Mid September 2004
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Elvis' "Head;" Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson Gold Records; Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton Stage Costumes in Dallas Auction
(PR Web, September 23, 2004)
Nearly two dozen gold records made for the million-selling 1950s and early 1960s pop music hits of Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson will be offered in an auction conducted in Dallas, Texas and online by Heritage Galleries (www.HeritageGalleries.com), September 30 and October 1. "The gold records are from the collection of Lew Chudd, founder of Imperial Records, one of the most important and prestigious record labels of the 1950s and 1960s. He would make only two copies of each gold record; one for the artist and one for the studio," said John Petty of Heritage Galleries. The two-day also will offer collectors the opportunity to purchase stage-worn costumes of a dozen country music performers including Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Buck Owens, Dolly Parton, and Jim Reeves. The costumes are from the Nashville Country Music Wax Museum that closed in 1997. A mannequin head of a young Elvis Presley that was displayed at the Nashville museum also is listed in the sale, and expected to bring $2,000 or more. ...
- 'London Calling' gets a 3-disc, extras-stuffed anniversary treatment
BY BEN WENER . Orange County Register
(Miami Herald, September 22, 2004)
It was supposed to be called "The Last Testament" - a crushing rock-is-dead statement, providing finality for the previous quarter-century of pop music with a miraculous batch of songs that swallowed the past and spit it back in wild new combinations.
That's what that Elvis-inspired cover image was all about. Where "Elvis Presley" displayed the future King hoisting his guitar high, his face flushed with the liberating, ecstatic rush of early rock n' roll, the Clash's "London Calling" showed a frustrated Paul Simonon slamming his best Fender bass to the ground - symbolically bringing the curtain down on rock for good.
Of course, "London Calling" didn't signal the death of rock; there are at least a half-dozen landmarks from the past two decades that could jockey for position near (if not above) it on any best-of-all-time survey. It does, however, mark the full flowering of the Clash - the moment where they proved, in myriad influential ways, that they were more than three-chord rude boys with a taste for reggae. Their unexpectedly masterful expansion destroyed the once-fascistically enforced notion of what punk rock should and should not be. ... Now, fans curious about this classic's evolution can investigate further with this week's arrival of a slightly premature three-disc 25th anniversary edition of "London Calling." (The original arrived in December 79.) ...
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Andy Warhol Exhibit Opens in Milan
(Yahoo! News / AP, September 22, 2004)
Some 200 paintings by Andy Warhol went on display Wednesday in Milan in one of the largest shows ever held in Italy on the late Pop Art icon, organizers said. The exhibit also features sketches, pictures, fashion illustrations and covers from Warhol's Interview magazine. A section of the show is devoted to the artist's style and fashion. Born in 1928, Warhol grew up and developed his early artistic skills in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the center of the Pop Art movement in the 1960s, he turned commonplace objects such as dollar bills and soup cans into works of art. He died in 1987. Highlights of the Milan exhibit include portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Mao Zedong, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley, as well as the famous still-life Campbell's soup can. The works are on loan from The Andy Warhol Foundation in Pittsburgh and The Warhol Foundation in New York, as well as from private collections. The exhibit, "The Andy Warhol Show," runs at Milan's Triennale through Jan. 9.
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Grandson stole treasured Elvis CDs
(Evening News, September 22, 2004)
A GRANDMOTHER has disowned her own grandson after he stole half her collection of Elvis CDs. June Knight, 58, who lives off Dereham Road, Norwich [UK], today said she wanted nothing more to do with Jason Potter who has started a five-and-a-half month jail sentence after he admitted a number of offences including assaulting two community support officers in the execution of their duties. Potter, 21, of no fixed address, admitted assaulting community support officers Matthew Boldra and Paul Gray - who he pushed into the path of oncoming traffic in a busy road. He also admitted stealing Elvis Presley CDs worth £160 from Mrs Knight, failing to attend an earlier hearing, drink driving and not being insured. ...
