Late November 2004
- The Changing Face of Funerals
By MICHAEL D. BATES
(Hernando Today, November 23, 2004)
The spacious room was adorned with rock 'n roll memorabilia and pictures of antique hot rods. Over the loudspeakers came the sounds of Chubby Checker, Elvis Presley and the legends of 1950s music. Clusters of old car enthusiasts got together to "talk shop" and discuss the merits of the GTO to the Chevy Corvette.
No, this is not a convention of antique automobile enthusiasts or one of those '50s parties. It was a funeral. Sue Rupe, whose husband Doug died three years ago, wanted an alternative to the traditional funeral, marked by hushed whispers, a black-draped casket and the sounds of organ music throwing a somber blanket over the proceedings. ...
- Singing Santa will entertain Xmas shoppers
(icrenfrewshire.icnetwork.co.uk, November 22, 2004)
SHOPPERS can get into the swing of things in Paisley this Christmas. Bosses at the Paisley Centre have hired a singing Santa Claus, who will wander round strumming festive tunes on his guitar. And they reckon the musical man in the big red suit will be a smash hit with customers. As well as staging festive carol concerts outside the stores, Santa will be heading into the cafes in the Paisley Centre to serenade diners. He'll also be giving away toys and chocolates to good boys and girls, with help from his elf assistant. They've already got a massive pile of 5,000 chocolate coins in the shopping centre for Santa to hand out to customers. Mr MacKinnon said: "We're not having a grotto this year, we're having a singing Santa, which will be much more exciting. Santa will be out and about throughout the centre, performing Christmas songs in an Elvis style and he'll be entertaining all our shoppers and putting on a really good show for them." ...
- Treasures from Cundiff collection displayed at Siloam Springs Museum
By Cynthia Lee
(useless-knowledge.com, November 22, 2004)
Collecting objects is an activity almost as old as humankind. Few people can resist the deeply-rooted desire to collect things at some point in their life, whether they are baseball cards, stamps, arrowheads, paintings, pretty rocks, shells, autographed Elvis photos, dolls, thimbles, salt and pepper shakers, books, cars or Egyptian mummies. ...
- Monday Night Football And Parenting
By Megan Williams
(useless-knowledge.com, November 22, 2004)
Mr. Eric Schomburg wrote an article regarding my article about my take on Monday Night Football, and the Vibe awards. He also addressed my distaste for rap music and the rap community. Mr. Schomburg makes the claim that my proposal for boycotting rap music is an act of censorship. Well Mr. Schomburg, perhaps you're right. Maybe it is an act of censorship, but when you have kids then start preaching about your beliefs, okay? Because as a mother, I have to protect my children from the filth that rap music has brought us. sI know that back in my day it was Elvis shaking his hips, but that was nothing compared to the garbage kids call music of today. ...
- Rare Elvis Recordings Fail to Sell at Auction
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, November 22, 2004)
A batch of Elvis Presley's earliest RCA recordings from nearly 50 years ago failed to meet the minimum asking price at auction on Monday, but lesser keepsakes from the King of Rock 'n' Roll fetched more than $6,000. The highlight of the two-day sale of show business memorabilia by international auction house Bonhams and Butterfields was a private collection of six reel-to-reel tape recordings of Presley valued at between $30,000 and $50,000. The "pre-master" recordings of some of Presley's first sessions at RCA included never-before-heard versions of such hits as "All Shook Up" and "Jailhouse Rock" as well as studio banter among the singer, members of his band and the engineer who recorded them, Thorne Nogar. It was Nogar, working under contract for RCA, who ended up in possession of the reels and whose family put them up for bid through Bonhams & Butterfields. Nogar died in 1994. The tapes ended up being withdrawn from auction because "they did not meet minimum price set by the owners," auction spokesman Erik Simon told Reuters. He said the family did not want to divulge the reserve price set for the collection or the range of bids received.
Several other pieces of Presley memorabilia did sell, including a signed photograph of the singer ($2,115), an autographed movie banner from his 1968 film "Stay Away Joe" ($3,525) and an autographed record sleeve ($470). In one of the biggest sales of the $1.1 million auction, the four original suits worn by the Beatles for their "Please Please Me" album cover sold for $110,000.
- PRESLEY EARLY RECORDINGS TO GO UNDER HAMMER
(contactmusic.com, November 22, 2004)
Late music legend ELVIS PRESLEY's earliest recordings are going under the hammer on Sunday (28NOV04) at a Los Angeles auction. The RCA tapes, dating from September 1956 to September 1957, will be on sale at Bonhams auction house and are valued at up to $50,000 (GBP29,000). They include a take of JAILHOUSE ROCK and banter between Presley, members of his band and engineer THORNE NOGAR....
