early July 2007
- Teeing off: the Death Stars
Courtesy of the Henry Rollins show
(Huffington Post, July 12, 2007)
I felt bad for Fred Goldman and his family after his son Ron was killed along with Nicole Simpson many years ago. But my sympathies started to fray when I noticed that Mr. Goldman started making himself available to CNN and other news agencies for gratuitous purposes with annoying frequency. ... Nowadays, there seems to be an alarming number of people who make themselves into tabloid fuel when their famous friend or relative dies.
The status reports on the decomposition rates of James Brown and Anna Nicole Smith were pathetic and obscene. Don't tell me you're gutted about the loss of someone while you're a willing media circus chess piece and your tears smell like money. Here's what these people should do and it would make everyone happy: Don't stop the madness, sell it! Preserve the corpses a la Vladimir Lenin and put them on display in mood-lit and refrigerated museums with other famous dead people.
Can you imagine the line to view the bodies of Elvis Presley and JFK at Disney? The merchandising possibilities would be ... eternal! Think of all the famous people who would call their lawyers immediately to get the paperwork going and get their priority spot as dead celebs go into a prime time twilight zone! Plastic surgeons would rake in the big bucks on post mortem plastic surgery, putting a whole new spin on the phrase, "Live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse." With proper costuming and thoughtful lighting, Jack Nicholson could appear at the next 100 Academy Awards ceremonies. The families of the deceased could get lifetimes of royalties and the dead celeb becomes the stiff that keeps on giving. Advice to the celebrity looking for that life-changing PR move to reinvent yourself: DIE!
- Elvis co-stars mark 30 years since death
By WOODY BAIRD
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, July 10, 2007)
His movies weren't exactly works of art, but for the fans there was something magical about Elvis Presley on the big screen, dancing and flirting with one starlet after another. Presley has been dead nearly 30 years, but many of his on-screen girlfriends are still around - and they're still ready for their close-ups.
Suzanna Leigh, who played Presley's love interest in "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" in 1966, has organized an event next month to offer Elvis fans a rare chance to rub shoulders with up to two dozen of his movie-set buddies "It's sort of an Elvis reunion," Leigh said. "I'm bringing in a lot of co-stars, directors, people who worked with Elvis."
The three-day bash - with tickets ranging from $75 to $150 - is scheduled to begin Aug. 16, the anniversary of Presley's death in 1977 at his Memphis residence, Graceland. It will be one of more than 30 Elvis Week events in Memphis from Aug. 11-18. Annual festivities for Elvis Week, the highlight of the year for the Presley faithful, include concerts, fan-club get-togethers, teary eyed memorials, and, of course, screenings of his movies.
And this year, many of his former on-screen playmates will be in town for a gala, billed as "Night of a Thousand Stars," that will include a garden party, storytelling sessions, panel discussions, autograph-signing and a "glittering finale." "It will be magical on the last night," said Leigh, a British actress who starred in several B-grade vampire-and-horror flicks after her role with Elvis.
Presley made 31 feature films, in most of them playing - what else? - a good-looking, ultra-cool chick magnet. The films can hardly be confused with Academy Award contenders, but the Elvis faithful can't get enough of them. "The usual question they'll ask me is what was it like to kiss Elvis," said Leigh, setting up an obviously well-used line. "They'll ask was he good, and I often say, `I think he had some practice.'"
For many of Presley's co-stars, his films were career highlights. Leigh's autobiography, billed as a behind-the-scenes look into London's "swinging sixties in-crowd," plays on her Elvis connection in its title, "Paradise, Suzanna Style." "I tell stories about his sense of humor and how much fun we had on the set and how difficult the Colonel was," Leigh said, referring to Presley's longtime manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker.
In 1958, actress Jan Shepard played Mimi Fisher, the sister of Presley's leading character in "King Creole," his most critically acclaimed movie. "You knew if you got in that movie, it was going to be seen all over the world," said Shepard, who is also scheduled to take part in the Memphis event.
