Elvis Appreciation Thread

[Buffalo Souljah]

The city-billy was a displaced person, just like the youth of Paris in 1946. A new kind of sorrow comes into the music. The lyrics tell of broken marriages, poverty, homesickness, dislocation, and a refusal to accept the so-called middle-class values of the Northern cities, and the sexual ethics of respectable people. It is out of this background, not from the old world of the isolated valleys of subsistence farmers, with singers entertaining the folks in a country store, that Elvis Presley comes. It is Elvis Presley who established folk rock in its worldwide popularity. Presley’s lyrics may be commercialized and sentimentalized in large part but they too are alienated. Even at his most hackneyed he speaks from outside the dominant culture. Like James Dean he was the physical type of the displaced youth created by our new technological society. All that was necessary during the next ten years was to improve technically his medium, get rid of the bad taste and commercialism, develop the music, and make every effort to keep the lyrics honest and at the same time use the words and music to push against the old patterns of thought towards a new sensibility that would be, by its very nature, unassimilable by the dominant culture and able to stand on its own. This is what happened. Elvis Presley was only one of several. They were all “show business” and capable of immensely profitable exploitation, but if it had not been for the craze they created it would have been far more difficult for their successors to overtake and surpass them. Business enterprise had opened a Pandora’s Box. from a much longer essay by Awesomeness Expert and Def Poet Kenneth Rexroth, which can be found in its entirety here. (http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/songs.htm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzV_0l5ILI

:thumbup1::thumbup1::thumbup1::thumbup1:

[Angry Young Man]

No.

[Axle]

Straight up racist that sucker was, simple and plain

[Pirate Utopian]

Motherfuck him and John Wayne!

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready and hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps

[punisa]

Elvis is the king

[Angry Young Man]

No.

[brigadista]

on Elvis presley i agree with NWA

he made his money stealing from black musicians - two words Chuck Berry!!!! Yeah

[Pirate Utopian]

Public Enemy, not NWA.

[Buffalo Souljah]

Oh, come on. What part of music doesn't involve "stealing"? I'm sure most of your music collections are "stolen". The fact is the man had a sound that defied the stereotypes of popular music and he developed it. Race is relative, we're all homo sapiens.

[son of man]

Agrees with Billy.

John Lennon said:

Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't of been Elvis there wouldn't have been The Beatles.

[Buffalo Souljah]

As to the other comments:


No.How am I supposed to respond to that? Get out of here or quit being contrarian... I want counterfactual arguments, not bickering.


Straight up racist that sucker was, simple and plain and:

he made his money stealing from black musicians - two words Chuck Berry!!!! Yeah So he stole from black music, so he liked black music--how does this make him racist? Paint a black face on him and he'd be the greatest singer ever? You're too concerned with race. If Obama "stole" black music, no one would say a word, even though he's just as white as I am black. Get out of the Stone Age and join the 21st Century!


Motherfuck him and John Wayne! Not even going to respond to that. Also, Lil' Wayne man? Come on. Point that finger right back around.:rolleyes:


Most of my heroes don't appear on no stampshttp://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4907690/2/istockphoto_4907690-karl-marx-postage-stamp.jpg
http://thejailbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/83-cuba-che-227x300.jpg

http://www.edsmart.com/stamps/topicals/sports/3186c.jpg
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_346/1229751114430DZv.jpg
http://temple3.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/malcolmx.jpg
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/5185129/2/istockphoto_5185129-william-shakespeare-postage-stamp.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1244/881642605_9571efbd12.jpg
http://www.suedickinson.co.za/stamps/nelson-mandela-c.jpg
What were you saying?:rolleyes:

[Stranger Than Paradise]

What were you saying?:rolleyes:

You'd have to tell that to Chuck D

So.... what's everyones favourite album? It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back or Fear of a Black Planet

[Buffalo Souljah]

I really enjoy his earlier stuff, but his later, more "somber" music has its high points as well... really digging "How Great Thou Art" lately. Suppose not the right crowd for that and all... humbug.:( Godless Jacobins, all of you.