- Bragg about Billings: Name dropping the sneaky way
By Addison Bragg
(billingsgazette.com, November 22, 2004)
I was playing a game with one of my daughters to prove that one needs only two or three people to connect with any celebrity, be it from show business, politics, government, literature or even the world of crime itself. For starters, it works like this: I never met Elvis Presley, but many people in Billings knew the man who managed his first road tour. ...
- Program focuses on youth arts: ARTS & CULTURE: Arts-Visions reaches to academics, self-esteem
(Commercial Appeal, November 21, 2004)
Introducing and encouraging all phases of arts is the mission of the Arts-Visions and Venues Inc. in the heart of Whitehaven at 3975 Elvis Presley Blvd. Youths ages 5-18 are welcome. ...
- Rare Elvis recordings up for auction
(stuff.co.nz, November 22, 2004)
Some of Elvis Presley's first RCA recordings from nearly 50 years ago, including never-before-heard takes of All Shook Up and Jailhouse Rock, will be put up for bid today at an auction of show business memorabilia. ... [as below]
- Rare Elvis recordings go up for auction
By Steve Gorman
(Reuters, November 21, 2004)
Some of Elvis Presley's first RCA recordings from nearly 50 years ago, including never-before-heard takes of "All Shook Up" and "Jailhouse Rock," will be put up for bid today at an auction of show business memorabilia. The six unedited reel-to-reel tapes -- "pre-master" originals from the private collection of the studio engineer who recorded them, are valued at between $30,000 and $50,000 (16,000 and 27,000 pounds), according to international auction house Bonhams & Butterfields.
Highlights will be played on Saturday for potential bidders at the Bonhams gallery in Los Angeles, marking their first public exhibition, auction spokesman Erik Simon told Reuters. The more than two hours of audio consist of 57 musical tracks, including multiple takes of songs Presley performed in the studio, as well as casual banter between Presley, members of his band and the engineer, Thorne Nogar.
It was Nogar, working under contract for RCA at Radio Recorders studios in Los Angeles, who ended up in possession of the reels and whose family has put them up for bid through Bonhams & Butterfields. "We've had them for a lot of years, and I think the people should enjoy them," said Nogar's son, Stephen, 57, a retired trucker who now resides in Kentucky. "And frankly, we could use the money." Because they do not hold the underlying copyright to Presley's music, Nogar said his family may sell the physical recordings to another party for "personal enjoyment" only. The tapes cannot be copied for commercial gain, he said.
The tapes were made from September 1956 through September 1957 during the singer's initial sessions at RCA, which had bought out Presley's contract from Sun Records for $35,000. Nogar, who died in 1994 at age 72, made a habit of rolling two tapes simultaneously as he recorded Presley so he would have a backup of the sessions in case RCA producers changed their minds about which version of a song they preferred after the master was cut. It was the backup that Nogar kept.
"He called them his ass-saver tapes," his son said, adding that the quality is noticeably crisper than even a new vinyl record, which is four "generations" removed from sound made in the studio. "You ought to hear a first-generation tape. It's so much fresher," Nogar said. When bidders here the playback on Saturday, he said, "They're going to find out what a 22-year-old Elvis sounds like."
The recordings include such early Presley hits as "Jailhouse Rock" and "All Shook Up," all the material he recorded for his original Christmas album and a batch of religious tunes. Stephen Nogar said his personal favourite is a ballad titled "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You."
The Presley tapes are part of a larger auction being held by Bonhams, which also will include the original suits worn by the Beatles on their first album cover, a guitar owned by rock legend Jimi Hendrix, rare Disney animation celluloids and a collection of more than 300 vintage movie posters.
- Exhibition traces the Elvis years as a GI in Germany
(Yahoo! News / AFP, November 19, 2004)
The two years that Elvis Presley spent in Germany as the most famous GI in history are the subject of a new exhibition opening here [Bonn] on Sunday. The organisers are putting on show 300 items from Presley's stay in Friedberg, which left the sleepy town "All Shook Up", to quote one of the King's best-known songs. Fans can see the military-issue bag Elvis was carrying when he arrived in the northern port of Bremerhaven in 1958 to begin his military service, the partially reconstructed barracks hut where he had his regulation army haircut, or the pink Cadillac he drove on days off.
The exhibition also highlights that Germany played an important role in Presley's life -- it was there that he met Priscilla, his future wife and the mother of his only child, Lisa Marie. Presley even moved his father and his grandmother into a house in Bad Neuheim, a small town near to the military camp where he was stationed.
