mid June, 2005
- 'Birdie' captures craziness of early Presley era
By Larry T. Collins
(entertainment.news-leader.com, June 10, 2005)
"Bye Bye Birdie" represents the last gasp of the 1950s just-for-fun Broadway musical that countered the seriousness of old pros Rodgers and Hammerstein and newcomers Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. Along with "Damn Yankees," "Pajama Game," "LilS Abner," "Bells Are Ringing" and others, "Birdie" (1960) poked gentle fun at current events while bidding for Top 40 success in the process. It didn't score big on the pop charts. "One Boy" just missed the top 50 and "One Last Kiss" couldn't crack the top 100, even when sung by teen idol Bobby Vee. (Ironically, "Got a Lot of Livin' to Do," echoing Elvis' similar "Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do" in the 1957 movie "Loving You," became the semi-standard.) But the catchy music and satiric lyrics by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams do capture some of the craziness surrounding Presley's early career, leading up to his induction into the Army in 1958. In Tent Theatre's new staging by Rhythm McCarthy, a talented cast of Southwest Missouri State University "kids" and a few seasoned veterans make a good case for a show that has become relegated to high school auditoriums. ...
- Don't cook the books, just call Gordon Heading for a fall
By Scott Reid
(Scotsman.com Business, June 10, 2005)
ONE consequence of starting work at the crack of dawn is you don't tend to watch too much late-night TV. And by late-night I mean anything the far side of Reporting Scotland. OK, I admit to once catching some Gaelic tosh about crofting before drifting into the land of Nod, but I'd mislaid the zapper, so that doesn't really count. The other evening, though, I dug out the discarded TV supplement from the kitchen bin, and decided to live life on the edge. Just when I was convinced Elvis has hit upon the most effective "off" button ever, I switched channels to discover a man who spoke a lot of sense.
His name was Gordon Ramsay, he seemed terribly angry, swore more than any trooper, but appeared to know how to turn a moribund restaurant into a successful business. ...
- 'Elvis' rocks Hampton church tonight
(Portsmouth Herald, June 10, 2005)
"Elvis Off Broadway," a live performance by a nationally renowned Elvis impersonator will be held at 7:30 tonight in Hobbs House at Trinity Church in Hampton. The performance, sponsored by the Trinity Church women's and men's organizations to benefit the church, features Elvis Bishop, a Nashville native and now a local resident, who has played all over the country and appeared on several television shows. The Nashville native said he was once invited to play pool at Graceland, Elvis Presley's mansion in Memphis. He said he had a long, private conversation with the real Elvis that night. "We talked about everything ... I thought he'd be upset because I was just an impersonator," Bishop said in a press statement. Presley said, 'Just do me justice,' and that's what I've been trying to do for more than 30 years."
- All Shook Up Cast Recording Reviewed
By Amy Somensky
(Soundtracks, June 10, 2005)
Thought you saw the end of the jukebox musical? Well, blame Mamma Mia! They may never go away. The newest one on the block is All Shook Up, of course, using the music of The King himself, Elvis Presley. I am surprised that it took this long for an Elvis one to come along. All Shook Up is not your average jukebox musical though. It succeeds in many places that the others never did. How? By actually assuming that its audience has some kind of a brain, and by assembling some kind of an original work.
All Shook Up tells the story of a guitar playing man who brings romance, rebellion, and rock-n-roll into the life of a small town girl. Its plot is based on Shakespeare's 12th Night and As You Like It, gender bending included. Set in a small "square" conservative town, a motorcycle riding stranger, Chad, comes to town, shakes things up, and changes the population forever. He meets a tomboyish young girl named Natalie. She immediately falls for Chad, who does not return her feelings. To get closer to Chad, Natalie assumes the identity of Ed, with whom Chad falls in love with, only to discover later that he is a she. Imagine this all of this is set to hits of Elvis Presley.
The cast recording includes 24 Elvis songs, including the mega hits, "Jailhouse Rock," "Don't Be Cruel," "Can't Help Falling In Love," and the title song "All Shook Up" The songs are not carbon copies of the Elvis versions, unlike other jukebox musicals, but have been given a Broadway flair and some new interpretations. In fact, I only heard "thank you very much" once. Some of the new interpretations worked and some didn't. A few of the songs seemed to lose their effectiveness when not sung by Elvis. Two good ones that stood out were "Now or Never" which was given a slight Latin sound, and "The Devil in Disguise," which has a gospel sound. The version of "A Little Less Conversation" may be the worst version I have ever heard. The song is crazy, and here it seems too structured, and the lyrics are spoken too clearly. Now I am in no way an Elvis aficionado, but there were at least half a dozen songs I didn't know. Either, I had never heard them before or they were unrecognizable in this form, I am not sure.
