late October, 2006
- Who Was The Real All-American Boy? Elvis, Bobby Bare, Or...
By Big Geez
(blogcritics.org, October 28, 2006)
I've written before that I wasn't a devotee of early rock music in the fifties, but I wasn't immune to its allure. Even though I was fonder of big band music and modern jazz, I have to admit that I was definitely aware of the new stuff pouring out of jukeboxes. After all, it was everywhere - not just on the jukes, but at school "sock hops" (remember those?) and on the radio. And there was also the inevitable attraction that teenagers have always felt for anything that's new and a little... dangerous.
I found myself slowly warming to the music but I went into it gradually, starting with the clean-cut types like Pat Boone, moving on to progressive artists like Buddy Holly, and eventually beginning to listen to the bad boys, Jerry Lee Lewis and others. However, one guy who took a little longer for me to accept ended up being the biggest star of all, although it wasn't until later than I started to appreciate his talent.
Do you remember the scene that shows up in almost every Elvis Presley movie, where he's in a restaurant or club and someone starts the jukebox or strums a guitar, and - big surprise - he begins singing, and all the girls swoon? And then the camera moves to their boyfriends and they're all giving him dirty looks, and then one of them ends up fighting him? Those guys could have been patterned after me. Not because I wanted to fight Elvis, but just because I really didn't see what all the fuss was about and why the girls found him so irresistible.
That's probably why I was secretly delighted when it was announced that he'd been drafted. It was a big news story at the time and everybody was wondering if Elvis (or Colonel Parker) had enough influence to get him a deferment. Of course, he ended up serving and reportedly was a model soldier, but some say it changed him and made him a little softer-edged in his later career.
At about the same time, a struggling singer/songwriter named Bobby Bare was dealing with problems of his own, which also included a draft notice, something that all young guys had hanging over them in those days. But here's where it gets a little strange - before he went into the service, Bobby and his friend Bill Parsons rented some studio time, and played around a little with some tunes they'd cobbled together. Bobby had written a parody of Elvis called "All American Boy" and they each recorded a version of the song. Bobby then began serving his time in the army and was stunned to later hear his version being played on the radio and climbing the charts, but with Parsons shown as the singer!
The record company's mix-up didn't keep the song from rising all the way up to number two on the charts and providing a delicious tonic for the anti-Elvis crowd. Its ingenious lyrics took us through the rise of a rock star and included a mention of a "man with a big cigar" (an obvious reference to Colonel Parker) but the best part was late in the song when the singer, at the height of his success, moans, "But then one day my Uncle Sam said... 'here I am. Uncle Sam needs you, boy'."
We know how Elvis ended up and I'm not sure what ever happened to Bill Parsons, but Bobby Bare has lasted for years, churning out a number of hits including his biggest, the Grammy-winning "Detroit City", and even paving the way for his son to achieve some fame as a singer. But as for me, I'll always remember how he skewered Elvis at a time when I was one of the Elvis haters.
- Elvis' favorite amusement park ride headed to N.C.
(Herald-Sun, October 28, 2006)
Elvis Presley's favorite amusement park ride, a roller coaster called the Zippin Pippin, is zippin off to North Carolina. A pair of Nashville collectors who bought the coaster at auction in June said Friday that they sold it to the tourism bureau in Roanoke Rapids, N.C.
Stephen Shutts, president of a traveling collection called the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame & Rock-N-Roll Roadshow, said the North Carolina town wants the coaster for its Carolina Crossroads tourism project. He said the wooden coaster, which was built in 1923, will be part of an amusement area that includes a 1,500-seat music theater in a 1,000-acre park. "They were most intrigued with the Elvis Presley connection and have plans for a quick dismantling and relocation of this wonderful piece of American history," Shutts said. Shutts declined to say how much Roanoke Rapids paid for the coaster. He and his partner bought the Zippin Pippin for $2,500 in June.
The ride was a top attraction at Libertyland, a 30-year-old amusement park in Memphis that Presley often rented for private parties. The park closed last year after several seasons of falling attendance and financial losses. Shutts said country music superstar Dolly Parton, who operates Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., was originally interested in the Pippin. But he said Dollywood learned it would have had to spend millions to rearrange its layout to accommodate the 3,000-foot roller coaster. ... Denise Parkinson, founder of a Save Libertyland coalition, said Friday that Memphis should make a counteroffer in hopes of saving the Pippin.
"Memphis is losing an opportunity to create our own vintage rock and roll park."
- Republicans facing 'electoral hurricane' in face of centrist Democrat push
By Julian Borger
(Guardian Unlimited, October 28, 2006)
He repeatedly boasted at a Tennessee campaign stop this week that he was pro-life, pro-gun, and against gay marriage. He attacked the Democratic party for being weak on defence and family values and he even had a go at President Bush for being soft on immigration. It sounds like another day in southern politics - except that in this case, the candidate was a Democrat. Harold Ford Jr is one of a new breed looking for votes in places his party does not usually win and talking the language of the US heartland more fluently than any high-profile Democrat since Bill Clinton. ... Mr Ford is attempting to become the first black senator from the South since the 19th century reconstruction era that followed the civil war. If he succeeds, it would represent a breakthrough for the Democrats, and a potential disaster for George Bush.
