early March
- Late guitar god is enjoying a resurgence, thanks to a new album and an all-star tribute tour
By McClatchy - Tribune News Service
(Star Tribune (Minneapolis), March 14 2010)
Elvis and Michael better watch out. Jimi is making a move.
Forty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix is enjoying the kind of a resurgence in the posthumous rock-star derby that might rival the sales of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. Last week, Hendrix's estate released the first bona fide "new" Jimialbum in decades (the often awesome, occasionally underwhelming"Valleys of Neptune," recorded mostly in 1969) as well as deluxeremastered versions of his three landmark studio albums. A Hendrix "Rock Band" video game is promised this year, and there's talk of a Jimi "Anthology" a la the Beatles.
There's a concert tour called "Experience Hendrix" -- an all-star revue of guitar heroes, including Joe Satriani, Robert Randolph, Ernie Isley and Jonny Lang, performing tunes from the Hendrix catalog. ...
- Elvis' clash with media on view at Newseum in DC
By Brett Zongker
(deseretnews.com / Associated Press, March 14 2010)
A spark that helped ignite Elvis Presley's fame more than 50 years ago was lit by the newspaper editors and critics who hated him. They detested his voice and thought his moves were unfit for family publications, all while teenagers went wild. It's that shocking style and clash with the media that also will make Elvis the subject of a new exhibition at the Newseum, a history museum that celebrates the First Amendment in Washington.
"Newspapers in the mid-'50s viewed themselves as arbiters of social values, and they felt they should be among the ones to speak most loudly when they saw someone threatening America's mores," said Ken Paulson, the Newseum's president and former editor of USA Today. "What's interesting is that fiercely negative coverage drove Elvis' fame. ... After the national news coverage kicked in, he was the king of rock 'n' roll."
Elvis' two years of service in the U.S. Army, though, was a turning point. Parents couldn't hate him anymore, and the news media eventually came along, too.
The exhibit opening March 19 traces Elvis' rise in the 1950s - in part a study in image management by his longtime manager, Col. Tom Parker -- to his meeting with President Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970.
It will include rare objects from Presley's life, some never before displayed outside of Graceland and others never before publicly displayed anywhere.
Objects in the collection include Elvis' 1957 Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was key to his rebel image, his first Grammy Award for "How Great Thou Art" in 1968, the overcoat and gold belt Elvis wore to meet Nixon at the White House, and the Bureau of Narcotics badge the president gave Presley. He had requested to be made a "federal agent-at-large" to help fight drug use.
Many documents will be displayed for the first time, including the 1955 exclusive management contract Elvis and his parents signed, giving Parker 25 percent of his income. (Later, in the 1970s, Parker's stake rose to an unprecedented 50 percent.)
"If you're a die-hard Elvis fan, you either love Colonel or you hate Colonel," said Angie Marchese, Graceland's director of archives who helped develop the exhibit. "It's like everything that Colonel did for Elvis in the 50s, would Elvis have been as big of a pop culture phenomenon without Colonel? Probably not.
"But every relationship like that draws scrutiny." ...
- Music Review: Elvis Presley - On Stage: Legacy Edition
By David Bowling
(blogcritics.org, March 11 2010)
On Stage: Legacy Edition is the latest release celebrating the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth.
Elvis had not performed live in eight years when he took the stage at The International Hotel in Las Vegas for four weeks during the summer of 1969. He returned for another month of performances in early 1970. A number of the songs from 1969 formed the live disc of the two record set From Memphis To Vegas From Vegas to Memphis which was released during the fall of 1969 plus ten songs from the 1970 shows were released as On Stage during June of 1970. The albums were commercially successful receiving gold and platinum sales awards respectively.
RCA/Legacy has now combined this series of concerts into a two CD set. Each disc contains an original album plus bonus tracks. The sound has been scrubbed and cleaned and a booklet with photos plus a three thousand word essay gives a history of the performances and the albums.
I have most of the Elvis catalogue on vinyl and his 1969 concerts remains my favorite live performances. It presents a young, clean, and in shape Elvis at the top of his game. The patter with the audience shows a nervousness but makes the album have an intimate appeal that his later live work lacks.
