mid October, 2006
- Original guitar god still ducking and jiving
By Leslie Gray Streeter
(Sydney Morning Herald / Cox News Service, October19, 2006)
Roll over, Beethoven, Chuck Berry turned 80 yesterday. "If you tried to give rock'n'roll another name," John Lennon once said, "you might call it Chuck Berry." And Lennon ought to have known, because the Beatles were just one of the groups who got their start riffing on the brilliance of - and in some cases, blatantly ripping off - one Charles Edward Anderson Berry, who was born 80 years ago yesterday.
If Elvis Presley was the king of rock'n' roll, Chuck Berry built the throne with his innovative guitar licks, giddily simple signature melodies, duck-walking charisma and an unmistakable sexuality and danger that could not be denied, soft-pedalled or well-duplicated. There are probably 100 reasons that rock would not exist, at least the way it does now, without Berry and his sidekicks Maybellene, Johnny B. Goode, Sweet Little Sixteen and Little Queenie. Here are just five of them:
1. He was the first guitar god. There is arguably no guitar riff more recognisable than Berry's electrifying, exciting lick from Johnny B. Goode. And Berry established the standard for performers who played and sang their own music, which is ironic considering that the term singer-songwriter is now usually associated with sensitive acoustic guys. The duck walk didn't hurt his stature, either.
2. Everybody wanted to be him. During the '50s and '60s, it seemed that if singers didn't have their own repertoire, they just borrowed Berry's. The Beatles, Elvis, the Dave Clark Five, the Animals and Jerry Lee Lewis all covered at least five of the master's songs, Memphis, Tennessee being the common denominator. The Beach Boys famously lifted Sweet Little Sixteen lock, stock and melody for their Surfing USA, which is why Berry sued for and got a songwriting credit.
3. He was the original punk rocker. Berry didn't need to manufacture an edge. Scandals included a stint in a Missouri reformatory for armed robbery (he and his friends were joy riding); a charge related to a 14-year-old hat-check girl at his St Louis nightclub in 1959; prison for tax evasion in 1979; and charges that he'd videotaped women in the bathrooms of businesses he owned.
4. He single-handedly created crossover, almost before there was anything to cross over to: Berry melded blues and so-called "hillbilly" music to create his signature sound, which appealed to white teenagers, country fans and blues fans alike, and played integrated shows when that was a physically dangerous prospect.
5. He wrote the first great rock'n'roll anthem: No, that's not true. Roll Over, Beethoven is the great rock'n'roll anthem, declaring that not only was this brash new thing not going anywhere but that it was throwing down the amplified gauntlet to all the dead, sad squares who came before.
In short, Berry was the first rock'n'roll bad ass. I assume Tchaikovsky has heard the news.
- Ted Nagy
(News-Herald, October18, 2006)
Ted Nagy, 61, of Mentor, died Oct. 16, 2006, at The Cleveland Clinic. Born Dec. 7, 1944, in Cleveland, he had lived in Willowick before moving to Mentor 30 years ago. He enjoyed flower gardening, Cleveland professional sports and his greatest enjoyment was Elvis Presley music. ...
- Swamp Fox 'Uncovered': 'Polk Salad Annie' writer's new album features big-name guests performing fresh tunes, old hits
By John Gerome
(azstarnet.com / Associated Press, October18, 2006)
It was a crazy song for a crazy time. Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie" oozed up from the Louisiana swamp to become a Top 10 hit in 1969, the year of Woodstock, Chappaquiddick and Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. The bluesy romp about a backwoods woman and her dysfunctional family celebrated the wild Southern plant that's boiled, seasoned with bacon and eaten like spinach.
But this was, after all, the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and many mistook polk for another leafy green weed that "grows out in the woods and the fields." Back then, people thought polk salad was grass," White says in his slow, mellow drawl, laughing at the thought of it. "They'd bring me bags of grass backstage and say, 'Hey, we brought you a little polk.' "
While he looks back fondly, White, at 63, is also focused on the present, still cooking up a tasty gumbo of blues rock. His new album, "Uncovered," has seven new songs and a few reinterpretations of his older ones, including the R&B standard "Rainy Night in Georgia."
... Though he's never been a major star - at least not in the United States; he has a larger profile in Europe, where he's known as the Swamp Fox - his work has been recorded by everyone from Elvis Presley to Ray Charles to Tim McGraw.
The new album was largely conceived and created by his son, Jody, who asked his father whom he'd like to sing with if he had the chance.
All the guests on the record were old friends of White's, but there were some logistical issues to get around. The younger White, for example, had to travel to London to record Clapton's parts and to California for the reclusive Cale's.
