Elvis descriptions

[ehollier]

Since arriving on the scene in the mid-50's, there has been no shortage of written accounts of Elvis, whether it be his unique stage presence and mannerisms, his musical ability to deliver a lyric or move a person to tears, abundant charisma, or complex personality.

List some of your favorite articles here.

[ehollier]

I just read this today from Yahoo's "Best of" Album List:

"This dude is majorly famous."

Truer words were never written!!! ;););)

[Ronn]

Here's one of my favorites. It's part of a long article which I came across before. It describes the uniqueness of Elvis' voice:


Presley's range, though impressive in its own right, did not in itself make his voice that remarkable, at least in terms of how it measured against musical notation. What made it extraordinary, was where its center of gravity lay. By that measure, and according to Gregory Sandows, Music Professor at Columbia University, Presley was at once a bass, a baritone, and a tenor, most unusual among singers in either classical or popular music.

His voice, which developed into many voices as his career progressed, had always a unique tonality and an extraordinary unusual center of gravity, leading to his ability to tackle a range of songs and melodies which would be nearly impossible for most other popular singers to achieve.

[illona]

This one is my favorite : Leonard Bernstein said about him :

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.

[mistymorning]

a lot has been said and written about his personality, his voice, his beauty,....... No need to mention that elvis is really admirable for all of his special qualities. But I want to emphasis on his spirituality , a quality rarely discussed about elvis. He was so knowlegeable in spritualism and he practiced meditation , he could numb herself for his tooth surgery without medicine http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/interview_lester_hoffman.shtml
And he read alot of books about this subject.

" the higher level of sprituality is what I've been seeking my whole life.Now that i know where it is and how to reach it , I want to teach it to all my fans -to the whole world." elvis presley

[KPM]

"I spoke to over 140 songwriters whose work was recorded and most remarked about the uncanny ability of Elvis Presley to capture the essence and make it his own; like a musical geneticist, he drew from every strand of DNA in a songwriter's work, which ultimately helped shape his own distinctive personal interpretation; just listen to the wide stylistic swath of genre-hopping material he recorded during his career - from Junior Parker's amphetamine-paced rockabilly classic "Mystery Train" and the poppin-perfect panache of Otis Blackwell's "All shook up", to the down and dirty blues swagger of "Reconsider baby" and the operatic grandeur of "It's now or never"-; and then there were more controversial and socially conscious anthems ("If I can dream" and "In the guetto"), and introspective 70's fare like "Separate ways" and "Always on my my mind"; right away, you can hear the breath of a master stylist who breathed new life into every song he cut"
Author Ken Sharp, in the introduction to his book, "Writing for the King: The songs and writers behind them", as published in American Songwriter.com

[ehollier]

"He broke upon the world like your mother's worst fears, strutting on stage with long hair and black leather, singing songs from the wrong side of town. If the squeaky-clean '50's was the nation's most conforming decade of the century, Elvis was its flip side. Wearing enough grease in his blonde hair to turn it black, Elvis made love to his microphone and rasped a hybrid of southern gospel, rhythm and blues, and that new beat soon to be known as rock 'n roll. He was just expressing himself, but his idiom would be adopted by a generation."

Jim Curtin

[ehollier]

"Elvis, for all of his control issues, his sexual double standard and his occasional egomania, when Elvis focused his attention on someone, he was magic: hysterically funny, with a sharp, incisive wit and flashes of brilliance. He was the most charismatic human being that countless people had ever met. His endearing traits, in many instances, were the mirror images of the characteristics that made him so difficult to bear at times. His need to control, for example, manifested itself positively in his tenderly protective and nurturing side; the exaggerated self-gratification brought on by his stardom and power was equaled, and possible surpassed, by his legendary generosity; his double standard reflected the southern tendency to place a woman on a pedestal as a creature to be revered, almost worshiped; his egocentricity, when reversed, gave Elvis an almost supernatural ability to empathize. Elvis Presley was a man of many paradoxes - alternately megalomaniacal and humble, oversexed yet strangely prudish."

S. Finstrad

[Merry]

I just read this today from Yahoo's "Best of" Album List:

"This dude is majorly famous."

Truer words were never written!!! ;););)



I love this one! lol :D

[marijaep]

" Elvis was the ultimate example of rare breed, an irrefutable, undeniable superstar. He was a legend as well as a prototype much the same as Rudolph Valentino and Marylin Monroe.
Yet - and this is so terribly important - he was more. Before bad health and personal problems encapsulated him so completely that he could scarcely see the sun, so that his days became black and frightening, Elvis was a warm, funny outgoing man with so much innate gallantry, that a woman felt protected in is presence.
He was impulsively generous as the many stories about his spur-of-the-moment gifts to strangers attest. He was a romantic who wanted to live in a world peopled by beautiful women and heroic men "

Nancy Anderson

[SleepyJack]

One of my favourites is a review of Elvis in vegas in `69 by David Dalton...for Rolling Stone magazine.........It`s a bit long to copy down here....but, if you can find it,it is a good read....brings Elvis to life on the written page.

[ehollier]

One of my favourites is a review of Elvis in vegas in `69 by David Dalton...for Rolling Stone magazine.........It`s a bit long to copy down here....but, if you can find it,it is a good read....brings Elvis to life on the written page.


I found a copy of the article at this site, but it is on various sites around but is entitled Elvis Presley: Wagging His Tail in Las Vegas

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/reviews/review_elvis_august21_1969.shtml

[Lisarose]

I found a copy of the article at this site, but it is on various sites around but is entitled Elvis Presley: Wagging His Tail in Las Vegas

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/reviews/review_elvis_august21_1969.shtml

Great article [and photos], Liz, thanks for posting it!

[ehollier]

Great article [and photos], Liz, thanks for posting it!

You are welcome. I figure every girl needs to read about Elvis 'wagging his tail' so to speak............lol ;););)

[ehollier]

"(Peter)Guralnick hits on something essential about Elvis in his analyses of "If I Can Dream," the inspirational song that closed the '68 special (and "In the Ghetto," the final track of "From Elvis in Memphis"). He understands the conventionality of these songs, both of them attempts to make Elvis "topical": "The song is a well-intentioned liberal statement about peace and brotherhood and universal understanding," Guralnick writes of "If I Can Dream." Guralnick understands that Elvis was one of those artists able to invest the conventional with so much emotion that convention is transcended. What matters in the performance, Guralnick writes, "is the pain and conviction and raw emotion in Elvis' voice." That is what lifts these songs from the generalized to the urgent. They are refusals of barriers, and refusing barriers -- musical, racial, class -- is what Elvis' best music is all about.


Elvis can't be given any one meaning because he is about the freedom of inventing yourself, of finding your own meanings. His tragedy is that he denied himself the freedom that his own example encouraged others to demand. When you burst upon the world with the unabashed energy of Elvis, compromise seems a sellout. Even though he knew he'd made that compromise, Elvis continued to present himself as if he embodied that energy, and that pose became a kind of prison."

Charles Taylor

[mistymorning]

"(Peter)Guralnick hits on something essential about Elvis in his analyses of "If I Can Dream," the inspirational song that closed the '68 special (and "In the Ghetto," the final track of "From Elvis in Memphis"). He understands the conventionality of these songs, both of them attempts to make Elvis "topical": "The song is a well-intentioned liberal statement about peace and brotherhood and universal understanding," Guralnick writes of "If I Can Dream." Guralnick understands that Elvis was one of those artists able to invest the conventional with so much emotion that convention is transcended. What matters in the performance, Guralnick writes, "is the pain and conviction and raw emotion in Elvis' voice." That is what lifts these songs from the generalized to the urgent. They are refusals of barriers, and refusing barriers -- musical, racial, class -- is what Elvis' best music is all about.


Elvis can't be given any one meaning because he is about the freedom of inventing yourself, of finding your own meanings. His tragedy is that he denied himself the freedom that his own example encouraged others to demand. When you burst upon the world with the unabashed energy of Elvis, compromise seems a sellout. Even though he knew he'd made that compromise, Elvis continued to present himself as if he embodied that energy, and that pose became a kind of prison."

Charles Taylor

what an intereting analysis about the reation between his songs and his personality ! thanks for this great info.
:notworthy

[utmom2008]

You are welcome. I figure every girl needs to read about Elvis 'wagging his tail' so to speak............lol ;););)

I didn't realize that Elvis had wagged HIS tail, but I knew he had made me wag MY tail.!!:lmfao::lmfao::king::king:

[ehollier]

I didn't realize that Elvis had wagged HIS tail, but I knew he had made me wag MY tail.!!:lmfao::lmfao::king::king:


details, details...........:P:P:P

[ehollier]

“Without preamble, the three-piece band cuts loose. In the spotlight, the lanky singer flails furious rhythms on his guitar, every now and then breaking a string. In a pivoting stance, his hips swing sensuously from side to side and his entire body takes on a frantic quiver, as if he had swallowed a jackhammer.”

Time Magazine,
May 15, 1956

[ehollier]

“Without preamble, the three-piece band cuts loose. In the spotlight, the lanky singer flails furious rhythms on his guitar, every now and then breaking a string. In a pivoting stance, his hips swing sensuously from side to side and his entire body takes on a frantic quiver, as if he had swallowed a jackhammer.”

Time Magazine,
May 15, 1956

:blush::blush::blush::blush::blush:

[ehollier]

“Elvis Presley may well be the most written-about figure of our time. He is also in many ways the most misunderstood, both because of our ever-increasing rush to judgment and, perhaps more to the point, simply because he appears to be so well known. It has become almost as impossible to imagine Elvis amid all our assumptions, amid all the false intimacy that attaches to a tabloid personality, as it is to separate the President from the myth of the presidency, John Wayne from the myth of the American West. “It’s very hard,” Elvis declared without facetiousness at a 1972 press conference, “to live up to an image.” And yet he, as much as his public, appeared increasingly trapped by it.”

Peter Guralnick

[hounddog]

Bono from U2 has some great comments bout Elvis

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis_presley_by_bono.shtml
http://www.u2station.com/news/archives/1995/06/bonos_essay_of.php
http://burrintheburgh.blogspot.com/2007/01/bono-on-elvis.html

[ehollier]

"...The music with which he made has become a battleground for competing ethnocentric claims: Elvis Presley, whose democratic vision could not have been broader or more encompassing, is used as the centerpiece for accusations of cultural theft. This is a misunderstanding not just of Elvis Presley, but of popular culture.

