...
- Elvis Makes Appearance in Iowa City
(KCRG-TV9, February 28 2004)
Elvis is back in the building. The University of Iowa has unveiled the first of its Herky's on parade. Up to 75 statues of the university's official mascot will line streets in Iowa City and Coralville starting in May. "Elvis Herky" will be on display at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The king of the black and gold makes his first public appearance at this Saturday's basketball game.
- Leap Day babies hop to celebrate
By Patricia Breakey
(Daily Star / Delhi News Bureau, February 28 2004)
If age is tallied by the number of birthdays an individual has celebrated, then Leap Day babies have found the secret to perpetual youth. ... About 200,000 people in the United States and 4.1 million people in the world are Leap Day babies, based on the U.S. Census Population Clocks. Leap Day babies can also be called bissextile babies. Bissextile is the official name of the day added every fourth year to the month of February to make the year agree with the course of the sun. ... Gabe's birth made the front page of The Daily Star after he arrived at 12:11 a.m. Feb. 29, 2000, at M.I. Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown. His parents are Stephen Beals and Susan Bliss-Beals. ... Bliss-Beals said her son is advanced for his age in some ways, which belies the fact that this will be his first birthday. "He is tall for his age," she said. "His taste in music includes Elvis and Cajun, and he is a backseat driver."
- Stratocaster celebrates 50 years
By Brien Murphy
(Tucson Citizen / Associated Press, February 28 2004)
The year 1954 was full of pop culture benchmarks. Elvis Presley recorded his first single, the Miss America pageant was televised for the first time, Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature. And in a small factory in Fullerton, Calif., an inventor named Leo Fender created his Stratocaster. ...
- Pop Fans Placing Faith in Christian Acts
By Brien Murphy
(Abilene Reporter-News, February 28 2004)
Mainstream radio sounds more spiritual these days. Dallas Christian band MercyMe, which performs in Abilene on Monday, heard its Jesus-praising song "I Can Only Imagine" all over secular stations last year. Randy Travis, who sings in Abilene on March 11, returned to the top of the country charts in 2003 with his song about redemption, "Three Wooden Crosses." Another singer proclaims "there's victory in the Lord" in his first big country hit, "Long Black Train." The trend encourages singer Amy Grant, who performs Christian songs ("Emmanuel") and secular pop ("Baby Baby"). ... Soul musicians who learned to sing in church (Aretha Franklin, the Rev. Al Green), and country groups with gospel roots (the Statler Brothers, the Oak Ridge Boys) frequently carve out simultaneous secular and Christian recording careers. Grant was an anomaly in the mid-1980s when she launched a secular pop career to accompany her contemporary Christian music career. She was also a lightning rod for charges of "selling out" leveled by Christian music fans. Before Grant, the road between Christian music and secular rock or pop music was usually one-way. Although Elvis Presley recorded gospel music, rock 'n' roll refugees who switched to Christian music - John Michael Talbot, B.J. Thomas, ex-Kansas singer John Elefante - almost never went back.
- ROCK 'N' ROLL STILL HAS LEGS
(Chicago Globe, February 27 2004)
WHEN Elvis appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1956, the cameramen were ordered not to film the King's pelvis below the head of his femur. That's where Chicago octet Head of Femur got its name.
- Concert Preview: Rare Eugene visit by Baez a marquee event
By Paul Denison
(The Register-Guard, February 27 2004)
Joan Baez has never been the shy, retiring type, and her current touring schedule suggests that she's not about to retire any time soon - even though she is 63 and certainly has enough laurels to rest on. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that Baez doesn't often come to Eugene, and regular seats for next week's concert at the Shedd have been sold out for a couple of weeks. ... Meanwhile, you have "Dark Chords on a Big Guitar," Baez's first studio album in six years. The 10-song album includes "Sleeper" and "Rexroth's Daughter" by Greg Brown; "Elvis Presley Blues" by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings; two songs by Whiskeytowners Ryan Adams ("In My Time of Need") and Caitlin Cary ("Rosemary Moore"); "Motherland" by Natalie Merchant; "Wings" by Josh Ritter; and "Christmas in Washington" by Steve Earle.