Most of the songs were recorded over six or seven years. Even an old pro like Clapton did several takes to get the right feel for "Did Somebody Make a Fool Out of You." Cale went so far as to write two more verses for "Louvelda."
"It knocked me out that they not only played, but played with their souls and hearts," White said of his pals. "They didn't just get in there and put their little lick or stamp on it and walk out. They stayed until it was completely right."
And completely swampy.
- Patsy Cline show treat for die-hard fans
By Bill Short
(Fayette County Review, October18, 2006)
In the history of American music, only a handful of performers have achieved the kind of fame that transcends fleeting popularity and elevates them to a stellar realm that defies the bounds of mortality. For West Tennessee residents, the name that comes most readily to mind is Elvis Presley, who is even more popular today than before his death in August 1977. Almost equally as enduring is the musical legacy of Patsy Cline, whose meteoric career was tragically cut short more than 43 years ago. Consequently, any theater production that pays loving tribute to the legendary country singer invariably comes with a built-in audience. And so it is with Always...Patsy Cline, which opened Friday at the Fair Theater on the Courthouse Square in Somerville. ...
- Master of the fame game
By David Lieberman
(usatoday.com, October17, 2006)
Maybe billionaire Robert F.X. Sillerman misunderstood the catchphrase his pal and sometime business partner Mel Brooks likes to drop into his movies and musicals. The comedian's line: "It's good to be the king." Not to buy The King. Too late. Sillerman's company, CKX, paid $114.2 million in cash and stock last year for rights to the name and likeness of Elvis Presley as well as tourist operations at his Graceland mansion.
That was just CKX's opening chord. It since has added rights to a roundtable of pop-culture royalty, including Muhammad Ali, American Idol and British soccer star David Beckham. It also snagged the firm that manages Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Woody Allen and is a business adviser to the potential ultimate catch: The Beatles. Is this a business? Or is Sillerman just a rich trophy collector?
The entrepreneur, who helped revolutionize radio and concerts in the 1990s, says he's surfing a "sea change" in entertainment. Digital technologies have sapped the power of TV networks, radio stations, record companies and other traditional media to create mass-market superstars. TiVos, iPods, cellphones and DVD players give consumers control over what they see and hear - and they tend to choose names they already know, he says.
"That places a premium value on things that are ubiquitous, that don't need a definition," says Sillerman, 58. "Everyone knows what it means when you say 'Elvis Presley.' I'm not a big believer in taking creative risk. The thrust for CKX will be to participate with the brightest and best to see if in these new distribution technologies there are ways to create other ubiquitous pieces of content or brands." Sillerman, who owns 35% of CKX, has a lot riding on his dead or aging pop icons and a show, Idol, that's getting long in the tooth in TV years as it prepares to return to Fox in January for its sixth season.
More than 70% of the company's $466 million in assets as of midyear were intangible - such as the estimated worth of its stars' reputations. That value can vanish if consumers turn off on Elvis' sneer or Idol judge Simon Cowell's scowl. Many investors have little appetite for that risk. CKX shares have dropped about 32%, to $13.93 since February 2005 when Sillerman acquired Sports Entertainment Enterprises, a publicly traded firm with virtually no assets, and renamed it CKX. (The first two letters come from the slogan "Content is King." As for the "X," that's something Sillerman threw in from his middle initials. He won't say what they mean.)
... Meanwhile, CKX is seeking local support for an upgrade of the Graceland facilities and is helping Cirque du Soleil develop a high-concept spectacle about Elvis. Venues for the show - which will launch in Las Vegas in 2008 and also tour the world - will be awash in vibrantly colored silks and furs, music, film, replicas of gold records, possibly holograms and a pink Cadillac, Cirque du Soleil creative founder Gilles Ste-Croix told Sillerman, Fuller and other CKX executives last month at the company's Madison Avenue office.
All the symbols and artifacts will be imbued with meaning, he says. "This is not a television," St. Croix says of Elvis' favorite appliance. "It is an antidote to loneliness." And of Elvis' emblem, he says, "This is not a dragon. It is a symbol of extraordinary power. "'I Am Elvis'- that's what we want people to feel at the end."
Sillerman, who's partial to French cuffs and pocket squares, liked what he heard from the executive wearing a T-shirt and thumb rings. But he adds: "We need an ability for people to purchase things. It's consistent with the way (Elvis) lived his life. He was an incredible consumer."
Cross-promotion is another CKX tool being applied to Elvis. July attendance at Memphis' Graceland leapt 6% vs. July 2005 after Idol in May showed contestants visiting Presley's pad. (The venue was back in the spotlight in June when President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi - a big Elvis fan - stopped by.)