You don’t have like Elvis Presley – but it’s impossible, if you listen to his music, not to recognize both his achievement and his originality. He was no more a copy of blues singer Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup than he was of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe – though they, along with a far-flung influences such as Roy Hamilton and Mario Lanza, were considered his heroes, and he unquestionably absorbed their music into his own..."

Peter Guralnick

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley's music exists, like all art, without explanation (if it could be formulized, then why wouldn’t everyone do it?), but it came about no more by accident than Duke Ellington’s carefully worked-out compositions or Robert Johnson’s blues. That is what Elvis Presley’s story keeps coming back to in the end – THE MUSIC. (Throughout his life, the high points as well as the low points, this is what he continued to return to, time and time again - THE MUSIC; it has always been about THE MUSIC.)

That is the mystery that will continue to reward repeated explorations long after the frenzy of fame is finally gone. "

Peter Guralnick

[ehollier]

By Bono:


"Elvis changed everything – musically, sexually, politically. He was a 50’s style icon who was what the 60’s were capable of and then suddenly not. In the 70’s, he turned celebrity into a blood sport, but interestingly, the more he fell to Earth, the more godlike he became to his fans. His last performances showcase a voice even bigger than his gut, where you cry real tears as the music messiah sings his tired heart out, turning casino into temple.

In Elvis you have the blueprint for rock & roll: the highness – the gospel highs. The mud – the Delta mud. The blues – sexual liberation and controversy.

Some say that it was the army, others say it was Hollywood or Las Vegas that broke his spirit. The rock and roll world certainly didn’t like to see their King doing what he was told. I think it was probably much more likely his marriage or his mother – or finer fracture from earlier on, like losing his twin brother."

[ehollier]

"Roy Orbinson was his first contemporary. He wanted to be different, so he dyed his hair black. Orbinson went out and bought a house on top of a mountian. Elvis went out and bought a mountain."

News commentary at the time his death

[ehollier]

"You can feel the shock waves the show made. Elvis looks gorgeous and he knows it; you see joy, command, and certain slyness with a you-must-be-kidding-me grin, which serves him perfectly. Wearing a black leather suit as if he was born in it - standing alone or sitting with Scotty Moore and his friends, Elvis sang his old songs, but they did not sound old. He invested them with so much emotion - emotions his original recordings of say, Tryin' to Get to You, One Night or Can't Help Falling in Love did not contain - that each became a thing in itself. Suddenly these were less songs then events, where Elvis himself is moved the most.

When Elvis relaxes into the first of five dives of Baby, What you Want Me to Do, the deep well of the sessions where every few minutes Elvis returns for a more open rhythm, a harder beat and knowledge that cannot be put into words. He's locked into a music that any musician can tell you anyone can make and almost no one can, into something that is so powerful it doesn't seem real, reaching as if under the guitar for notes that cannot be advertised. The music rises, slams down, and rises again as if a whole new language has been discovered - as if this night, it has to be made to say everything, because it will never be spoken again."



Greil Marcus
Commentary of '68 Comeback Special

[ehollier]

This is an especially poignant story from Jerry Schilling's book that continues to come to my mind. Jerry wrote of this story from 1964.

"One day, Elvis came to my room and in a low, quiet voice, said, 'Let’s go for a ride.'

A few minutes later Elvis was driving North on Highway 51. I’d assumed he wanted my company, but he was quiet and intense, clearly not in a talking mood. We pulled off into the Forest Hill Cemetery, and Elvis expertly navigated the twists in the road to get to a spot he was familiar with – his mother’s gravesite. He didn’t say anything, and I stayed in the car for a moment while he got out and walked up the grassy, sloping hill to the massive monument marking the grave. It was maybe eight feet high, Christ with his arms outstretched, flanked by angels. Seeing him before that monument, it came to me that, perhaps for the very first time; I could see my friend as a small, fragile human – just like any other. Despite everything else in his life, he was a guy who had lost his mother and missed her terribly.

Elvis stood there for a while, and then, slowly, carefully, with his bare hands, he began to clean the grave – dusting the stone, brushing away some spider webs, clearing away some weeds at the base. His hands moved deliberately, with care and tenderness, and I found myself moved with sympathy for him. Watching Elvis act as a humble, loving son, I found myself wondering what that kind of love felt like.'

Me and a Guy Named Elvis
by Jerry Schilling

[ehollier]

"It is difficult to describe the exact appeal of the man. True, he is great and rhythmic singer, but there's something more. His perfect looks and style add a charasma that is magnetic."

1969, Ray Connelly interview

[ehollier]

"When I finally got back to the Perugia house, all I wanted to do was be left alone as I was still in a tremendous amount of pain. I could tell that Elvis was glad to see me, but I was hurting enough that I had no desire to talk to him. I just hobbled to my room and lay down on the bed, waiting for the throbbing in my back to subside.

A little while later, there was a soft knock on the door and Elvis stepped into the room. I was hoping that he wasn’t planning on a long talk. 'You know, I’ve been reading something on the power of touch,' He said. 'Healing power of the hands. Get over on your stomach for a minute.'

I have to admit it flashed through my mind – “Please Elvis, not now.”

I rolled over and got as comfortable as I could. Elvis lowered his voice as he spoke 'Sounds a little half mad, but you use touch just the right way, maybe you can pull away somebody else’s pain.'

As he spoke, he put his hands on my back and applied a bit of pressure. There was nothing mystical about the moment, but dammit if by the time he lifted his hands from my back, the pain was gone. I did notice that he shook his hands out – as if he were shaking off whatever pain he managed to soak up.

'Get better man. Let me know what you need,' he said quietly, then left.

I don’t think that Elvis was harnessing any supernatural powers to take my pain away. I think what really took the pain away was the kind of comfort that only a loving friend can provide."

Me and a Guy Named Elvis
by Jerry Schilling

[ehollier]

"I spoke to over 140 songwriters whose work was recorded and most remarked about the uncanny ability of Elvis Presley to capture the essence and make it his own; like a musical geneticist, he drew from every strand of DNA in a songwriter's work, which ultimately helped shape his own distinctive personal interpretation; just listen to the wide stylistic swath of genre-hopping material he recorded during his career - from Junior Parker's amphetamine-paced rockabilly classic "Mystery Train" and the poppin-perfect panache of Otis Blackwell's "All shook up", to the down and dirty blues swagger of "Reconsider baby" and the operatic grandeur of "It's now or never"-; and then there were more controversial and socially conscious anthems ("If I can dream" and "In the guetto"), and introspective 70's fare like "Separate ways" and "Always on my my mind"; right away, you can hear the breath of a master stylist who breathed new life into every song he cut"
Author Ken Sharp, in the introduction to his book, "Writing for the King: The songs and writers behind them", as published in American Songwriter.com

I absolutely love this description. I feel like it epitomized the magic that Elvis made, the way in which he emoted a song, the uncanny way he made it his absolute own.

[ehollier]

“You have no idea how great he is, really you don’t. You have no comprehension - it’s absolutely impossible. I can’t tell you why he’s so great, but he is. He’s sensational.”

Phil Spector

[ehollier]

"The importance of this moment in Presley’s life cannot be overestimated. Years later, the ’68 comeback special still stands as one of the most powerful performances in rock history."

Rolling Stone Magazine

[ehollier]

“Elvis Presley was an explorer of vast new landscapes of dream and illusion. He was a man who refused to be told that the best of his dreams would not come true, who refused to be defined by anyone else’s conceptions. This is the goal of democracy, the journey on which every prospective American hero sets out. That Elvis made so much of the journey on his own is reason enough to remember him with the honor and love we reserve for the bravest among us. Such men made the only maps we can trust.”

Dave Marsh, Author of the book, Elvis

[ehollier]

"There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home...
He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect from rock ‘n’ roll singers.”

John Landau Review of Elvis, (1968 TV Special)

[elvia7]

'While nothing can match the feeling I had witnessing Elvis numerous times performing live on stag, back in November 1970 I went to a special screening of " That's The Way It Is" in downtown Chicago at the Esquire Theatre, and it was MAGICAL' (y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)
Joseph A. Tunzi
What I say more??????:hmm:

[The King's Queen]

'While nothing can match the feeling I had witnessing Elvis numerous times performing live on stag, back in November 1970 I went to a special screening of " That's The Way It Is" in downtown Chicago at the Esquire Theatre, and it was MAGICAL' (y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)
Joseph A. Tunzi
What I say more??????:hmm:
Ewa...you should post your drawings of Elvis on here. They are sooo personal, and so in depth...they are indeed an unwritten description of Elvis through they eyes of a fan! You do wonderful work...(y):notworthy:notworthy

[elvia7]

Thanks!!!!!! The King's Queen!!!!! :D:D:D
You right - I have so much work in TTWII !
Soon you see it, I promise.:)

[Unchained Melody]

“Elvis Presley may well be the most written-about figure of our time. He is also in many ways the most misunderstood, both because of our ever-increasing rush to judgment and, perhaps more to the point, simply because he appears to be so well known. It has become almost as impossible to imagine Elvis amid all our assumptions, amid all the false intimacy that attaches to a tabloid personality, as it is to separate the President from the myth of the presidency, John Wayne from the myth of the American West. “It’s very hard,” Elvis declared without facetiousness at a 1972 press conference, “to live up to an image.” And yet he, as much as his public, appeared increasingly trapped by it.”

Peter Guralnick

I'm reading Peter's first volume book Last Train To Memphis and I will its probably the most informative book of Elvis' early years I've ever read ! :notworthy

And thank you for taking the time to post this !!(y)

[ehollier]

I'm reading Peter's first volume book Last Train To Memphis and I will its probably the most informative book of Elvis' early years I've ever read ! :notworthy

And thank you for taking the time to post this !!(y)

I believe that Peter is the most objective in his information, the most well-documented and absolutely the most thorough and meticulous in his information.

[Unchained Melody]

I believe that Peter is the most objective in his information, the most well-documented and absolutely the most thorough and meticulous in his information.

I have to agree with you here !! (y):notworthy

[ehollier]

I have to agree with you here !! (y):notworthy

I have a terrible habit of starting my posts with "I read....." and much of what I've read comes from Peter's book whether it be impressions left by the MM or Priscilla or remaining friends and family. He was so meticulous in his information, we sure could use him at our office to write briefs....lol....