- Mars Rocks! Eclectic Music Moves Rover Mission
By Robert Roy Britt
(space.com, February 26 2004)
... [An] eclectic playlist is Mars rover Spirit mission manager Mark Adler's way of waking exhausted engineers and scientists who are working and sleeping on Mars time and dealing with a sometimes temperamental rover millions of miles away. And with entries like the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated," it shows that NASA people are anything but stuffy. The music can lighten tense times. During the nail-biting moments before Spirit's descent and landing in January, at the suggestion of team member Rob Manning, Adler played Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy." And, of course, Elvis makes an appearance, singing "Stuck On You" after a frustrating day of no driving. ...
- Legendary Chicago bluesman brought sax front and center
By DAVE HOEKSTRA
(Chicago Sun-Times, February 26 2004)
A.C. Reed was the best known saxophonist on the Chicago blues scene, but his soul was stirred by a rainbow of expression. Mr. Reed died from complications of cancer Wednesday at Provident Hospital of Cook County. He was 77. Mr. Reed performed with Albert Collins, Buddy Guy and Bonnie Raitt. He developed his eloquent style by studying the tenor saxophonist for Elmore James. Mr. Reed was even an accomplished tailor, often sewing his own stage costumes. He was a stitch in time, recording humorous songs such as "My Buddy Buddy Friend," "Give It Up (Smoking)," "2 Women in a Pick Up," and "Don't Drive Drunk" with raps by Maurice John Vaughn. Mr. Reed became a pathfinder at age 56 when he left Collins to form his own band, the Spark Plugs. Few blues saxophonists are bandleaders, but Mr. Reed understood how the saxophone filled out the music of primitive rockers such as Little Richard and Fats Domino. Mr. Reed played with accessible and minimal notes, which shaped the fiery expanse of his solos. "In Chicago, saxophone players created small combos because they knew the music," Mr. Reed told me in a 1988 interview in his tiny 53rd Street apartment. "That's why I played with all the guitarists -- they knew the music. Then Elvis [Presley] came around, elevated the guitar [with Scotty Moore] and people started dividing the music." ...
- All dolled up
By Nicole Lampert
(This Is London / Daily Mail, February 26 2004)
The sultry eyes and moody presence hint at her royal heritage. And if Danielle Keough's name is relatively unknown, her granddaddy certainly isn't. For he was the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley. And now his granddaughter has begun her own quest for global fame. Danielle, daughter of Lisa Marie Presley and her first husband, the musician Danny Keough, has become the face of Dolce & Gabbana at the age of 14. The curly-haired teenager has been inundated with offers since signing with the leading model agency IMG a month ago. And yesterday, during Milan fashion week, she was the most talked about model as she opened D& G's show, using her middle name Riley. 'With her mother's beauty and her grandfather's attitude, she is sure to be a star,' said the designers.
Not everyone, though, is entirely comfortable with Miss Keough's popularity. Her mother, who recently brought out a critically acclaimed album, has admitted she is terrified about her daughter's choice of career. Miss Presley said: 'She wants to make her own money, which I completely respect and want her to do. But she is still my baby. She is still 14. 'She has big plans and it is making me a nervous wreck. I don't want her to fall into anything shallow and aimless. 'But she is grounded. She has a really good head on those shoulders.' She is doubtless more mature than many 14-year olds, having seen her mother battle drugs as well as go through three husbands - the others being Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage.
Danielle, who has an 11-year-old brother called Benjamin, certainly does not need the money. Born in poverty in 1935, Elvis became the biggest act in pop history. He died in 1977, leaving an estate which still generates millions of dollars a year. His popularity is showing no signs of waning. A recent survey found him to be the highest- earning dead celebrity, banking £24 million in 2002. He was brought to the attention of a new generation of fans the same year when he scored a number one hit in the UK with a remix of the track A Little Less Conversation. Subsequently, his 30 No1 Hits album sold nine million copies in the U.S.
Miss Keough is the latest of a new breed of model to emerge from a rock family. Her catwalk contemporaries include Elizabeth Jagger, who is the face of Lancome, Aerosmith singer Steve Tyler's daughter Liv and Rod Stewart's girl, Kimberley. Also getting in on the act has been Theodora Richards, daughter of Keith, who recently modelled for Marks & Spencer.
