Elvis or Beatles ??

I think it's cooler (especially in this forum) to be a king's fan, but i can't help loving the Beatles too...
Am I the only one here ??

Beatles

The Beatles are good but there's only one king...

Sergio Mendes (covering the Beatles)

Just finish watching "Pulp Fiction" or reading "Garage"? I was just thinking about how in Pulp Fiction they say everything you do in life can be boiled down to an approach that would be supported by Elvis Code or Beatle code. In Garage Magazine it says if you're reading this you're following Elvis code. Which is strange to me because I had already decided I live by Beatle code but enjoy the Kings music much more and think he was cooler. Torn but I'll go with Elvis.

John Lennon's account when the Beatles met Elvis.
http://features.absoluteelsewhere.net/ZeKingandI/john_talks_meeting.html

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2004-05-16 23:39 ]

Beatles all the way for the music, but I love the coolness of the king.

Whenever anyone beside Elvis does Jailhouse Rock it sounds like a bad copy, although I think Elvis is more successful in his slow ballads. He's more tiki anyway and with his fondness for bad taste it's no wonder. I can imagine his favorite peanut butter and banana sandwich on tiki restaurant menu as “Tropical Ono Legume Spread” Hee. You gotta love the guy.

The Beatles. Thee greatest most diverse collection of songs/music ever by the same four musicians is the White Album. If you can tell me what Revolution 9 means AND the song after it, then I know you've been there. Where? you ask? If you've been there, or if someone told you, you wouldn't have to ask.
John Lennon was a musical genius. The greatest musician/songwriter ever, hands down.

Wao Nahele Kalepa Kumula'au Hale

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader on 2004-05-16 12:55 ]

Loner that I am...I have always felt isolated and alone on the planet :( in my strong dislike of The Beatles (unpopular as my opinion might be). Although I'm thankful for their existence, they've influenced plenty of wonderful bands that I do like.
Viva ELVIS! :D

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2004-05-16 14:25 ]

When I was younger, I had a cabinet company. My partner and I would buy over-runs from a huge company and sell them at swap-meets. Orange Coast College had a swap-meet every Sunday. Each week we were placed between a lady who sold T-shirts and an Elvis Impersonator. The T-shirt Lady would listen to the syndicated radio program "Breakfast with the Beatles" and the Elvis impersonator would Karioke Elvis tunes all day. Call it too much of a good thing, but, to this day I can't hear either without thinking of that damn swap-meet. If I have to choose, Elvis, hands down.
Mahalo,
Al

The Beatles, no question about it.

raises hand I love 'em both.

The Beatles never tried to have Elvis kicked out of the country by the CIA.

Oh, and the song for the first dance at my wedding was "Something."

On 2004-05-16 12:32, Jungle Trader wrote:
...then I know you've been there. Where? you ask? If you've been there, or if someone told you, you wouldn't have to ask.

Sounds like a night I had about 15 years ago. Me and 2 other friends with nothing better to do drinking a case of beer. One guys breaks out Fool on the Hill and keeps playing it over and over. Asking us if we know what it means. I'm not really sure he did either but he kept playing it over and over and over. Still don't know what he thought it meant.
I took a Beatles class in Community College a few years later and finally found out the songs true meaning along with the meaning of Nowegian Wood. It's really a song about....what's that noise. The Cicadas? It's getting closer..louder.......Oh my Goahhhhghhhhh...

On 2004-05-16 14:43, Raffertiki wrote:

Oh, and the song for the first dance at my wedding was "Something."

I played "I can't help falling in love" on the ukulele at mine.

This discussion is a no-brainer, john lennon is famously quoted as having said "before Elvis there was nothing".
Even the Beatles are for Elvis.

Elvis! His Sun Records stuff is in my opinion some of the best music ever recorded! E was the epitome of cool in his early days as well as the poster boy for bad taste in the 70's but either way he was great – in entirely different ways! I've always equated the Beatles with the steady downturn in post-war America's optimism and innocence. Historians would say JFK's assassination was what really shattered America's squeaky-clean persona, but to me...it was those damn mop-haired boys from Liverpool!

ELVIS...by a nose!

everyone except michael j. fox has a little bit of elvis in them...

ELVIS...all day long!

Wait. We're not talking about Costello here are we?

I honestly can't think of a better Elvis than Costello.

-g-

Beatles by a hair.

the way i figure it, it's not so much a weighing of the relative merits of the two choices against each other. it's more of a gut feeling, which "vibe" moves you more. like looney tunes vs. disney. coke vs. pepsi. the world would be less rich if one of the options were gone, but if there was only once choice, i can feel what it would be if the choice were mine.

enough metaphysical $#!+ from me.