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Nashville legend Skeeter Davis dead
(CNN, September 20, 2004)
Skeeter Davis, who hit the top of the pop charts with "The End of the World" in 1963 and sang on the Grand Ole Opry radio show for more than 40 years, died Sunday of cancer. She was 72. ... Davis, nicknamed Skeeter by her grandfather who said she was so active she buzzed around like a mosquito, had toured with Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones. ...
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Unique opera thrives with Elvis in building: "Cosi Fan Tutte"
(OPERA REVIEW)
By HAROLD McNEIL
(Buffalo News, September 20, 2004)
A 1950s greaser, complete with pocket comb, and a gold lame Elvis impersonator starring in an 18th century Mozart opera? I'd imagine that would have to be a first, but somehow it worked in Buffalo Opera Unlimited's production of "Cosi Fan Tutte" or "School For Lovers." The show, performed Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the Upton Hall stage at Buffalo State College, is an absolute delight. Whatever Buffalo Opera Unlimited lacks in money for expensive sets and costumes, it always manages to compensate for with impeccable taste and an unerring sense of creativity.
Updated from the late 18th century to the 1950s, this production tells the story of two young sailors, Ferrando and Guglielmo, who are challenged by an old bachelor, Don Alfonso, to prove that the younger men's respective fiancees, Fiordiligi and her sister, Dorabella, can be faithful. The comedy of errors begins in earnest when the old don tells the two sisters that their men have been ordered off to war, and Don Alfonso enlists the aid of their meddlesome maid, Despina, to pawn the disguised sailors off to their fiancees as the erstwhile greaser and Elvis wannabe. I really liked the idea of updating the action to the 1950s. Beyond the plethora of sight gags from the Eisenhower era - from poodle skirts and pedal pushers to exaggerated Elvis Presley poses - there was something deliciously subversive about casting these 18th century characters in the rock 'n' roll '50s. Isn't Mozart sort of the antithesis of 1950s-era popular music sensibilities?
Anyway, the cast was first-rate. Buffalo Opera Unlimited may scrimp on sets, but it never skimps on talent. ...
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Fair '04: the Duke in oils, Elvis in B&W and a taste of the grape
By David Allen
(Daily Bulletin, September 19, 2004)
THINGS I like about the 2004 L.A. County Fair:
- The low-carb craze hasn't affected the Ten Pound Buns stand. ...
- In "The Beat Goes On," an exhibit on the history of rock, you can see a 1956 photo of rising star Elvis Presley standing in line at a food cart for a hot dog like any other schmo. Think he ordered his dog with peanut butter? ...
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Can money buy the Beatles' Apple love?
By Jefferson Graham
(USA TODAY, September 19, 2004)
Search any fee-based digital music service for the best-loved musical artists of the 20th century and most of the expected names show up. Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Sinatra are all accounted for, with their complete catalogs available per song, at 99 cents apiece. There are holdouts, but none bigger than the best-selling recording group of all time: the Beatles. That could change before year's end if there's a settlement in a long-standing trademark lawsuit between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer. Recent reports in the British press hint that lawyers for both sides are working toward a resolution that might result in not only a multimillion-dollar settlement but in making the Beatles catalog available online, initially at Apple's iTunes Music Store. Both Apple Computer and Apple Corps declined to comment. ...
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ILLINOIS STYLE: At 85, beauty salon owner has no intention of quitting
By MELISSA GARZINELLI
(belleville.com / The Daily Times / Associated Press, September 19, 2004)
Elvis Presley was crooning hymns on a tape player. The hair dryer was setting the curls of a customer. Kay Halterman was in her element. Owner of the same Ottawa [ Ill.] beauty salon for 60 years, Halterman just celebrated her 85th birthday and she has no intentions of laying aside her scissors. ...