The deputy mayor of Friedberg, Michael Keller, recalled earlier this year how Presley's arrival electrified the locals. "It was rock 'n' roll and the PX shops with American products and a whole new image for Friedberg -- very exciting," he said.
- In the Copyright Wars, This Scholar Sides With the Anarchists: NYU's Siva Vaidhyanathan wants to keep the stuff of culture out of the hands of the information oligarchs
By SCOTT CARLSON
(Chronicle of Higher Education, November 19, 2004)
Siva Vaidhyanathan, one of academe's best-known scholars of intellectual property and its role in contemporary culture, sits under a portrait of Elvis Presley painted on black velvet and talks about file sharing on campuses, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, pressures on libraries from the USA Patriot Act, and the ground that arts and culture are losing to corporations and governments in the digital age.
The file-sharing controversy, he says, offers a perfect opportunity to discuss how easily swapping songs, files, and ideas can benefit and strengthen society. "I resent a legal system that makes it too difficult and too expensive for creators to play around with the culture," says Mr. Vaidhyanathan, an assistant professor of culture and communication at New York University. "I resent the fact that copyrights last so long that things that should be free and convenient to use are locked down and lost forever." ...
- Poll: John Lennon is No. 1 music icon
(abs-cbnnews.com, November 19, 2004)
John Lennon has defeated Elvis Presley to be voted the greatest rock 'n' roll icon of all time in a poll conducted by Q music magazine. Paul McCartney, Lennon's fellow Beatle songwriter, managed just 12th place in the poll. ... [as below]
- Lennon better than Elvis
(news.com.au / Reuters, November 19, 2004)
JOHN Lennon has defeated Elvis Presley to be voted the greatest rock 'n' roll icon of all time in a poll conducted by Q music magazine. Paul McCartney, Lennon's fellow Beatle songwriter, managed just 12th place in the poll. In a special tribute to Lennon for the magazine, his widow, Yoko Ono said: "He was a driven man: it was as if he knew that he was to stay on Earth for a relatively short time." Lennon was gunned down by a deranged fan outside his New York apartment in 1980 at the age of 40. Yoko said: "He changed people's awareness in an incredible way, both with words and music. He was not afraid to tell the truth and thus give us a clearer picture of what was really going on."
- Dylan tops the chart for best song of all time
(Canberra Times, November 19, 2004)
The Bob Dylan classic "Like a Rolling Stone" has been voted the greatest song of all time. The folk legend's 1965 hit topped the list of 500 songs in "Rolling Stone Magazine", and the top 10 also featured songs by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys. The Fab Four and the Stones account for many of the songs on the list, chosen by 172 artists including Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello and kd lang. ...
- "Like a Rolling Stone" named greatest song ever
By Steve Gorman
(Reuters, November 18, 2004)
"Like a Rolling Stone", Bob Dylan's scornful, ironic ode to a spoiled woman's reversal of fortune, has been named the greatest rock 'n' roll song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. The six-minute opening track from his landmark 1965 album "Highway 61 Revisited" broke the barrier of the three-minute hit single and established Dylan as a mainstream pop artist, marking his transformation from folk troubadour to rock sensation.
... The list, published in a special edition out on Friday, was compiled by a panel of recording artists, producers, label executives, critics and songwriters. Among them were singer Art Garfunkel, Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne, vocalist Joni Mitchell and even Dylan's rock star son, Jakob.
Ranked No. 2 on the magazine's roster of greatest rock songs of all time was the Rolling Stones' 1965 hit "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", followed by John Lennon's utopian ballad "Imagine", Marvin Gaye's languid soul classic "What's Going On" and Aretha Franklin's empowerment anthem "Respect".
Rounding out the top 10 were "Good Vibrations" from the Beach Boys; Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"; the Beatles' "Hey Jude" and Ray Charles' seminal soul record "What'd I Say".
The lion's share of songs from the list hail from the 1960s, and only a handful were released after 1990, including Nirvana's 1991 hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at No. 9. The most recent single to make the list was "Hey Ya!" (2003) from the hip-hop duo OutKast, at No. 180. Rapper Eminem's "Lose Yourself" (2002) ranked No. 166.
The highest-charting song on the list from the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley, was his 1956 hit "Hound Dog" at No. 19.
The Beatles, not surprisingly, notched the most songs on the list, with 22 entries. They were trailed by archrivals the Rolling Stones, who tallied 13 in all. A dozen of Dylan's songs made the cut.