- Elvis Presley's granddaughter walks the runway in Milan model debut
(Yahoo! News / Canadian Press / AP, February 25 2004)
She wasn't wearing blue suede shoes, but Riley Keough - granddaughter of Elvis Presley, daughter of Lisa Marie Presley - put her best foot forward in her modelling debut. The 14-year-old walked the runway Wednesday during the Milan fashion show for D and G, which is Dolce and Gabbana's trendier, less-expensive clothing line. She's also scheduled to walk in Saturday's Dolce and Gabbana show, part of the fall-winter 2004 preview showings. "When we met Riley last year we were immediately struck by her beauty and fresh, pure spirit," Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said in a statement. "With her mother's beauty and her grandfather's attitude, she is sure to be a star!" Keough, whose father is Presley's ex-husband, musician Danny Keough, is signed with the New York-based modelling agency IMG.
- Elvis Granddaughter Shakes Up Milan Catwalk
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, February 25 2004)
When Elvis Presley sang about a "long-legged girl with a short dress on," he probably wasn't thinking that his granddaughter would one day fit the bill. But on Wednesday, Riley Keough zipped into a tiny denim miniskirt and strutted around D&G's catwalk on her modeling debut. "I was really nervous before, I was shaking," the 14-year-old said shyly after the show. "But it was fun. I'm looking forward to the next one." Asked if performing was in her blood, Keough simply smiled at the floor, her 5-foot-5-inch frame looking tiny as a couple of towering two-meter models strode past. Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, whose jeans sometimes sport as many rhinestones as one of Elvis's jumpsuits, met Keough at a fashion awards ceremony where her mother, Lisa Marie Presley, presented them with a prize. "We were immediately struck by her beauty and fresh, pure spirit...With her mother's beauty and her grandfather's attitude she is sure to be a star," the designers said. Keough takes back to the catwalk on Saturday for the top line Dolce & Gabbana show but in the meantime doesn't plan to shake, rattle and roll with Milan's fashion posse. Instead she is keeping firmly out of the public eye and doing what any smart teenager does in Milan -- shopping with Dad and his credit card.
 
- Meaty invitation for Latham
(news.com.au / The Daily Telegraph, February 24 2004)
HEAVWEIGHT rocker Meat Loaf has issued a special invitation to major fan Mark Latham to see his Sydney show tonight after the Federal Opposition Leader said he would rather remember "loaf in his heyday". Latham has suggested Meat Loaf, at 56, is past his use-by date, even though the eccentric rocker has sold out his Australian tour with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The politician, who nominates Bat Out Of Hell as his favourite album, said in December he was reluctant to watch his hero in action. He reiterated his feelings about the tour last week on breakfast television. "I don't want to sully my memory of the Loaf by watching him in his declining years," Latham said late last year. "We'd rather remember Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show than eating fried chicken, 20 stone overweight, so I'll stick to Loaf in his heyday." ...
- Elvis's Granddaughter to Rock Milan's Catwalk
(Reuters UK, February 23 2004)
Will The Pelvis be reborn on the catwalk when Elvis Presley's granddaughter debuts as a model for Dolce & Gabbana's latest trend-setting fashions this week? Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the only designers who regularly command supermodels like Naomi Campbell to show their figure-hugging designs, plan to open both their Milan fashion week shows with Riley Keough, daughter of Lisa Marie Presley.
"With her mother's beauty and her grandfather's attitude, she is sure to be a star," said the design duo, whose studded jeans often boast as many rhinestones as an Elvis jumpsuit. It remains to be seen whether Keough will sashay around in blue suede shoes or convince buyers viewing the collections to say: "I want you, I need you, I love you."
- Cliff named Ultimate Pop Star
(Reuters UK, February 23 2004)
Veteran singer Cliff Richard has beaten the Beatles and Elvis Presley to the title of the Ultimate Pop Star as the biggest selling artist. Channel 4's The Ultimate Pop Star, broadcast on Sunday, said Richard had sold more singles than any other artist in the last 50 years, ahead of the Beatles in second place and Presley in third. Madonna was in fourth place as the only female to make the top ten. She was followed by Kylie Minogue at number 13 and The Spice Girls at 15. Elton John was named in fifth place, ahead of Michael Jackson in sixth and Queen in seventh. Swedish group Abba were placed eighth and Paul McCartney made the top ten twice, as a solo artist in ninth position. David Bowie closed out the top ten. The programme said Richard, the eternally youthful 63-year-old singer with a squeaky-clean image, had sold almost 21 million singles in his career of over 40 years.
- Memphis wonders: What would Elvis do?