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar on 2004-05-17 11:34 ]

On 2004-05-16 15:15, atomictonytiki wrote:
john lennon is famously quoted as having said "before Elvis there was nothing".

But then, they were the Beatles.

Certainly Elvis's contribution to rock & roll cannot be denied. He was an outstanding singer and performer and even the Beatles have said his influence on them was without measure. The Beatles, however, pushed the envelope of pop music and moved it from a passing craze to an art form. Their songwriting has stood the test of time for 40 years and continues to be studied and revered. So, it's The Beatles for me.

Did Elvis ever record a song he'd written? Did he ever write a song? Just curious.

On 2004-05-17 11:12, Juno wrote:
The Beatles, however, pushed the envelope of pop music and moved it from a passing craze to an art form.

Yes and it was then all started to go wrong :wink:

Rock'n'roll 1966

The beatles always make me think of a cold, grey english winter...and a sad imitation of black music!!!!

I am a crazy person, obviously, but I think the Beatles suck..completely!

They were the death of all great lounge, jazz, jazz pop, bossa nova..in short, everything that was ever cool before 1963 was eradicated by those four guys!!!!

They started all the trends that suck..like the whole hippie movement (which is as anti-tiki as can be!)

The beatles did not drink mai-tais!!!

Now Elvis.....that guy was great!!!!! Real soul!!! Real class!!

On 2004-05-17 12:57, tiki mick wrote:

The beatles did not drink mai-tais!!!

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar on 2004-05-17 13:04 ]

anecdote :

While playing his ukulele at a party one evening, George Harrison was approached by a beautiful groupie. "Come on upstairs with me luv," said Harrison, "and give me a blow job." The girl obediently followed Harrison upstairs...

"The entire time I sucked him off," she later complained, "he kept playing that damned ukulele!"

Well, out of the 4, Harrison was probably the hippest....

I manage to piss most of my friends off when I "diss" the beatles..but I just can't help myself!

When I was 5 I bought my first two records with my allowance..My mom took me to the record store where I bought "meet the beatles" and "rock around the clock-Bill haley and his comets"

I played tennis racket air guitar with the Comet's album over and over 'till my family was sick and tired of it! I used to bury my head inside the old furniture style stereo console, and just lose myself in the deliciously hip rock-a-billy sounds of Bill Haley...

To this day, "Rock around the clock" and "burn that candle" still give me goose bumps!

To be fair, the second rockabilly wave started with "amreican graffitti" and "happy days"(my favorite show when I was 8-10 YO) so I was already hip to it, even at a young age...

I also listened to my Mom's arthur lyman and martin denny albums over and over..I practically killed "Bwana-e" and "taboo" from over-listening...(well, that one and Mahavishnu orchestra's inner mounting flame album)

But, the beatles album just never did it for me...

To this day, I only like a few beatles songs...and whereas I acknowledge thier songwriting and influence on later groups...I happen to think a lot of the other english bands at the time were better....The Who, for starters...the stones, Bowie..etc...

And the doors compared to the beatles?

IMHO, the Doors completely blew the beatles away..and the prog rock groups that copied the beatles (King Crimson, Yes ect....) did a better job of fusing styles.

In fact, the YES version of "every little thing" is a way better version then the original....

I dunno, but the beatles remind me of spinal tap a bit...

I know I am a minority when it comes to this...

I do like Adrian belew, however...and he is a beatle freak...and ELO was pretty good at the time too....

Advertised as playing a village hall a few miles away from me was 'Elvis, with his friends John Lennon and Roy Orbison'. They didn't metion that they were tribute acts anywhere on the ad - perhaps I just missed the gig of the century.

Trader Woody

Well said Johnny Dollar. How can you pit one as the better when it's really apples and oranges. Elvis was different. Beatles played music for the mind. I could listen to Dear Prudence, Glass Onion and Savoy Truffle a million times and not get sick of it.

I agree with Tiki Mick (and others) in that the Beatles are overrated.

As rock 'n roll legends both Elvis and the Beatles started out great but their later stuff is boring compared to many of their contemporaries.

Elvis' Sun records are incredible, original, and influential. But his RCA output was watered-down rockabilly for mainstream white audiences (though I admit some of the tunes are great songs - which Elvis didn't write). You could hardly hear the great guitarist Scotty Moore on the RCA stuff. After his army stint he didn't release many good records, and most were not rockers but were Hollywood show tunes from his movies. Though I do admit I like quite a few of his movies. He's really not a bad actor when he tries, and the movies are entertaining in their own way.

The Beatles also started out really rocking (though un-original as they did mostly covers of American R&B and rockabilly) and were very influential. But the bands they influenced were more pop oriented (like the Turtles, Byrds, Mamas and the Papas, etc.). I think the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Yardbirds influenced the more rockin' groups of the mid 60s (the 60s garage and punk groups), which in turn led to bands like the Stooges and then 70s punk rock. Without the Beatles there still would have been surf, soul, garage, and punk in the 60s.