... On Thursday, when Mr Ford appeared on a conservative Knoxville radio show, Southern Roots, he was showered with invective for abetting "genocide" against babies, and generally being a libertine without true southern values, but one caller said: "Independent Republicans are realising we don't have to give Bush a blank cheque for this war." After his ballroom speech his exit was blocked by burly Republican county commissioners who had heard him speak and were lining up to hug him. "There's an awful lot of Elvis Presley in him. He's got more charisma than any politician I've seen in a long time," Fred Congdon, head of the Association of County Mayors, said afterwards. ...
- Halloween safety. Sheriff: Good little goblins should beware of bad guys
By WENDY JEFFCOAT
(The Times and Democrat, October 28, 2006)
It's that time of year again. Princesses, pirates, ninjas, ghosts, witches and every other conceivable frightful and beautiful creature known to man will hit the streets yet again for a night of candy gathering in the name of Halloween.
... Elvis Presley will make his way around St. Matthews using the body of 9-year-old Michael Fanning, who said his favorite part of the holiday is "seeing all the kids in costume and getting candy." While his mom hasn't shared many tips with him on being safe, she's generally there every step of the way, he said, and they only go to houses they know. It seems many trick-or-treaters heading out this year are ready to utilize some of the common safety tips law enforcement agencies are sharing with kids and their parents. ...
- Something Ventured: Bears and Bulls In BC
By Brent Holliday, Greenstone Venture Partners
(bctechnology.com, October 27, 2006)
"I don't wanna be a tiger
'Cause tigers play to rough.
I don't wanna be a lion
'Cause lions ain't the kind." - Elvis Presley, Your Teddy Bear
It's about this time of year when bears begin to hibernate. But first they fatten up before the long sleep. If you are a metaphorical bear regarding BC [British Columbia]'s technology industry, then it follows that you believe the short term is very bearish and that perhaps in a little while the bear will go to sleep and things will get better. ...
- Good grief, Charlie Brown
By MICHAEL D. CLARK
(Houston Chronicle, October 27, 2006)
It's been 40 years and the Peanuts gallery is still waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Fans can revisit the old favorite on TV, DVD and in print. ... "We thought we had just ruined Peanuts," says Mendelson. "We had just done A Charlie Brown Christmas and we weren't sure about it, and the network executives didn't like it much, either. Half the country tuned in and did like it, though. "Suddenly we got six months to make a Halloween special." ...
Far from ruining Peanuts, the specials helped the strip run for nearly 50 years. Schulz died Feb. 13, 2000, but many newspapers continue to run Classic Peanuts - or strips taken from the many that have already run. Another nod to the popularity of the Peanuts gang is Schulz's spot on the Forbes list of top-earning dead celebrities. Each year, Schulz has come in just behind Elvis Presley.
- Frank's passing another reminder to embrace the past
(Shreveport Times, October 27, 2006)
The passing of local music history legend Tillman Franks is another sad reminder that too much of our community's cultural history remains unknown and untapped by generations who grew up after changing times and tastes pushed the Louisiana Hayride out of the spotlight. Franks was both a performer on that first Hayride in 1948 and went on to guide and manage the careers of entertainers who would carve out successful careers in country music and rock 'n' roll. Would Elvis Presley have found his stage or Johnny Horton his niche without Franks? Regardless of the answer, the fact is Franks was indeed there, trailblazing the role of nurturing protector and adviser that successful music managers would fill. ...
- You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog, So To Speak, Judge Tells Union
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
(New York Sun, October 27, 2006)
It takes no more than 15 unionized musicians to play enough rock 'n' roll for an Elvis Presley-inspired Broadway musical, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The ruling, by Judge Kenneth Karas of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, sides against New York's musicians' union. The union, the Local 802, had argued that the 2005 show, "All Shook Up," had to employ a minimum of 18 in the orchestra pit.
The case began with a question that is sure to arise again in New York theater circles: Is the traditional Broadway full-pit orchestra usually required by the musicians' union contract likely to interfere with efforts to capture the early-Elvis sound?
Judge Karas declined to rule on that. Instead, in a 15-page decision filled with references to Elvis's songs, Judge Karas focused on a 2003 agreement between the union and the League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc. The agreement sets the minimum number of musicians that producers must hire when putting on a Broadway musical. The numbers vary for different theaters. Disagreements over those numbers prompted a strike in 2003, shutting Broadway down for nearly a week.
The current case involved the first attempt since the strike in which a producer sought an exemption to those minimums on artistic grounds, the director of labor relations for the League of Theatres and Producers, Seth Popper, said.
|
