mid August, 2006
- Elvis predicted the dot-com crash: Stock tips found hidden in The King's song titles
By JOHN C. DVORAK
(MarketWatch August 16, 2006)
This week marks the 29th anniversary of the death of the King. The King of rock and roll, that is, Elvis Presley. Investors should take note because throughout the years Elvis incorporated hidden investment messages in his song titles. I know this may seem a little far-fetched, but compare my analysis with any of the, uh, let's call them non-traditional market analysis you'll find on message boards, newsletters and TV shows. And who is to say that Elvis, who lives on in the form of postage stamps and tribute acts, is not, in fact, the Nostradamus of our time?
In general the Elvis song titles seem aimed directly at predicting the dot-com collapse well in advance of the collapse itself. And in fact it's almost in the chronological order of the collapse.
I don't want to bore you with the details but if you do enough math on the discography you get the following list of songs in the following order: "Heartbreak Hotel," "Love Me Tender," "All Shook Up," "Don't," "Stuck on You," "Surrender," "It's Now or Never," "I Got Stung," "Flaming Star" and "Return to Sender." These songs clearly define and warn us, years in advance, about the dot-com bubble.
(As a disclaimer I must warn you that I did not run this experiment on anything other than Elvis hit singles. I'm sure that even more secret information could be revealed by analyzing the album songs.)
And within the discography are clear messages not to get suckered into investing in "Hound Dogs." Although Hound Dog is not on the list, it instead plays a more specific role. I believe that the song was a warning not to invest in Pets.com. Also note that both "All Shook Up" and "Return to Sender" is clear reference to Webvan. Ah, those were the good old days!
Martha Stewart
Now if you dig deep enough into the analysis it gets even more predictive. The songs: "Love me Tender," "Don't Be Cruel," "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck," "Hard-Headed Woman," "You're the Devil in Disguise," "I got Stung" (reprise), and "Jail House Rock" foretell the Martha Stewart fiasco with chilling accuracy. Martha, I believe, was indeed an Elvis fan and should have seen her plight coming years in advance. She should have been paying more attention to the hidden messages in her record collection. Now she knows. But it just isn't the general predictive accuracy that is amazing with what I call the ESI - Elvis Stock Index. I'm hoping some math geniuses will develop an exact formula so the ESI can stand alongside the RSI, the ROC and the MFI. After all we've all made millions using those fine charting tools, no?
Stock tips
Then again maybe we can skip the charts because many songs contain, in fact, exact stock picks. These to me are the most interesting. I will probably have to finance a research firm to ferret out all the tips, but I have a few here for you to consider. They indeed appear as buy and sell recommendations within song titles in the form of anagrams. Hound Dog, for example gives us two tips with two anagrams. The first is "Odd Hog, NU." This is a clear reference to Northeastern Utilities. Will it pig out over energy prices? Maybe. The second Hound Dog Tip is: "Dud? Go HON!" And indeed Honeywell has skyrocketed since the death of Elvis. Amazing!
Many tips seem to indicate that agricultural investment is a good idea. For example the song "I Got Stung" reveals the hidden message: "Gist, go NUT!" This is a clear buy signal for Macadamia Orchards.
There are hundreds of these tips. In some instances Elvis was painting with a broad brush. This is the case with the message within the title, "Stuck on You." It says: "Scout Yukon." OK, I will. As you can see, none of this is to be taken lightly. The King lives!
- Elvis Fans Can't Help but Continue Their Love Affair With the King
By Sara Bonisteel
(Fox News August 16, 2006)
GRACELAND - Once, it was a symbol of his success; now, it has become a beacon for the faithful. Thousands filled the street in front of Graceland Tuesday twinkling candles to the heavens as they waited to pay their respects to the King of rock 'n' roll, 29 years after his untimely death at age 42.
Bill Rowe, a 56-year-old retiree from Dayton, Ohio, who at age 5 met Elvis Presley and got his autograph in crayon, was the first fan to enter the gates of Elvis' mansion Monday night. He has made this pilgrimage every year since 1977 and he's still mourning. "It's been 29 years and I still don't believe it. You go up there and you see those lights in the meditation garden and that eternal flame gets bigger and brighter," Rowe said with a single tear running down his cheek. "No matter where I'm at in line, whether I'm first or heck, I've been the very last one at times, it still comes crashing in on me." Carrying roses, Rowe entered the gates, leading a single-file procession up the winding driveway to the garden where Elvis is buried.
