ELVIS WEEK

[Chuck Mangione]

Happy Elvis week.

Listening to this collection of his more sentimental love song type stuff, to kick things off:

[Chuck Mangione]

Elvis fucking Presley
[youtube][/youtube]

[Silent Majority]

Listen to Presley on guitar. The man should never have put it down.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Wolter]

For the record, if anyone thinks Elvis never did anything good after Sun/the Army/whatever arbitrary moment he ceased being "cool," then From Elvis In Memphis is your refutation/revelation.

[Heston]

Is any criticism allowed or is this purely a celebration of the fat bastard's music?

[matedog]

Is any criticism allowed or is this purely a celebration of the fat bastard's music?

He's ripe for some ribbing right?

[Dr. Medulla]

Is any criticism allowed or is this purely a celebration of the fat bastard's music?

He's ripe for some ribbing right?

I've got a feeling the answer is no.

[matedog]

[Wolter]

Criticism is fine. The man was amazing, but flawed Just remember that any criticisms of Elvis will be met with reminders that:

1. KISS and Starship exist.
2. If Elvis covered Black Diamond it would have OWNED the KISS version.

[Heston]

Criticism is fine. The man was amazing, but flawed Just remember that any criticisms of Elvis will be met with reminders that:

1. KISS and Starship exist.
2. If Elvis covered Black Diamond it would have OWNED the KISS version.

So that'll mean you'll refrain from criticizing ANYONE in future, Dimebag?

[matedog]

Criticism is fine. The man was amazing, but flawed Just remember that any criticisms of Elvis will be met with reminders that:

1. KISS and Starship exist.
2. If Elvis covered Black Diamond it would have OWNED the KISS version.

So that'll mean you'll refrain from criticizing ANYONE in future, Dimebag?

I found a cool video of Warrant playing in the early 90's right as grunge was coming into vogue and they were getting trash thrown at them and Dimebag came out and sang on the chorus ("Down Boys") with them.

[Wolter]

No, Vinnie. Some of us don't get our ankh in a bunch when our heroes turn out to have feet of makeupless clay.

[Dr. Medulla]

For the record, if anyone thinks Elvis never did anything good after Sun/the Army/whatever arbitrary moment he ceased being "cool," then From Elvis In Memphis is your refutation/revelation.

Criticism is fine. The man was amazing, but flawed

Okay, I'll bite. I won't say he didn't do anything good post-Army, but the drop in quality is astounding. Whether he got supremely lazy, spoiled, or lacked a capacity to say no to Tom Parker with all those awful movies (albeit awfully entertaining from another perspective) with even worse songs, taken as a whole his post-Army career is but a shadow of what he did when he first burst forth. Reminds me of Lydon in that respect—a mind-blowing initial output followed by ever-diminishing returns that make one wish he'd just stop. Elvis was undeniably talented but for the most part he squandered that talent once he'd made it.

[Wolter]

For the record, if anyone thinks Elvis never did anything good after Sun/the Army/whatever arbitrary moment he ceased being "cool," then From Elvis In Memphis is your refutation/revelation.

Criticism is fine. The man was amazing, but flawed

Okay, I'll bite. I won't say he didn't do anything good post-Army, but the drop in quality is astounding. Whether he got supremely lazy, spoiled, or lacked a capacity to say no to Tom Parker with all those awful movies (albeit awfully entertaining from another perspective) with even worse songs, taken as a whole his post-Army career is but a shadow of what he did when he first burst forth. Reminds me of Lydon in that respect—a mind-blowing initial output followed by ever-diminishing returns that make one wish he'd just stop. Elvis was undeniably talented but for the most part he squandered that talent once he'd made it.

I would never say otherwise. He had no fucking quality control and while there are always random gems, he was never as good post-Army...or even close. Laziness, substance abuse, weak will, a desperate desire to be a star in all media, the loss of his mother, whatever, there was a drop.

However, from about 1968-1971 or so, he got a lot of that spark back, and with an amazing set of sidemen and a mature voice, he had a hell of a short-term career Renaissance. I am speaking of the kind of person who writes off his entire career after an arbitrary set point, and refuses to even give the later Elvis a try. I'm willing to say that the post-comeback, Pre-lounge act Elvis is every bit as good in a different way as the Hillbilly Cat period on Sun or the early King of Rock 'n' Roll years when he was the biggest star on earth.

Sooner or later, Olaf will pop up with a more spirited defense of the Jumpsuit Years than I care to, but up through even the mid-70s, he could definitely turn on some amazing performances when the stars aligned.

[Flex]

I pretty easily listen to 68-71(ish) era Elvis more than the pre-army stuff. The peanut-to-shit ratio may be way out of whack relative to his earlier career, but when it works it works for me better than anything else in his catalog.