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Merger puts classic trove in limbo
By ALLAN KOZINN
(omaha.com / NEW YORK TIMES, September 19, 2004)
In the weeks since U.S. and European authorities approved the merger of the recorded-music businesses of Sony and Bertelsmann, two of the world's five biggest record companies, virtually all the discussion has been about what the deal means in the vast popular-music market, with barely a mention of the labels' classical catalogs. From a corporate perspective that is probably as it should be. A hit pop disc, after all, will sell in the millions, but a classical release can sail to the top of the Billboard chart with sales of 10,000. Yet along with the high-profile catalogs of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Franz Ferdinand (on the Sony side) and Elvis Presley, Avril Lavigne and OutKast (on the BMG side), the vaults of each company hold a priceless trove of master tapes that document the work of many of the greatest musicians of the last century.
More broadly, these recordings offer an overview of American musical life through the late 1970s, when both companies began to lose interest in recording the top American orchestras, and European labels such as Decca and Deutsche Grammophon moved in to take up the cause. ... The future of the labels' backlists alone makes the decisions significant. Sony Classical, formerly known as Columbia and CBS Masterworks, owns the hundreds of recordings that Leonard Bernstein made with the New York Philharmonic from the 1950s into the '70s. ... The merger of Sony and BMG puts two of the record world's oldest rivals under one roof. ... It would be sensible to put the back catalogs in the care of someone with a good grasp of what they hold, someone who understands them and is prepared to treat them as the cultural legacy that they are. And although the temptation will be to merge the catalogs, there is something to be said for letting the CBS and RCA backlists stand as separate pillars of the new company. They should remain as tributes to the producers who built CBS and RCA into the great labels they were, and as a reminder to the current crop of executives of what was once possible.
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Like a rolling stone, revisited
By PETER COOPER
(tennessean.com, September 19, 2004)
''East Nashville Skyline'' reveals poet and a place in transition
The joke was that singer-songwriter Todd Snider's bald tour manager, Dave Hixx, looked like Elvis Presley. ''I look at it as a gift,'' Hixx often explained. ''A gift from God.'' Hixx doesn't really look like Elvis, but he can sing like the King, and he likes to put Elvis CDs into the van's CD player while driving Snider around the country. ...
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The king still rules; Elvis mania still hot
By GERI PARLIN
(Chippewa Falls Online Community / La Crosse Tribune / AP, September 19, 2004)
Thousands of miles separate Flyn Ward and Andy Seymour, but one thing brings them together -- Elvis. Flyn Ward grew up listening to Elvis.
"I was brought up on him as a child by my parents. Mom always played him when we were kids." So when this 37-year-old former DJ decided to sing instead of spin records, Elvis seemed the logical choice. "I started singing three and a half years ago and the first song I sang was Elvis' 'Are You Lonesome Tonight?' I ended up doing it on TV here in England."
That's right, in England. Ward is an Englishman with a thick accent that magically disappears, he says, when he transforms into the young Elvis. ... Four years ago, Seymour decided what Australia really needed was another Elvis tribute artist. "A pair of sideburns does not an Elvis make," Seymour said. "I take pride in my rich baritone voice and pay as much respect to the music as I can." Both Ward and Seymour brought their Elvis tributes to La Crosse for Ronny Craig's Elvis Explosion last weekend. Elvis is big everywhere, Craig said, which is why he had an English Elvis, an Italian Elvis and an Australian Elvis performing at the Elvis Explosion. "It's universal. It's all over the world. I'm coming back from Memphis and they had impersonators from Belgium and the Philippines."
This could only have happened with Elvis, Craig said, because of the man's charisma and his large body of work. ...
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Mass band performance highlighted today's game
(Starkville Daily News, September 18, 2004)
Some 200 potential future students will join Mississippi State's Famous Maroon Band for a special "Shake, Rattle and Roll" halftime show at today's football game against Maine. The performance is taking place as part of the university's annual High School Band Day. Assistant director Craig Aarhus said the MSU Bands staff will rehearse with the visiting groups during the morning in preparation for the 6 p.m. kickoff at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. The non-conference contest is not being televised. ... The nearly 500-strong assemblage also will include the MSU Alumni Band. In addition to the signature Elvis Presley rock 'n' roll number that gives the program its title, the show also will feature the Famous Maroon Band in a selection of Latin jazz tunes.
