From Rolling Stone #1078 (May 2009):
Dylan has quipped that when he first encountered Elvis' voice as a teenager, it was like "busting out of jail." For Dylan, the very fact that Elvis has recorded versions of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" and "Blowing' in the Winds" remains mind-boggling. Dutifully, as if returning a favor, Dylan recorded Elvis' hit "(Now and Then There's) A Fool Such As I" during both the Basement Tapes and Self-Portrait sessions.
But that was about as close as they ever got. "I never met Elvis," Dylan says. "I never met Elvis, because I didn't want to meet Elvis. Elvis was in his Sixties movie period, and he was just crankin' 'em out and knockin' 'em off, one after another. And Elvis had kind of fallen out of favor in the Sixties. He didn't really come back until, whatever was it, '68? I know the Beatles went to see him, and he just played with their heads. 'Cause George [Harrison] told me about the scene. And Derek [Taylor], one of the guys who used to work for him. Elvis was truly some sort of American king. His face is even on the Statute of Liberty. And, well, like I said, I wouldn't quite say he was ridiculed, but close. You see, the music scene had gone past him, and nobody bought his records. Nobody young wanted to listen to him or be like him. Nobody went to his movies, as far as I know. He just wasn't in anybody's mind. Two or three times we were up in Hollywood, and he had sent some of the Memphis Mafia down to where we were to bring us up to see Elvis. But none of us went. Because it seemed like a sorry thing to do. I don't know if I would have wanted to see Elvis like that. I wanted to see the powerful, mystical Elvis that had crashed-landed from a burning star onto American soil. The Elvis that was bursting with life. That's the Elvis that inspired us to all the possibilities of life. And that Elvis was gone, had left the building."
For those of you who knows me, you know I'm a big fan of Elvis and Dylan. Dream holidays: to catch a Dylan gig overseas and to visit Graceland and the Sun Studios.
And the Elvis Dylan was talking about:
Well get out of that bed, wash your face and hands
Get out of that bed, wash your face and hands
Well get in that kitchen
Make some noise with the pots and pans
I believe it to my soul you're the devil in nylon hose
I believe it to my soul you're the devil in nylon hose
For the harder I work the faster my money goes
Well I said shake, rattle and roll
I said shake rattle and roll
I said shake, rattle and roll
I said shake rattle and roll
Well you won't do right
To save your doggone soul
Shake rattle and roll
I'm like the one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store
I'm like the one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store
Well I can look at you till you ain't no child no more
I believe you're doing me wrong and now I know
I believe you're doing me wrong and now I know
cause the harder I work the faster my money goes
You're wearing those dresses, sun comes shining through.
You're wearing those dresses, sun comes shining through.
I can't believe my eyes all that mess belongs to you.
Well I said shake, rattle and roll
I said shake rattle and roll
I said shake, rattle and roll
I said shake rattle and roll
Well you won't do right
To save your doggone soul
Play it again!
I went over the hill, way down underneath
I went over the hill, way down underneath
You make me roll my eyes
And then you make me grit my teeth
Well I said shake, rattle and roll
I said shake rattle and roll
I said shake, rattle and roll
I said shake rattle and roll
Well you won't do right
To save your doggone soul
Ok, did you get that - "one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store/look at you till you ain't no child no more."
and "You make me roll my eyes/And then you make me grit my teeth"
Elvis performed the song on the January 28, 1956 broadcast of the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show minus the 'dirty' parts:
"You're wearing those dresses, sun comes shining through/I can't believe my eyes all that mess belongs to you."
The TV censors must have been stupid. The whole song is dirty, dammit! And that's why we love Elvis. He's the original escape artist and he showed us what we could and should get away with.
Elvis was an alien alright, way before Bowie claimed that title. Out of this world and still inspiring the rest of us. [i was listening to Shake Rattle and Roll on the bus to work one morning a few weeks ago, helped me to survive the day.]
And despite not wanting to meet Elvis in the 60s, Dylan still admires the King. He once went to Tupelo, Mississippi to soak in the essence of Elvis.
One day, I'm going to make that journey too.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
The Sacred and the Profane
Two books I was told about when I was in San Diego last year deserved this blog title.
1. Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman by Marc Tyler Nobleman and Ross MacDonald
This is a children's book about how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman. You know, the typical rags to riches story with an inspirational spin to it that is good for the kids.
