Elvis Presley ...not a musician?

[johnnie]

Here is Elvis playing piano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptWhxww2VsY&feature=related

Here is Elvis doing some pretty tasty lead licks on the guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqFq5zHFWb8&feature=PlayList&p=697CD74A5CFD5181&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=14

Bill Black (Elvis' bass player in the 50s) couldn't get this part right so Elvis told him that he would just play it and he picked up the bass and played in in one take. This is from the movie, but that's Elvis on bass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0VdFi8p_wM


Elvis also played accordion, drums and a few other things.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear johnnie!

I'd say he was a musician!

Maybe some people wouldn't...but I do...

[Tobin S.]

2. That wonderful voice of his alone singing in key and time

makes him musician, let alone his ability to play instruments. I remember seeing one of the first known "videos" of Elvis playing guitar and singing at a fair or festival of some sort. I don't think some people think of him as a "musician" because he was always the front man in his bands, sans instrument, after he gained popularity.

[Quantess]

3. Not a musician. WHO SAID THAT?!

Oh, maybe people who only watched "Clambake"!
:rofl:

I love Elvis.

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. Supposedly The Beatles visited Elvis' house in Hollywood around 1965

They brought their guitars and jammed with the King who played bass. Probably the one in that picture. Sadly, with all the Beatles bootlegs and Elvis bootlegs that have surfaced over the decades, I've never heard of this jam session being available. Somebody's gotta have a tape. Paul? Priscilla? Yoko?

[Deja Q]

5. Now I see why so many women wanted to play the piccolo...

:rofl:

Wait, that's only a half-sized flute. As none of us had ever seen Elvis's "main musical instrument", it's not easy to compare... He was a looker, that's for sure...

[mitchum]

6. That damn Chet Atkins would no longer let Elvis play guitar on the sessions...

when he came over to RCA.

Elvis had a wonderful driving rhythmic approach to his playing

[JeanGrey]

7. OF course he was! And he is the one and only

true King. Without Elvis the rest would not have followed.

[sarge43]

8. Of course he was.

At the top of his game he sang like an angel.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. Elvis was basically a musician who was not allowed to BE a musician

Yeah, "Colonel Tom" made a lot of money for Elvis, and he also made a lot for himself (agents who take a FIFTY PERCENT CUT do that).

It was "Colonel Tom's" decision to do the movies.

In 1968, as the producers were planning the "comeback special," "Colonel Tom" didn't like the concept. He wanted Elvis to sing something "traditional" like "Silent Night" and wink into the camera and say "Merruh Chrizmuzz Evvuhbuddy"...and fortunately, "Colonel Tom" was voted down.

Many serious Elvis biographers...like Peter Guaralnick, to name just one...assert that Elvis' post-"comeback" stays in Las Vegas were the direct result of "Colonel Tom" paying off his massive gambling debts.

Elvis was like Neil Young or Lou Reed...no one will ever accuse them of being another Andres Segovia when it comes to their guitar tecnhique...he was a "feel" player, regardless of the instrument.

Unfortunately, it's all too easy to daydream about what would have happened if Elvis had been "allowed" to follow the path of that 1968 "comeback" special. He WANTED to be an actor...he also wanted to be taken SERIOUSLY as an actor, and with one or two possible exceptions, his movies didn't exactly lay the foundations for that. He DID see his career as a JOB, and "Colonel Tom" DID become an additional, surrogate "father figure," and Elvis was raised to "do what he was told," so...

...we got a L-O-N-G line of crappy movies, quite a few BAD albums, and at the end of his career, "concerts" often involved an opening Vegas-style, tenth-rate "stand up comic," followed by loudspeaker encouragements to buy Elvis "merchandise" from the vendors working the aisles, then a 20 to 30 minute audience with "The King," in which he would rush through his hits at breakneck speed, slurring the words, truncating the songs, just basically ripping everyone off.

Because "colonel Tom" felt that being in the presence of The King justified whatever price was stamped on the ticket.

What if, what if, what if.

We'll never know.

But yeah, he was a musician. One HELL of a musician.

:toast:

[Bertha Venation]

10. Singers ARE musicians.

If someone sings but does not play an instrument, that person is still a musician.

Just saying.

[old mark]

11. He was a very talented and gifted musician. He leaned piano as a child,

played guitar very well and had a really wonderful voice. Listen to his earlier Sun recordings for evidence of his ability - the big label tried to bury his real talent and sell him as a comodity.
He also wasn't a bad actor.

mark