[ehollier]

“...it was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody’s ear, and somehow we all dreamed it.”

Bruce Springsteen

[ehollier]

“So what it boils down to was Elvis produced his own records. He came to the session, picked the songs, and if something in the arrangement was changed, he was the one to change it. Everything was worked out spontaneously. Nothing was really rehearsed. Many of the important decisions normally made previous to a recording session were made during the session. What it was was a look to the future. Today everybody makes records this way. Back then Elvis was the only one. He was the forerunner of everything that’s record production these days. Consciously or unconsciously, everyone imitated him. People started doing what Elvis did.”

Bones Howe, Recording Engineer

[ehollier]

“Elvis Presley’s death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique, irreplaceable. More than twenty years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled. His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense. And he was a symbol to people the world over of the vitality, rebelliousness and good humor of this country.”

President Jimmy Carter, 1977

[Getlo]

I believe that Peter is the most objective in his information, the most well-documented and absolutely the most thorough and meticulous in his information.

Yes.

Guralnick's two works together comprise the best biography ever written on Elvis.

No one has topped them so far; I don't believe anyone ever will.

[ehollier]

Yes.

Guralnick's two works together comprise the best biography ever written on Elvis.

No one has topped them so far; I don't believe anyone ever will.

Without a doubt, Guralnick's works are by far the best researched, least biased and most accurate!!!!

[presley31]

Without a doubt, Guralnick's works are by far the best researched, least biased and most accurate!!!!

couldn't agree more(y)(y) l believe it to be the cloest we will get into elvis life story.

[JDD]

They are so well written and researched there almost is no reason to even try and top the Guralnick books because it can't really be done IMO. Unless you have some kind of Personal touch / relationship that you can report on and most of them aren't as complete a history .

JD

[Unchained Melody]

Yes.

Guralnick's two works together comprise the best biography ever written on Elvis.

No one has topped them so far; I don't believe anyone ever will.

They certainly will be hard to top. Well from what I've read so far, still in the middle of Last Train To Memphis!

Certainly, a really good informative book!

[ehollier]

"The conventional wisdom regarding Presley's singular role in popularizing rock 'n' roll is that he made black music palatable to a young white audience but he remains astoundingly underrated for his ability to sing anything, anytime, anywhere. What (Presley) actually did was take 'black' music and 'white' music, and transform them into this third thing, which ended up being rock. No one sang so many different kinds of music as well as he sang them, and at such a high level, for such a long time - rock, gospel, country, standards. "

Mike Brewster, in his article "The Great Innovators", published in "Business Week", September 23, 2004.

[ehollier]

Out of the mouth of a major star:


"No-one, but no-one, is his equal, or ever will be. He was, and is supreme"

Mick Jagger

[ehollier]

"There were rock 'n' roll records before Heartbreak Hotel, but this was the one that didn't just open the door…it literally blasted the door off its rusted, rotten, anachronistic hinges...producing, no propelling, a fundamental, primordial and unstoppable shift in not only musical, but social, political and cultural history"

JNP, BBC website

[ehollier]

“The tragedy is that the very fame that freed his family from poverty later destroyed his family.”

Paul Simpson

[ehollier]

"The Entity we knew as Elvis was certainly a one off. Whatever the irregularities in his life (and there were many) he has left behind a remarkable body of work. The persona and voice are truly unique. I can still remember the astonishing coverage of his death in the British Newspapers. There seamed to be nothing else in the papers that day and it was the only thing people talked about. There has been nothing like it since."

McDade

[ehollier]

"What else makes this entertainer a phenomenon, which others only hope to emulate? It's vulnerability. Yes, it's his vulnerability which makes his fans return time after time.

Elvis Presley is larger than life. But, the minute he sings his love song, he is a little boy yearning to sooth his wounded soul. What is extraordinary is, after all, ordinary. What is the self-assured image of the superstar is also the self-assessing struggle of the perennial youth in search of wonder.

Elvis Presley, therefore, is a paradox. When he is at his most understandable, he, all of a sudden, remains a mystery.

A young lady fan of steady devotion was asked what single world best described this man for her. Without hesitation, she answered, "charismatic".


Mark van Hout
December 14, 1976

[ehollier]

"He strode out there with complete presence, consummate showmanship, and the screams went up to the rafter. He strikes a pose, hip coked, a thumb hooked in the leather belt, like a Memphis drugstore cowpoke on a corner, but the clean strong chin thrusts out like that on a Greek statue, but then then Elvis looks down at himself, down the V of the jacket at his chest, the down between his legs, to the floor, and then carefully, coyly, at the audience. As if he's saying 'Scream,' and they do."

Jack McClintock, 1970

[ehollier]

"Presley's reaction to the crowd is unusual. He plays to it constantly on stage with a performance that it is earthy and extremely direct. The reaction of the audience, which was mainly teenage girls, is simply frightening. He is obviously either a trained showman or a natural one. His entire performance, was deftly aimed at his own fans whom he deliberately raised to an emotional pitch that bears no little resamblance to the effect of Johnnie Ray or Frank Sinatra.

His emotional power is frightening."

Ralph J. Gleason, 1956

[utmom2008]

"Look at that beautiful face"......

utmom2008's Mother
August 6, 1973
this was said as Elvis was leaning down to kiss me, and his face was about 6 inches away from my Mom's.:D:lol:

[ehollier]

"Frank Sinatra, who went on to gain weight in his roles if not his physique, and Johnnie Ray, who sobbed his heart out on order, both appealed to an awakening maternal instict.

Presley, 180 pounds of undenably male characteristics built in a six-foot frame, appealed to something else."

William McPhillips. 1956

[Unchained Melody]

"Look at that beautiful face"......

utmom2008's Mother
August 6, 1973
this was said as Elvis was leaning down to kiss me, and his face was about 6 inches away from my Mom's.:D:lol:

My what that must have been like. Did you get any other kisses from Elvis other than this show ?(y)

And can you tell me what song this was after or whatever so I can listen to that show I want to hear it!!:D:D;)

[ehollier]

"When the screams subsided, the right knee picked up where the other left off and gradually, as the movement spread upward, the famous voice was lost in bedlam.

Presley, his tawny hair now hanging in his eyes, grabbed the microphone as if it were alive and dragged it around the stage, now petting it, turning upon it the full vent of his manly wrath."


Ralph J. Gleason, 1956

[ehollier]

Introducing Presley, Adm. Robert L. Campbell said:
He is a fine American. He has had many starring roles, not the least of these has been as a soldier in the U.S. Army.

"I AM PLEASED that the Navy is also going to share the benefits of his talent. Ladies and Gentlemen, present..." but the thunderclap of applause drowned the rest of the words.

1961, Introduction at Hawaii Concert

[utmom2008]

My what that must have been like. Did you get any other kisses from Elvis other than this show ?(y)

And can you tell me what song this was after or whatever so I can listen to that show I want to hear it!!:D:D;)

I got the kiss during Help Me Make It Through The Night. Listen to Can't Help Falling In Love..you will hear Elvis get tickled and laugh a little about something. He was laughing because of my dad. When Elvis came to me and gave me the scarf Daddy said "Thank you Elvis" and gave him a thumbs up. Elvis thought that was funny.:D:D:D:D:D

August 6, 1973

[ehollier]

"I knew Elvis better than anybody. I wouldn’t see him sometimes for two months, but we’d talk every week. Elvis was very sharp, even if people thought he wasn’t. And he wasn’t weak, either. Elvis picked all his own songs and pictures—the scripts were sent directly to his house. The only song I suggested was ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight.’ I got Elvis the most money ever for an entertainer in Las Vegas. People forget that! Nobody! Nobody got more money in the history of Las Vegas!"

Col Parker, 1994

[Unchained Melody]

I got the kiss during Help Me Make It Through The Night. Listen to Can't Help Falling In Love..you will hear Elvis get tickled and laugh a little about something. He was laughing because of my dad. When Elvis came to me and gave me the scarf Daddy said "Thank you Elvis" and gave him a thumbs up. Elvis thought that was funny.:D:D:D:D:D

August 6, 1973

Thank you Rossie I will definitley check that out..just don't feel like going through all my CD's right now to find it :blush:

[ehollier]

"History has him as this good old country boy, Elvis is about as country as Bono!"

Jerry Schilling

[ehollier]

"As long as I live, I know I will never see anyone have such a profound effect on people. He could make anyone, and I mean anyone, feel like he or she were the most important person in the world just by talking with them. He had charisma and charm that is just indescribable. When Elvis entered a room, even if you didn't see him come in, you could feel the energy of his presence tingle at your nerves because the power of his magnetism was that intense."


Joe Esposito

[ehollier]

"As a performer, there simply has never been any equal. That may sound like an extreme statement, but I am convinced it's true. Sure, there have been dozens, perhaps hundreds, of legendary singers and entertainers throughout history, all of them unique and important in their own way. But Elvis Presley's talent came from another place. Nobody has what he had. It's that simple. It was reserved only for him. He was the only entertainer in the world, and I have had the privilege to know and observe many of the greats, who could move and inspire people. Once he "touched" you, that was it. You were hooked for life."

Joe Esposito

[ehollier]

"If you had never heard of Elvis Presley but were simply presented with the twenty-three meticulous takes of the song (In the ghetto) that he did on that night, it would be virtually impossible not to be won over. The singing is of such unassuming, almost translucent eloquence, it is so quietly confident in its simplicity, so well supported by the kind of elegant, no-frills small-group backing that was the hallmark of the American (Studios) style - it makes a statement almost impossible to deny. You can hear a kind of tenderness in these early takes that most recalls the Elvis who first entered Sam Phillips' Sun Studio, offering equal parts yearning and social compassion."

Peter Guralnick
Careless Love

[ehollier]

"He had incredible native intelligence, the ability to read a human being, to watch someone's eyes and look inside their soul. But I think there was a part of him that felt hollow, that he was a nobody, there were parts of him that he could not explore. I realized [after a while] with all of the musicians and bodyguards and sycophants around, that these guys had been around for seventeen years now telling the same stories and jokes, and what kind of a life is this?"