I was first informed about this book by my friend, Phil Yeh who had his own encounter with Jerry Siegel that helped to put the Superman creators' names back into the Superman comic books:
http://www.wingedtiger.com/CAA/contacts_artists/godpa.html
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/120284921496065.htm
Nobleman contacted Phil for info about the Siegel and Shuster story.
Blame it all on Gerard Jones and his Men of Tomorrow (2004), which revived the interest in the injustice and indignation faced by Siegel and Shuster who were surviving at nearly poverty line (Siegel was a messenger 'boy' while Shuster was nearly blind by that time) when Christopher Reeve was about to take off on the big screen as the Man of Steel in the mid 1970s.
Recent additions to the narrative:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-08-25-superman-creators_N.htm?se=yahoorefer
http://www.greendoorfilms.com/blog/
http://www.cleveland.com/movies/index.ssf/2008/07/secrets_of_superman_unveiled_i.html
But I saved the best for the last.
2. Secret-Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster by Craig Yoe, another good friend of mine. I won't say more about it but you can see some preview pages at http://secret-identity.net and also Craig has put some pages in his earlier book, Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings (2007). It's a really sad story.
Up, up and away!
1. Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman by Marc Tyler Nobleman and Ross MacDonald
This is a children's book about how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman. You know, the typical rags to riches story with an inspirational spin to it that is good for the kids.
I was first informed about this book by my friend, Phil Yeh who had his own encounter with Jerry Siegel that helped to put the Superman creators' names back into the Superman comic books:
http://www.wingedtiger.com/CAA/contacts_artists/godpa.html
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/features/120284921496065.htm
Nobleman contacted Phil for info about the Siegel and Shuster story.
Blame it all on Gerard Jones and his Men of Tomorrow (2004), which revived the interest in the injustice and indignation faced by Siegel and Shuster who were surviving at nearly poverty line (Siegel was a messenger 'boy' while Shuster was nearly blind by that time) when Christopher Reeve was about to take off on the big screen as the Man of Steel in the mid 1970s.
Recent additions to the narrative:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-08-25-superman-creators_N.htm?se=yahoorefer
http://www.greendoorfilms.com/blog/
http://www.cleveland.com/movies/index.ssf/2008/07/secrets_of_superman_unveiled_i.html
But I saved the best for the last.
2. Secret-Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster by Craig Yoe, another good friend of mine. I won't say more about it but you can see some preview pages at http://secret-identity.net and also Craig has put some pages in his earlier book, Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings (2007). It's a really sad story.
Up, up and away!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Ellison, Johnson and History
Picked up Harlan Ellison's Watching, a collection of his movie reviews from 1965 to 1989. Now I know Ellison, The City on the Edge of Forever, Dangerous Visions, Vic Blood (excellent comic book drawn by Richard Corben in the late 1980s), suing The Comic Journal again in recent years and The Glass Teat, his essays of opinion on television.
Ellison is opinionated, abrasive, someone you might not to meet in real life. But the old guy got balls. Here's what it said at the back of Watching:
Everyone's entitled to his own opinion, right?
WRONG!
He or she is entitled to an informed opinion - so if you don't like being aruged with,if you don't like a total stranger telling you that your opinion is stupid, and you're fulla crap
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!
Like I said, gutsy.
Now I don't need to be sold about history, but what I really like about Ellison's essays is his encyclopedic knowledge about the talking pictures. Referencing a contemporary movie with another that was made 40 years earlier. That's impressive, the kind of commitment to bring derision to rubbish. We are not in polite company here.
Which reminds me of an incident in my early years of reviewing music. I was given a CD of Robert Johnson covers done by others. I gave a hum-ho review, the covers were not bad, pleasant, listenable, some of the songs did rock out, got that old time bluesy feel, good intro to the mojo of Robert Johnson, blah, blah.
The review got killed. Essentially, the editor's response was WTF!!!! Have I even listened to Johnson's originals in the first place? (i have but i was basically too young then to dig the blues and to have an informed opinion about it...) He said, "These covers murdered Robert Johnson!"
Point taken. Sense of history has never been higher in my book since. I can't quite remember if the ed man himself rewrote the review and ran it under his byline. Or just threw the CD of rubbish in the can, but it was a lesson learned.
Reading Ellison these few nights brought back the reminder that we should bring all our passion and fury to speak out against crap because they deserve our scorn. After all, "the greatest enemy of clear language is insincerity." (George Orwell) And let's call a spade a spade. "If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." (Anatole France)
[these are quotations taken from the book.]