Most jukebox musical's problem comes in the plot or lack there of. That can be said for All Shook Up as well. A good book should be able to be told through the songs, and in turn each song should advance the plot. Joe DiPietro's book has been written around the songs, and at times I had trouble following the plot through them, and through the entire CD the plot seemed to advance only about 5 inches.
What really makes the case for All Shook Up is its exceptional, talented cast who are all tremendous singers. Standing out are the leads Cheyenne Jackson and Jenn Gambatese, but the rest of the cast are outstanding as well. The sweet sound of Cheyenne Jackson, especially nice on "Don't Be Cruel," is worth the price. The entire cast seems to be having a great time.
This cast recording has a high production value and is well produced. The sound is very crisp and smooth, far superior to many others. Listening to the CD makes me think the musical would be a fun experience especially for Elvis fans. The CD is well produced, and the exceptional cast makes is worth listening to. It succeeds where other jukebox musicals could not by actually trying to craft some kind of original work, and not feeding us carbon copies of the original songs.
- Coroner's Employees Resign Amid Probe
(Yahoo! News, June 10, 2005)
PITTSBURGH - Three coroner's office employees have resigned amid a federal investigation into whether high-profile coroner Cyril Wecht or his employees handled private cases on county time. Assistant Chief Deputy Coroner Terrence Browne resigned May 4, while George Hollis, a scientist who works with tissue samples, and Eileen Young, a secretary, both stepped down June 3, Wecht attorney David J. Armstrong told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Wecht, the Allegheny County coroner, is nationally known as a commentator and consultant. He gained fame in the 1960s for his criticism of the Warren Commission's report on the Kennedy assassination. He has worked or offered commentary on many other celebrated cases, including the death of Elvis Presley and the O.J. Simpson case. Armstrong has said federal authorities are investigating whether Wecht's private business has conflicted with his official duties, though the U.S. attorney's office has not confirmed that.
In April, FBI agents searched Wecht's office, seizing computers and Wecht's private files. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported last month that the files included material on the Kennedy assassination, the deaths of Presley and White House Counsel Vincent Foster, and the prosecution of Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers convicted of murdering their parents in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 1989. Chief Deputy Coroner Joe Dominick declined to discuss the resignations. But Wecht, 74, has said he's careful to not do private work on county time. ...
- The recording industry likes to grouse that Internet piracy is hurting sales. So why is some of the best online music also the oldest?
By Brian Braiker
(MSNBC News / Newsweek, June 10, 2005)
The past week was a big one for the music industry: three of the summer's most anticipated albums hit stores Tuesday. Coldplay, Black Eyed Peas and the White Stripes dropped new releases amid a swirl of publicity and the high hopes of more than just fans. The triple-threat release underscored how the floundering recording industry operates today: by pouring major label resources into a handful of acts and praying for blockbuster returns. This is a year, after all, in which record sales are down around 8 percent from the same point last year.
... "You don't want to restrict the sounds that people make or the ones they hear just because of their ability for them to be sold for tens of millions of dollars. It's insane!" It is with that ethos that Richard Kurin, director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, helped create Smithsonian Global Sound, which offers the Folkways collection for download at an online store. The project's official launch isn't until later this month, but fans of world, folk and old-timey music can find a treasure trove of tunes - for 99 cents a pop - at the Web site (smithsonianglobalsound.org).
... The Smithsonian isn't alone in seeing the digital light. Also putting back catalogs, archives and out-of-print obscurities up online are Rounder Records, Sun Records and Rhino Records. "We're basically opening up our archives, alternative takes, releases that weren't the hit version, and we're slowly putting that all online," says Sidney Singleton at Sun Records, the Memphis, Tenn., label founded in 1952 by Sam Phillips, who famously introduced the world to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, to name a few. ...
- Rockabilly pioneer is still having a party
By Ron Wynn
(Nashville City Paper, June 10, 2005)
Wanda Jackson was a pioneer performer during the early days of rock 'n' roll, one of the few women whose flamboyant guitar playing and singing was just as energetic and boisterous as any male. Jackson toured extensively with Elvis Presley and they became lifelong friends. She also perfected a sound that expertly merged rock, blues, country and gospel. Jackson has recently enjoyed renewed popularity over the last decade that rivals what she experienced during the '50s and '60s. Fans who catch her show this evening at the Mercy Lounge with Gail & The Tricksters will see a performer that still capably performs vintage rockabilly songs, classic country numbers, and many other things as well.
