Did he mean to say "The Byrds"? When he says this statement it really just seems to me his saying it so people will think his still hip and not outdated in terms of his musical tastes.
Did he mean to say "The Byrds"? When he says this statement it really just seems to me his saying it so people will think his still hip and not outdated in terms of his musical tastes.
I always thought the way he said was like " I don't give a bleep about these other groups".
That might be correct, but we don't know. I think he meant The Byrds.
When he says that to me he was not joking around. Maybe just pronounced it kinda weird.
One only has to check out Elvis' body language to see he doesn't care about either group.
Brian
He meant The Byrds of course, it is just Elvis had that slurred way of speaking and there is nothing else about it. As a non native engish speaker, I often had trouble understanding what he's saying because of that.
During the '68 sit down sessions Elvis had total freedom, and he wasn't forced to do or say anything, he could sing and say, or not sing or say whatever he wanted or not, there was no agenda but his own. So when he decided to state his thoughts about rock music and his place on it, it was his own choice and voice. He in fact did kind of liked those two bands he mentioned, as he liked many of the new sounds in rock and pop music, he meant what he said. BUT so true: he also meant that "I'm not sure if I should say this" gesture before he mentioned The Beatles and The Byrds.
The thing is he liked them musically, but he was not 100% with what those bands meant to younger generations in terms of the so called "counter culture" and all that. So he liked them, although he also stated clearly after, that lately things have went down to just...
Elvis liked The Beatles honestly enough that he was caught jamming with Lady Madona out of mere self joy and with no intentions to record it. Yes he did had strong issues about what The Beatles and other bands of that generation meant politically, but in terms of music he always expresed honest respect.
Sure the Little Sister/Get Back was jab a The Beatles, yet I don't think it was about telling they "stole" his sound, but about to point out a strong vincle between those two generations of rockers, a strong-direct musical vincle despite political divergences.
I don't think he was disrespectful when he mentioned these two groups. :) :) When I heard how he sang "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude", I had no any doubt he really liked the Beatles.
Totally agree. There's very little proof (from musicians and friends that worked/lived with Elvis) that he actually liked the contemporary music. His heart was in gospel, country and ballads. Of course this doesn't mean that he disliked modern music (he did cover a couple wonderfully).Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Quinn
I always thought it might have been a slight zing at the weird names that groups were adopting, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Hermans Hermits, 1910 Fruitgum Co., of course the Beatles, Stones, Turtles, ....just to name a few. I think a group called the Beards, or the Sideburns, or even the Hairy Faces would actually have fit right in..................They really were pretty off the wall back then.
Always thought he was just being sarcastic. Kind of like when my kids ask if I've heard of a particular pop singer or group. I always reply.."yea I buy all they're 45's". Just being humerous and showing my age.
Mind you that in 1970 none of the entertainers from the 50s were relevant anymore. And even most of the early 60s artists and bands didn't survive the whole 60s (like most of the Motown female groups and most acts from the British Invasion). Even groups like The Four Seasons and The Beach Boys weren't accepted anymore as contemporary and were seen as Golden Oldies acts.
So throwing in some contemporary band names might be done by Elvis to show that he was still relevant and not a Golden Oldies Act from the 50s. But he did spoil it by saying that it's a tough times "for all of us" to find good hard rock songs. Contrary to the 50s and early 60s, bands and artists didn't buy the songs from professional writers and composers, but created everything themselves. Something that Elvis didn't want to do himself. So for the rest of the decade he had to rely on covers and yes, his own Golden Oldies.
Yes, most 50's artists where irrelevant by the mid 60's, but we need to make an exception for Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.Quote:
Originally Posted by Albert
True, the post '68 Elvis was no longer the revolutionary artist that he was in the 50's, (well not even Dylan or the Beatles as solo acts were any more that relevant during the 70's), but I mean top 5 hits like In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds or Burning Love, or the lesser known top 20 hits he was still having, or even the hits he had in the Country or the Adult Contemporary charts, and events like the MSG or the Aloha concert totally put him aside from the perception in which sadly Carl Parkins or Roy, or Jerry Lee where seen, and certainly away from many british invation has beens, at least until '75, after that yes he certainly has walking through the same fate. Johnny Cash in his own terms, also managed to step away from the oldies scene, and kept himself fresh and working hard in the Country scene at least until the early 70's.