Bob Abel
Elvis on Tour

[ehollier]

"It was the energy, the energy that surrounded the stage, and the charisma that he conveyed - I don't think I've ever felt that in any entertainer since. I mean, yes, other entertainers have a charisma, but Elvis exuded a maleness about him, a proudness that you only see in an animal. On the stage he'd have this look, prowling back and forth, pacing like a tiger. I was difficult to attach who he really was to this person on stage. It was incredible."

Priscilla Presley
commenting on Elvis 1969 Las Vegas Engagement

[ehollier]

"It amazed me that he would record these very guttural, primitive songs - I call them 'primitive.' But I came to understand, he expressed so many things with his voice - the lyrical content had nothing to do with what was happening for him. He was the only artist that I ever worked with that could zing you - with the "Elvis thing" - whenever he wanted. He was the greatest communicator of emotion that I ever knew, from beginning to end."

Norbert Putnam
Session Musician for 1970 recordings

[ehollier]

"Opening night was when I was impressed by Elvis Presley. I mean, I've been on stage with a lot of stars, but they have no idea what a star is. It was unreal. It (Elvis' Vegas show) was just a group of songs, very little production -- it wasn't as organized as a lot of Vegas shows. But, boy, if you want to talk about going out and grabbing people -- Elvis Presley was a happening, and what he had going will never be again. There was a vibe you could pick up in the audience -- it was unbelievable. I'm not going to say to you that musicially it was the best in the whole world. It was charisma. He just loved to put other people around his little finger and do it, and he did."

Joe Guercio,
Joe Guercio Orchestra
Music Director, International Hotel

[Unchained Melody]

You must take alot of time from your day to take the time to type all that stuff out. :lol:

Always appreciated though ;)

[ehollier]

You must take alot of time from your day to take the time to type all that stuff out. :lol:

Always appreciated though ;)

Thanks. So much has been written about him. I'm just trying to find those words that express how others truly felt about him.

[ehollier]

"Other performers are disciplined, but he was so undisciplined it was a joke. You talk to a lot of people who'll say discipline makes a star. Horse***t!! Charisma makes a star -- he walked out there, and there was a whole other feel. He could walk across the stage and not even have to open his mouth."

Joe Guercio,
Joe Guercio Orchestra
Music Director, International Hotel

[ehollier]

"And it wasn't like it was a big thing, Elvis hasn't had a record out, hadn't had a major hit in years. And, it was kind of exciting, you know, Elvis is gonna be there. But it wasn't like we were hard to impress I guess at that time because we had worked with all these acts that were just really hot at the time.

And this back door opens and he walks in. And, God, I'll never forget it. I was kind of amazed at my reaction. I said, 'Dang, that's Elvis Presley'. I mean, we all just kind of backed up a step. You know, man, he had this charisma about him that was just dressed to the hilt, you know. He came in and he just owned the world, you know. But he was so cool, and he was a star, I mean, he was a star when he walked in that back door."

Reggie Young
Session Musician
American Studios, 1969

[Merry]

"Elvis was a rebel, but he was a rebel that had love in his face."


Jerry Schilling

[Merry]

Alan Wiess, who wrote the screenplays for several of Elvis' motion pictures remembers his first meeting with Elvis in 1956. It was during the 21 year old star's screen test for producer, Hal Wallis:

"The transformation was incredible. We knew instantly that we were in the presence of a phenomenon, electricity bounced off the walls of the sound stage. One felt it as an awesome thing - like an earthquake in progress, only without the implicit threat. Watching this insecure country boy, who apologized when he asked for a rehearsal as though he had done something wrong, turn into absolute dynamite when he stepped in the bright lights...he believed in it, and he made you believe it, no matter how ‘sophisticated' your musical tastes were.

I had not been a fan until that point, but to deny his talent would have been as foolish as it was impossible. He was a force, and to fail to recognize it would be the same as sticking a finger into a live socket and denying the existence of electricity."

[ehollier]

"I was fighting a battle working with him, knowing that I looked like Mr. Ed, the mule, and here was a guy that could go out and clear his throat and make ten thousand people scream"

Carl Perkins

[ehollier]

"Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll because he was the embodiment of its sins and virtues; grand and vulgar, rude and eloquent, powerful and frustrated, absurdly simple and awesomely complex."

Dave Marsh
Rolling Stone Magazine

[ehollier]

"What is not only plausible, but clearly the case is that Elvis himself, on his own and without reference to anyone else's dreams, plans or imaginings, was drawn to music in a way that he couldn't fully express, found a kind of peace in the music, was able to imagine something that he could express only to his mother. It remains his secret passion."

Peter Guralnick
describing Elvis' early musical history in Tupelo

[ehollier]

"Elvis looks in great shape from the neck down, quite trim and with the athletic flexibility to do deep leg lunges, and delivering each song with enormous emotional and physical energy. His face shows much dissipation however, and tells another story; the feeling one gets from this film is of a desperately sad man, a hurting soul, putting a brave mask on for the world. There is also not even a flicker of ego...we see only a hard-working guy, with not a shred of arrogance. He wears his flashy clothes with grace, style and humility, and sings his heart out, and it's a beautiful thing to see."

Commentary on Elvis on Tour

[ehollier]

“Elvis Presley remains the quintessential American pop star; gaudy, garish, compromised in his middle age by commercial considerations, yet gifted with an enormous talent and a charismatic appeal beyond mere nostalgia. Presley remains a true American artist – one of the greatest in American popular music, a singer of native brilliance and a performer of magnetic dimensions.”

Rolling Stones' review of
Elvis - A Legendary Performer, Volume One

[Unchained Melody]

"Elvis looks in great shape from the neck down, quite trim and with the athletic flexibility to do deep leg lunges, and delivering each song with enormous emotional and physical energy. His face shows much dissipation however, and tells another story; the feeling one gets from this film is of a desperately sad man, a hurting soul, putting a brave mask on for the world. There is also not even a flicker of ego...we see only a hard-working guy, with not a shred of arrogance. He wears his flashy clothes with grace, style and humility, and sings his heart out, and it's a beautiful thing to see."

Commentary on Elvis on Tour


Very nice statement. have to say gave me some chill bumps when reading it..sad..:'(

[john carpenter]

Thank you Rossie I will definitley check that out..just don't feel like going through all my CD's right now to find it :blush:That is so cool Rosanne, i wish they filmed it. I will search my heart out to find it on C.D. I can just see you Dad giving Elvis the thumbs up.LOL. It's great to hear your experiences with Elvis. You could write another book "My Dad tickled Elvis" I would love to see all your Elvis concert pics. Darn it i Live in Florida..lol:lmfao:

[ehollier]

“If Elvis’s genius is as simple as inborn talent, its result has been as complex as the U. S. A. His goal, or instinct rather, has been to make music that touches, takes, and personalizes virtually every positive side of the American soul; a completely innocent and mature delight in sex; a love of roots and a respect for the past; a rejection of roots and a demand for novelty; the liberating arrogance and sense of self-worth that grows out of the most commonplace understanding of what ‘democracy and ‘equality’ are all about (no man is better than me); the humility, piety, and self-depreciating humor that spring from the same source (I am not better than no man); a burning desire to get rich and have fun, to attain the symbols and status that deliver pleasure both as symbols and on their own terms. There are a lot of contradictions here; Elvis is after all, has become one of those symbols himself. Perhaps that is why one of his earliest critics pronounced him ‘morally insane.’”

Greil Marcus
commentary on Elvis - A Legendary Performer, Volume One

[Merry]

"I was fighting a battle working with him, knowing that I looked like Mr. Ed, the mule, and here was a guy that could go out and clear his throat and make ten thousand people scream"

Carl Perkins


LOL, I love this one. How can I not be proud!

[ehollier]

"This is the most improbable story of all: In a tiny Memphis studio, in 1954 and 1955, Sam Phillips and Elvis Presley created rock & roll."


Peter Guralnick

[ehollier]

"With snarling vocal authority, precision rockabilly jump and slashing lead guitar by Scotty Moore, Presley transformed the song's blues changes and put-down rhyme into a declaration of independence. 'I don't care what they say,' he told a reporter days before the session in 1956, defending his music and body language. 'It ain't nasty.'"


Rolling Stones commentary
on the recording of Hound Dog

[ehollier]

"With the exception of Frank Sinatra, no other entertainer's name is as synonymous with the city of Las Vegas as Elvis Presley. Nearly 30 years after his death Elvis is still everywhere in Las Vegas. With all this tribute and the Elvis mystique at the hands of wannabees, its very easy to forget the undeniable power, artistry and talent that the REAL Elvis Presley had. His life was brief, a burning shining star who fell victim to life's excesses and the power of his own personality, but he left us with so much. Not just the sideburns and the sunglasses and the sequined jumpsuits and the "thankya very much" but the films, the recordings, the music and god*****t... that voice."

[ehollier]

"As the lights went down on the main event... the band burst into "Blue Suede Shoes" and Elvis Presley burst forth from stage to the complete rapture of the capacity crowd. Over the next two hours, Elvis, accompanied by his hand picked band of ringers absolutely destroyed the showroom at the International Hotel. Like one giant orgasm, nine years in wait, Elvis exploded onto the stage and within an instant changed not only all those in attendance, but the whole city of Las Vegas, and pop culture in general."

Commentary of Opening Night, 1969

[ehollier]

"Elvis had a center of gravity that was low, but also set back and deep; his sexiest moves – legs lolling back and forth, smooth like jelly, hips rolling and tossing everywhere – were performed as if there were a paperweight on a string tied around his waist, and hung from his lower back; with his own weight adjusted to the back, he could free one leg to twist, pop, and jerk while maintaining perfect balance; Elvis’ glory was in the shifting of his weight; when he gets going fast, the force of the shifts make his shoulders jerk so hard he looks like he is being electrocuted"


Pia Catton, New York Sun columnist, August 16, 2007
explaining the reasons for Elvis' star quality, as a stage performer

[ehollier]

"I'm sitting in the drive-through and I've got my three girls in the back and this station comes on and it's playing "Jailhouse Rock," the original version, and my girls are jumping up and down, going nuts. I'm looking around at them and they've heard Dad's music all the time and I don't see that out of them."

Garth Brooks

[Diane]

Thanks for all the great quotes you posted Liz. They were amazing!(y)

Diane

[hgs262626]

"He was so handsome he didn't seem real."