At least 30,000 people have come to Graceland this week to recall a performer who seemed to imbue each of his fans with a sense of generosity for their fellow man. "Here was a guy that didn't forget where he came from," Rowe said. "He went on this magical journey of his and he took his friends along with him. That taught me a lot, so when ever I can help one of my friends out, I do." Fans left small mementos at Elvis' tombstone on the Graceland estate in the Whitehaven section of Memphis. He bought the home in 1957 and it was a tourist attraction even before it officially opened to the public in 1983. Today it remains a time capsule to the way it was in Elvis' final year, virtually untouched since the day he died.
On Tuesday afternoon, onlookers made their way through the front gates of Graceland to visit the Jungle Room, with its green shag carpeted ceiling and the eye-popping thunderbolts painted on the TV Room's walls.
By early evening, thousands lined up along the stone wall outside the gate. The fans wore T-shirts recalling Elvis weeks past and the TCB or "Taking Care of Business" thunderbolts once worn by the Memphis Mafia. "He couldn't even imagine it, but even if he could comprehend it, if he could look back, if there was some type of reincarnation, he would have to love it, because his whole purpose in life was to be loved, be accepted," said Jerry Schilling, a friend of Elvis.
Dozens of memorial floral arrangements lined the driveway to the estate, sent by fan clubs all around the globe. Others left flowers with hand-scrawled wishes of love and undying devotion.
As the faithful made their way up to his tomb, the White House released a statement on the 29th anniversary of his death, the first presidential statement Elvis Presley Enterprises has received to welcome fans during Elvis Week. It's "an opportunity for people from around the globe to come together, share memories and celebrate one of America's most beloved icons," said President George W. Bush, who visited the estate in June with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
An honor guard of Elvis fan club presidents and members brought two torches lit at his tomb's eternal flame to light the candles of the throngs waiting below. The crowd sang along to "Can't Help Falling in Love," played over loudspeakers on the illuminated grounds. "It's the saddest day," said Sherry Wallace, a fan club president from Plain Dealing, La. As a 9-year-old, Wallace watched a young Elvis perform at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, La.
But while the occasion was marked with personal reflection, it was not all somber. Many took to Elvis Presley Boulevard setting up makeshift shrines of devotion. "Some people get emotional about it, but mostly it's a celebration of Elvis' life," said Todd Morgan, a spokesman for Elvis Presley Enterprises, which runs Graceland. He warned any would-be pranksters that mocking the King on this night of nights would bring swift fan retribution.
A group of friends from Wheeling, W. Va., laughed as they recounted 12 years of vigils. Calvin Miller, 55, a distributor, didn't balk when asked if he remembered where he was the day the icon died. "I know exactly where I was when Elvis died: I was filling a condom machine in Akron, Ohio, in a truck stop," he said, adding with a laugh, "I'm not even sure it got locked back up after I heard."
His friends, Rick and Robin Ashton, of Valley Grove, W. Va., said this Elvis Week has been different from those of years' past. "We've noticed a lot more younger people this year than what we have in the past," Rick Ashton said. "I'm speaking of 30 and below." "You don't want this legend to ever disappear," Robin Ashton added, nodding to her 6-year-old granddaughter, also an Elvis fan. "They've got to keep it on; it's our youth today that's going to carry it on."
- Elvis fans end pilgrimage at graveside
(Yahoo! News August 16, 2006)
Teddy bears, roses and love notes covered Elvis Presley's grave Wednesday, left by the thousands of fans who flocked to his former residence, Graceland, on the 29th anniversary of his death. A weeklong lineup of fan-club meetings, concerts and memorials was capped with a graveside procession, called the "candlelight vigil," that began at 9 p.m. CDT Tuesday and ran through the night.
Many of the several thousand fans taking part in the vigil left small offerings at Presley's grave in a garden beside Graceland. He died at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977. Large floral displays sent by fans and fan clubs from around the world ringed the garden.
"We had a really good Elvis week, and President Bush sent a letter of greeting to the fans," said Graceland spokesman Todd Morgan. "It arrived a few days ago, and I read it to the crowd at the vigil." The president and first lady Laura Bush visited Graceland in June with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a longtime Elvis fan. "We were reminded that Elvis Presley will forever have a special place in the cultural life of America," Bush wrote in a note to the gathered Presley fans. "This event is an opportunity for people from around the globe to come together, share memories and celebrate one of America's most beloved icons."