His 1969 concerts concentrate on his early material and he presents it well as he had not performed it hundreds of times. During his last years this material would be presented quickly and many times in a truncated form. Here such classic songs as "Blue Suede Shoes," "All Shook Up," and "Hound Dog" quickly show why Elvis was The King Of Rock 'N' Roll. His medley of "Mystery Train/Tiger Man" is more straight forward rock while "My Babe" has toughness to it. His hits of the day, "In The Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds" provide a nice balance to the concert. The only real miss for me was a cover of the Bee Gees hit "Words."
There are six bonus songs included and the first three are nice additions and continue the resurrection of his classic rock material. "I Got A Woman," "Jailhouse Rock/Donšt be Cruel," and "Heartbreak Hotel" are all given good work-outs.
The second disc, which represents his 1970 performances, finds a far different Elvis. His concert repertoire had begun to change to more modern cover songs and this disc represents that trend. 'See See Rider," which would be overdone through the years, sounds fresh here. An early version of "Polk Salad Annie" and his only hit, "The Wonder Of You," to be included on the original release are both performed well. Such songs of the day as "Sweet Caroline," "Proud Mary," and "Walk A Mile In My Shoes" all benefit from his wonderful vocals but I would have preferred more of his own material from his vast catalogue.
The bonus tracks are more to my liking. "Don't Cry Daddy," and "Kentucky Rain" are two of his better songs from this part of his career. The rocking "Long Tall Sally" is great even if a little out of place given the other material. A rehearsal of "The Wonder of You" completes the album.
On Stage: Legacy Edition is a fine addition to the Elvis Presley catalogue. It combines some of his best live work into one package and has the sense to keep the flow of the original albums and concerts intact. While the material has been previously issued, it should prove pleasing to his vast fan base.
- Lil Wayne Going To Jail Is Like Elvis Being Drafted, Bun B Says: 'I don't think anything like this has happened in music since Elvis got drafted into the Army,' he says
(mtv.com, March 9 2010)
By Shaheem Reid
Bun B has been friends with Lil Wayne since he was a teenager. The Houston legend said having Wayne out of the music game for a year will be a greater loss than people are realizing.
"I feel bad, because I don't think anything like this has happened in music since Elvis got drafted into the Army," Bun B said. " ... Let's just keep it real: Lil' Wayne is not just the biggest rapper, Lil Wayne is the biggest pop star right now. Maybe Susan Boyle is on his level. But when you talk about music, nine times out of 10, Lil Wayne's name is gonna come into the conversation. I feel bad for any brother or any sister that's gotta go to jail. I feel especially bad for a person like Lil Wayne who's really riding the wave right now. But he don't have a lot of time. He's doing it on the Island. As wild and as ill as the Island is, I think at the same time, he'll be all right. When you in that state jail and you dealing with those lifers, you got a lot of other issues at hand." ...
"I feel bad, because I don't think anything like this has happened in music since Elvis got drafted into the Army," Bun B said. " ... Let's just keep it real: Lil' Wayne is not just the biggest rapper, Lil Wayne is the biggest pop star right now. Maybe Susan Boyle is on his level. But when you talk about music, nine times out of 10, Lil Wayne's name is gonna come into the conversation. I feel bad for any brother or any sister that's gotta go to jail. I feel especially bad for a person like Lil Wayne who's really riding the wave right now. But he don't have a lot of time. He's doing it on the Island. As wild and as ill as the Island is, I think at the same time, he'll be all right. When you in that state jail and you dealing with those lifers, you got a lot of other issues at hand." ...
- OLD PREJUDICES CAN ENDURE EVEN AMONG THE YOUNG
(news.yahoo.com, March 8 2010)
By Cynthia Tucker
... Still, every now and then, even the young folks stumble and become entangled in the old prejudices, rigid racial boundaries and cultural cliches. That seems to be the case with the controversy that erupted after a group of fancy-stepping white sorority sisters from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville -- members of Zeta Tau Alpha -- won an Atlanta dance competition sponsored by Sprite, the soft drink label, last month.
