Breaking news! Elvis Presley is dead!
Not that you’d know it, though. His songs are clogging up the charts like all those deep-fried burgers clogged up his colon. He was also on TV last night, in ITV’s Elvis By The Presleys, soon to be released in a longer version (DVDs).
And to top it off, a new book – also called Elvis By The Presleys (Books) – was launched in London yesterday with a book signing by Priscilla Presley, Elvis’s former wife.
And, predictably, hundreds of people turned up.
More than 500 Elvis fans started queueing outside Waterstones in Oxford Street from 6.30 in the morning, to get their book signed by Priscilla. The fans ranged from youngsters in their 20s up to couples in their 80s. There were also the mandatory appearances by the Elvis impersonators.
Leaving aside the creepy weirdness of writing a book about your dead husband, and then signing it for a group of people that like to dress up as him for a living, hecklerspray wants to know why was the book even written in the first place.
Is there such a huge need for another book about Elvis Presley? Surely every single millisecond of his life has already been forensically dissected by a thousand people, from critics to fans to any number of people on his payroll.
As long as there is still a glimmer of possibility that a little more cash can be squeezed out of Elvis, books and records and TV shows will still get made.
To know about somebody’s art, must you know everything about their personal lives? Are we expected to believe that this amount of intricate detail on public display would have been permitted had Elvis made it as a Septuagenarian? "Let’s dig out the Nazi uniform for the press, honey."
Doubtful.
So why not just let him rest? And it’s not just Elvis being repacked again and again, either. Think of a dead rockstar. Any dead rockstar. Go on, pick one…
Marc Bolan? A new compilation, Born To Boogie (CDs), came out on Monday.
Jimi Hendrix? A book, The Man, The Magic, The Truth (Books) was published only three months ago.
Marvin Gaye? A book, Mercy, Mercy, Me: The Art Love And Demons came out earlier this year.
Kurt Cobain? In the last six months, there’s been a 3CD boxset (CDs) and two DVDs.
And as for Tupac (CDs), far more albums have been released since he’s been dead than when he was actually alive.
Maybe it’s time to stop milking these dead performers. They’re dead, Get over it. And it’s not like there aren’t any talented artists that are alive. We’ve got 50 Cent, Daniel Bedingfield, the Crazy Frog…
Ok, so milk the dead guys a bit…
Kelkoo has great deals to stay at the Elvis Presley Heartbreak Hotel in Memphis
[story by Stuart Heritage]
Jim Burrows says
Please pass on these comments to Mr. Stuart Heritage.
Dear Mr. Heritage,
Hi!! With a last name such as yours, I earnestly have difficulty grasping why the matter of the continuous, unabated interest in Mr. Presley´s personal and private life is of particular distaste to you.
On the one hand, you can´t understand the tremendous heritage he left behind, whether as a prime mover in fusing two different musical idioms into a third, or, conversely, as the most eclectic vocalist of the last half of the 20th Century.
On top of that, and when at the top of the game, he was a prime mover in the establishment of the most durably sustainable musical form in history. Rock still is, even after 50 years, the most successful musical idiom out there, and whether you like it, or not, he is the person most identified with his early development.
What I find a bit surprising, if I can be frank with you, is your total lack of knowledge as to what made, and makes Presley so interesting in the first place. Does the word controversy ring any bells? And, just like the morons who tried, unsuccessfully if I may add, to halt his early career by unjustly criticizing him, you and a thousand others continue doing so, 28 years after he passed away, and over a half a century after he changed the course of popular music, forever. It will be to no avail, and here´s why.
Anyone who is as talented as Elvis Presley was, and with a fan base as extensive as was able to retain throughout the last 50 years, but who for no particular reason, is described, on paper, as “clogging up the charts like all those deep-fried squirrel burgers clogged up his colon, and whose every single millisecond (of his life) has already been forensically dissected by a thousand people” is certainly to survive, yet again, generation after generation, precisely because, my dear Mr. Heritage, unfair, almost sadistic criticism directed at a person as talented as Elvis, produces, demands, makes possible ( choose the verb you wish to), an equal, immediate dosage of interest in that person´s life from both the general, as well as the indiscriminating public.
You certainly, and seriously, can not expect anyone, or a legion of people for that matter, and here I am referring to the thousands, now perhaps millions of people navigating through the internet – many with enough common sense, and most of them really open minded, to read your article, then idly sit – be it in the comfort of their homes, or anywhere for that matter – and not be more, as oppossed to less, interested in the public, and private life of a person so described by the writer of the article? Do you see what I mean?
Had your article been drafted differently, then I would not even be writing to you, nor would have interest in Elvis be further enhanced.
