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I’m going to Graceland (Elvis Presley)


Bogeywon

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Headed there on my first trip this Friday. Touring the house Saturday. Hoping we have time Friday when we get to hotel to hit sun records. Anyone ever been?? Also Elvis is a bad MF’er so I figured I’d drop this thread. 
 

my favorite song:

Guy was just the ultimate entertainer. Any other fans?

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Graceland is a lot smaller than expected.  It's also not as outlandish as you've been conditioned to believe.  The famous Jungle Room is just a basement rec room that is decorated in a Tiki theme. Really not out of place in a 60s house.  The carpet on the ceiling and walls is just in the billiards room for sound dampening since it is just below the living room.  Everything is just decorated in what was extremely trendy at the time.  There are still excesses, like the wall of TVs, but it's definitely not like what you're expecting.  I thought the car collection and the plane were really cool.

 

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On 11/2/2022 at 7:21 PM, Bogeywon said:

Thats why I said entertainer. 

Sorry Bogey.....As Wheels says, Paul Simon is the noted sawed-off, song stealing bastard.  

https://www.laweekly.com/los-lobos-on-paul-simon-do-you-mean-zydeco-when-you-say-zy-decko/

Quote

Oh, I have plenty of recollections of working on that one. I don't know if you heard the stories, but it was not a pleasant deal for us. I mean he [Simon] quite literally — and in no way do I exaggerate when I say — he stole the songs from us.   - Steve Berlin

Quote

I remember he played me the one he did by John Hart, and I know John Hart, the last song on the record. He goes, “Yeah, I did this in Louisiana with this zy decko guy.” And he kept saying it over and over. And I remember having to tell him, “Paul, it's pronounced zydeco. It's not zy decko, it's zydeco.” I mean that's how incredibly dilettante he was about this stuff. The guy was clueless.    - Steve Berlin

 

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Day 1: Sun records 

the white X is where Elvis stood to record that’s all right mama. I’m standing on it holy shit! The microphone was used by him and all the other artists that came in that era. They let you hold it and act a fool! So cool! The vibe and energy was so awesome! As a musician I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome this was 

A282534A-324E-42FF-A64D-08DD427A549F.thumb.jpeg.310fcf69bcefa08bde76f7ac7fdfff83.jpegD864D33C-E4B2-4AE9-963F-E443B940D0BE.thumb.jpeg.0702860958790542b3a5f6141067f3b5.jpeg3444E695-DE7E-4BC0-8E74-D32F8F930FBB.thumb.jpeg.9f92361333edd79624c88edf8c07664e.jpeg

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3 hours ago, Bogeywon said:

Day 1: Sun records 

the white X is where Elvis stood to record that’s all right mama. I’m standing on it holy shit! The microphone was used by him and all the other artists that came in that era. They let you hold it and act a fool! So cool! The vibe and energy was so awesome! As a musician I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome this was 

A282534A-324E-42FF-A64D-08DD427A549F.thumb.jpeg.310fcf69bcefa08bde76f7ac7fdfff83.jpegD864D33C-E4B2-4AE9-963F-E443B940D0BE.thumb.jpeg.0702860958790542b3a5f6141067f3b5.jpeg3444E695-DE7E-4BC0-8E74-D32F8F930FBB.thumb.jpeg.9f92361333edd79624c88edf8c07664e.jpeg

I don't think they used that Fender Excelsior during Elvis' sessions. 

(Shouldn't have sold mine)

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On 11/1/2022 at 5:33 PM, Bogeywon said:

Headed there on my first trip this Friday. Touring the house Saturday. Hoping we have time Friday when we get to hotel to hit sun records. Anyone ever been?? Also Elvis is a bad MF’er so I figured I’d drop this thread. 
 

my favorite song:

Guy was just the ultimate entertainer. Any other fans?

 

Yes, indeed. He's the King. 

Report back.

 

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On 11/2/2022 at 11:47 AM, CooterBrown said:

Graceland is a lot smaller than expected.  It's also not as outlandish as you've been conditioned to believe.  The famous Jungle Room is just a basement rec room that is decorated in a Tiki theme. Really not out of place in a 60s house.  The carpet on the ceiling and walls is just in the billiards room for sound dampening since it is just below the living room.  Everything is just decorated in what was extremely trendy at the time.  There are still excesses, like the wall of TVs, but it's definitely not like what you're expecting.  I thought the car collection and the plane were really cool.

 

Too bad Bogey didn't read this beforehand, may have saved him a few bucks.  We went through there back in '98 on our way to family reunion in Michigan, although we weren't fans, enjoyed the tour enough. 

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food truck out front sells fried peanut butter and nanner sammiches.....

>>

Poor boys and pilgrims with families
And we are going to Graceland
And my traveling companions are ghosts and empty sockets
I'm looking at ghosts and empties

<<

still a great album - background issues notwithstanding.