[Tyrlop]

john wayne is nice

[Pirate Utopian]

Elvis is basically the "acceptable"/"cool" version of Pat Boone.

[Il Medico]

eh.

[brigadista]

Public Enemy, not NWA.

yeah you are right! i had an attack of havana club...

but seriously to others here - of course it was theft - in a time when black musicians didnt get royalties and were ripped off on contracts etc....do some research

[brigadista]

You'd have to tell that to Chuck D

So.... what's everyones favourite album? It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back or Fear of a Black Planet


cant choose - both!!!

[Angry Young Man]

As to the other comments:

How am I supposed to respond to that? Get out of here or quit being contrarian... I want counterfactual arguments, not bickering.

No.

and:
So he stole from black music, so he liked black music--how does this make him racist?
I'm sure racists have eaten peanut butter, and I wager some of them rather like it.


Not even going to respond to that. Also, Lil' Wayne man? Come on. Point that finger right back around.:rolleyes:

No.

[Knight of Cydonia]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzV_0l5ILI

the best of elvis ( as far as i know)

[The Red Next Door]

Thieving fatty fat fat.

[Axle]

So he stole from black music, so he liked black music--how does this make him racist? Paint a black face on him and he'd be the greatest singer ever? You're too concerned with race. If Obama "stole" black music, no one would say a word, even though he's just as white as I am black. Get out of the Stone Age and join the 21st Century!


What made him a racist was the fact that he was a racist. Liking black music didn't have a whole lot to do with it.

And likewise, I don't hate Elvis' music because he was a racist. I hate Elvis' music because it's the most overrated, unoriginal crap ever recorded. He was incredibly derivative of black music at the time...music that wasn't getting attention because it was played by black musicians...then along Elvis comes and slaps a white face on it and it becomes popular overnight.

[Angry Young Man]

It feels a bit depressing that I've got more thanks for comically saying 'no' than for what I felt was a valid point. People wonder why I'm always in chit chat :(

[Buffalo Souljah]

What made him a racist was the fact that he was a racist. Liking black music didn't have a whole lot to do with it.

And likewise, I don't hate Elvis' music because he was a racist. I hate Elvis' music because it's the most overrated, unoriginal crap ever recorded. He was incredibly derivative of black music at the time...music that wasn't getting attention because it was played by black musicians...then along Elvis comes and slaps a white face on it and it becomes popular overnight.


Underlining and bolding your text doesn't any more prove your point. Bring me some evidence or stop talking.


]It feels a bit depressing that I've got more thanks for comically saying 'no' than for what I felt was a valid point. People wonder why I'm always in chit chatQuite possibly, it's because you don't ever make valid points?

[Angry Young Man]

Underlining and bolding your text doesn't any more prove your point. Bring me some evidence or stop talking.

Quite possibly, it's because you don't ever make valid points?

Have you scoured through my entire post history to say that?

[Nwoye]

It feels a bit depressing that I've got more thanks for comically saying 'no' than for what I felt was a valid point. People wonder why I'm always in chit chat :(
I actually think it has more to do with the fact that your post was one of the first of the thread, while the post you're referring to is reiterating a point (a good one) that's been made several times already. People don't want to give thanks over and over again if people are making the same arguments/points.

[Y Chwyldro Comiwnyddol Cymraeg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sed8IjdXdGk

[Sankofa]

Elvis Presley isn't the "king" of shit. He and other white musicians of the time never had an original concept or style, it was all stolen from Black musicians who couldn't appeal to white audiences.

People like Elvis grew rich and famous while the original artists never got any credit or royalties for their work.

Case in point, one of Elvis's best known hits, Hound Dog (1956) was stolen from a Black woman, Big Mama Thorton, who recorded the song a full three years before Elvis and others started doing "covers" of it.

5XUAg1_A7IE

[Y Chwyldro Comiwnyddol Cymraeg]

Im sure I saw an interview with Ike Turner and he said he played this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0

and the owner of Sun Records said he'd make millions if he found a white bloke who could play this sort of music and along came Elvis!