In a similar list published in 1989, the magazine named the Stones' "Satisfaction" as the best single of the past 25 years, with Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" placed at No. 2 -- a reversal of the latest ranking. ...
- Nic's knack: Actor Cage reflects on his new adventure film
By Stephen Schaefer
(Boston Herald, November 18, 2004)
Nicolas Cage lives in a mansion in New Orleans, was married to Elvis Presley's daughter and last July took as his third bride a 20-year-old former sushi waitress. Not surprisingly, this slightly eccentric member of the Coppola clan usually avoids the press. But for ``National Treasure'' (opening tomorrow) - a reunion with Jerry Bruckheimer,the gold-plated producer whose ``The Rock,'' ``Con Air'' and ``Gone in 60 Seconds'' transformed Cage into a box-office heavyweight - the 40-year-old Oscar winner sat down for a press conference. Cage was both circumspect and humorous about his personal life.
- Exclusive! Ex-Enquirer Editor Tells All!
By COLLEEN LONG
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, November 18, 2004)
Ian Calder, former editor of The National Enquirer, has celebrity dish galore swimming around in his brain, but he's not spilling stories anymore. "My days are filled with golf now, not gossip," he said. Calder recently published an autobiography on his days at the Enquirer, claiming the salacious celebrity rag gets a bad rap. And he makes no apologies for the methods he used to transform the supermarket tabloid from a blood-and-guts gorefest into a celebrity free-for-all, like paying sources thousands of dollars and even quarantining them to ensure exclusivity. ... Calder took the helm in 1973. Not surprisingly, he teems with anecdotes, like presiding over his staff (he dubbed them the "guerrillas" because there were so many) during Elvis Presley's death. He paid a family member $18,000 to shoot a photo of the casket during the wake, and the edition with the photo on the cover sold 6.7 million copies. ...
- Estate Of Grace
By KEITH MORELLI
(Carrollwood & Town 'n' County, November 18, 2004)
CARROLLWOOD - ``Well, since my baby left me/
I found a new place to dwell.
It's down at the end of lonely street/
At heartbreak hotel.''
The signature Elvis Presley tune is right at home at Johnny Diaz's house, wafting through the wrought iron gate that is adorned with custom ``E.P.'' initials amid dancing notes. From the stately white columns in the front to the marble bathroom upstairs to the sweeping staircase ascending alongside a mirrored wall under a grand chandelier, Diaz's digs is a working man's tribute to Graceland. For eight years, Diaz has molded his home little by little to look like Elvis' legendary estate outside Memphis, Tenn., where the King of Rock 'n' Roll lived and died. Adding to the local effect: A 1975 Rolls-Royce sits alongside a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in a garage adjacent to the house - separated not by a wall but by a picture window, so visitors can admire the vehicles. Out back, in a 14-car garage, is a 1956 pink and white Cadillac next to a dark green '57 Caddy.
At first glance, the house looks out of place on a rural street in northwest Hillsborough County. In front, next to the garage, is an old gasoline pump. To the side is a statue of a horse. At the real Graceland, the pumps and horses are out back, Diaz said. ``I just think it looks nice in the front of the house,'' Diaz said. ``A lot of people think the horse is real.'' ... On the inside, Diaz's Graceland is plastered with Elvis Presley stuff. There are life-size statues of the King here and there, commemorative plates line a shelf high above the living room floor and one corner of the great room is made up like a Las Vegas stage with a drum set, a karaoke machine and a statue of Elvis sitting on a stool strumming a guitar, all in front of a glittering gold curtain. Everywhere are photographs and paintings of Elvis intermingled with photos of Diaz's family members.
All that is missing is the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Well, don't be too sure. There's Diaz.
``And although it's always crowded/
You still can find some room.
Where broken hearted lovers/
Do cry away their gloom.''
Diaz is an Elvis impersonator who gets paid to dress in open-shirted, high-collared Elvis outfits and show up at events. He is the spitting image of Elvis, and, in a repertoire of about 10 songs, sounds a lot like him, too. Diaz, who has been known to don the rings, bracelets and necklaces and a fire-engine red jumpsuit complete with a cape to belt out a couple of tunes on the karaoke machine, said he has won every costume contest he has entered. When he dresses up like Elvis and takes the pink Caddy out for a drive, ``I get stopped on every street corner.''
... Those who have made a living out of impersonating Elvis have a common thread, he said. ``I haven't met one Elvis impersonator who is not a good person,'' he said. As for the rumors that Elvis has not, as they say, left the building, that he is still alive somewhere, Diaz shrugs. ``I keep him alive,'' he said.
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