[Diane]

He certainly looked real to me when we saw him....overwhelmingly real!:jawdrop:

Diane

[ehollier]

"Do you know how hard it is to fake your own death? Only one man has pulled it off — Elvis".


Mulder in The X Files (1993)

[ehollier]

"The voice is so melodious, and - of course, by accident, this glorious voice and musical sensibility was combined with this beautiful, sexual man and this very unconscious - or unselfconscious stage movements."


Jerry Wexler, co-founder of Atlantic Records

[Unchained Melody]

"Do you know how hard it is to fake your own death? Only one man has pulled it off — Elvis".


Mulder in The X Files (1993)

Actually no, he didn't.....;)

[ehollier]

Actually no, he didn't.....;)

IT'S FICTION, BUD!!!!!!! You know??? The X-Files?????? (maybe you should get some sleep, now.)

[ehollier]

"Presley's voice was remarkable in the sense that, through it, he touched people in a way only great artists can do. In fact, the people he touched are as diverse as humanity itself and, because of that, his popularity has transcended race, class, national boundaries, and culture. There is no simple answer about why that is so, all I can say is he had that magic. When Elvis Presley was first popular, many people said that he did not have a good voice. Almost everyone, today, knows that he did, but more people today should see him not simply as a performer, but as an artist with a great soul."


John Bakke, professor emeritus
University of Memphis,

[ehollier]

"Presley sings with a beat; and you can be certain that there'll always be music with a beat and that, whether you like it or not, there will always be an Elvis Presley"


Helen McNamara,
June 9, 1956 issue of "Saturday Night Magazine"

[Unchained Melody]

IT'S FICTION, BUD!!!!!!! You know??? The X-Files?????? (maybe you should get some sleep, now.)

I know I was just playing around there...:blush:

[ehollier]

"He was sexy as hell. During the 'Burning Love' number ...., he moved it (the microphone) back and forth like he was making love to it.

George Nicholas, MGM Press Agent
Aloha from Hawaii

[Unchained Melody]

Thanks for that Liz (y)

[ehollier]

"Not only were most of the mannerisms that would define his vocal style present at the creation — from the sudden swoops in register to the habit of the throat-clearing "well" -- but what was even more impressive was the extent to which his first professional recording was marked by the absolute assertion of his personality over the song; from this, it might be concluded that Presley was simply a "natural", but the truth, as ever, was more complex than that"


Jonathan Gould

[Unchained Melody]

"Not only were most of the mannerisms that would define his vocal style present at the creation — from the sudden swoops in register to the habit of the throat-clearing "well" -- but what was even more impressive was the extent to which his first professional recording was marked by the absolute assertion of his personality over the song; from this, it might be concluded that Presley was simply a "natural", but the truth, as ever, was more complex than that"


Jonathan Gould

If there is one word that comes to mind when having to think of one word that best described Elvis I would say complex.

[Merry]

I have two words:

Love him.

[Unchained Melody]

I have too words:

Love him.


Most certainly agree!!:D

[ehollier]

"A singer, at work, is usually thinking only about making it through the song without flubbing it. Look what's involved:breathing plausibly, remembering the lyrics, nailing the high notes, staying with your band or chorus, maintaining a soulful facial expression and looking good. You might also be whacking a guitar. And -- because Presley did -- you also have to move, oscillate, arm-wrestle with the microphone, throttle it, skid across the stage on your knees, fling your head back and spread your arms; and then you want to salt it with what you possess of art...he flings his voice up beyond the grip of gravity, and then surrenders, like a skater in a leap."


Catherine Rankovic
"The Missouri Review", Volume XXIV, Number 2, 2001

[ehollier]

"'Reconsider Baby' is an absolute classic, the finest blue performance of his career and one his finest records ever. Elvis sings with deliberate cockiness.... His sexual inferences were so obvious on this album that Greil Marcus (music critic) remarked 'This isn't sexy, its pornographic.'"

Samuel Roy

[ehollier]

Of "Can't Help Falling in Love"

"The piano opening is like a pendulum that starts the entrace, creating an almost hypnotic quality. Elvis makes it hypnotic by giving a performance that disarms the listener. What comes through is the way he sings - a feeling that no amount of earthly floods could drown ... He captures what young lovers eternally dream to be possible."

Samuel Roy

[ehollier]

“...At Sun Studio in Memphis Elvis Presley called to life what would soon be known as rock and roll with a voice that bore strains of the Grand Ole Opry and Beale Street, of country and the blues. At that moment, he ensured - instinctively, unknowingly - that pop music would never again be as simple as black and white.”

David Fricke
Rolling Stone, 1986

[ehollier]

"His measurable effect on culture and music was even greater in England than in the States."


Mick Fleetwood

[ehollier]

"There is something magical about watching a man who has lost himself find his way back home... He sang with the kind of power people no longer expect from rock 'n' roll singers."


John Landau (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Landau), review of the TV Special Elvis (1968).

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley`s talent as a musical artist was double barrelled and more; his voice, on the one hand, was extraordinary for its quality, range and power, as well as being a unique stage performer with instinctive natural abilities in both areas; ... his voice invariably possessing an aching sincerity and an indefinable quality of yearning virtually impossible to pigeonhole".


From the U.S Department of the Interior`s paper on criteria for greatness as a vocalist, which, together with all aspects of his life and legacy, led to the inclusion of his home, Graceland, in the National Register of Historic Places, in 2006

[ehollier]

"Presley was never more beautiful than he was in 1969. I would argue that there has never been a better looking man than Elvis in this period and he is really breathtaking to watch..."

Jeremy Richey

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley is like the 'Big Bang' of Rock 'n' Roll. It all came from there and what you had in Elvis Presley is a very interesting moment ... to be pretentious about it for a minute, you had two cultures colliding there.

You had a kind of white, European culture and an African culture coming together - the rhythm of black music and the melody chord progressions of white music - just all came together in that kind of spastic dance of his. That was the moment. "


Bono

[ehollier]

"Elvis could do everything, from a very quiet sensual moan and groan to a high-panic scream and was willing to do it within the context of a three-minute song, with no inhibitions whatsoever."


Norbert Putman, Nashville Session Musician

[ehollier]

"Somewhere on the edge of black and white, male and female, young and old, innocence and evil; the skinny kid from nowhere still sits straddling the fence of genre, style and celebrity. With a name for the ages, and a look of an alien creature sent to earth on a twist of fate, Elvis Presley, by his mere presence, changed everything Americans knew or imagined about iconoclasm."

James Campion

[ehollier]

"Presley was the package: the swooping, greasy pompadour, sneering smile, the slightest shake of his pant leg and an indescribable, godly voice meshed in sweet tones and snarling grit, all added up to arguably the most recognizable personality in the history of pop culture. "

James Campion

[ehollier]

"American South produced nearly all of the country's original music; Jazz, Country, Folk, and Rock-N-Roll. In towns like New Orleans, Louisiana, Memphis, Tennessee and Mobile, Alabama, simple "county folk" were tearing down the walls of musical expectation and setting the standards by which the rest of the country would copy for evermore."


James Campion

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley possessed a beautiful voice and a certain boyish, naive charm that could settle a song deep within his chest and pour over the ears like molasses."

James Campion

[ehollier]

"When I was 13, I saw him [Elvis] perform live and I suddenly understood what sex is all about. I was screaming at the top of my lungs."


Raquel Welch

[ehollier]

"He epitomised America, and for that we shall be eternally grateful. There will never be anyone else like him. Let's all rejoice in his music."


Ronald Reagan

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley was never short on stage presence."

Viva Las Vegas, 2007

[TotallyInsane]

"Elvis Presley was never short on stage presence."

Viva Las Vegas, 2007

Well, DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lmfao::lmfao:

[Unchained Melody]

"Elvis Presley was never short on stage presence."

Viva Las Vegas, 2007

Even during some of his not so good performances, he always pleased the crowd....everyone who was around elvis always say that he had apresence about him like no other and it was just undescriable, how you could sense he was coming before you even knew he walked in the room...

[ehollier]

"Elvis' "Love me tender" (1956), is a timeless classic that his fans return to, time and again, when choosing their favourite love song, but why is this early recording such a favourite? It could be the simplicity of the lyric, that wonderful vocal which quivers with an understated power and beauty, or the honest, pure sentiment of a song that has touched millions. Two minutes and 40 seconds have never been used more beautifully."


An RCA/BMG spokesman commenting on the song being voted Presley's favourite song, by a poll of more than 5,000 of his fans.

[ehollier]

"In the collective memory of his fans, he reigns as the sleek musical genius who soaked up the multiple influences of America's vernacular music -gospel, country swing, rhythm 'n' blues—, and made them his own; Bob Dylan, one of pop's favorite poets, put it best: Elvis, he said, was "the incendiary atomic musical firebrand loner who conquered the western world."


Gwen Gibson, "The Top 10 Pop Stars, Ever," 2003

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley standing still is a thousand times more intense than Mick Jagger moving all over stage."


Kurt Russell

[ehollier]

Of the 1968 Comeback Special:

"The moment Elvis hit the camera, he caught pure fire. All his pent-up energy, all the accumulated passion of his wasted years burst out of him all at once and he sang like a god in flames. Set free, he roared, he burned, he came... he was a lithe young panther, wholly magnificent. Steaming inside his black leather, he looked all-consuming as he strolled back and forth across the narrow square of his stage, straining, as though his limits formed a cage. He sweated, he oozed sweat, and then he sang."

Nik Cohn

[ehollier]

"I’ve never seen before or since, never read of, never heard of, any man who could so totally disarm you with charm, generosity, and what appeared to be spontaneous love, as could Elvis Presley. Today, you’d use the word ‘charisma’. Well, Presley had it to spare in truckloads. He could manipulate your emotions like no other human being."

Dave Hebler

[ehollier]

"The King is dead, but rock 'n' roll will never die. Long live the King."


John Lennon

[ehollier]

"His voice was a total miracle in the music business."


Carl Wilson

[Unchained Melody]

"Elvis Presley standing still is a thousand times more intense than Mick Jagger moving all over stage."


Kurt Russell

Something that makes the shows from 76-77 circa good for me!

[ehollier]

"I think it was the honesty, the fact that he wasn't controlled, wasn't reading prepared lines. It was raw and it was powerful, and I think it was who he really was."