So, you have two options, Mr. Heritage. Either you continue writing the way you do, about Presley I mean, and by doing so, strengthen the general public´s interest on him, or learn, the hard way, that the public, the general public, is not, by a mile, as prejudiced and as anti-historically minded as you obviously are. For only a person with little sense of pop music history would finish its article with the following phrase, and I quote:
“It’s not like there aren’t any talented artists that are alive. We’ve got 50 Cent, Daniel Bedingfield, the Crazy Frog…” Footnotes in the history of popular music, that is what they will become, and you can take this prediction, straigh to the bank.
Regards
Jim Burrows, from Brazil
Deborah Parker says
Mr Heritage,
Well I can see you are not worthy of your name. There is much more than fasination associated witht he interest in Elvis, there is many years of music heritage to be gained from the information that is released and yes re-released. Do those of us who are fans learn something we did not know? Of course. No one knows all the neuances of anyones life and we have a thirst for anything that brings us back to our youth or happier times.
We have a new generation that have discovered there is much more out there than gansters cursing and putting down the masses. I can be said the artists of today have the musical freedoms they have because of Elvis and his breakthroughs in the music industry.
So if you do not understand the fasination, you have a very small mind and narrow view of life. Maybe you should read the book or watch the DVD to maybe learn
Brenda Bahn-Moore says
Mr. Heritage,
How far off the mark can one get! You do not know what you are talking about when it comes to Elvis and his loyal, devoted fans. He changed music forever and will always be #1 in the heart of his fans. You wouldn’t understand since you, so obviously, are not a fan of his. Why not keep your utterly ridiculous opinions and writings to yourself. Priscilla, Lisa, and other family members and friends are doing what the fans want them to do. We care about what they have to say and write. So why not keep your mouth shut about this since you do not care. I heard about you from my Elvis Radio station on Sirius. You have stirred the pot, Mr. Heritage, and you will not like the responses you are going to get from this insane article. Leave Elvis and his family alone! Keep your narrow minded opinions to yourself.
Stuart Heritage says
OK – let’s clear this up. I am an Elvis fan. I like most of his output, especially the Million Dollar Quartet recordings with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.
That’s why I’m so annoyed, because I’m a fan. The Presley estate and BMG music are insinuating that if we don’t buy Elvis By The Presleys or all of the Presley musical catalogue in it’s new, repackaged formats, we are lesser fans. I’m not against the man or the music, just the marketing.
By the way, the link on the word ‘critics’ in the article takes you to a place where you can buy ‘Careless Love’ by Peter Guralnick. It’s a rather wonderful Elvis book that you should all buy.
vicki echerd says
you are a fan????????PALEEEESE
the voice of a thousand caribou says
This is just another moneyspinner isn’t it?
Elvis is a legend and always will be, but fan or not, you can surely see that this isn’t an act of charity, but an act of profitability. And damn good business sense. It doesn’t sully his music to do it, but it is what it is.
The writer is right to question the endless stream of the same things, although I’m not sure we’ve seen ELVIS DRESSED AS A NAZI before. What do you hardcore fans have to say about that?
‘Package, re-package, re-issue,’ as Morrissey would have it. Also a legend. Discuss/ignore.
camus says
The need for great art has never been greater. Imitation and repeat are not innovative. I’ll be back.
Flavio says
Elvis keeps coming back because he can.He had the talent.Most superior than most of all of our new singers together.
Money is making in many things, from the worst to the best things. At least Elvis worth the buck/money.
Elvis is still the King!!
carrie murphy says
i dont like what your writting about elvis,we all might not have known him personally but never the less we do know of him through his music and some of us do know him personally.some of us do and we treasure every moment.dont judge what u cant see,dont judge what you do not understand and dont judge someone you never met or felt companion.look at yourself before you do this.seems to me your the one thats trying to get attention
record company exec says
No, they are having a pop at the music business, not Elvis P’s talent or artistic credibility. That much is obvious.
melody goodman says
You have got to be kidding! Your a fan by calling Elvis a bloated corpse? He doesnt need fans like you!!! Fans dont ridicule Elvis if they are a fan!!! You have proven you have no intelligeince because of your statement of 50 cent being just as talented excuse me Elvis had more talent in his little toe than 50 cent has in his whole body!!! Get a clue guy, you are no fan and if you think you are then you are so misguided, Elvis doesnt need a “fan” like you!
Marjon Oldenburg says
REVISIT ELVIS’ MUSIC.
There is absolutely no one past or present, and I doubt in future, who comes anywhere near Elvis.
I love music, who doesn’t? There are many other singers/artists who I enjoy, past and present, and how I would love to have a smidgeon of their talent, but as far as I’m concerned noone touches Elvis, or ever will!
