Elvis 1968 NBCTVSpecial Nothingville 1500 crop

from graceland to burbank to graceland

BEST CLASSIC BANDS just pub­lished “Elvis Presley’s ’68 Come­back: Bur­bank to Grace­land” (although it should have been “Grace­land to Bur­bank”). It ad­dressed the tele­vi­sion spe­cial, the records as­so­ci­ated with it, and what fol­lowed. The ar­ticle de­clared, “By the final days of the decade, Elvis was ar­guably as fa­mous as he had been in the ’50s.” [Read more] “from graceland to burbank to graceland”

MarkJames MoodyBlue sheet music 1100 copy 2 2

is elvis presley’s “suspicious minds” about gaslighting?

IF AN OLD FRIEND I KNOW stops by to say hello, should my wife be sus­pi­cious? That de­pends on my per­sonal history—was I al­ways a good boy?—and whether that old friend is an ex-coworker or an ex-lover. This was brought upon by a ques­tion on Quora: “Is ‘Sus­pi­cious Mind’ con­sid­ered a gaslighting-themed song?” [Read more] “is elvis presley’s “suspicious minds” about gaslighting?”

MacDavis SongPainter photo 1500 crop

pressed between the pages of mac davis’ mind

SONG­WRITERS AS­SO­CI­ATED WITH ELVIS that re­ceive the most credit in terms of Pres­ley’s suc­cessful ca­reer are usu­ally two teams: Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller and Doc Pomus-Mort Shuman. But a third team was para­mount in Elvis’s tran­si­tion from sappy movie mat­inée idol of the mid-1960s to po­tent music and cul­tural figure in 1968–1969: Billy Strange-Mac Davis. [Read more] “pressed between the pages of mac davis’ mind”

Elvis LasVegas 1969 black outfit 1500 crop

suspicious minds (just how good can one record be?)

DO I WANT TO OPEN THIS AR­TICLE by making a state­ment (“Elvis pops up in the most un­ex­pected places”) or by asking a ques­tion (“Just how good can one record be?”)? Last night we slipped the Coen Brothers’ In­tol­er­able Cru­elty into the DVD player and sat back to enjoy George Clooney as Miles Massey (hand­some, charming, amoral) match wits with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Mar­ilyn Rexroth (beau­tiful, in­scrutable, equally amoral). [Read more] “suspicious minds (just how good can one record be?)”

Elvis Memphis press conference 1969 6 1500 copy

an alternative “back in memphis” album

ELVIS PRES­LEY’S FU­TURE hung on the de­ci­sion he made in early 1969 on where to record. He could re­turn to RCA’s studio in Nashville, home to most of his big hits of the early ’60s. But there he risked falling back into the pat­terns that led to the dis­ap­pointing hits of the past few years. [Read more] “an alternative “back in memphis” album”

Elvis Memphis press conference 1969 1 1500 crop

best answer ever given by elvis to a journalist’s question

ELVIS HELD A RARE PRESS CON­FER­ENCE on Au­gust 1, 1969, to cel­e­brate his re­turn to live per­forming. The get-together was held at the In­ter­na­tional Hotel in Las Vegas, where Elvis had played the night be­fore to an invitation-only au­di­ence that in­cluded Ed Ames, Paul Anka, Burt Bacharach, Shirley Bassey, Pat Boone, Dick Clark, Petula Clark, Angie Dick­inson, George Hamilton, Wayne Newton, and former flame Ann-Margret. [Read more] “best answer ever given by elvis to a journalist’s question”

Elvis LiveALittle shaving 1500

on the edge of reality with the pseudo-psychedelic elvis

IF I CAN DREAM, I’ll have this ar­ticle fin­ished be­fore I find my­self sit­ting on the edge of re­ality. You know—where life’s dream lies dis­il­lu­sioned and dark shadows follow me. (But that’s an­other story for an­other time.) Each year on this day I try to write some­thing about my ex­pe­ri­ence of being an Elvis fan since I was in grade school way, way back in the ’50s. [Read more] “on the edge of reality with the pseudo-psychedelic elvis”

Elvis psychedelic art HarumScarum 1500

when elvis was a top-secret agent for the cia

I HAVE BEEN DIS­TRACTED OF LATE, working on my pub­li­ca­tion on Medium, Tell It Like It Was. I have also been spending a lot of time working on the in­ternal work­ings of my web­sites. I re­placed a few plu­gins and jet­ti­soned a few others. When you call up this one you may no­tice that it loads a hell of a lot faster than it ever has. [Read more] “when elvis was a top-secret agent for the cia”

AmericanSoundStudio 1500 crop brown

from elvis on thomas street, memphis, tennessee

BY JAN­UARY 1968, a new Elvis single was suc­cessful if it merely reached the Top 40 and sold 300,000 copies. This was a far cry from three years be­fore when a new single reached the Top 20 and sold at least a half mil­lion copies. And that was a far cry from the dizzying heights of 1960 when a Presley hit sold in the millions!

[Read more] “from elvis on thomas street, memphis, tennessee”
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