Tag Archives: Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

The best songs: If I Can dream – Elvis Presley

If_I_Can_Dream_Cover

“If I Can Dream” is a song made famous by Elvis Presley, written by Walter Earl Brown and notable for its direct quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr. It was recorded by Presley in June 1968, two months after King’s assassination. The recording was first released to the public as the finale of Presley’s ’68 Comeback Special.

Although the song is not technically gospel music, Presley performed the song with the intensity and intonations of southern gospel. It has since appeared on various Presley gospel and/or inspirational compilations

Music, for me is all about feelings, about emotions. I Like Elvis but I never thought he could give me chills up my spine, literally. I’ve never, ever heard a better interpretation of a song. It is unbelievable!

Elvis is often regarded as a joke, yes, really. It is so fuckin’ frustrating, when you “have seen the light”, there have never been a better interpreter of songs. He is “black” to the soul, he has the Appalachian white trash country in his spine. He combines his experiences into a way of delivering songs that are out of this world!

Never bettered, ever!

It’s astonishing seeing him after the take, just stopping and asking for another take. It looks so rehearsed, so rigid, until we see that its really a live take, a live moment! It’s incredible, and it’s art on the highest level.

Leather clad performance:

This is just as valuable to me as Munch’s Scream, Picasso’s Guernica or Bob Dylan’s Simple twist of faith.

– Hallgeir

PS: That Celine Dionne version is shit!

 

 

Blues, List, Rock'n Roll

Rock and Roll: 100 Best Singles – according to Paul Williams – Part 1

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paul williams 100 best singles

There’s a scream inside everyone of us at every moment. And every one of us has had the experience of listening to a record and feeling that scream take over. Release. Abandon. Let it all out. Rock and Roll for me is about Eros, not Logos, which is paradoxical since my job is putting the experience in words.
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)

One of our favorite authors here at JV is Paul Williams, and…. he did write about other stuff than Bob Dylan.

We all love lists, so I’ll try out a new series of posts honoring one of his lesser known books:

Rock And Roll: The 100 Best Singles

..the list is chronological, starting back before the beginning and going through the 50’s and the 60’s and the 70’s and the 80’s, and ending for the sake of convenience in 1991. So #1 is not supposed to be ‘better’ than #100. It just got in the line first.

My criteria are simple: the song has to have been released as a seven-inch 45 rpm single in the United States or Great Britain (Robert Johnson’s 78 rpm ten-inch is the exception that proved the rule), and it has be “rock and roll” according to my subjective evaluation…
~Paul Williams (Author’s note)

All quotes are from the book.

Here is #1 – 10:

Continue reading Rock and Roll: 100 Best Singles – according to Paul Williams – Part 1 →

Music Calendar, Rock'n Roll

Today: Otis Blackwell passed away in 2002 – 11 years ago

otis blackwell

I like this town, it’s really great. They’ve put me in The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. This town is about music. It’s about the kind of music I like.
~Otis Blackwell

I used to go down every year for the remembrance of Elvis’ birthday. Memphis State College invited me to sit in the auditorium and speak to the people for one of those Elvis days.
~Otis Blackwell

Blackwell’s songwriting style is as identifiable as that of Willie Dixon or Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller. He helped formulate the musical vocabulary of rock & roll when the genre was barely breathing on its own.
~Bill Dahl (allmusic.com)

All Shook Up – Elvis Presley:

Great Balls Of Fire – Jerry Lee Lewis:

Wikipedia:

Also known as John Davenport
Born February 16, 1931
Origin Brooklyn, New York, United States
Died May 6, 2002 (aged 71)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres East Coast blues, rock and roll,R&B
Occupations Singer, pianist, songwriter
Instruments Piano
Years active 1950s–2002
Labels RCA, Groove, Atlantic

Otis Blackwell (February 16, 1931 – May 6, 2002) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist, whose work significantly influenced rock and roll. His compositions include Little Willie John’s “Fever”, Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless”, Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel”, “All Shook Up” and “Return to Sender” (with Winfield Scott), and Jimmy Jones’ “Handy Man”. He should not be confused with another songwriter and producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell.

Otis blackwell

Fever – Little Willie John:

Awards:

  • Otis Blackwell was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986
  • in 1991 into the National Academy of Popular Music’s Songwriters Hall of Fame
  • Blackwell’s crowning moment came in the late 1980s when the Black Rock Coalition, a prominent organization of black rock musicians, led by Vernon Reid, the lead guitarist of the band, Living Colour, held a tribute for him at the Prospect Park Bandshell in his native Brooklyn. Many prominent musicians and singers took part including Blackwell himself, who performed an assortment of his best songs, including “One Broken Heart for Sale,” “Black Trail,” “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Daddy Rolling Stone.”
  • Blackwell was named one of the 2010 recipients of Ahmet Ertegun Award in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This category encompasses those who primarily work behind the scenes in the music industry.

 Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley:

Spotify Playlist:

Other May-06

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Country, Music Calendar

Today: Merle Haggard was born in 1937, 76 years ago

merle haggard 1

“By the time you get close to the answers, it’s nearly all over.”
– Merle Haggard

The first time we met is a favorite memory of mine.
They say time changes all it pertains to
But your memory is stronger than time.
I guess everything does change except what you choose to recall.

Wikipedia:
Merle Ronald Haggard (born April 6, 1937) is an American country music song writer, singer, guitarist, fiddler, and instrumentalist. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster and the unique mix with the traditional country steel guitar sound, new vocal harmony styles in which the words are minimal, and a rough edge not heard on the more polished Nashville Sound recordings of the same era.

My Favorite Memory:

By the 1970s, Haggard was aligned with the growing outlaw country movement, and has continued to release successful albums through the 1990s and into the 2000s.

Haggard’s guitar playing and voice gives his country a hard-edged, blues-like style in many cuts.

Merle Haggard is one of country music’s most versatile artists. His compositions ranges wide:  ballads , autobiographical reflections, political commentaries and funny drinking songs. Easy dance songs and more serious stuff.

But first of all it’s the voice, man! That voice!

Merle Haggard 2

Todays album is the great , Big City. It’s Merle Haggard’s masterpiece and one of my all-time favorite country records:

album-big-city

 Big City, both the cut and the album, revisits the seemingly eternal themes in Haggard’s best work — the plight of the honest, decent working man amid the squalor, complication, and contradiction of urban life. Besides the title cut, there are bona fide Haggard classics here — and some that aren’t but should be.
(Allmusic)

Other 6 April:
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Blues, Muddy Waters

Today: Muddy Waters was born 100 years ago

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Muddy Waters, blues legend,  was born 100 years ago today!

“Man, you don’t know how I felt that afternoon when I heard that voice
and it was my own voice.” – Muddy Waters

Wikipedia (Read more):

McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983), known as Muddy Waters is generally considered the “father of modern Chicago blues”. He was a major inspiration for the British blues explosion in the 1960s, and was ranked #17 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

In his later years Muddy usually said that he was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, in 1915, he was actually born at Jug’s Corner in neighboring Issaquena County, Mississippi, in 1913.

One of the greatest and most influential blues artists of all times.

Got my Mojo workin, 1976:

His grandmother Della Grant raised him after his mother died shortly after his birth. His fondness for playing in mud earned him the nickname “Muddy” at an early age. He then changed it to “Muddy Water” and finally “Muddy Waters”.
Continue reading Today: Muddy Waters was born 100 years ago →