... Today, besides touring, Jackson also continues recording. Her acclaimed 2003 release Heart Trouble cracked the Top 10 year-end list for the Associated Press, but Jackson is particularly proud of an upcoming project she's completing. "It's a tribute album to Elvis Presley and will be released hopefully this fall on Cleopatra Records," Jackson said. "Elvis was such a wonderful singer. He had so much control and so much ability. It used to really hurt him when he would read the reviews of people saying that he was leading teenagers straight to hell and that his songs were contributing to juvenile delinquency. This project will give me a chance to sing some of his great early songs, although there are some like 'Blue Moon of Kentucky' or 'That's Alright Mama' that I wouldn't dare try. But some others like 'Heartbreak Hotel' or 'Baby, Let's Play House' will be on the CD. "He was such a dear friend and his music still means so much to me, so this is my chance to do some of his songs that are very special to me."
- Elvis celebration to offer something for everyone
(Sweetwater Reporter, June 10, 2005)
There will be something for everyone to do on Saturday, June 11. The Trail of Lights committee will host a day-long event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley's first concert in Sweet-water. All activities will be held in downtown Sweetwater, around the square and at the municipal auditorium. ...
- Expired contract stops anthrax cleanup of AMI building in Boca:
Building owner, Bio-ONE officials in clash over deal
By Luis F. Perez
(Sun-Sentinel, June 10, 2005)
The on-and-off anthrax cleanup of the former American Media Inc. building is off again. This time, the delay stopped the company hired to decontaminate the first building in the country attacked with anthrax just weeks away from finishing the job. ... Bio-ONE completed the interior fumigation of the former home of the publisher of Star, National Enquirer and Weekly World News, among other publications, July 12 with chlorine dioxide gas. Company officials said the cleanup was successful. The original plan called for the building's contents, packed up hastily in about 12,000 boxes, to be incinerated. But cleanup was stalled by a dispute over ownership of freelance photographers' photos in those boxes. The tabloid photo collection contains historic images of the jet set and celebrities such as James Cagney, Cary Grant, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Princess Diana and Elvis Presley. ...
- The descent of Michael
By Stanley Crouch
(New York Daily News, June 9, 2005)
Celebrity is now something that comes about as much through attention as achievement. But the case of the Michael Jackson trial is more than a blip of photographs and prose loaded down with gush, hysteria and snoop. Michael Jackson is not Paris Hilton, though some might think he would like to be. He is such a master of step, spin and turn on the dance floor that Fred Astaire called him a genius.
Yet Jackson the man is like many of the people and things that have emerged since the upheaval of the 1960s. We saw revolutionary social changes that made for a much better society, but nothing ever arrives alone, especially in America. Our enormous latitude for invention, lunacy and profit always allow the worst to come along almost immediately following a set of innovations. In the case of the '60s, irrefutably important social changes were contrasted by the adolescent blob of rock culture that eventually swallowed up much of the taste and obscured much of the talent of the society. We saw the loud and the obvious take up more of our cultural space. Adolescent obsessions with sensation and the sensational pushed most subtle forms of expression into the margins as teenage angst became more and more dominant.
Michael Jackson is an expression of that part of our social history, but also a symbol of other things - plastic surgery, the kind of adolescent attraction to childhood fantasies that we see in his Neverland home and our threadbare rock and roll aristocracy, which we witnessed when he married Elvis Presley's daughter.
This trial brought up questions about all this, but it seems to me that illusions of the man have been on trail along with Jackson himself. These illusions are grounded in what people assumed their relationship to Jackson was during periods of being enthralled by his music and videos. The amount of emotion we heap on our pop celebrities is suspect. People are not good guys just because they have ability.
The descent of Michael Jackson is testing that whole arena. For all that Jackson has done to control our illusions over a career that became progressively eccentric, his powers have fallen before the forces of this trial. The publicity, the infinitude of speculations and the images of him either dancing atop a car on his first day of court appearance or being admonished for coming to court dressed in what seemed to be pajamas have proved his undoing. He will never again be able to get by as any more than a vastly talented eccentric. He has now joined the ranks of the great freaks of our age and has no one to blame other than himself and his own willingness to play with the carnivorous forces that created his illusion.
- Renowned DJ heading to satellite radio: Cousin Brucie, forced out after 33 years, going to Sirius
(CNN / Associated Press, June 9, 2005)
Veteran New York disc jockey Bruce Morrow, ignominiously dumped last week when WCBS-FM switched away from its oldies format, signed on Thursday with Sirius Satellite Radio. Morrow, whose radio days predate the Beatles, will host three shows: two with hits from the '50s, '60s and '70s, and his own talk show. ... Morrow was one of the mainstays at the nation's No. 1 oldies station, WCBS-FM. A phone call last Friday from management informed him that after 33 years as a New York institution, the station was going to a "Jack" format with a new playlist. "It was like firing the New York Yankees," Morrow said. But the Brooklyn-born DJ, who introduced the Beatles at their 1965 Shea Stadium concert, quickly found his nightmare dismissal turn into a dream come true. When Sirius offered him a talk show along with the music programs, Morrow jumped at the chance.