Though she described Presley as a brilliant actor, Shepard agreed with critics who say most of his movies were nothing to brag about. "You know what those movies were done for? To sell records," she said from her home in Hollywood. "Every movie had an album." Shepard, whose non-Elvis movies included the "Attack of the Giant Leeches," spent most of her career in television, with parts in numerous Westerns like "Gunsmoke" and "The Virginian."
Presley was held back from developing his acting talent to make quick-profit, formula movies, Shepard said, and his fans should hear from those who worked with him that he could have been a serious actor. "He was like part of their lives," she said. "It's 30 years since he's been gone, and I just think this (gathering of co-stars) is for the people."
Other Elvis-movie cohorts expected for the Memphis event include Pat Priest ("Easy Come, Easy Go"), Sue Ane Langdon ("Roustabout," "Frankie and Johnny"), Gloria Pall and Jennifer Holden ("Jailhouse Rock"), Gail Gilmore ("Girl Happy" "Harum Scarum") and Celeste Yarnall ("Live a Little, Love a Little). Some of Presley's better-known co-stars, like true-life love interest Ann-Margret, Nancy Sinatra and Mary Tyler Moore aren't scheduled to attend.
- WELCH: "ELVIS LOST SEX APPEAL WITH AGE"
(contactmusic.com, July 10, 2007)
Veteran actress RAQUEL WELCH confesses to a crush on late music legend ELVIS PRESLEY, but insists he lost his sex appeal with age. The 66-year-old, who starred alongside Presley in the 1964 movie Roustabout, recalls meeting the singer before his death in 1977 and was stunned to find he [was] less attractive, reports New York Post's Page Six. She says, "He was more packaged. His clothes were not the same, his hair was obviously dyed now, and it was sprayed into place... It was a whitewashed, cleaned-up Elvis. They took all the sex out of him." Welch also was not a fan of Presley's famous white suit. She says, "He looked almost like Liberace."
[Is this a news or a non-news item? Don't we all lose our sex appeal with age? - Presleys in the Press]
- Singers pay tribute to gospel great
(UPI, July 9, 2007)
American gospel music icon Thomas Dorsey, who wrote songs that comforted listeners for decades, was honored in Chicago in a tribute near his old church. Dorsey's wife of 52 years, Kathryn, greeted well-wishers Sunday during a tribute to Dorsey in Chicago across the street from his old church, Pilgrim Baptist, trying to rebuild after fire gutted it last year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday.
Dorsey, who wrote "Take My Hand, Precious Lord, and "Peace in the Valley," is credited with blending spirituals with a blues-oriented beat to create gospel sound. Mahalia Jackson sang "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," at the Rev. Martin Luther King's funeral. His hymns were covered by artists such as Elvis Presley, and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. ...
- All shook up about the Elvis cruise
By Judy Wells
(jacksonville.com, July 9, 2007)
It's all about the King, all the time, on special trip leaving from Jacksonville
Put on your blue suede flip-flops, Elvis lovin' Mamas, and pack your high-heeled tennis shoes. The spirit of the King is going to sea from JaxPort. The Elvis Cruise, commemorating the 30th anniversary of his death, promises to fill the Carnival Celebration with a whole lotta shakin' on the rolling, rolling sea Aug. 30-Sept. 3. It's the first time Elvis Presley Enterprises has licensed a cruise where the entire ship has been dedicated to the music, memory and persona of Elvis.
Jazz Cruises LLC has chartered all 1,486 berths of Celebration: "We are going to transform that whole ship into a world of Elvis," said Michael Lazaroff, executive director of Jazz Cruises. The trip to the Bahamas will include shows, along with host Jerry Schilling, a member of the Memphis Mafia; Elvis' backing bands The TCB Band, the Jordanaires and the Imperials; and Joe Guercio, the King's own music director.