Don't be surprised if you hear more Elvis references when Idol resumes: Last month, Memphis was one of seven cities where the show held auditions. ...
Robert F.X. Sillerman with memorabilia of Elvis and Muhammad Ali
By Todd Plitt
- Latest 'Encyclopedia of Pop Music' will go online
By Robert Barr
(usatoday.com / Associated Press, October17, 2006)
Start talking with Colin Larkin, editor of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, and free association kicks in. Anything, anyone, might come up. Dave "Baby" Cortez, for example. And that's exactly what Larkin intends. "The whole point of the EPM is to enthuse people," says Larkin, whose own obsession with pop over a half century has evolved into a full-time business. The 4th edition of the reference work, now expanded to 10 volumes encompassing 3.5 million words in 27,000 entries, will go online in mid-2007, enabling scholars of doo wop, bebop, hip hop and space age bachelor pad music to gambol from topic to topic as their curiosity leads.
The print version, published this month in the United States, is priced at $995 until Dec. 31. In Europe, the print version will be published in November, with an introductory price of $1,037.75. ... Larkin has opinions - [Dave "Baby"] Cortez is dismissed as an exemplar of "cheesy organ." But he and many other artists go into the book along with his other non-enthusiasms: heavy metal, dance music and Elvis Presley. "I never got Elvis," Larkin confessed. "I like some of the songs of the '50s - liked - but compared to Little Richard and Buddy Holly ... "I've read 10 books on Elvis - it's a great story - but don't ask me to listen to him." Even so, Presley rates the second-largest entry in the EPM, behind Bob Dylan. Next in order are The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Billie Holiday, the Beach Boys, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. ...
- Elvis Museum closing for repair
(Sun Herald / ASSOCIATED PRESS, October17, 2006)
The Elvis Presley Museum in Tupelo is closing for about three months for renovations. The museum, housed at the site of the singer's birthplace, shut its doors after regular operating hours Friday so Germantown Contracting can begin a $262,000 project to turn it into a world-class exhibit.
Some 50,000 people tour the museum each year, but the closing isn't expected to hurt that number, said birthplace and museum director Dick Guyton. "If we have a slow time, this would be it," he said. "A lot of tour companies don't start tours until November. We've got eight or nine tours booked during this time, but they already know it, and ticket prices will be adjusted to charge them just for going through the house" where Elvis was born. The house, gift shop, chapel and other attractions will remain open, Guyton said.
The Elvis museum in Tupelo houses memorabilia that belonged to Janelle McComb, a Presley family friend and past chairwoman of the foundation. The renovation would include audio and video displays describing the life and times of Elvis from his birth in 1935 to 1948, when his family left for Memphis. Officials want to wrap up the work on or before Elvis' Jan. 8 birthday. The renovations are expected to double museum attendance. ...
- Concert Watch: Streisand to perform with Il Divo at Verizon Center
By Jordan Bartel
(Carroll County Times, October16, 2006)
Barbra Streisand is back on stage. The venerable Streisand, along with multi-platinum selling quartet Il Divo, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Washington, D.C.'s Verizon Center. Streisand is the music industry's all-time best selling female artist, with 50 gold, 30 platinum and 13 multi-platinum albums. She is second only to Elvis Presley on the all-time music sellers' chart. She is a multiple Grammy winner, and has an Oscar, Tony and Peabody Award to her name. ...
- Stars preserved on toast artwork
(BBC News, October16, 2006)
An artist has become the toast of the town with his portraits of illustrious faces branded onto slices of bread. Lennie Payne's toasted impressions of Elvis Presley, Benny Hill and Vinny Jones among others have received critical acclaim. A blowtorch, loaf of bread and a knife is all he needs to create his artwork, which is selling at £2,000 apiece. Mr Payne, from Cranford, Essex, said the idea came about after making shapes with toast to entertain his daughter.
Tasty art
He said he has been working with toast as a canvass for 10 years and recently had his first art gallery viewing in the West End. In the past three years, he has sold six pieces to different collectors at £2,000 apiece. He hopes one day to work as an artist full time but in the meantime he earns his keep as a painter and decorator. ...
- John Katsilometes chats with Tippi Hedren about Elvis, his badges and his guns
By John Katsilometes
(Las Vegas Sun, October16, 2006)
Elvis Presley once pulled a gun on Tippi Hedren. Sort of. On Saturday night during the "14th Annual Dinosaur Ball" fundraiser for the Las Vegas Natural History Museum at the Hyatt Regency Lake, Las Vegas Hedren recalled one of her early visits to Vegas.