Furthermore, I think the Beatles got way too self-indulgent and boring in their later albums, which led to a million pretentious 60s and 70s bands (like the Eagles to name just one). They took the fun out of rock 'n roll, until the Ramones brought it back.

I hate it when people say "rock n' roll was dead after Elvis went in the Army and Buddy died, until the Beatles brought it back". That is just untrue! There was so much good music during that period: doo wop, rockabilly, R&B, the start of Soul music, surf, Northwest rock, not to mention Exotica and other lounge music that reached it's peak in the late 50s and early 60s.

Top 40 radio was pretty bad for the most part during that period. One reason is because the bad press about rock 'n roll (Jerry Lee marrying his 13-year-old cousin and other stories) and the Payola scandal made radio DJs wary of playing what they wanted and taking chances, so they just played what was safe, which was chosen by record executives: Bobby Vee, Bobby Vinton, Frankie Avalon, etc. But there was still so much good music out there between Elvis and the Beatles.

Okay,this is no contest-quiz time-how many John Lennon impersonators are out there??? Hmmm? You have to go with Elvis-"down in the jungle room".

Beatles. No question. I also have to agree with...

On 2004-05-17 09:23, liabungalo wrote:
I honestly can't think of a better Elvis than Costello.

I must confess, I did have a pretty good time when I went to see the Ringo Starr All-Star Band at the SDSU ampitheater here. We were all standing up singing along to Yellow Submarine, Act Naturaly & Octopus's Garden. It didn't hurt that Ringo was being backed by Ian Hunter, Greg Lake & Sheila E. One of the most satisfying concert experiences I've had in the last five years (and that includes the Stones' 40 Licks tour).

Speaking for both myself and the Tiki Goddess - ELVIS.

My stepmom Anne Helm co-starred with E in "Follow That Dream" (1962) and she confirms he was a swell guy in person, if a little f***ed up by success.

Rutles...

On 2004-05-17 16:58, thejab wrote:

There was so much good music during that period: doo wop, rockabilly, R&B, the start of Soul music, surf, Northwest rock, not to mention Exotica and other lounge music that reached it's peak in the late 50s and early 60s.

I totally agree but you forgot one of the best genres of that time: The Girl Group Sound :)

T H E - S U R F I T E S

[ Edited by: Klas on 2004-05-18 03:58 ]

Okay, I admit, I didnt actually read all the replys, but came straight here to give ya
http://www.elvis.com/kids/surf.asp
nuff said.
Pea

ELVIS 100%!!! The Beatles started out as a rockabilly cover band, we're turned into a boy band by Epstein and then turned into pile of political waste...no friggin comparison.

All the way Beatles but Elvis in his young days was soooooooo hot!

I don't hate the Beatles, I respect their musicianship and like a lot of their songs, but I often get flak when I say that they killed off the whole Rat Pack/Lounge/Tiki/Spy/Cool/50s Rock/Movie Elvis aesthetic, inadvertently or not, replacing it with that whole Arty Folk Rolk Hippie thing that extended way into the 70s and even into Grunge in the 90s, the same way Spielberg and Lucas killed off the classic drive-in B movie with mainstream-pandering mega-blockbusters like "Jaws" and "Star Wars." I guess in both cases you could call it "progress," but also in both cases, they ruined their particular culture, at least for me.

I agree it comes down to a "vibe." I just dig the sound of his voice, singing damn near anything.

A lot of orthodox rockabilly fans resent Elvis for "selling out" (though I think the early 60s are his best period, "His Latest Flame" being my favorite, and my wife LOVES 70s "jumpsuit" Elvis the most), but to me, he was and will always be King, "just because."

Johnny Dollar's Michael J. Fox reference killed me - he was quoting Mojo Nixon, who referred to Fox as the "Anti-Elvis," though I think the Anti-Elvis is George W. Bush, and Michael Fox is really the "Anti-Michael Landon" because of the atrocious 80s rip off "Teen Wolf" (Landon's "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" is my favorite flick. Trivia: Yvonne Lime, co-star of "IWATW" also appeared in Elvis' "Loving You" the same year, 1957, and rumor has it E visited her on the set of "IWATW"!)

Welllll...Silly argument, but, Jab I believe the quote you are referring to was by John Lennon and he said ( upon being asked his reaction to Elvis' death), "Elvis died when he went in the army." Perfect, cynical Lennon, right on, loved the guy. Me. I'm off to Strat Land...

James Brown!

Have to mention the other influences too:

Charlie Christian, T-Bone Walker, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson

On 2004-05-19 19:59, susane wrote:
James Brown!

Ditto.