Although there will be a contest for impersonators, Lazaroff said, "We are taking the music of Elvis and the life of Elvis very seriously. We're not trying to imitate it; we're trying to present it."
The Itinerary
Thursday, Aug. 30: Depart Jaxport, 4 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 31: Freeport, Bahamas, noon to 7 p.m.
Saturday. Sept. 1: Nassau, Bahamas, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 2: Day at sea.
Monday, Sept. 3: Arrive JaxPort, 7 a.m.
- Opinions split on whether tunnels under Temple existed
By Clay Coppedge
(Temple Daily Telegram, July 9, 2007)
Elvis Presley is said to have escaped one in a series of adoring throngs by sneaking through a series of tunnels that snaked underneath the streets of downtown Temple back in the early 1950s. Just because it didn't happen that way doesn't mean the underground tunnels didn't exist. Any number of old-timers will tell you that such a notion is nothing short of lunacy. Others will say that not only were there tunnels under the city - long since sealed up - but that they actually traversed those tunnels back in the day. Mark Erskine is one of those people. He used to use the tunnels to get from the old junior high school to the high school. ...
- Elvis appears in court
By Woody Phillips
(Sparta Expositor, July 9, 2007)
No, it isn't "April Fool's Day," and they haven't started serving cocktails at the White County Justice Center.
Elvis Presley was actually a defendant in White County General Session Court last Friday. Presley (not the one who sang "Blue Suede Shoes" or danced with Ann Margaret ), who listed a Center Point area address as his home, will now be residing at the White County Jail for the next nine months. Elvis, in his less-than-flattering orange jump suit, appeared before Judge Sam Benningfield last week on a violation of probation charge.
Upon checking with the booking department of the White County Jail after court on June 29, records indicated Presley had been originally arrested by Sparta Police Department, in 2001, on two separate charges. One was possession of drug paraphernalia, while the other was criminal impersonation.
One bystander in the courtroom quietly asked the question, "Who would Elvis want to impersonate?" The "bystander" said Tom Jones came to mind, as well as Wayne Newton, and a few others. However, the name that appeared on the arrest warrant was that of Randle Duncan.
A further check of Presley's past arrest record shows several violations of his original probationary period. It appears as though Elvis has made little, if any, progress in paying his accumulated court costs, fines and other fees. Another area where authorities said they hoped Presley would improve, if he were ever placed on probation again, is that of showing up for scheduled appointments. Another member of the audience (under his breath) added if Elvis should feel compelled to impersonate anyone else ever again, the next time he might want to give a thought to using a name more in line with the type of offense, such as George "No Show" Jones. ...
- 'American Pie' Was A Long, Long Time Ago: Don McLean Lives With The Song's Enduring Popularity, But He's Done Much More
(cbsnews.com, July 9, 2007)
When Don McLean wrote this song, "Castles in the Air," more than 35 years ago, he had no way of knowing that one day he would find himself a castle of sorts. Today he's living in what he describes as "an old estate, the kind they used to have at the turn of the century in what you would call the Gilded Age." Actually, "A Castle in the Air" is a pretty good description of his home, which is set on 175 mountaintop acres along the coast of Maine. For McLean, it's the culmination of a journey that began, "a long, long time ago."
In 1971 Don McLean was a struggling 25-year-old folk singer when he picked up his guitar to write a song for his second album. "I was up in a - in a - in a little bedroom of a little house that I had, and I started singing, 'A long, long time ago,''" he told Early Show co-anchor Russ Mitchell. "And I started writing it down. 'Oh, that sounds good. I like that,' you know. And then I - I started going with it and started - the - the - the memory of the death of Buddy Holly came - came along, and I - you know, but I didn't want to say that. So I - you know, I said, 'February made me shiver.' I just really went back in time to when I was a paperboy."