Before Elvis died I only had one of his albums, The Comeback Special, and a number of his EP,s & singles, after we lost him, I started seriously collecting his music, and I was just blown away by his repetoire (?) I didn’t realize until then just how fantastic an artist he was/is.
One just has to listen to some of his ballards to feel it, in some of his songs you can literally feel his pain.
As an singer, he’s the tops, he is equal to Michaelangelo, God’s Artist.
How much of his music have you listened to?
Is there a possibility that you are still in a time wharp? and haven’t heard his music past the 50’s, which is great too, but I wonder if you have heard a lot of Elvis’ later material.
I agree with Jim Burrows, and Deborah Park and Flavio.
As good as Roy Orbison, Dell Shannon, Jim Reeves, Frank Sinartra etc etc were, they weren’t as good as Elvis.
Who else had THAT power? He just got stronger and stronger, what shame his is not still with us today.
His voice just got better and better. He had a lovely personality, was generous to a fault. And those Looks!!!
It is not only his voice that is great, it is the whole package. Can you honestly name anyone who had/has all that? I don’t think so.
Do you enjoy music? How much have you heard? Radio stations only played a fraction of Elvis’ music, and it was the same songs. I know, because I worked in a couple of Radio Stations.
I was a huge fan before he died, but became an even greater one since then.
I for one don’t want to buy repitious albums and books. This new one by the Presleys is long overdue. Perhaps all this time had to pass for it to be done now, what with all the shock and grieving that the family needed to deal with in loosing him, perhaps they are sharing some things with us now that we would not have the privilage of,if the book had been done at an earlier time. I’m sure of it.
I have read the good, the bad and the proverbial about Elvis, but you HAVE to give it to him NO ONE comes near him. How good a singer, actor are you?
Do you know what it takes to sing, to do take after take after take till you are MAYBE 98% happy with the final cut? The stamina etc that one needs,song after song, session after session, year after year?
And by the way I think Elvis was hugely underrated as an actor, he was stifled by Tom Parker.
How long will most of us be remembered and adored after we have gone. A Year, a Decade, 20 years ? I think not.
“YOU SAW THE FACE,
YOU SAW THE LOOK,
YOU HEARD HIM ONCE,
AND YOU WERE HOOKED”, Marjon Oldenburg.
Jim Burrows says
To “the voice of a thousand caribou” on whether we`ve watched Elvis dressed up as Nazi.
Contemplate the scene. Go back to sometime in June,1956. It is 104 degrees in Biloxi, Mississippi. Elvis, with two # 1 records under his belt, is on a boat with his girlfriend June Juanico, and about 7 other friends.
One of them, whose father fought in the War, brings 3 or four German Army caps
( taken during battle), both for the fun of it, as well as to help those in the boat cover from the blistering sun.
One of Elvis` friends carries an 8mm camera, starts shooting. The most imitated entertainer in history ( although he had yet, at this point, any real knowledge of the extent of that future claim), puts on the cap, as do other two in the group, and proceeds, probably almost inmediately, to do what he has seen in countless movies, even up to that time, namely the hysterically ludricous Hitler salute.
Charles Chaplin who, to my knowledge, no one had the guts to ever call a Nazi, had done it, in 1940, to the delight of some 5 million movie goers.
Those of us who have watched the clip (“Elvis and June” DVD), are not bothered, in the least for his cartoonish behaviour, in particular, on that sunny Biloxi afternoon at sea.
Jim Burrows says
To Mr. Heritage,
What a coincidence. Every time, and I mean every time letters of disgust are sent by real, or even future Elvis fans to “Elvis fans” such as yourself, who refer to him, at best, as a bloated figure and so on and so forth or, at worse, as have others, as “the fat drugged addict who died taking a crapper”, the reply is the same, namely, “Hey, I am a fan, guys, I just don`t like the way he is being merchandised”
Will any of you, for Pete`s sake, ever have the guts to admit your disgust for anything related to Presley, and write it, out loud, for anyone to read? Why is it that you people never, and I mean ever, follow up on your natural “dissecting” style of writing when you are confronted with e-mail messages, or letters of protest written by people having, inte/alia, equal or higher IQ`s than your own?
Do you actually believe that, in this day and age, you can get way with “public character assasination” without giving us, your readers, the pleasure of making you out, in public, for the prejudiced person you really are?
Why don`t you admit your distate for Elvis? Tell us, right here. I, and countless other readers, would respect you more for it.
the voice of a thousand caribou says
Jim,
Thanks for clearing that up. My point is that the picture is new, as far as I know. Why wasn’t it released 40 years ago? Would Elvis have been happy for record companies to cash in today by hawking pictures of him dressed as a Nazi? Would it have done his career any good, or any bad, had he released it in the 1960s?