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Just finished the searcher on HBO. What a great doc. They never do go much into his drug addiction ever. They mentioned he was on uppers and downers starting in the army for his watch post to stay awake. Other then that they have protected his legacy by not showing anything on that 

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The Searcher was so powerful.  He shaped a lot of the other music I listened to you as a young man, though I never really got into him that much.  I mean, I know more Elvis than 90% of the guys my age, just was never a huge diehard.   But after I watched that a couple years ago, I really went down the rabbit hole on Elvis for the first time in my life.  And his deep catalog is so underrated.  And then you think about how wasted his prime years were by the Colonel on crap movies.  And I didn't know for decades that he only wrote like a half dozen songs in his whole life.  But his gift, aside from that voice/showmanship, was an uncanny and untaught gift for arrangement.  He moved a lot of his catalog to different time signatures and keys over the years and for the better.  And was a very underrated guitarist....like level of Willie Nelson and Jerry Garcia underrated. 

What we often forget is that he basically records for the first 6 years of his career, and the last 6 years of his career.  There's some crappy movie soundtracks in there, but the heavy, bonafide Elvis studio stuff was really just done in a hair over a decade.  And yet, we are still unpacking it today.  There's far more complexity to it than most realize. 

Also, yeah-it was only a couple years ago when talking to a well-known Broadway producer who also co-founded AOL, that I learned of the ripoff bullshit between Paul Simon and Los Lobos.  This guy knew the record label and studio folks involved since he made a bunch of money and wanted to get deeper into the music business.  Paul Simon was apparently without anything in the tank, musically speaking.  Between 1975-1985, he has two so-so albums.  If not for constantly 'volunteering' to show up on SNL, he was largely a has-been.  And apparently just sits in with Los Lobos sessions and between that and a handful of African percussionists, he reinvents himself and 'Graceland' is born.  I give Paul due credit, but according to serious people I take serious...it's maybe the most plagerized album in the Billboard Top 10 in history.  He spends a good chunk of the year out near Dripping Springs, and by all local accounts---he's a total fucking asshole.  

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

@Bogeywon  Many versions of the same article/story. Google "Steve Berlin Paul Simon".  

My favorite part:  

I remember he played me the one he did by John Hart, and I know John Hart, the last song on the record. He goes, “Yeah, I did this in Louisiana with this zy decko guy.” And he kept saying it over and over. And I remember having to tell him, “Paul, it's pronounced zydeco. It's not zy decko, it's zydeco.” I mean that's how incredibly dilettante he was about this stuff. The guy was clueless.

https://www.laweekly.com/los-lobos-on-paul-simon-do-you-mean-zydeco-when-you-say-zy-decko/

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Went to Graceland as a kid, 14 or so. I thought it was a big joke, cutting up and laughing the whole time. 
 

We get in line to walk by the grave. Well, the person / group behind us, one of the females passes out and/or goes into cardiac arrest at the grave. Security guys jumped into action. We got the fuck out. I’m not going to lie, I laughed. I was a horrible kid 

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My first concert was seeing Elvis at the Tarrant County Convention Center in  Ft.Worth, in Feb’77.  My Mom took me. She was a huge fan. I was 9.

I still remember seeing the undergarments being tossed on to the stage and at the end, the PA announcer, “Ladies and Gentlemen/ Elvis has left the building”.

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CSB/

My birthing device was a huge Elvis fan. As in, unhealthy attachment to him. Pops was a Neil Diamond fan above all else. Some called him "the Jewish Elvis." At least Neil could write and play guitar.

I was the youngest and only son. Birthing device wanted more than anything to name me 'Elvis.' It's pretty accepted that Elvis and Adolph are pretty much the only two names that should never be used again, right? Props to my dad to convincing her to name me after her 2nd favorite rockabilly crooner and saving me from many, many additional ass kickings through the years.

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On 12/23/2022 at 4:49 PM, YGIFS said:

What we often forget is that he basically records for the first 6 years of his career, and the last 6 years of his career.  [BpThere's some crappy movie soundtracks in there, but the heavy, bonafide Elvis studio stuff was really just done in a hair over a decade.[/b]  And yet, we are still unpacking it today.  There's far more complexity to it than most realize. 

 

To be fair, that period produced a some great soundtracks, too. Like,

Elvisbluehawaiisoundtrack.jpg.ececcb4c4679d90920ff243b2b8645f0.jpg

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Parents took me to see him at Lake Charles Civic Center in 1975.  I remember old ladies fighting over his scarves.  I was 7.  Think he had a blue jumpsuit.  Also recall James Burton’s pink telecaster.  That’s about it.  Got an Elvis pennant that hung in my room for a while. Not sure what happened to it. 
Pulled out Madison Square Garden album the other night.  Super good. Must be why I prefer 70’s Elvis to any other period. 

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