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All-Star Musician Survivor 2


Guest Low Roller

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Yeh, Stevie is the man for me as well but he won't have the historical significance of the others on that list. Sorry Mr. Vaughan.

And BTW, the whole idea that with Elvis that "someone would have done it" as far as popularizing the combination of black blues and rhythmic music with white country and western to create what we now think of as rock'n'roll - well to me that's a bunch of bull. Sure, "somebody" would have done of a lot of things, but Elvis DID do it, and as a result he had as much or more influence on the music of the last century as anyone on this (or any other) list. In hindsight we might thing he was corny or overrated, but all the guys on that list (with the possible exception of Miles, and to an extent Johnny as a contemporary) owe Elvis BIG TIME and would definitely tell you so if they were around to.

Peace,

Mr. M.

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In defence of the numerous slanders against the King ...

First off, the frequent jibe against him that he just stole a bunch of African American music and ripped it off . Elvis was notable in that he was one of the earliest modern performers who didn't see barriers between styles of music. He love a lot of different types of music ... blues, r&b, Country, black *and* white gospel, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, they all went into Elvis' melting pot of influences. Check out those early Sun singles and throughout his work with RCA (particularly his first single B side, Blue Moon Of Kentucky) and a lot of it is as much Country as any other influence.

Secondly, the idea that he never made any good music after the 50s ("Elvis died when he left the army" - J. Lennon) is also complete bunk. If we ignore his soundtrack work (apart from a few odd great songs, generally a good idea to ignore) most of his 60s and 70s recordings are great ... from the Elvis Is Back album, through some cool but ignored non-soundtrack singles in the 60s, through the early 70s (check out the albums From Elvis In Memphis, Elvis Country, and the movie Elvis on tour), most of the music he made during this period was top notch. Check out the tours he made in the early 70s, he had an absolutely storming band ... James Burton, Glenn Hardin, Jerry Scheff, Ron Tutt, he had one of the most deadly touring bands in the country. Towards the last few years of his life, yes Elvis did have some depressingly bad performance, due to personal and health problems (including but not limited to his weight gain and drug use), and many of those were self induced ... I understand he is the only musician to ever experience such a slide towards the end of his life (*cough* Jerry Garcia *cough*) ... but still, he made some fine recordings even then. His last single, Way Down, kicked no small amount of ass. Elvis was a great musician, in spite of the bad end of his material, his worst musical failings stemmed from bad management (the Colonel was a great promoter but kept Elvis shackled during the 60s to a depressing series of bad movies with even worse soundtracks) and his personal/health/drug problems. Elvis was not a god, he was a fallable human being, but his work deserves respect.

Stevie Ray Vaughan, you're outta here ...

Remember the King,

RnB

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