Elvis Speedway movie scene singing 1500 crop

why did Elvis make such a terrible movie as “speedway”?

AN­OTHER DAY, AN­OTHER QUES­TION ON QUORA about Elvis that needed an­swering. The ques­tion was, “I watched Speedway today. Why did Elvis make such a ter­rible movie?” More than forty years after his death, that re­mains a dif­fi­cult ques­tion to an­swer. Most people—even fans that should know better—blame the Colonel. [Read more] “why did Elvis make such a terrible movie as “speedway”?”

SunRecords building 1500 crop

quora is an unreliable source of information about records

I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT WIKIPEDIA and why it is an un­re­li­able source of in­for­ma­tion about pop­ular music and records. It seems that every time I look up any­thing about music and records, I find er­rors. Most are fac­tual errors—titles, dates, cat­alog num­bers, etc.—while some re­flect the con­trib­u­tors not un­der­standing the topic under discussion. [Read more] “quora is an unreliable source of information about records”

Elvis 1972 NYCPressConference 1500

if you don’t get elvis by now, you probably never will

AN­OTHER DAY, an­other ques­tion about Elvis on Quora needing a sane an­swer. And there are a lot of ques­tions about Elvis. This one was “What was it about Elvis that cap­ti­vated his mil­lions of fans?” First please no­tice that the person who asked the ques­tion placed it in the past tense, which I addressed. [Read more] “if you don’t get elvis by now, you probably never will”

DonJuanDeMarco Depp sword down 1500 crop

elvis as don juan, cad, and womanizer (but not a hound dog)

THE PRI­VATE LIVES of other human be­ings rarely in­terest me. This in­cludes the people I deal with every day along with the people I enjoy as artists, ath­letes, en­ter­tainers, and even politi­cians. Con­se­quently, I don’t read many bi­ogra­phies and rarely write about peo­ple’s lifestyles. 1

When I write bi­o­graph­i­cally about a mu­si­cian on my Rather Rare Records blog, their sex lives or the drugs they used only in­terest me to the de­gree that it af­fected their music and cre­ativity. [Read more] “elvis as don juan, cad, and womanizer (but not a hound dog)”

BobDylan Hawks onstage 1966 1500 crop

(can anyone say) what was elvis’ single greatest performance?

THE PLUS OF QUORA is that it gives me prompts for a se­ries of an­swers there that I can turn into short ar­ti­cles here. There’s nothing like a blog being con­stantly fed fresh con­tent to keep readers and search en­gines happy! The minus of Quora is that it keeps me from other, lengthier projects, some of which have been gath­ering vir­tual dust for some time. [Read more] “(can anyone say) what was elvis’ single greatest performance?”

Elvis WhereNoOneStandsAlone LisaMarie 1500

is elvis’ “where no one stands alone” a groundbreaking new album?

HAVING FUN WITH QUORA and the many questions—intelligent and otherwise—kept me from ad­dressing the latest re­lease with Elvis Pres­ley’s name and voice on it. It is an­other com­pi­la­tion fea­turing tracks doc­tored by pro­ducers and en­gi­neers to give decades-old vo­cals a ‘new sound.’ This one is a gospel set and it made an im­me­diate splash on the charts and in the media, es­pe­cially here in the States. [Read more] “is elvis’ “where no one stands alone” a groundbreaking new album?”

Elvis Feb1977 JohsnonCity 1500 crop

was elvis’ popularity rising or waning at the time of his death?

THIS TIME, the ques­tion on Quora al­lowed me room to spec­u­late some­thing that, un­like so so many others, I just do not like doing. For one reason, just like so so many others, my spec­u­la­tion is so often in­ac­cu­rate. De­spite my love of sci­ence fic­tion literature—esoecaiily time travel stories—thinking about what might have been, or making pre­dic­tions based on what cur­rently is, usu­ally holds no at­trac­tion for me. [Read more] “was elvis’ popularity rising or waning at the time of his death?”

Elvis Beatles SlaanHunSlag 1964 1500

elvis understood that the beatles were the new idols in 1965

THIS TIME THE QUES­TION ON QUORA was “Did Elvis feel threat­ened when the Bea­tles met him?” I guess that’s a rea­son­able ques­tion, es­pe­cially from a younger person who didn’t live through the times when a pop artists’ ca­reer was mea­sured in months, not years. But I took on the Her­culean labor of pro­viding a rea­son­able answer. [Read more] “elvis understood that the beatles were the new idols in 1965”

Elvis 1969 ChangeOfHabit posed photo 1500

I’ll be trying to get to you any day now (on elvis and soul)

THE QUORA FO­RUM’S ques­tion and an­swer set-up has been keeping me busy of late. De­spite what people think about Elvis and the In­ternet, there seems to be an abiding in­terest in the man both per­son­ally and ar­tis­ti­cally. While some of the ques­tions are silly—some are just plumb dumb!—most [Read more] “I’ll be trying to get to you any day now (on elvis and soul)”