a blog about elvis presley's music, movies, and more
IN THE GHETTO includes articles that don’t fit under the other, more specific category titles. This includes aspects of Presley’s personal life, and criticisms of other writers and critics for their promulgating non-facts, myths, and lies about Elvis.
A regular target is Wikipedia, where writers who know little about the history of rock & roll write articles which are approved by editors who apparently know less.
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KIRI TE KANAWA is not a name familiar to most pop music fans, including those of Elvis Presley. Nonetheless, she is one of the most famous opera singers in the world and should be known to Elvis fans. She was born in New Zealand in 1944 into a family that was too poor to be able to afford to even keep her, making her family considerably poorer than the Presleys during Elvis’ youth. READ MORE
THE QUESTION IS OLD: “Who gave (fill-in-the-blank) her big break in country music?” or “Who gave (fill-in-the-blank) his big break in the major leagues?” Those questions are asked about singers and bands and baseball and basketball players, among others. It usually comes from someone who has never been a big success in any field of endeavor, let alone ones as demanding as entertainment and sports. READ MORE
AS IF I WASN’T BUSY ENOUGH, I just launched my second publication on Medium. The title of the new publication is Elvis: That’s The Way It Was and, of course, it’s all Elvis all the time! “But,” you may be thinking, “doesn’t membership with Medium cost $5 a month?” Dinna fash yourself (look it up): This new publication will only include articles already published here on this blog. READ MORE
I HAVE A FACEBOOK PAGE titled Bleeding Heart Liberal Petitions. Most days, I receive a slew of emails with petitions for various causes such as saving an endangered species, urging my representatives in state and federal government to vote for or against a particular bill, protest an injustice, etc. I read them all, sign most of them, and add a few to the Facebook page. READ MORE
HOW FAMOUS WAS ELVIS? That was the question on Quora. Once upon a time, that it was fairly easy to answer: According to Jerry Hopkins, whose Elvis – A Biography (1971) was the first biography of the man, a global survey showed that more people in the world recognized Elvis by his first (or given) name—and that included you-know-who!—than READ MORE
SINCE I AM CURRENTLY TOILING AWAY at various projects of considerable girth—I mean, length—I’m going to post a few short-shorts. To break up things while I am researching and writing, I turn to Quora and answer questions. Quora is a question-and-answer site where questions are asked by users and then answered by other users, either factually or in the form of opinions. READ MORE
MY ATTENTION remains focused on Tell It Like It Was, my new publication on Medium. And Tell It Like It Was remains focused on music—mostly music of the ’60s but we will get into the rock & roll and rhythm & blues before and after that decade eventually.
In the past week, Lew Shiner and John Ross published pieces on drummers: Lew with “Jack Sperling, King of the Big-Band Drummers” and John with “Give the Drummers Some!” READ MORE
MY APOLOGIES for neglecting regular readers of my blogs for the past few months. Fortunately, there is a good reason for this that has nothing to do with those silly rumors circulated by the VRC that I had run off and joined a progressive commune in Vermont left over from those hippie-wannabe days of yore. Sigh, as enticing as that sounds, there’s work yet to be done. READ MORE
STEAM ENGINE TIME. That’s the name of a concept in science and history that many readers should be familiar with. It’s also the title of a fine short-story that most readers will not be familiar with. This story was written by Lew Shiner, who just might be known to some readers for genre-bending novels like Glimpses and Deserted Cities Of The Heart. READ MORE