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Author says Cheney draft deferments weren't unusual: Many exercised option in the '60s
By Nick Anderson
(boston.com / Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2004)
Democrats now accuse him of ducking a war that defined his generation. But when 18-year-old Dick Cheney became eligible for the draft in 1959, compulsory military service did not loom large in the future vice president's life -- or for many other young men of his generation. True, Elvis Presley had just been drafted into the Army, but the pace of inductions was slow. The Cold War was on, and few Americans gave any thought to troubles in Southeast Asia. ...
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Foster tribute in 'de cold, cold ground'
(Free New Mexican, September 17, 2004)
There's no doubt that Stephen Foster is one of the greatest songwriters ever to spring from American soil. His songs paint a picture of the mid-19th century that have become an ingrained part of the way we look at that era. Making a tribute album to Foster is a long-overdue idea. However, "Beautiful Dreamer: the Songs of Stephen Foster", the recent "various artists" tribute, gives an incomplete picture of Foster and thus an incomplete portrait of his times. Quick history lesson: though many of Foster's best-known songs deal with the antebellum South, Foster was born near Pittsburgh, Pa. On July 4, 1826.
He is recognized as America's first professional songwriter. But despite writing some songs still sung 150 years later, his final days were spent in poverty, alcoholism and despair. At the age of 37 he committed suicide by slashing his own throat.
So that would make him the Kurt Cobain of his era. But before that, he was Elvis Presley. Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and those who loved them were drawn to the wild and mysterious music called rhythm and blues and mutated it in a new style called rock and roll. Likewise, many white musicians in Foster's day were drawn to African-American music of the time, turning it into blackface minstrel music. Beautiful Dreamer's liner notes describe this music as "the rowdy, racist and first uniquely American form of popular entertainment." Several music historians have noted the sociological similarities between rock and minstrelsy. Foster as a youth ate up the minstrel songs. While his songs were grounded in European styles, the minstrel element is what made Foster's music unique and powerful. ...
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Lost in Elvis! PUT ON your blue suede shoes for the grand opening of the new collectible memorabilia shop Lost in Time in Newport Pagnell
(Milton Keynes Today, September 17, 2004)
Owner of the shop Paula Clowsley has traded in her bookkeeper job to sell limited edition Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe merchandise. The shop specialises mainly in products of the two stars and ships over exclusive items from America for local fans. Paula said: "I used to be interested in Betty Boop collectibles a few years ago but it seemed at the time that the high street stores jumped on the cartoon characters' bandwagon and took the fun out of collecting. "I've always been interested in collectibles in general but only seriously became involved with Elvis and Marilyn merchandise a few years ago. "I don't remember much about them myself because I was very young when Elvis died and not even born when Marilyn was alive but have always been a fan of both.
"They are two of the most influential 20th century icons and they both had very similar lives because of their fame. "I've always been interested in the way their marriages, sex symbol roles and especially their deaths were in the public eye." ...
- Showy Smyth wants 'a little less conversation"
By Scott Hannaford
(Canberra Times, September 17, 2004)
Elvis might be dead, but his message still rings loud and clear for the Canberra Liberals, who kicked off their formal campaign yesterday under the theme "A little less conversation, a little more action", In a room filled with about 200 supporters, Liberal Leader Brendan Smyth, flanked by his team of candidates, made a showy entrance, reminiscent of the start of the 2001 campaign, which used Survivor's classic, "Eye of the Tiger", as the campaign song. ...