Elvis moved away from rock and roll, or also, we should say: rock music moved away from Elvis idea of it. Post Elvis generations grew on Elvis and Berry's rock and roll, Elvis grew up in country and rythm & blues and gospel, so for Elvis to go back and stick to his roots, was not the same thing that it was for Lennon, that is something critics then and now never seem to get when accusing Elvis of betraying rock, and do a lot of country and gospel. Sure Elvis liked some of the new sounds, mostly the ones that still resonate with his roots, like Tony Joe White, Creedence, Dylan, and even some Beatles, some other like the psychedelic rock stuff he didn't liked at all. I think that's clearly what he's stating on that famous -I'd like to talk about music... little bit- segment of the '68 sit down shows, and that sort of titubation before he indeed states he liked "all the new bands and the new music". Latter in '70 he completed the idea: is according the song.
Elvis was property of RCA, and NBC was on a deal with RCA at that point, none of them had interests or investments concerning the Bealtes or Apple records, and so, no interest at all in promote them, as there was no benefit for them at all by doing that.Quote:
Originally Posted by ELVIS_
Northern songs (Beatles' publishing company), had nothing to do with the Aberbachs and Hill and Range. If RCA and the Aberbachs had any push in what Elvis should record or not was exactly the opposite as what you are stating, they wanted to record only songs from Hill & Range, in which they had a cut in publishing royalities, this is very well known, and so, every time Elvis did a Beatles song as well as most of his covers on other contemporary artists, he was going against RCA and Col. Parker wishes. Elvis put it clearly in the MSG press conference -I'm in a publishing house format, but I take songs from anywhere if they are good-. So when its about songs outside Hill&Range, it was only by Presley's choice. This is also well documented.
Steve Binder has always stated that everything that happened during the '68 sit down sessions was by Elvis choice. Yes there was a piece of paper that tells Elvis should talk about how he starded out in music and -being shooted by the waist down...-, but that was all worked out together by Elvis and Binder during rehearsals (Parker and RCA executives where legendary ruled out in this one),and all the little speechs and story telling he does there WHERE his own making, just as the long talks he gave during the '69 concerts.
In 1968 Elvis was seen as totally out of touch with the rock scene, but at the same time, most people still regarded him as the main forerunner of rock music. So it was obvious Elvis felt he needed to state his point of view about that and to me he did it cleverly. He starts talking about the obvious changes in music since '56, he acknowledges those (nothing awkward there), and then BIG YES, I haven't deny it, there is a titubation gesture, he is not 100% sure to say it, but he chooses to do it: he says he likes The Beatles and The Byrds (or maybe the beards as to say all those bands with weird names and not takin' them that serious), then he states he likes all the new groups (just a matter of speaking, I mean who can like them all). Then he resolves the titubation gesture by talking about the real roots of rock music in gospel, blues, country and the mixing of those as to define what is rock music to him, and makes clear the reason of his initial titubation as he states something like now things had now went down to just a... and he didn't finish, -let's you to get it or not -as he hated to criticise other performers-. But as I said before, the idea finish on its own, he could relate to new sounds when they still had to do with his idea of rock music, and he did not when it went as we know, about psychedelic rock and other stuff. It according the song. Esposito has spoked many times about that.
By 1970 things had changed a lot since summer '68, and Elvis did had strong issues about the "drug culture" and all that, and he could see the relation with that and rock music. He might had liked some of the Beatles songs, but he could not support the political consequences of the ideology atributed to them by the counter culture groups. And that's the letter about. (Although there is a big debate about how much Elvis believed that letter or he was just telling what they wanted to hear so he could get his much beloved price for his collection of badges. A bit of both might be).
Then by '71 you can hear Elvis jamming with Lady Madona in the studio. Notice: just jamming for fun with no intentions to record it, probalby not even aware that he was being recorded. Now which sponsors and investors could have been pushing Elvis to do that? lol.
Elvis has strong and very particular views about music, and when he said he liked all kinds if it was good, he was not putting aside "contemporary" music (whatever that meant). But it was always about THE SONG for Elvis, not about a band, or a trend or what was hip, and I guess he doing Beatles songs out of mere pleasure in '71 tell us that it was not even about politics.
On the other had yes, Elvis was a man of often contradictions.
That is so true, Elvis liked what he liked barring nothing-if he liked it he liked it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raised on Rock
If he got pleasure from a certain song-he would sing it......his likes governed his music.