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Guess What...I Saw Elvis The Other Day...
He Passed Me by To Say Hi...& To Tell Me To...
Thus Live Each & Every Moment Of Life Given To The Fullest
Within Each & Every Moment Thus Given Forth...& So...
"If we Never Meet Again"
(Words & music by Albert E. Brumley)
Soon we'll come to the end of life's journey
And perhaps never meet anymore
Till we gather in heaven's bright city
Far away on that beautiful shore
If we never meet again this side of heaven
As we struggle through this world and its strife
There's another meeting place somewhere in heaven
By the side of the river of life
Where the charming roses bloom forever
And where separations come no more
If we never meet again this side of heaven
I will meet you on that beautiful shore
Thus In Tribute & Loving Memory Of
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935–August 16, 1977),
was an American singer, musician and actor. He is a cultural icon,
often known as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", or simply "The King".
Presley began his career as one of the first performers of rockabilly, an uptempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing "african" and "european" sounds, made him popular—and controversial—as did his uninhibited stage and television performances. He recorded songs in the rock and roll genre, with tracks like "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock" later embodying the style. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including gospel, blues, ballads and pop. To date, he is the only performer to have been inducted into four music halls of fame.
Thus Remember When...Time Stood Still...&...
I'll Remember You...
I'll remember you
Long after this endless summer is gone
I'll be lonely oh so lonely
Living only to remember you
I'll remember you
Your voice as soft as the
warm summer breeze
Your sweet laughter, mornings after
Ever after, Ooooh, I'll remember you
To your arms someday I'll return to stay
Till then...
I will remember too
Every bright star we made wishes upon
Love me always, promise always
Ooooh, you'll remember too
I'll remember you
For...
Presley's recorded voice is seen by many as his enduring legacy. Henry Pleasants writes: "Elvis Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion. The voice covers two octaves and a third... Moreover, he has not been confined to one type of vocal production. In ballads and country songs he belts out full-voiced high G's and A's that an opera baritone might envy. He is a naturally assimilative stylist with a multiplicity of voices—in fact, Elvis' is an extraordinary voice, or many voices."
Gospel tenor Shawn Nielsen, who sang backing vocals for Presley, said: "He could sing anything. I've never seen such versatility... He had such great soul. He had the ability to make everyone in the audience think that he was singing directly to them. He just had a way with communication that was totally unique."
Other celebrated pop and rock musicians have acknowledged that the young Presley inspired them. The Beatles were all big Presley fans. John Lennon said: "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been a Beatles." Deep Purple's Ian Gillan said: "For a young singer he was an absolute inspiration. I soaked up what he did like blotting paper... you learn by copying the maestro." Rod Stewart declared: "Elvis was the King. No doubt about it. People like myself, Mick Jagger and all the others only followed in his footsteps." Cher recalls from seeing Presley live in 1956 that he made her "realize the tremendous effect a performer could have on an audience."
'little darlin' above is dedicated to my friend Tacy
a truly lovely 'little darlin' blue rose in far off Blue Hawaii...
& to that era of music that we used to listen too on the radio &
dance along with as children with those young fantastic characters
of that be-bop-ing rocking time-space era known as our parents...
(seems still but as if just yesteryear)
However, in the late 1960s, composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein had remarked: "Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century. He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution... the 60's comes from it.
Presley's sound proved hard to categorize; he was billed or labeled in the media as "The King of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat" and "The Memphis Flash".
On August 15, 1955, "Colonel" Tom Parker became Presley's manager. By August 1955, Sun Studios had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill", all typical of the developing Presley style. Several major record labels had shown interest in signing Presley. On November 21, 1955, Parker and Phillips negotiated a deal with RCA Victor Records to acquire Presley's Sun contract for an unprecedented $35,000.
To increase the singer's exposure, Parker finally brought Presley to television (In March 1955, Presley had failed an audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts). He booked six Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show appearances (CBS), beginning January 28, 1956, when Presley was introduced by Cleveland DJ Bill Randle. Parker also obtained a lucrative two-show deal with Milton Berle (NBC).