... The announcement came on the same day that Sirius took out full-page newspaper ads in Chicago and New York plugging its satellite service to customers upset by Infinity's format changes last week at oldies stations in both cities. "If a radio station has suddenly abandoned the format you love, come to Sirius," read the ads' invitation. It specifically mentioned Sirius stations dedicated to music of the '70s and the '80s, as well as another that offers Elvis Presley music. ...
- New Florida Music Show Generates Excitement for All Ages with Golden Oldies, Elvis, and Country Music with a 'Twist'
(PRWeb / Newswire, June 9, 2005)
RockAbilly.US Music Shows, a very large musical production group is taking Florida by storm. The group has been working full time to produce and prepare their shows for several years, and in the last few months since their debut in March at the Sumter County Fair, their name and fame are spreading rapidly across the country. They are not just an oldies, Elvis, and country music show. They have added so much more, and their fans keep literally begging for more shows, more often. Their web site has a lot of info; www.rockabilly.us
Their posters and ads all read, "Elvis, Oldies, Top Hits, and Country Music", but this new phenomenon in music shows is much more than that. Breaking into the business with a name that is also their website address (www.rockabilly.us), RockAbilly.US Music Shows has already begun this year to gather a lot of fans among the residents of Citrus and surrounding counties in west-central Florida. Their theme is "Feel The Music", and while a lot of music groups attempt to convey that thought using extremely high sound levels, Rockabilly.US showband is attempting it from a different angle. They use professionally choreographed singing, dancing, and skits, combined with constant changes to various styles of lavish costumes. They top it all off with a surprising degree of extra entertainment 'bits', mixed in throughout the show. Thus, the shows are all more than just music to listen to, and performers to watch. There are always spontaneous skits and surprises along the way.
... The 'Elvis' portion of each show usually follows closely the typical style of Elvis Presley's concerts from the 1970s. Various expensive replica jumpsuits are used in different shows, and instead of having 3 or 4 girls singing back-up harmonies as Elvis did, Rockabilly.US always packs on more power with at least six girls doing that job. They claim to not actually "impersonate" Elvis, and try very hard to back up that claim, but the style and music of the King of Rock and Roll can still be easily recognized in their performances. ...
- Latest role for actress is advancing MS awareness
By Shari Rudavsky
(Indianapolis Star, June 9, 2005)
Teri Garr is no stranger to an audience. She's crafted a career on stage and film, from dancing in Elvis Presley movies to starring in comedies like "Young Frankenstein," "Mr. Mom" and "Tootsie." But when Garr, 55, speaks in public these days, she's not reading from a script or playing a part. Instead, she's trying to increase awareness about multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed with the disease in 1999 after having unrecognized symptoms for years. Recently, Garr delivered the luncheon address at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's Women Against Multiple Sclerosis program at the Indiana Roof Ballroom. About 400,000 Americans, including 6,500 people in Indiana, have multiple sclerosis, an auto-immune disease that strikes women more often than men. ...
- The First Lady of Song
By Robert Christgau
(Yahoo! News, June 9, 2005)
As with Frank Sinatra, as with Aretha Franklin, as with Elvis Presley, as with George Jones, as with Nat King Cole, as with Sarah Vaughan, as with Johnny Cash, as with Al Green, as with Kurt Cobain, as with -- unfortunately, but it must be said -- Snoop Dogg, coming to terms with Billie Holiday means penetrating an unfathomable mystery: her voice.
... Blackburn's principal contribution to that understanding is a sense of who Holiday's friends were. The interviews about her Baltimore girlhood constitute an oral history of a 1920s ghetto, not such an easy thing to come by; the later materials, which predominate, do the same for the jazz life, which is better documented, and also the sporting life, which is less so. But it's the sum of the documentation that's so impressive. Billie Holiday was a difficult, profane and sometimes imperious woman. She was a junkie and an alcoholic; she had sex with many men and women; she was hot-tempered and ready to clock anyone who gave her grief. Yet the love emanating from these interviews flows never-ending. Holiday wasn't just adored by her fans (to an unusual degree for a nonsuperstar, although not for what today we call a cult artist); she was adored by her friends and colleagues, and the paucity of backbiting is a clue to her greatness. Most artists are selfish as a way of life, and Holiday would always take what was offered her, especially if it would get her high. But she was also great fun to be around, certainly up till her miserable end and often then, and generous by nature, by which I mean something less showy and manipulative than the impulsive largesse of a Presley or Sinatra. She attracted her circle not with her power or charisma but with her spirit. ...
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