- Elvis Presley fans mark 29th anniversary of death at Graceland
(wpmi.com / Associated Press August 16, 2006)
Fans of the King from around the world are in Memphis, Tennessee, honoring the 29th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. ... [as below]
- Elvis Presley Fans Mark Anniversary Of Death
(cbs2.com / Associated Press August 16, 2006)
Fans of the King from around the world are in Memphis, Tenn., honoring the 29th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Presley died of heart disease and prescription drug abuse at his Graceland mansion on Aug. 16, 1977. The singer's fans traditionally file past his grave site at Graceland on the eve of the anniversary. A spokesman says as many as 10,000 fans could visit the mansion for this year's vigil. President Bush and his wife, who brought Elvis fan and Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi to Memphis in June for a tour of Graceland, sent their regards. The White House sent a letter to be read to the fans noting Presley's "special place in the cultural life of America." It says the anniversary gives fans around the world an opportunity to come together, share memories and celebrate Presley's legacy.
- Is the Elvis legend losing its fascination?
By Robert Seltzer
(Whittier Daily News / San Antonio Express News August 16, 2006)
It is easy to forget through the fog of history what an enormous impact Elvis had on society. He was not just a singer; he was a cultural force, every pelvic thrust a blow to a country that wanted its pop stars more subdued. Elvis was a heathen.
``Hell, these were timid times, an' here's this white kid up there shakin' his ass,'' Lewis Grizzard, the late humorist, once said, according to the Los Angeles Times. ``An' I remember my grandfather sayin' that this was the devil's music, an' anybody who listened to it was surely gonna go straight t' hell, which, y'know, did concern me some. Still, I liked it, an' I figured I'd just take my chances.'' Then there is the old story of a conversation between Elvis and fellow rock 'n' roller Jerry Lee Lewis. ``Why boy, you are the devil!'' Lewis said when Elvis asked if they were playing the Pity the pioneers.
Once outrageous, they become passe. They are so bold and daring, so aggressive in their determination to push forward, that they become part of the mainstream victims of their own success. They are not rebels without a cause; they are rebels with a cause that no longer matters. Is that what happened to Elvis Presley, the Hillbilly Cat, the King of Rock 'n' Roll? Almost 30 years after his death fans will mark the 29th anniversary on Wednesday has Elvis become a joke, as inconsequential as the bland pop stars he obliterated from the cultural landscape in the 1950s?
``We don't sell that many Elvis CDs,'' said Steve Alejandro, manager of Hogwild Record & Tapes. ``The biggest obstacle to the youth grasping onto Elvis, the way they grasped onto the Beatles and the Stones, is that he devolved into the Las Vegas showman thing. And there's an element of kitsch to it, and not cool kitsch. ``Younger music fans have more of an affinity with Frank Sinatra,'' Alejandro continued. ``Sinatra always stayed cool. He never became kitschy, at least as far as that perception goes.''
``devil's music.''
Then the devil moved from Hades to Vegas, trading his horns for jumpsuits. The unimaginable happened: Kitsch conquered cool. And those black velvet paintings seemed more substantial than the real thing. If it is easy to forget his significance, however, it is just as important to remember it, especially this year, the 50th anniversary of ``Heartbreak Hotel.'' The kitsch was temporary. The cool will last forever. Like all of Elvis' early hits, ``Heartbreak Hotel'' combined the two key ingredients of rock 'n' roll: blues and country. If country gave the music its snap, blues gave it the churning power that makes it so explosive. Without either, rock 'n' roll would not be rock 'n' roll. ``He created something new by definition, because it hadn't been popular before,'' said Howard Kramer, the curatorial director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. ``There is no question about that. He wasn't the first guy to play music like that. He was just the most popular.''
If some historians regard Elvis as a breathtaking original, other music lovers see him as a shameless copycat, a singer who co-opted the blues to forge a success denied black artists who came before. Bobby ``Blue'' Bland, the legendary blues singer, does not see Elvis as a racist, a man who was more imitator than innovator. ``People have that outlook because of his color,'' Bland, 76, said in a telephone interview from his home in Memphis. ``Sure, there was a bigger opening for him than for anybody black. But whatever he did, he did it very well, like Ray Charles when Ray did country. Music is music.''