- Wisconsin Weekend Package
By GERI PARLIN
(duluthsuperior.com / Associated Press, September 16, 2004)
Thousands of miles separate Flyn Ward and Andy Seymour, but one thing brings them together - Elvis. Flyn Ward grew up listening to Elvis. "I was brought up on him as a child by my parents. Mom always played him when we were kids." So when this 37-year-old former DJ decided to sing instead of spin records, Elvis seemed the logical choice. "I started singing three and a half years ago and the first song I sang was Elvis' 'Are You Lonesome Tonight?' I ended up doing it on TV here in England." That's right, in England. Ward is an Englishman with a thick accent that magically disappears, he says, when he transforms into the young Elvis. "Everybody in England said you have to go to America," he said, so he brought his version of the young Elvis to America and started performing.
Seymour's fascination with Elvis began as a young boy in Australia when he watched Elvis movies and TV specials and "was quite taken with the incredible energy that he projected. Of course, as a youngster, I didn't understand what it was, but it had a dramatic impact on me." Four years ago, Seymour decided what Australia really needed was another Elvis tribute artist. "A pair of sideburns does not an Elvis make," Seymour said. "I take pride in my rich baritone voice and pay as much respect to the music as I can."
Both Ward and Seymour brought their Elvis tributes to La Crosse for Ronny Craig's Elvis Explosion last weekend. Elvis is big everywhere, Craig said, which is why he had an English Elvis, an Italian Elvis and an Australian Elvis performing at the Elvis Explosion. "It's universal. It's all over the world. I'm coming back from Memphis and they had impersonators from Belgium and the Philippines." This could only have happened with Elvis, Craig said, because of the man's charisma and his large body of work. "With Patsy Cline, all the singers would be up there singing 'Crazy'," Craig said, but they have hundreds of Elvis songs from which to choose. "He recorded over 700 songs. And he was really charismatic. And dying so young, there was a mystique."
That mystique appeals to Andy Seymour, who is known as the Aussie Voice of Elvis. Forty-year-old Seymour says he loves and respects Elvis for what he gave the world, but "I neither think that I'm Elvis, or pretend to be." But he does love the music of Elvis. He works the Elvis circuit full time doing two different shows - The King in Concert and The Gospel Music of Elvis Presley. He especially enjoys Elvis' gospel music, he said, because, "I am literally the son of a preacher man and spent my youth traveling the country with my folks as my dad preached the word. I grew up singing the very same songs that Elvis recorded on his gospel albums!" Seymour conducts Elvis weddings because, he said, "So many folks kept asking me to conduct weddings that I bowed to the pressure and it's going great guns." ...
- The `King' is all set to 'rock and roll' in Vienna!
(New Kerala, September 16, 2004)
Elvis Presley is all set to come alive in Vienna, courtesy a memorabilia shop dedicated to the 'king' of 'Rock and Roll'. According to Ananova, the shop in the upmarket Alsergrund district will allow his fans to browse through shelves of items related to the icon. Items on display will vary from cheap souvenirs to authorized copies of Elvis suits amounting to 1,300 pounds made by his tailor. "People can buy anything Elvis related here, from cheap trinkets to high-quality products," the store's owner Wolfgang Hahn, was quoted as saying.
Not only will the store have on display several authentic photographs and guitar picks along with a guitar once played by the legend in a small museum in the shop, the store itself plans to offer shuttle service to Vienna from all over Austria. "I want to make Austria a mecca for Elvis fans. And I want people to know how original Elvis was. A phenomenon like that will probably never come around again. Elvis is one of the most undervalued artists ever," he added.
- Commissioner says tourism grew more than 2 percent in Tennessee
(Global / Associated Press, September 15, 2004)
Tourism brought in $10.8 billion for Tennessee last year, the state's top tourism official told industry leaders Wednesday. The 2003 travel spending was an increase of 2.3 percent from 2002, state Tourism Commissioner Susan Whitaker told participants at the annual governor's tourism conference. Tourism accounted for more than 177,000 jobs, about 6 percent of the state's nonagricultural employment. ... All three grand divisions of Tennessee did well in attracting tourists, in part because the state is within a day's drive of 65 percent of the U.S. population, she said. ... Music was a key attraction in the state two largest cities, with Memphis drawing on its ties to blues and Elvis Presley and Nashville bringing in country music fans. ...
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