On January 27, Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel," was released. By April it hit number one in the U.S., and sold one million copies. On March 23, RCA Victor released Elvis Presley, his first album. Like the Sun recordings, the majority of the tracks were country songs.
From April 23, he had two weeks at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip—billed this time as "the Atomic Powered Singer". His shows were badly received, by critics and the conservative guests. Presley saw Freddie Bell and the Bellboys live in Vegas, and liked their version of Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog". By May 16, he had added the song to his own act.
A few days after an April 3 appearance for The Milton Berle Show in San Diego, a near-fatal flight taking Presley's band to Nashville for a recording session left all three badly shaken. After more hectic touring, Presley returned to The Milton Berle Show on June 5 and performed "Hound Dog" (without his guitar). Singing it uptempo, he then began a slower version. His exaggerated, straight-legged shuffle around the microphone stand stirred the audience—as did his vigorous leg shaking and hip thrusts in time to the beat. Presley's "gyrations" created a storm of controversy—even eclipsing the 'communist threat' headlines prevalent at the time. The press described his performance as "vulgar" and "obscene".
Presley was obliged to explain himself on the local New York City TV show Hy Gardner Calling: "Rock and roll music, if you like it, and you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I have to move around. I can't stand still. I've tried it, and I can't do it."
The Berle shows drew such huge ratings that Steve Allen (NBC), not a fan of rock and roll, booked him for one appearance in New York. Allen wanted "to do a show the whole family can watch" and introduced a "new Elvis" in white bow tie and black tails. Presley sang "Hound Dog" for less than a minute to a Basset Hound in a top hat. According to one author, "Allen thought Presley was talentless and absurd...
[he] set things up so that Presley would show his contrition..." The day after (July 2), the single "Hound Dog" was recorded and Scotty Moore said they were "all angry about their treatment the previous night". (Presley often referred to the Allen show as the most ridiculous performance of his career.) A few days later, Presley made a "triumphant" outdoor appearance in Memphis at which he announced: "You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none.
I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight."
Country vocalists The Jordanaires accompanied Presley on The Steve Allen Show and their first recording session together produced "Any Way You Want Me", "Don't Be Cruel" and "Hound Dog". The Jordanaires would work with the singer through the 1960s.
Though Presley had been unhappy, Allen's show had, for the first time, beaten The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings, causing a critical Sullivan (CBS) to book Presley for three appearances for an unprecedented $50,000.
Presley's first Ed Sullivan appearance (September 9, 1956) was seen by some 55–60 million viewers. "Compared to moments on the Dorsey shows and on the Berle show, it was ice cream." On the third Sullivan show, Presley sang only slow paced ballads and a gospel song. The fact that Presley was only shown from the waist up and "stepped out in the outlandish costume of a pasha, if not a harem girl" during this last broadcast has led to claims that Sullivan had "censored" or even "buried" the singer, or that Colonel Parker had orchestrated the episode to generate publicity. In spite of any misgivings about the controversial nature of his performing style, Sullivan declared at the end of the third appearance that Presley was "a real decent, fine boy" and that they had never had "a pleasanter experience" on the show.
Controversial King... Cultural impact of Elvis Presley
When "That's All Right" was played, many listeners were sure Presley must be black, and most white disc-jockeys wouldn't play his Sun singles. However, black disc-jockeys didn't want anything to do with a record made by a white man, To some, Presley had undoubtedly "stolen" or at least "derived his style from the Negro rhythm-and-blues performers of the late 1940s." Some black entertainers, notably Jackie Wilson, countered, "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man’s music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."