Life is short and in this age of info overload and hyperkinks embedded within hyperlinks, you want to spend your precious waking moments on talking about the good stuff. But sometimes, you just got to give it to them, you just got to tell it as it is.
You have been judged and found wanting.
"If we live in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupdity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at risk of being heroes." -- Thomas More in The Man for All Seasons (1966)
Ellison is opinionated, abrasive, someone you might not to meet in real life. But the old guy got balls. Here's what it said at the back of Watching:
Everyone's entitled to his own opinion, right?
WRONG!
He or she is entitled to an informed opinion - so if you don't like being aruged with,if you don't like a total stranger telling you that your opinion is stupid, and you're fulla crap
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!
Like I said, gutsy.
Now I don't need to be sold about history, but what I really like about Ellison's essays is his encyclopedic knowledge about the talking pictures. Referencing a contemporary movie with another that was made 40 years earlier. That's impressive, the kind of commitment to bring derision to rubbish. We are not in polite company here.
Which reminds me of an incident in my early years of reviewing music. I was given a CD of Robert Johnson covers done by others. I gave a hum-ho review, the covers were not bad, pleasant, listenable, some of the songs did rock out, got that old time bluesy feel, good intro to the mojo of Robert Johnson, blah, blah.
The review got killed. Essentially, the editor's response was WTF!!!! Have I even listened to Johnson's originals in the first place? (i have but i was basically too young then to dig the blues and to have an informed opinion about it...) He said, "These covers murdered Robert Johnson!"
Point taken. Sense of history has never been higher in my book since. I can't quite remember if the ed man himself rewrote the review and ran it under his byline. Or just threw the CD of rubbish in the can, but it was a lesson learned.
Reading Ellison these few nights brought back the reminder that we should bring all our passion and fury to speak out against crap because they deserve our scorn. After all, "the greatest enemy of clear language is insincerity." (George Orwell) And let's call a spade a spade. "If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." (Anatole France)
[these are quotations taken from the book.]
Life is short and in this age of info overload and hyperkinks embedded within hyperlinks, you want to spend your precious waking moments on talking about the good stuff. But sometimes, you just got to give it to them, you just got to tell it as it is.
You have been judged and found wanting.
"If we live in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupdity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at risk of being heroes." -- Thomas More in The Man for All Seasons (1966)
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Bestselling Comics at Kino for April 09
1. WATCHMEN
by ALAN MOORE, DAVE GIBBONS
2. NARUTO VOLUME 44
by MASASHI KISHIMOTO
3. NARUTO VOLUME 43
by MASASHI KISHIMOTO
4. NARUTO VOLUME 42
by MASASHI KISHIMOTO
5. TSUBASA VOLUME 21
by CLAMP
6. BATMAN: R.I.P.
by GRANT MORRISON, TONY DANIEL
7. BATMAN THE HEART OF HUSH
by PAUL DINI, DUSTIN NGUYEN
8. WARCRAFT LEGENDS VOLUME 3
by CARLOS OLIVARES, CHRISTIE GOLDEN
9. WARHAMMER 40,000: DEFENDERS OF ULTRAMAR
by GRAHAM MCNEIL, KEVIN HOPGOOD
10. KITCHEN PRINCESS VOLUME 9
by NATSUMI ANDO, MIYUKI KOBAYASHI
by ALAN MOORE, DAVE GIBBONS
2. NARUTO VOLUME 44
by MASASHI KISHIMOTO
3. NARUTO VOLUME 43
by MASASHI KISHIMOTO
4. NARUTO VOLUME 42
by MASASHI KISHIMOTO
5. TSUBASA VOLUME 21
by CLAMP
6. BATMAN: R.I.P.
by GRANT MORRISON, TONY DANIEL
7. BATMAN THE HEART OF HUSH
by PAUL DINI, DUSTIN NGUYEN
8. WARCRAFT LEGENDS VOLUME 3
by CARLOS OLIVARES, CHRISTIE GOLDEN
9. WARHAMMER 40,000: DEFENDERS OF ULTRAMAR
by GRAHAM MCNEIL, KEVIN HOPGOOD
10. KITCHEN PRINCESS VOLUME 9
by NATSUMI ANDO, MIYUKI KOBAYASHI
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