You don’t see the manservant/human mic stand approach too often these days. Little Jimmy was one of the best.
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If people are interested in Elvis (or not), this film seems like an interesting look at his conflicting live and legacy, and what that represents about America:
Meh. Big Mama thornton did it so much better - and the song was originally written for her, not Elvis (or at least, she recorded it first):
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He’s still singing and playing the piano after he gets up and claps his hands, amazing… Such talent!
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I’m old skool. Just ask Dave, my Bike Rack.
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B.B. King’s opinion is just that; an opinion, not fact.
That’s anecdotal and hardly ‘proof’ that he wasn’t a racist; many bigots are more than willing to make special exceptions for “the good ones.”
Personally, I have no idea whether Presley was bigoted or prejudiced, and at this point I really don’t care, because it’s not actually relevant to my life and well being… but it is a fact he was guilty of cultural appropriation.
Weird how a post about one of “the King’s” last recordings has somehow devolved into speculation about his potential racial bias.
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A handbag!? What a cool detail. I’d loved to have seen Big Mama Thorton in a production of “The Importance of Being Ernest”.
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I thought Elvis’ stated position on basic humanity was “Don’t be Cruel”?
At least “Jailhouse Rock” would still be relevant for the current administration.
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Right… on some level, whether or not he was personally bigoted is immaterial, because he was able to materially benefit off the music of the black community in a way that many of them weren’t. That’s generally been one of the ways that white supremacy worked. And if he was ignorant of that, that doesn’t mean he still didn’t benefit.
The guy had a good voice and pretty amazing stage presence, for sure - a talented guy. But pointing out the way the music industry systemically robbed black artists for most of the 20th century is still an important. I don’t think it means that people have to stop listen to an artist they enjoy, but they also shouldn’t attack others who decide to make the choice not to listen to someone…
Also, the best version of Elvis… most certainly Bruce Campbell!
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I thought it looked lip-synced most of the way through, and then the last few bars made me sure of it.
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Elvis hated hippies, and the left. So much so he went to Nixon to get a DEA badge so he could fuck up some un-American hippies himself. So…
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Hated hippies, yet he did enough drugs in his time to supply most of Woodstock…
o_0
Cognitive dissonance is a helluva drug…
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There’s a whole movie about that event… but Kevin Spacey is in it:
But there is only ONE (narrative) movie about Elvis that any of us need watch:
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There’s also an excellent episode of Drunk History on it. Jack Black plays Elvis, probably one of my favorite episodes of that show.
*its not the full skit but has the pertinent Nixon part
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And it looks like that’s Bob Odenkirk as Johnson!!! I’ll have to watch that later. The one on Nichelle Nichols is hella-awesome, too.
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Yes, primarily so they could ignore racism. Pretty much anything that politicians saw in society during the Cold War that they thought was “bad” they blamed the commies. It’s quite like blaming the devil or the terrorists or a conspiracy theory.
I don’t think any of us know how he felt about race relations, but we do know that he himself wasn’t much of an activist around civil rights (not that I’m aware of), he became part of the war on drugs early on (or tried to, which we know was pretty racist), and he was able to materially benefit from the racist structures of the music industry. It’s a shame that we can’t have this conversation about this stuff, without someone pitching a fit and assuming we mean that Elvis had a KKK robe in his closet.
Also, I bet he didn’t like hippies, primarily cause they weren’t buying his albums!
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That does look interesting. There was an excellent interview today with the director on bbc 6music where he goes into the whole cultural appropriation and alleged racism which is worth a listen if you’re able to play it. Starts about 35 minutes in…
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I’m not sure if the version of the video I had posted was overdubbed or the audio and video was just badly synched but I’ve now replace it with a different version of the same clip.
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Such a great film.
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I know zip about Elvis re racism; all I can do is offer this. Any reader would do well to read the entire section:
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