Whatever, it doesn’t matter. You people are LESS intelligent than the writer, despite your comments about IQ. The story is about the machine, rather than one of its bigger cogs. That you cannot see that is somewhat baffling.
I can see no ‘public character assasination’ going on either. What’s that about?? He was bloated, because his people couldn’t say ‘no’. He killed himself with a bad lifestyle. Which of his minions would say no to the King? None of them. Could you have resisted his requests when they turned into demands?
His doctors, the ones that prescribed all those pills to help him get up, or lay down. What about them? Were they right to behave as they did?
I don’t see the author calling Elvis a junkie, do you? But are you going to argue that he didn’t ingest and rely on serious amounts of prescription medicine just to get through the day? Because all this has come out in the wash too, with these endless books and biographies. Is this what we want?
So, my question to you, is does all this intricate knowledge of Elvis make him better or worse as a person?
Whatever you decide, it doesn’t affect the quality of his music one bit. It isn’t about the person, but about the art. Surely you can see that?
Maurice Colgan says
“Elvis Presley: The Stand Alone Icon of the Century”, fascinates the world’s media. That is why you write about him.
And hundreds of millions of readers are fascinated by your stories about Elvis……………………The King of Song!
the voice of a thousand caribou says
Agree, strongly.
Maurice Colgan says
Of course you do cariboo. I knew you would:-)
But did you read the info on the link?
Of course you did curiosity is a sign of intelligence. Right?
Elvis just seduced us all with song and beauty. To write about the other guy may be honest reporting, but it’s not about Elvis Presley!
Jinm Burrows says
to the voice of a thousand caribou
The picture is NOT new, it was a private film, allowed to be released, a year ago, by the poeple who shot it. Had Elvis been alive, and had he or the Colonel be consulted, I agree with you that they would have suggested that they ( the people who owned the film), did not allow for it to be released it. Nothing was released while Elvis was alive. You say we people are LESS intelligent than the writer, despite our comments about IQ. I know that is the case in your mind, and I certainly won´t even try to convince you otherwise. You add that the story is about the machine, rather than one of its bigger cogs, and then you are baffled that we cannot see it, your way. Fine with me. As to whether all this intricate knowledge of Elvis make him better or worse as a person, I say to you, it makes him better. What I find baffling is your siding with the writer over his writing techniques. He is all style, and incisive when he wrote the article, then when he is confronted with messages that make him aware of his own prejudices, he can not match his answer with what drove him to write the article in the first place. He is afraid, just like those minions were, of upsetting those with the power to upset his livelihood.
Finally, you wonder whether all this affects the quality of his music one bit. and then you say that “it isn’t about the person, but about the art”. Art, my caribou friend, is in the eye of the beholder, but what reviewers say about the artist, or about the machine, directly reflects on the numbers of people willing to try a given artist.
Careers have been destroyed, because of negative reviews. Luckily for us Elvis fans, we are greatar in numbers, 100 to one, a thousand to one, to the number of reviewers out there….
Surely you can see that, too?
the voice of a thousand caribou says
Afternoon Jim,
All style no substance maybe but I just see the writer’s point, that’s all, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong in prodding a stick at The Man, which in this case is the record industry and its perpetual infatuation with making money from dead artists.
Not that there is necessarily anything terribly wrong with that. Business is business. But do we need to see Elvis dressed as a Nazi, whatever the circumstances? Probably not. I can live without that. The fascists out there have a new poster boy, you realise.
As for bad reviews… who the hell cares what reviewers think? You use them to influence your decision to buy, sure, but do you take their words as Gospel? You know some reviewers get it so wrong that a bad review is actually a good review ; )
Maurice Colgan says
Schmelviser?
A word found on google.com
Anonymous says
What is wrong with releasing more elvis? I think it’s a great idea. When artists pass away, or people in general, it’s nice to have something to hold on too. As for the marketing purpose stewart, it’s his family that are releasing new material, not to make a dollar, but out of respect, they really do miss him. How would you feel if elvis were your father, your husband, you’d probably do the same thing, and they want to share their love they have for elvis, with the fans, I think thats really lovely, and god bless them for doing it. My mother and father are not famous, but if I could release a book about them every so often I would do it. It’s not always about money stewart, love plays a big part in this life too, that something money can’t ever buy. Remember money is the root of all evil. Also let’s not forget another very good artist that has a superb voice, who I feel is a little under-rated and thats jim reeves, for people who do not know him, listen to him, and you’ll see what I mean.
IminLove Again says
Very interesting reading on this spot.might be of some interest to somebody.