She partied with Elvis. "It was in the early '70s and Elvis was very, very big," said Hedren, who received the Natural History Museum's Dino Award for Conservationist of the Year from last year's recipients, Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn. "It was my second visit to Las Vegas and Elvis invited us to his suite and he was behind the bar, holding court. He showed us all of the sheriff badges he had collected -- he had a really impressive collection -- and he kind of twirled a few of his guns around." None of the guests (or televisions) were harmed and Hedren chuckled at the memory, saying, "Elvis was just great." (Hedren rose to fame in Alfred Hitchcock's 1961 thriller, "The Birds,") ...
- Sun Records shine on Elvis again
(journalstar.com, October15, 2006)
Elvis Presley will be reunited with Sun Records as part of a licensing agreement between the owner of the historic label and the singer's estate. Sun Entertainment Corp. of Nashville announced the agreement with Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. The company said Elvis Presley Enterprises of Memphis has licensed the use of its trademarks in the name, image and likely of Presley to Sun for several commemorative retail products. ...
- Freddy Fender Dead At 69: Grammy Award Winning Musician Died Of Lung Cancer
(CBS News / AP, October14, 2006)
Freddy Fender, the "Bebop Kid" of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad "Before the Next Teardrop Falls," died Saturday. He was 69. ... Over the years, he grappled with drug and alcohol abuse, was treated for diabetes and underwent a kidney transplant. ... Born Baldemar Huerta, Fender was proud of his Mexican-American heritage and frequently sung verses or whole songs in Spanish. "Teardrop" had a verse in Spanish. "Whenever I run into prejudice," he told The Washington Post in 1977, "I smile and feel sorry for them, and I say to myself, `There's one more argument for birth control."'
... Always a performer, he sang on the radio as a boy and won contests for his singing - one prize included a tub full of about $10 worth of food. But his career really began in the late '50s, when he returned from serving in the Marines and recorded Spanish-language versions of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and Harry Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell." The recordings were hits in Mexico and South America. ...
- Man recalls working with music legends
By James Beaty
(Weatherford Democrat, October14, 2006)
A youthful Elvis Presley borrowed his car. He spent many early-morning sessions with Hank Williams, hearing Williams play some of his timeless songs on acoustic guitar soon after they were written. He recorded the last album Bob Wills ever made. As the audio engineer for radio station KWKH and the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, La., Tannehill resident Bob Sullivan also worked with Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Horton, Slim Whitman and George Jones.
Sullivan says he's never gotten over the feeling of hearing something he recorded playing over the radio. It's a magical feeling he's experienced many, many times - not only on KWKH and the Hayride, but also while handling the boards at Sumet studios in Dallas.
Sullivan shared some of those experiences during a program at the McAlester Public Library recently.
He worked at KWKH and the Hayride during its golden age, from 1949 through 1959.
Sullivan said he was hired partly because he played guitar and steel guitar. The station management didn't need him to play, but figured he could relate to musicians. "'There's not a soul on the staff here who's a musician,'" Sullivan said the man who hired Sullivan told him.
Sullivan's early years at the station coincided with the arrival of a performer who many still consider to be one of the greatest singers and songwriters ever. "A young man came to us from Montgomery, Ala., named Hank Williams," Sullivan said. Sullivan said when Williams came to the Hayride, he still hadn't made a major hit record. "But from the first night he was on the show, people just loved him," Sullivan said.
... Sullivan also recalled how the then little-known Presley first came to the Hayride as a last-minute substitute for another act that couldn't make it. The Hayride performance would prove one of Presley's first big breaks. Presley had just released his first record, "That's All Right, Mama," but it hadn't yet set the charts on fire. "The first night he appeared on the Hayride, nobody knew who he was," Sullivan said. "He was nervous."
Many of those at the Hayride, used to mainstream country singers, seemed perplexed.
"They were used to seeing cowboys walking around in their cowboy clothes," Sullivan said, "and he shows up in a pink sports coat and white buck shoes." Still, the audience liked Presley. "The reaction wasn't too much, but it was good enough they asked him to come back," Sullivan said. "By the fourth or fifth night, the crowd began to wake up to who he was and young girls would smother the first 10 or 15 rows."
Sullivan believes Presley and Williams shared some similarities. "You take Elvis and Hank, they were sort of parallel," he said. "They both came from a dirt poor family and they suddenly became an icon and they couldn't handle it." ...
...
Sullivan's father would sometimes try to convince him to leave the recording industry and work with him. "But I'm glad I did what I did," Sullivan said. "I wouldn't take anything for my memories of Hank, Elvis, Lefty and Horton."
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