By DAVE HOEKSTRA
(Chicago Sun-Times, February 22 2004)
Many years ago, before granting me an audience with Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, his sons Knox and Jerry (a former Memphis wrestler) took me to the Western Steakhouse for drinks, country music and 16-ounce ribeyes. At that time, the dark and foreboding Memphis restaurant was the only place in America with a wagon train mural painted by local wrestler Jerry Lawler. After dinner, we headed over to Sam Phillips Studios for more conversation, country music and drinks. I made it home by 4 a.m. and I must have passed some kind of test, because Sam and I maintained a friendship until his death last year. That was the old school way of doing music business around Memphis. TCB -- takin' care of business -- as Elvis used to say.
Last month, I returned to Memphis and learned about stuff like the Memphis Music Commission and music's sudden role in economic impact studies. Now it's WWED -- What Would Elvis Do? The 20-member music commission is working from a new 50-page document with a set of tactics they want to implement over the next four years to shape Memphis into a major player on America's musical landscape. One big goal is to make Memphis the Independent Record Label Capital of America, similar to what Austin, Texas, has done with live music and the South by Southwest Music Conference.
According to a commission study, Memphis serves as home to at least 60 independent labels. The city has a rich history of independents such as Ardent, Goldwax, Golden Eagle and Penthouse. Hosting an annual conference is one of the commission's objectives. "We believe Memphis past and present is all about indie music," said Rey Flemings, the 30-year-old executive director of the commission. "We've never had a major recording company open its offices in Memphis. All the familiar music stuff from Memphis, be it Al Green [Hi], Elvis Presley [Sun] or Stax, was produced on an independent basis. Certainly all of our present music is predicated on indie labels. If you look at all the recorded music that's bought and sold in the world, more than 25 percent of it is produced on an indie basis." And as majors continue to leave the business of artist development, greater emphasis will be placed on independents.
... Memphis has always been about big ideas. Holiday Inn started in Memphis. So did the Piggly Wiggly grocery chain. Even Brian L. Roberts, the Comcast CEO who is leading his company's takeover bid for Walt Disney, has an Elvis pedigree. His father co-founded Comcast in Tupelo, Miss. But Dickinson believes in recording a big idea. You don't need a music commission to do that. "That's the big difference in Sam Phillips," he said. "Those early Elvis records are physically an idea. There's black jump blues on one side and a country song on the other side. The idea of interracial culture mingling was not popular. Rural blacks came to Memphis. Rural whites came to Memphis. The Memphis idea that became Elvis is that very cross-pollination. The same thing happened with Johnny Ace and Ike Turner. I've been nearly everywhere in the South and a lot of other places, too. To this day I don't think what happens racially here happens anywhere else. It continues to be reflected in the music, both white and black." ...
- If you wait a bit longer, even Elvis might arrive
By Jon Sparks
(Reno Gazette-Journal Online / Associated Press, February 21 2004)
Beth Fitzpatrick Smeltzer has an Elvis story to share: "In 1963 I began school at BMH School of Nursing - the first week was get-acquainted parties and a tour of Memphis. Our bus stopped at Graceland and they let us walk up the driveway and see the swimming pool. We thought we had died and gone to heaven just being allowed to do this. A week or two later, fellow classmate Jane Wood asked me if I would ride the bus with her to Whitehaven and look at the house again. I had never done anything daring like that before, being from a small Mississippi town, but I agreed and we caught the bus and rode out early Saturday.
"Uncle Vester was the 'guard' that day and we met him and just 'hung out' at the gate. Vester said Elvis was there but had a cold and wasn't seeing anyone. He felt sorry for us and rode us up the driveway in the pink jeep and took our pictures. Being student nurses we told him to tell Elvis to drink orange juice and rest and sent him up a teddy bear. Towards the end of the day it came time to catch the last bus back to school. As we were getting our purses together, a big black car driven by Elvis drove down to the gate. He waved to us and then drove out. We were so excited that we had seen Elvis.
"All of a sudden, the car drove back through the gate and stopped. Elvis got out and came over to us and started talking to us. He thanked us for our 'nurse' advice and for the teddy bear and talked for a few minutes. He gave us his autograph (which I still have), jumped back into his car and drove back up the driveway. Jane and I caught the bus and made it back to the dorm. Everyone had to hear the story over and over and we were the talk of the dorm for the weekend."
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