The members of Zeta Tau Alpha were the only white competitors to make the national round of the step contest -- "stepping" is a style created and dominated by black fraternities and sororities -- and their victory hasn't been universally celebrated. A bitter, racially tinged debate broke out over urban radio and in the blogosphere, with some black critics charging that a black sorority was cheated out of a rightful first-place finish.
Anthony Antoine, an AIDS-prevention coordinator, inadvertently helped to spark the controversy when he posted a video of ZTA's performance online. He had judged them winners, and he wanted to share the show with his girlfriend, who didn't attend. He never expected a full-fledged racial fracas.
The vituperation has been "disheartening," Antoine, who is black, said. "If your reason for saying they shouldn't have won is because they're white, what does that say about where we are?" he asked.
... Besides, the competition could have been one of those eloquent "teaching moments" that combined several lessons for young adults. They might have been reminded, first off, that in the real world, you don't always get a trophy. Second, those who accused ZTA of "stealing" from black performers might have learned that cultural assimilation has always been a fact of life in this diverse country. (See Elvis Presley.) Indeed, some dance historians believe that tap dance grew out of 19th-century neighborhoods where free blacks and Irish immigrants lived in close proximity and combined native dance traditions. ...
- Michael Jackson's 'penniless' brother to auction off Elvis Presley jacket to clear debt
(newkerala.com, March 6 2010)
Michael Jackson's older brother Tito has reportedly been forced to place a rare Elvis Presley jacket under the hammer to clear debts worth 17,000 pounds.
The 56-year-old was purportedly forced to let go off the item after former friend Matt Fiddes filed a lawsuit against him over an unpaid 12,000-pound bill."After Fiddes won the action, which was a third-party debt-order, bailiffs were sent in to recover the money from Tito Jackson's London agent Ron Winter, who is contesting the order," the Daily Star quoted a source as saying.
"Goods included a rare Elvis Presley jacket, allegedly a gift from Lisa Marie Presley. A load of gold and silver record discs were also seized, including one for soul star Al Green and another for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Ovation. The bailiffs also seized original film posters for Scarface, Goodfellas and The Godfather," the source added. ...
- Hit made-for-TV biopic 'Elvis' now out on eagerly awaited DVD
(Memphis Commercial Appeal, March 5 2010)
In 1962, in a scene in Elvis Presley's 12th movie, "It Happened at the World's Fair," child actor Kurt Russell was required to kick the famous rock-and-roll singer in the shin.
Elvis put a pad on and Kurt missed the pad and really kicked him, and it hurt," recalled longtime Elvis friend and actor Red West. "I can still it now. I was sitting right there, watching it."
What goes around comes around. Seventeen years later, Russell would be asked to feel Presley's pain -- on a much deepter level -- when he starred in the first Presley biopic, "Elvis," a sympathetic ABC made-for-TV meovie that became one of the highest-rated films ever when it aired on Feb. 11, 1979, less than 18 months after the singer's shocking death at the age of 42. ...
... Long-sought by fans, "Elvis" made its overdue DVD debut Tuesday, on the Shout! Factory label. ...
- MJ, Elvis Presley, Britney Spears outfits up for grabs
(newkerala.com, March 3 2010)
Fashion outfits that once wrapped Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Britney Spears are up for sale in an online memorabilia auction.
The midtown shop Gotta Have is auctioning off more than 570 pop culture artefacts, from Bono''s rosary beads to Britney Spears'' fishnet pantyhose.
Minimum bids at the gottahaverockandroll.com sale were said to be 10,000 dollars for Elvis' red suede jacket and 15,000 dollars for Jackson's vintage orange jumpsuit. "They are iconic items. You can identify who wore them the minute you see them," the New York Daily News quoted store co-owner Peter Siegel as saying. The memorabilia also includes a gold tunic rocked by Sir Paul McCartney, a polka-dotted waistcoat worn by Prince and two small pieces of unlined paper on which Bob Dylan hand-printed, the lyrics to "Just Like a Woman."
- Crowd all shook up as Elvis plays in Belfast
(belfasttelegraph.co.uk, March 3 2010)
By ANDREW JOHNSTON
Elvis Presley never played outside of the United States during his lifetime, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology, the legend lives again.