Crowd frenzy at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, 1956
By the spring of 1956, Presley was becoming popular nationwide and teenagers flocked to his concerts. Scotty Moore recalled: "He’d start out, 'You ain’t nothin’ but a Hound Dog,' and they’d just go to pieces. They’d always react the same way. There’d be a riot every time." Bob Neal wrote: "It was almost frightening, the reaction... from teenage boys. So many of them, through some sort of jealousy, would practically hate him." In Lubbock, Texas, a teenage gang fire-bombed Presley's car.jm Some performers became resentful (or resigned to the fact) that Presley going on stage before them would "kill" their own act; he thus rose quickly to top billing. At the two concerts he performed at the 1956 Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, one hundred National Guardsmen were on hand to prevent crowd trouble.
To many adults, the singer was "the first rock symbol of teenage rebellion. ... they did not like him, and condemned him as depraved. Anti-Negro prejudice doubtless figured in adult antagonism. Regardless of whether parents were aware of the Negro sexual origins of the phrase 'rock 'n' roll', Presley impressed them as the visual and aural embodiment of sex." In 1956, a critic for the New York Daily News wrote that popular music "has reached its lowest depths in the 'grunt and groin' antics of one Elvis Presley" and the Jesuits denounced him in its weekly magazine, America. Even Frank Sinatra opined: "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people." Presley responded to this (and other derogatory comments Sinatra made) by saying: "I admire the man. He has a right to say what he wants to say. He is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it... This [rock and roll] is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago."
Presley was even seen as a "definite danger to the security of the United States." His actions and motions were called "a strip-tease with clothes on" or "sexual self-gratification on stage." They were compared with "masturbation or riding a microphone."
One Of My All=Time Elvis Favorites...June 1961...Memorable Time
Some saw the singer as a sexual pervert, and psychologists feared that teenaged girls and boys could easily be "aroused to sexual indulgence and perversion by certain types of motions and hysteria—the type that was exhibited at the Presley show." In August 1956, a Florida judge called Presley a "savage" and threatened to arrest him if he shook his body while performing in Jacksonville. The judge declared that Presley's music was undermining the youth of America. Throughout the performance (which was filmed by police), he kept still as ordered, except for wiggling a finger in mockery at the ruling.
(Presley recalls this incident during the '68 Comeback Special.)
Presley's informal jamming in front of a small audience in the '68 Comeback Special is regarded as a forerunner of the so-called 'Unplugged' concept, later popularized by MTV.
In 2002, The New York Times observed: "For those too young to have experienced Elvis Presley in his prime, today’s celebration of the 25th anniversary of his death must seem peculiar. All the talentless impersonators and appalling black velvet paintings on display can make him seem little more than a perverse and distant memory. But before Elvis was camp, he was its opposite: a genuine cultural force... Elvis’s breakthroughs are underappreciated because in this rock-and-roll age, his hard-rocking music and sultry style have triumphed so completely.
Thus Elvis Presley's death deprives our country of a part of itself.
He was unique and irreplaceable.
Thus seeing Elvis once again made me want to follow him,
but he told me it wasn't time yet, to wait but a bit longer.
& That i will be seeing him once again someday & then into
the divine distance he went, singing...You'll Never Walk Alone
Lost Elvis Photos To Go On Display at Graceland Friday, May 23rd, 2008
http://www.elvis.com/news/full_story.asp?id=1484
Recently rediscovered photos of Elvis performing at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1972 are going on display at Graceland starting Friday morning at 10AM Elvis time. That is when famed New York photographer George Kalinsky will cut the ribbon on the limited engagement photo exhibit.
The photos on display beginning Friday show Elvis performing in a white jumpsuit and cape during one of his four historic sell out concerts at Madison Square Garden in 1972.
Kalinsky, the official staff photographer for Madison Square Garden for 40 years, said he discovered the pictures while working on a billboard project called "Great Moments in New York" that now features an Elvis billboard in Times Square that Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. allowed to showcase Kalinsky’s work.
20 photos that were recently found by Kalinsky will be displayed for the first time in public as part of an exhibit called "Elvis Jumpsuits: All Access" in the lobby of the Sincerely Elvis Museum at Graceland Plaza.
FADE NOW TO "A DIVINE TRIBUTE TO THE KING
RETURNED OUT FROM THE GRAVE & BACK IN BLACK
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