Steve Binder,
'68 Comeback Impromtu Sessions

[Unchained Melody]

"I think it was the honesty, the fact that he wasn't controlled, wasn't reading prepared lines. It was raw and it was powerful, and I think it was who he really was."


Steve Binder,
'68 Comeback Impromtu Sessions

And its such ashame elvis didnt have a manager who thought like this(n)

[ehollier]

"He tried not to show it, but he felt so inferior. He reminded me of a black man in that way; his insecurity was so markedly like that of a black person."


Sam Phillips

[ehollier]

"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."


Shawn Nielsen, Gospel tenor of Voice

[Unchained Melody]

"He tried not to show it, but he felt so inferior. He reminded me of a black man in that way; his insecurity was so markedly like that of a black person."


Sam Phillips

Its amazing how that changed about Elvis when he made it big he knew he was as good as it got(y)

[ehollier]

“Here’s a guy who was a well-known, big entertainer who was a nice guy. Also, he was pretty sharp; no dummy could have entranced the world like this man did. If you didn’t know Elvis, you could think he was an average guy, but this man was so sensitive, so quick and so deep that I really feel he had to go to the movies, and the amusement park, just to get thoughts off of his mind. We knew that; we did childish things when we were grown men. It was a way for release.”


Jerry Schilling, 1985

[ehollier]

“Elvis had charisma and magnetism for which he was known was real. He had a smile that could turn the whole world on, and he had a strong hold over those who were associated with him…He was a strange and unusual man of strong feelings and strong desire…Elvis’ mind and strength were amazing.”


Marty Lacker, 1982

[Unchained Melody]

“Here’s a guy who was a well-known, big entertainer who was a nice guy. Also, he was pretty sharp; no dummy could have entranced the world like this man did. If you didn’t know Elvis, you could think he was an average guy, but this man was so sensitive, so quick and so deep that I really feel he had to go to the movies, and the amusement park, just to get thoughts off of his mind. We knew that; we did childish things when we were grown men. It was a way for release.”


Jerry Schilling, 1985

This quote from Mr Schilling says alot.
Elvis never really grew up...:supriced:

[ehollier]

“He worked a lot harder than I did. They weren’t watching me. I worked in an office. He was out there in the mud like everyone else. He worked as any other GI, and he did it on purpose because he didn’t want people to say he had an easy time in the service. He really worked harder than anything.”


Joe Esposito

[ehollier]

“Though intelligent, Elvis was not particularly intellectual. He never excelled in analysis or dissections; he had a keen understanding of human nature, which, in part, helped make him such a charismatic person. He wasn’t, as some people think, a dimwit who was easily manipulated or exploited by his friends. Instead, it was usually Elvis who manipulated. He had a way of controlling people that went beyond his wealth and position, although he had a 'street cunning' that led him to use both to his advantage.

He instinctively knew the walk, the talk, and the voice that would make people stop, notice and gather around. He had an innate sense of power, and, as is so often the case, having that sense often meant using manipulation in order to remain the center of attention.”

Samuel Roy

[ehollier]

“Music both thrills and holds him in its hypnotic sway. With music he is transported to another place, he experiences a soft dreamy feeling, a sense of almost cushiony release, but at the same time it is as hard and concrete as desire. He knows the words to every song he’s ever heard; he may well know the lyrics to every song that anyone may ever want to sing – the words imprint themselves on his memory, he has only to hear them once or twice, the chords, too. In his mind he hears the songs differently; it is less florid at times, less like the Irish tenor John McCormack on the sentimental songs, more dramatic on the hillbilly ones. The songs he would not change are the gospel numbers – those he would do just as they have been done by the Statesmen, the Blackwood Brothers, the Sunshine Boys. It would seem like sacrilege almost to alter those songs.”

Peter Guralnick
Last Train to Memphis

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley's voice was remarkable in the sense that through it, he touched people in a way only great artists can do. The people he touched are as diverse as humanity itself and because of that, his popularity has transcended race, class, national boundaries, and culture. There is no simple answer about why that is so. All I can say is he had that magic, the magic of the artist. When Elvis Presley was first popular, many people said that he did not have a good voice. Almost everyone today knows that he did, but more people today should see him not simply as a performer with a good voice, but as an artist with a great soul."

John Bakke, Professor Emeritus of the University of Memphis
Elvis Presley’s Impact in America, the World

[ehollier]

"I think there’s a quality of yearning, a quality of vulnerability that comes through in his music. If you listen to the first acetate that he cut, in the summer of ’53, you hear someone who can barely play the guitar, who’s not in control of his style — but all of the elements of Elvis’s style are present there. There are all kinds of different moods in Elvis’ music, but his willingness, his ability to put himself into a song, to focus on the feeling of a song, to expose his vulnerability and this quality of yearning that I think underlies so much of what he recorded, is one of the things that comes through to this day if you listen to the music."

Peter Guralnick

[ehollier]

This one is for Bradley-

"In the early going at the Charlotte Coliseum, there were scattered notes here and there that made you wonder if finally he was gonna do it but, always, he would pull up short, rely on the grins, the charisma and the legend, until finally a little before 10:45, he came to the gospel classic, "How Great Thou Art"-. And that was it. As he came to the part where he belts out the title, he sounded like Mario Lanza with soul, cutting loose a series of high notes that would tingle the spine of even the diehard skeptic; but crecendo came on a song called "Hurt"; it's an old song that Elvis didn't record until a couple of years ago, and the key ingredient is its range, an awesome collection of notes that could leave a normal set of vocal chords in shreds; he finished in what seemed his most potent style, but wasn't satisfied, and mumbled to the band, "Let's do that last part again."; he did, and if there was anyone among the packed-house crowd who had thought Elvis was a fluke, they no doubt came away converted.


Frye Gaillard, reviewing his February 20, 1977 show at the Coliseum, for the "The Charlotte Observer"

[Unchained Melody]

This one is for Bradley-

"In the early going at the Charlotte Coliseum, there were scattered notes here and there that made you wonder if finally he was gonna do it but, always, he would pull up short, rely on the grins, the charisma and the legend, until finally a little before 10:45, he came to the gospel classic, "How Great Thou Art"-. And that was it. As he came to the part where he belts out the title, he sounded like Mario Lanza with soul, cutting loose a series of high notes that would tingle the spine of even the diehard skeptic; but crecendo came on a song called "Hurt"; it's an old song that Elvis didn't record until a couple of years ago, and the key ingredient is its range, an awesome collection of notes that could leave a normal set of vocal chords in shreds; he finished in what seemed his most potent style, but wasn't satisfied, and mumbled to the band, "Let's do that last part again."; he did, and if there was anyone among the packed-house crowd who had thought Elvis was a fluke, they no doubt came away converted.


Frye Gaillard, reviewing his February 20, 1977 show at the Coliseum, for the "The Charlotte Observer"

That was very nice Liz thank you so much for posting !!!!(y):D;)

[presley31]

“Here’s a guy who was a well-known, big entertainer who was a nice guy. Also, he was pretty sharp; no dummy could have entranced the world like this man did. If you didn’t know Elvis, you could think he was an average guy, but this man was so sensitive, so quick and so deep that I really feel he had to go to the movies, and the amusement park, just to get thoughts off of his mind. We knew that; we did childish things when we were grown men. It was a way for release.”


Jerry Schilling, 1985

elvis was just like a kid at heart and thats of the many things l admire from him, cause no matter what day it was or if it was night, elvis was up to something and lot of the times its must of be exciting. I would love to see him riding around graceland or lighting off fireworks:D

[ehollier]

"As a vocalist, Elvis Presley possessed the rare ability to give the melodramatic a genuine authenticity; it's easy to take Elvis Presley for granted and yes, we all know that Elvis had a huge role in defining rock in the beginning, but few of us really know what that means; but then there's that voice, which Elvis uses to cut through to the most complex meaning of the song — the meaning that the song's writers might not even know exists — and lay it bare"


Marty Brown, music critic for CultureCartel.com, reviewing "From Elvis in Memphis", on 15 August 2002

[ehollier]

"Tryin' To Get You" (1955) - , probably the bluesiest song on this record, where Presley shows a sense of determination, not just a combination of nobleness and sex, but an expression of guts as well; quite simply, this is a guy who knows what he wants, and knows he's gonna get it, and his confidence - never arrogance -, is so contagious that by the end of the song, you believe it too"


Daniel Reifferscheid, in a recent review of Elvis' first album

[ehollier]

"Riding a streamlined rock-and-roll beat, the singer's vocal swoops, slurs, hiccups, moans and growls added up to a new pop singing vocabulary that was instantly memorized by scores of imitators. The antithesis of a relaxed conversational crooning, Presley's style was fraught with tension and animated by an attitude of self-conscious melodrama, weaving the whole unwieldy spectrum of pop singing - country-blues, Italianate crooning, Gospel, soul shouting, and honky-tonk yodeling - into an integral personal style. His crowning touch was to accentuate the spontaneously exuberant humor that had always been an ingredient of country, and the blues, but singing it in a way that seemed to poke fun at his own accomplishment."

Stephen Holding, in the article "A Hillbilly who wove a rock and roll spell", published by the New York Times on Sunday, July 19, 1987.

[ehollier]

"It was Elvis' special tragedy to be someone who seemed able to express himself only through music, yet someone who lacked the discipline and focus to dedicate himself to it. "


Charles Taylor

[ehollier]

"Elvis can't be given any one meaning because he is about the freedom of inventing yourself, of finding your own meanings. His tragedy is that he denied himself the freedom that his own example encouraged others to demand. When you burst upon the world with the unabashed energy of Elvis, compromise seems a sellout. Even though he knew he'd made that compromise, Elvis continued to present himself as if he embodied that energy, and that pose became a kind of prison. "


Charles Taylor

[ehollier]

"I got to see Elvis in concert twice..........he could have just stood there and the crowd would be in the palm of his hand. He had a way that can't be explained....he was electrifying and more. There are no words that can begin to capture what he had."

From some lucky fan who was lucky enough to have seen Elvis in concert in the 70's:

[ehollier]

"His loneliness was almost frightening to comprehend. After his mother died, he felt himself alone in the world, and this ache kept him up night after night."