Officially sanctioned by the singer's estate, Elvis Presley in Concert is a King-size multimedia extravaganza, with material spanning from That's All Right to An American Trilogy. The show came to Belfast's Odyssey Arena last night, where several thousand fans clapped and cheered along with the 'virtual' King. He thanked them (very much), he told corny jokes and he handed garlands of flowers to fans in the video's front rows.
The star's Ulster followers bought into the concept from the start. Video footage of Elvis in the 1960s and 1970s integrated seamlessly with a live 16-piece orchestra and some of Presley's original band members. It was the closest we'll get to the real thing this side of reincarnation or DNA cloning.
Elvis hasn't quite left the building.
- MJ, Elvis Presley, Britney Spears outfits up for grabs
(newkerala.com, March 3 2010)
New York, March 3 : Fashion outfits that once wrapped Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Britney Spears are up for sale in an online memorabilia auction.
The midtown shop Gotta Have is auctioning off more than 570 pop culture artefacts, from Bono''s rosary beads to Britney Spears'' fishnet pantyhose. >Minimum bids at the gottahaverockandroll.com sale were said to be 10,000 dollars for Elvis'' red suede jacket and 15,000 dollars for Jackson''s vintage orange jumpsuit. "They are iconic items. You can identify who wore them the minute you see them," the New York Daily News quoted store co-owner Peter Siegel as saying. The memorabilia also includes a gold tunic rocked by Sir Paul McCartney, a polka-dotted waistcoat worn by Prince and two small pieces of unlined paper on which Bob Dylan hand-printed, the lyrics to "Just Like a Woman."
- State to create country music trail
By Carlie Kollath / NEMS Daily Journal
(nems360.com, March 3 2010)
Musician Marty Stuart on Monday officially announced the creation of the Mississippi Country Music Trail. The trail has 30 markers, including six in Northeast Mississippi. Tupelo will get a marker as the birthplace of Elvis Presley.
The country music trail, according to the Mississippi Development Authority, will be similar to the Mississippi Blues Trail, which has more than 100 markers in Mississippi and four other states.
Stuart made the announcement at a luncheon held at the Tupelo Automobile Museum. The event was part of the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism, which is wrapping up today at the BancorpSouth Arena and the BancorpSouth Conference Center.
Earlier in the conference, MDA officials mentioned other trails in the works, including culinary and literature. But music is in the spotlight this year, thanks to the state's tourism slogan of "the birthplace of America's music."
The markers feature a variety of country music artists, including Jimmie Rodgers, Charley Pride, Conway Twitty, Jerry Clower, Faith Hill, Tammy Wynette, Mac McAnally and Stuart.
The region's other markers will go in Belmont, Smithville, Tremont and Chickasaw County, which has two. No timeline was announced for the installation of the markers.
In a press release from MDA, Stuart was credited for lobbying the state's Senate to pass legislation that would create the trail. "I want to tell the story of Mississippi music to the world," Stuart said during the announcement.
- Indicted Blagojevich Lectures on Ethics, 'Testicular Virility'
By John McCormick
(businessweek.com, March 3 2010)
Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who faces a June trial on federal corruption charges, noted the oddity of being chosen to deliver a lecture on government ethics at a college campus last night. "Many of you must think it's kind of ironic that I would agree and accept an opportunity to come here and talk to you about ethics in government," he said at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. "For all the courage and testicular virility you think you have, if I did the things they said I did, and I did wrong things like they want you to believe I did, I'd be nowhere near this event."
Blagojevich, 53, spoke in front of about 1,000 people at an event billed as "Ethics in Politics: An Evening with Former Governor Rod Blagojevich," sponsored by student Democrats at the school.
The Democrat has maintained a high profile since the December 2008 arrest that cost him his governorship. He has made numerous television appearances to promote a book he authored last year and debuts as a contestant later this month on NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," a reality television program that features Donald Trump.
The former governor started his speech by echoing remarks made by one of his heroes, Elvis Presley, at a press conference at Madison Square Garden in 1972. "I want to quote Elvis and tell you: I am innocent of all charges," he said, adding that he was "illegally and unethically hijacked from office." ...
|