He was a 13-year-old paperboy on February 3, 1959, when he delivered the news that three pioneers of rock 'n' roll - Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly - had died in a plane crash. "I was always interested in the - in - in the American experience. And I suddenly, in my little head, I realized that I could use rock 'n' roll and the story of rock 'n' roll and forward-moving lyrics, starting with the death of Buddy Holly, to tell the story of America," he said. "American Pie" quickly became a number-one hit, and it's been a hit ever since. The song has been played on the radio more than 3 million times in the United States alone - an average of 274 times a day, 11 times an hour for the past 35 years. And still, to this day, wherever he goes, people continue to ask him: "What does it all mean?"
... McLean's house and land didn't come from just one song. There were other hits, like "Vincent," about painter Vincent van Gogh. McLean's rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying" was a number-one hit. Elvis Presley recorded a song McLean wrote called "And I Love You So," but it took Perry Como to make it into a hit. He has released more than 20 albums in the last 20 years, and has just completed another one, but "American Pie" is always front and center. ...
- Was this Woman Elvis' Girlfriend?
(Memphis Flyer, July 8, 2007)
Who the heck is Tura Satana and why is she saying these things about Elvis?
We thought we knew pretty everything there was to know about the King of Rock-and-Roll. Book after book has detailed his Tupelo upbringing, his rise to stardom, his "Memphis Mafia" pals, and his downward spiral. But then we stumbled upon the website nndb.com, which provides a bit more information about - well, just about anybody. And if you find the page devoted to Elvis Presley ("a pill-popping mama's boy hillbilly"), you'll see that it lists his albums, his movies, and - much to our surprise, links to his girlfriends and even "people he has slept with" (the folks at nndb make a polite distinction between the two).
And among the King's girlfriends is Tura Satana ("according to her"), described as "a former allied internment camp inmate" and star of such cult classics as The Astro-Zombies (1969) and The Doll Squad (1973). She even has her own website, and if you want to know more about an Elvis girlfriend you (and we bet quite a few others) have never heard of, go here. It's worth the visit.
- Depot Town hosting all things Elvis again: Weekend festival to draw thousands
(mlive.com / Ann Arbor News, July 8, 2007)
The annual celebration of all things Elvis returns to Ypsilanti for the eighth year next weekend. As many as 10,000 fans of legendary singer Elvis Presley will descend upon Riverside Park and the Depot Town district Friday and Saturday. Professional Elvis tribute artists will perform both days. Other events include a candlelight vigil, gospel hour and classic car show.
- Click Here: Tribute to The King
(Sacramento Bee, July 8, 2007)
It was 30 years ago in August that Elvis Presley ate one too many fried peanut-butter sandwiches and left the world to his impersonators. More Elvi (the plural of Elvis) than you can count will be on hand in Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 11-19 for Elvis Week activities; check it out at www.Elvis.com.
- Book review: I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon
By DORMAN T. SHINDLER
(Kansas City Star, July 7, 2007)
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, by Crystal Zevon (480 pages; Ecco; $26.95)
Although no comparison is being made stylistically, the memoir/biography of the late singer Warren Zevon, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, is one of the most interesting musical bios to come down the pike since Peter Guralnick's books on Elvis Presley and Sam Cooke. And it's the most entertaining contemporary biography since last year's National Book Critics Circle winner, Julie Phillips' James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon.
Though Zevon isn't as well known as Presley, he brought a quirkiness to the art of songwriting (and, indeed, performing) that was brilliant. Unfortunately there were plenty of times when Zevon managed to walk a thin line between lovable troublemaker and self-centered artiste. ... What makes I'll Sleep When I'm Dead a classic rock biography are the insights into Zevon's creative process (at one point, Zevon confides to a lover that he sees the songs "written out in formula," like mathematical equations) and the matter-of-fact tale of Zevon's flirtation with death via booze and pills. Only time will tell if Warren Zevon will be remembered for his artistic achievements, but it's fair to say that if he wasn't a bona-fide musical genius, he was as close as it gets in popular music.