Dr. George Nichopoulos

[ehollier]

"He had a great capacity to love, and he wanted to be loved in return. But he knew the world he lived in, as well as all of the people who surrounded him, who hurt him, who wanted something from him made it virtually impossible for him to ever feel that affection; and if he did, he didn't know whether to trust it."

Ann-Margret

[Unchained Melody]

"His loneliness was almost frightening to comprehend. After his mother died, he felt himself alone in the world, and this ache kept him up night after night."

Dr. George Nichopoulos

That is so sad to read yet so true. The closest he ever felt to anyone after his mothers death was priscilla. And that was the final blow i think, I cant begin to imagine how lonley he felt.

[ehollier]

“He created Elvis Presley as a young man with all the confidence and swagger that he could muster. He was the coolest. And when he was young, taking the world by storm, it was fun. He was on top of the world. But then came all of the bad movies, his transformation from a rebel to a teen idol, and the crushingly demanding concert tours. Being Elvis Presley had become an almost impossible job.”

Sam Thompson

[ehollier]

"I know he invented rock and roll, in a manner of speaking, but I have news for you--that's not why he's worshiped as a god today. He's worshiped as a god today because in addition to inventing rock and roll he was the greatest ballad singer this side of Frank Sinatra--because the spiritual translucence and reined-in gut sexuality of his slow weeper and torchy pop blues still activate the hormones and slavish devotion of millions of female human beings worldwide."

Robert Christgau, 1985
Music Critic

[Unchained Melody]

“He created Elvis Presley as a young man with all the confidence and swagger that he could muster. He was the coolest. And when he was young, taking the world by storm, it was fun. He was on top of the world. But then came all of the bad movies, his transformation from a rebel to a teen idol, and the crushingly demanding concert tours. Being Elvis Presley had become an almost impossible job.”

Sam Thompson

So true so true.....

[mistymorning]

He is an animal , definitely an animal ,a very interesting animal....... (Ann Margaret)

[ehollier]

"He was very intelligent. He was not a punk. He was very elegant, sedate, refined and sophisticated."



Walter Matthau
co-star in King Creole

[ehollier]

"A film almost perfected realised and executed. Elvis gives a performance of finely graded animal naturalism. A consummate actor and singer."


W. A. Harbinson
Elvis biographer commenting on Elvis Presley's performance in King Creole

[ehollier]

"In 1967, when we were out in California, I happened to walk into the room where Elvis and Priscilla were talking one day. And I heard Elvis tell her something personal about me, from when I was little. When he saw me in that room, he quit talking about it. But I couldn’t believe he done it. It hurt my feelings just so bad. I didn’t think he’d ever tell it.

Priscilla left after a minute or two, and I confronted him. I said, “I don’t tell stuff on you! Why did you tell on me?” Even to this day, it bothers me. I guess he wasn’t thinking. But it upset me so that I was going to quit when we got back to Memphis.

One night a week or two later, we were in his bedroom, and he apologized for what he done, and he said he’d come up with something to strengthen our trust in each other. He said, “Well make a pledge. That way, you’ll know that I’ll never say anything to anybody else. We’ll embrace, and repeat this to each other, and it will bond us together in friendship. I won’t tell anyone about it if you won’t.”

It shocked the fool out of me because I didn’t expect it. But I agreed. We sat on the edge of his bed and placed our hands on each other’s heart and took this oath. I don’t know where it come from, whether it was from a book, or if he just made it up. But he knew it from memory. Afterwards, we both cried like crazy. I’ll remember it as long as I live.

There were two parts to it. One was a word, a password, kind of nonsense word. We also had a secret embrace. It was done a certain way so that if you were in complete darkness you would still recognize the other. From then on, every time we were in a crowd, that’s the way we embraced. And people never really noticed. None of the guys ever knew it, even. Not in all those years.

I don’t know of anyone else who knows either the word or the gesture. Because I never broke our pledge or betrayed Elvis’s trust, and I never will. What we pledged, I’ll hold forever in my heart. We reached out to each other, from the love we had then and now. We meant for it to continue, even if one of us should die. I know as well as I know anything that this meant as much to Elvis as it does to me.

I loved him more than anyone can ever understand and I always will. You could not truly know him, and not love him.


THE PLEDGE

It’s just simple word, you see,
To get inside you need no key.
For we who know, know it well,
And you who don’t can never tell.

As I place my hand upon your heart,
And you place yours on mine,
From this day forward, our minds, our souls,
Our hearts will intertwine.

If either one should have a doubt,
Now is the time to back out.
For this pledge together us will tie,
Even if one us should die.

What we share in confidence now,
Even in death cannot part,
For it comes not from the mind,
But from the heart.

You just hold my words true,
For where I go, you’ll be there too.
I know your inner self, and you know mine.
Honor and keep it for all time.

And when I’m gone,
Every now and then,
Think of this pledge,
For I love you, my friend.

You can confess to me,
And touch my heart,
And I’ll know its you by (“the secret word”)
Even in the dark."


Billy Wayne Smith
as told to Alanna Nash

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley was a genius. He didn't express himself the way the middle classes do, which is with word play and being able to explain his actions and reactions. He acted on gut instinct and expressed himself by the way he held the microphone, by the way he moved his hips, by the way that he sang down the microphone."

[ehollier]

"That was his genius ... I believe the essence of any performer is gut instinct ... Because it's in everyone, it's instinct. That's what Elvis Presley's about ... and Elvis Presley could say more in a single performance of somebody else's song than anyone could say in an entire book."

[ehollier]

THIS IS FUNNY:

“Well, I’m a documentary filmmaker," Bob Abel began, who was instrumental in filming Elvis on Tour, “and I’m really interested in the man who makes the music, not just in recording the music, although I’d like to get your real music on film, too, because I haven’t been too impressed by the music you’ve put on film so far. If we can develop an interest in you, it might be an interesting film to make."

Elvis interrupted: “Do you like my music?”

Abel said he did, delivering a monologue that focused on Elvis’ music in the 1950’s. “I really wanted to take a punch at you.” Elvis rocked back in his chair and laughed. “A lot of people did take punches at me...”

“It’s true,” Abel said. “I admired you on the one hand, and yet on the other hand I was trying too hard to get a girl to kiss me or to let me get my hand under her sweater, when I knew that any girl would have pulled her pants down for Elvis Presley. I hated you for that. Because you had total access to their pants and I couldn’t even get access to their lips.”

Now Elvis practically fell off of his chair with laughter. “That’s...that’s...that the funniest f***ing think I’ve ever heard.”

[ehollier]

"He's just a great big beautiful hunk of forbidden fruit."



A teenage fan in 1955 to Mae Axton

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley was an explorer of vast new landscapes of dream and illusion. He was a man who refused to be told that the best of his dreams would not come true, who refused to be defined by anyone else's conceptions. This is the goal of democracy, the journey on which every prospective American hero sets out. That Elvis made so much of the journey on his own is reason enough to remember him with the honor and love we reserve for the bravest among us. Such men made the only maps we can trust."

Dave Marsh
Elvis (Rolling Stone Press, 1982)

[ehollier]

"Really, at the piano, Elvis surpassed his own genius. He may have been locked into some brilliant rhythms on guitar, but he was able to bring an even more desperate approach to the vast percussive instrument, which seemed to ground him and allow him to draw even deeper from the well of his own talent."


Cryogenic
FECC

[ehollier]

"Elvis is an under-rated artist. He is bigger than people think. "

Fan quote on the internet

[ehollier]

"The transformation was incredible….electricity bounced off the walls of the soundstage. One felt it as an awesome thing – like an earthquake in progress, only without the implicit threat. Watching this insecure country boy, who apologized when he asked for a rehearsal, turn into absolute dynamite when he stepped into the bright lights and started lip-synching the words of his familiar hit. He believed in it, and he made you believe it, no matter how “sophisticated” your musical tastes were…"


Alan Weiss speaking of Elvis Presley's screen test in 1956

[ehollier]

On Aloha From Hawaii:

This was the first time Elvis was consciously representing America, which is reflected in his eclectic setlist, his magnificent jumpsuit and his rousing, definitive performance of "An American Trilogy".

The nerves were primarily because Elvis Presley was now the ambassador for the country he was born and raised in, the country he loved and admired, the country that had made him who he was. It was not merely about not embarrassing himself; it was about not shaming himself through not shaming America. He came through splendidly, with all the subtlety, grace and power uniquely his.

And that's the way it is.

Cryogenic
FECC

[ehollier]

"Elvis Presley is one of the most complicated people in history. An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, inside a hamburger. "

Scott Jenkins

[ehollier]

“Elvis’s spirit was powerful. It remains powerful. He was able to express that spirit throughout his life in ways that reached millions. That is cause for joy. The choices he made are the choices he made. But the choice we can now make is to celebrate his spirit. In a very real sense, he still lives. He always will.”

Sri Daya Mata

[ehollier]

“He loved the Lord and always did the best he could. He tried his hardest. He was a human being and he had faults. But his heart was bigger than all of Mississippi and Tennessee combined. And as long as there’s some kind of gizmo to listen to music, people are going to be listening to Elvis and loving him because all of his love is right there in his music.”

Patsy Presley

[KPM]

“He loved the Lord and always did the best he could. He tried his hardest. He was a human being and he had faults. But his heart was bigger than all of Mississippi and Tennessee combined. And as long as there’s some kind of gizmo to listen to music, people are going to be listening to Elvis and loving him because all of his love is right there in his music.”

Patsy Presley
That a great sentiment-thanks for posting it.(y)

[Merry]

“He loved the Lord and always did the best he could. He tried his hardest. He was a human being and he had faults. But his heart was bigger than all of Mississippi and Tennessee combined. And as long as there’s some kind of gizmo to listen to music, people are going to be listening to Elvis and loving him because all of his love is right there in his music.”

Patsy Presley


Yes he did.
((()))

Kim

[ehollier]

"The gospel sound, all of the rock and roll numbers, the ballads, the love songs, Elvis was and is a great singer for many reason; he had a musical textured, rhythmic voice, combined with emotional intelligence. Concentrate on his voice; sweet, remorseful, defiant, suggestive. Unlike so many of the superstars of modern popular music, he could sing – that is why he is still the King."

Ellen Battersby

[ehollier]

“I suppose you’d call him a lyric baritone, although with exceptional high notes and unexpectedly rich low ones. But what is more important about Elvis Presley is not his vocal range, nor how high, or low it extends, where its center of gravity is. By that measure, Elvis was all at once a tenor, a baritone and a bass, the most unusual voice I’ve ever heard.”