When Elvis climbed the charts first regionally, then nationally Bland detected a ``new kid on the block.'' The songs were daring but familiar, as if those musical notes had been there all along, waiting for someone to pluck them out of the air. That someone was Elvis, and his success helped every musician who followed, black and white. ``If people want to be downright hateful about it, saying he was a copycat, well, that's their business,'' Bland said. ``But Elvis did a great thing. ``He opened the doors for a lot of people, a lot of black artists, including me. He helped me get the story out about the blues.''
If Elvis integrated the jukebox, did he help do the same for society? Was he a civil rights figure? Did the heathen perform a heavenly deed, whether or not it was intentional? ``Look, it was as if the country had one street, and you had whites walking on one side, and you had blacks walking on the other side,'' Bland said. ``Well, after Elvis came along, people started walking on the same side of the street. They started to gel.''
Elvis influenced every rock 'n' roller who followed, from the Beatles to El Vez, the Mexican American singer from East Los Angeles. ``El Vez explains that he grew up thinking that Elvis was Mexicano because he looked like El Vez's uncles in terms of his dark skin and black pompadour,'' said Robert Huesca, a communications professor at Trinity University. ``He grew up considering Elvis one of his own in a culture that rarely venerates minorities at the level experienced by Elvis. So I think he must have been moved in a remarkable way by what he considered a minority performer who had captured the hearts and devotion of mass American audiences. That's a pretty powerful appeal.''
And that appeal, broadened to kids of all colors and backgrounds, helped change society. ``Without Elvis or someone like Elvis the civil rights movement would have been different,'' said Harry Haines, a Trinity University communications professor known as the ``expert on all things Elvis.'' ``He taught white kids how to move their bodies. And when white kids started moving their bodies to the same kind of sound black kids were moving their bodies to, it was very important.'' If Elvis helped integrate American society, Kramer said, he was just part of a process that began long before he galvanized the nation with his singing and dancing: In the 1940s, folk singers began advocating civil rights for minorities, spearheaded by legendary artists such as Woody Guthrie. In 1948, President Harry Truman began to integrate the armed forces. In 1954 the year Elvis recorded what some historians regard as the first rock 'n' roll song, ``That's All Right'' the Supreme Court ruled that ``separate educational facilities are inherently unequal'' in Brown vs. Board of Education. ``Elvis didn't set out to help integrate society,'' Haines said. ``All he wanted to be was a movie star, and all he wanted to do was meet beautiful women. But his music moved white kids and black kids, and it broke down racial barriers.''
And that is why Elvis, Vegas or no Vegas, will never become inconsequential.
- Fans remember life and death of Elvis
(Yahoo!7 News August 16, 2006)
Fifty years ago, Elvis Presley was about to make his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show TV variety show. Helen Kreis was staring at the television screen, barely able to contain her teenage excitement. ... [as below]
- America was all shook up by Elvis
(thestar.com.my / AP August 16, 2006)
Fifty years ago, as Elvis Presley was about to make his first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show'' TV variety show, Helen Kreis was staring at the television screen, barely able to contain her teenage excitement. Then her father pulled the plug. "He was just joking, but before he could get it plugged back in, I was next door at the neighbor's house. They were watching Elvis, of course, and I wasn't taking any chances,'' said the now-65-year-old Kreis, of Olney, Maryland. "Everybody was watching Elvis.''
Well, maybe not everybody, but nearly everyone in America who had a TV had tuned in. Presley's first of three appearances on Sullivan's show, on Sept. 9, 1956, drew 60 million viewers, more than 80 percent of the national TV audience.
... Elvis fans from around the world are in Memphis this week for the annual remembrance of his death in 1977, and many still remember the year Elvis lit up American televisions. "Other singers just stood there and sang, and then all of a sudden, you've got this guy up there going all over the place,'' said Diane Adams, 68, of Florence, South Carolina. ...
- Bush sends regards to Elvis fans on anniversary of death
(wreg.com August 15, 2006)
President Bush and first lady Laura Bush sent their regards Tuesday to Elvis Presley fans honoring the 29th anniversary of the King's death in Memphis. The White House sent a letter to be read to thousands of fans lined up outside the singer's Memphis mansion to visit his grave site. The letter said the annual candlelight vigil is an opportunity for people from around the globe to come together, share their memories and celebrate one of America's most beloved icons. The president and first lady, along with the Japanese prime minister who's an Elvis fan, visited Graceland June 30th.
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