- Teacher is 'The King' in spare time
By DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
(northjersey.com / HERALD NEWS, July 6, 2007)
By day, Anthony Liguori Jr. teaches voice and music theory to children at Most Sacred Heart of Jesus School. But at night, Liguori dons one of his many studded jumpsuits, slicks back his black hair with some Sebastian Grease pomade and pulls out one of his replica guitars to pay tribute to his favorite artist, "The King," Elvis Presley. "It's to keep the memory alive," Liguori said recently, dressed in a baby blue, beaded outfit with a broad, white-crocheted belt and matching white-leather shoes.
The 46-year-old Liguori had just finished performing a set of Elvis classics, including the groundbreaking "Hound Dog," with the requisite hip-swiveling and other Elvis gyrations. "He was one of a kind," Liguori said explaining why he loved the Mississippi-born rock 'n' roll icon known for such hits as "Blue Suede Shoes," "Jailhouse Rock," "Love Me Tender" and "Viva Las Vegas." "There were other great performers, like Frank Sinatra, but the sequined jumpsuits - the whole persona of Elvis becomes larger than life," he said. ...
Anthony Liguori Jr. poses in his Elvis garb at his home in Hackensack
- Rocking and Rolling for the Environment
By Bret Schulte
(usnews.com, July 6, 2007)
The music industry believes the best way to beat global warming is through an unprecedented blast of cool. Promoters are trumpeting Saturday's 24-hour global rock festival, Live Earth, as the largest multimedia education and entertainment effort ever launched. If all goes according to plan, music of more than 100 artists on all seven continents (members of the British Antarctic Survey will play their own brand of geek rock) will reach 2 billion people through television, satellite radio, and the Internet. In between sets and commercial sponsorships, they can expect plenty of lessons on carbon reduction and Earth science. The extravaganza launches with the concert in Sydney and concludes July 7 half a world away in Rio de Janeiro. For those living in the States, that means the rocking actually begins Friday at 10 p.m. ET.
XM Radio begins its live coverage at 9 p.m. ET and it will be broadcast at varying times throughout the 24-hour cycle on NBC's suite of channels, including MSNBC, Bravo, and CNBC. The concerts will also be streamed live at www.liveearth.msn.com. In their effort to draw an unparalleled audience, Al Gore and his team of music industry organizers have assembled an army of entertainers that comes as close as any ensemble in history to providing something for everyone‹at least under the international hipness ceiling of age 35. The likes of American mega-acts Madonna, Kanye West, the Pussycat Dolls, Snoop Dogg, Smashing Pumpkins, the Police, and Metallica will join world artists such as pop and gospel star Angelique Kidjo of African nation Benin, Japanese rock act Abingdon Boys School, and German hip-hop star Lotto King Karl.
The festival continues the long, strange trip of rock-and-roll's impact on our social and political fabric-intentional or otherwise. U.S. News, with the help of rock-music historians, has assembled an unofficial, and no doubt incomplete, list of rock music moments that changed the world, perhaps, for the better.
It wasn't Elvis Presley's first TV appearance, but his gyrating, sexed-up rendition of "You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog" on the Milton Berle Show in 1956 sparked a firestorm among American parents and religious groups. Up to that point, Presley's moves had partly been obscured by his guitar. Shedding the instrument for the show, Presley's hips played louder than anything in pop music to that point, earning him the nickname "Elvis the Pelvis." That moment is largely credited with pushing black music and style into white American living rooms for the first time. "He made it a fact of life that the general public couldn't ignore anymore," says Glenn Gass, a music professor at Indiana University. In a subsequent TV appearance, Elvis was famously filmed by Ed Sullivan only from the waist up, but a new era of music, dance, and race was already born. The Elvis sensation sent record companies scrambling to play black music on the radio, launching the careers of black musicians like Little Richard and Chuck Berry. "It's not [Elvis's] first moment," Gass says. "But it's his finest."
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