Gregory Sandows

[geordie]

marvelous post ehcollier very well said

[ehollier]

"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."

The New York Times

[ehollier]

“You don’t need to change anything about Elvis. All you have to do is introduce him to new young eyes and ears and get out of the way."

Jack Soden, 2008

[ehollier]

"There is a difference between people who sing and those who take that voice to another, otherworldly place, who create a euphoria within themselves. It's transfiguration. I know about that. And having met Elvis, I know he was a transformer.

The first Elvis song I heard was "Hound Dog." I wasn't equipped with any of the knowledge I have now, about the Big Mama Thornton version or where all that swing was coming from. I just heard this voice, and it was absolutely, totally in its own place. The voice was confident, insinuating and taking no prisoners. He had those great whoops and diving moments, those sustains that swoop down to the note like a bird of prey. I took all that in."

Robert Plant

[Merry]

“I suppose you’d call him a lyric baritone, although with exceptional high notes and unexpectedly rich low ones. But what is more important about Elvis Presley is not his vocal range, nor how high, or low it extends, where its center of gravity is. By that measure, Elvis was all at once a tenor, a baritone and a bass, the most unusual voice I’ve ever heard.”

Gregory Sandows



Wow........

Thanks E, I love these. :)

[ehollier]

Elvis is easily the most handsome person that has ever lived -- or been captured through the eye of a camera, anyway.

But "handsome" doesn't seem adequate. Sublime, perhaps. He just had the best bone structure and most perfectly symmetrical face I've ever seen. Who else has a nose like his? It's the centre of the face, so you could say his physical beauty starts from there and spreads out in all directions.

Cryogenic

[ehollier]

“Elvis is our greatest celebrity, an icon whose unrivaled fame was fueled by the forces that transformed American during the last century – forces that, paradoxically, now make it all but impossible for our celebrity-saturated culture to produce another Elvis.”

J. Peder Zane

[KPM]

“Elivis is our greatest celebrity, an icon whose unrivaled fame was fueled by the forces that transformed American during the last century – forces that, paradoxically, now make it all but impossible for our celebrity-saturated culture to produce another Elvis.”

J. Peder Zane
Thats an interesting observation.

[Merry]

Elvis is easily the most handsome person that has ever lived -- or been captured through the eye of a camera, anyway.

But "handsome" doesn't seem adequate. Sublime, perhaps. He just had the best bone structure and most perfectly symmetrical face I've ever seen. Who else has a nose like his? It's the centre of the face, so you could say his physical beauty starts from there and spreads out in all directions.

Cryogenic


I feel, with regard to this observation, that why Elvis was so handsome, was because he was an incredible person. Every tick! That is what makes him, "him" for me .... God I miss him!

[Merry]

Richard Davis about 'The Boss'.

Quote: Let me tell you, Elvis was a beautiful person - inside and out. He had a heart of gold. He loved people. He truly cared for all people, all humanity regardless of their race, creed or colour. He had the most fantastic sense of humour of anybody I've ever met in my entire
life. Our life together was virtually full of practical jokes - he would instigate most of them, but sometimes we'd pull 'em on him. But the man was generous and he loved giving - he loved to see the happiness he brought to people by the things he did for them.

If he made you happy then you paid him back ten times over because that made him happy. he was a very God-believing, religious person, he believed in Jesus as a Saviour .... There was so much to that man.
He's one of the greatest men and talents that ever walked the face of this earth and ever lived, and no one will ever top him. I loved that man. Unquote

[ehollier]

"I don't know what he does, but it drives people crazy."

Ed Sullivan

[cibetty]

“He loved the Lord and always did the best he could. He tried his hardest. He was a human being and he had faults. But his heart was bigger than all of Mississippi and Tennessee combined. And as long as there’s some kind of gizmo to listen to music, people are going to be listening to Elvis and loving him because all of his love is right there in his music.”

Patsy Presley


“Elvis’s spirit was powerful. It remains powerful. He was able to express that spirit throughout his life in ways that reached millions. That is cause for joy. The choices he made are the choices he made. But the choice we can now make is to celebrate his spirit. In a very real sense, he still lives. He always will.”

Sri Daya Mata

OMG!! These are so beautiful quotes Liz, I enjoy reading them!!! I loooove your thread what you started, pleeeease keep them coming!! Huuuuuuuugs: Betti

[ehollier]

"He didn't dominate the field so much as he embodied and captured its origins, its potential and its shortcomings in one glorious, perplexing package. Listening to these records, you don't hear the King of Rock & Roll; you hear the whole d*mn Kingdom."


Steve Pond, Rolling Stone Magazine
Review of RCA's release of The Complete Sun Sessions, The Number One Hits, The Top Ten Hits and The Memphis Record in 1987.

[ehollier]

"...respectfulness, tact and discretion were his fortes. But just occasionally, we all fumble -- and some, a lot more than others. In Elvis' case, in this area, he fumbled rarely. One of the saddest things, even though it had to be written, is a book like "Elvis What Happened?" coming out and helping to ruin his image. Elvis prided himself on at least being ... decent. Not necessarily humble, clean-cut, approachable and innocent, but decent. Sadly, the very real charges against him in EWH opened a door that can't be closed. But even as he took himself down the path of self destruction, Elvis tried to remain a respectful, inspiring influence. Again, he may have faltered at times, even in this lofty arena, but his successes far outweigh his misses. Presuming one has the entitlement to criticise a person by cherry-picking a "miss" when there are so many "hits" is very poor form -- and a great disservice to the accomplishments of a person who prided themselves on "taking care of business". Walk a mile ...

If anything -- though perhaps I reveal my own personal bias here -- this moment and others like it should be respected, even cherished, if not necessarily condoned or celebrated. These moments allow you to glimpse the real person beneath the image and the artist, bringing us closer to the person, making his art a little more tangible.

In "Elvis By The Presleys", there's a segment where Lisa thoughtfully reflects on Elvis' stage presence. She says he brought himself to the stage and that the only difference between the person on the stage and the person off it was that the person off it was the same man just greater. These rare moments of impropriety offer sustenance for her viewpoint, powerfully illustrating the inherent truthfulness of her perspective ... and reminding us just how authentic, how "real", Elvis was."

Cryogenic

[elvia7]

Great article [and photos], Liz, thanks for posting it!

I find it as well, very good...
Too many words , too many liryc's , too many books....
If somebody know ELVIS? I think - no...
He don't know himself , so what we can write about HIM...

[Merry]

In "Elvis By The Presleys", there's a segment where Lisa thoughtfully reflects on Elvis' stage presence. She says he brought himself to the stage and that the only difference between the person on the stage and the person off it was that the person off it was the same man just greater. These rare moments of impropriety offer sustenance for her viewpoint, powerfully illustrating the inherent truthfulness of her perspective ... and reminding us just how authentic, how "real", Elvis was."

Cryogenic




Thanks e, all of this was lovely to read. I, of course, love Lisa's words.

[ehollier]

"Elvis' (piano) playing very similar to his guitar work, primitive but powerful. On "You'll Never Walk Alone" you can almost hear him fuse his soul into the instrument which is just not adequate enough to express what he has inside. It just builds and builds in intensity."

Harley Rissmiller, FECC
May 14, 2003

[ehollier]

"Back in Nashville for the first time since 1958, Elvis showed an impressive vocal and musical maturity. Between March 1960 and June 1961, Presley recorded 49 non-movie tracks. Most of them give testimony of a masterful vocalist and stylist. He took care to demonstrate his new vocal ranges and how perfectly he could control his vibrato but it still was rasping some old Blues with full-throated power, that he enjoyed jamming and having fun with his musicians the new style and the good old low down. RECONSIDER BABY remains the "most of the mostest" masterful performance of those early Nashville sessions."

JEANNO
http://www.elvicities.com/~jeanno/r&bi_3.htm

[ehollier]

“The lack of prejudice on the part of Elvis Presley had to be one of the biggest things that ever could have happened to us, though. It was almost subversive, sneaking around through the music ... You know, Elvis Presley knew what it was like to be poor, but that d*mn sure didn´t make him prejudice. He didn´t draw any lines. And you have to be an awful smart person or dumb as he!! (and you know he wasn´t dumb) to put out that kind of thinking.”

Sam Phillips

[ehollier]

"He returned to Rock´n´Roll for the first time since 1960. He performed as if he remembered why he´d ever wanted to be a singer in the first place. He mattered in a way he hadn´t since he´d cut "Elvis is Back", eight years earlier. ... There was no doubting the power and the passion of his voice."

John Robertson
1968 Comeback Special

[Merry]

Thanks e, please keep 'em comin', lol :D

[ehollier]

Oozing the sullen sexuality that threw America into a state of shock in the '50s, he groaned and swiveled. It was hard to believe that he was 34 and no longer 19 years old. "

Newsweek, August 11th 1969

[ehollier]

" ...There has been nothing going on for 14 years that matches the 50 minutes he gives you in a show. "

Phillip Elwood of the San Francisco Examiner
November, 1970

[ehollier]

" Presley's appearance, delivery, and anatomical gestures, the same as he pioneered with 15 years ago leave no doubt about his influence on present-day Presley's. "

The Variety's review of Elvis' opening night, January 1970

[ehollier]

"I wish he would be remembered as the unique person he was, not only physically beautiful but he had a kind soul and heart and he was brilliant!

I do wish the public - the media - those that are not diehard fans, I wish they knew how much more there was to this man and how everyone he met, he touched in some way. He was a life changer! Still is!"

Sandi Miller, Elvis fan extraordinaire
2009

[ehollier]

"I’m sad there’s not more (of Elvis' music) because in human nature, there’s never enough of a good thing. I’m also sad he died early but his musical legacy needs no apology."

Harley Rissmiller

[ehollier]

"And he remains astoundingly underrated for his ability to sing anything, anytime, anywhere. "No one sang so many different kinds of music as well as he sang them at such a high level for such a long time -- rock, gospel, country, standards. Can you imagine Bruce Springsteen or Bono or Michael Stipe winning a Grammy for singing gospel music?"

Greg Drew, vocal coach
quoted in an article by Mike Brewster entitled "Birth of a Rock Star"