Nah, there's still plenty of rude redneck raunch; Iggy Pop's hilarious front yard bath for starters, sitting in a bucket of suds barely big enough to cover his privates, is pretty in your face funny. Garish, repugnant characters like "Hatchet Face" still have a heavy outsider appeal, and as weird cameos go they don't…

It's fun too that unlike Hairspray this is already a b'way style bursting into song musical. There was actually a Broadway adaptation with different songs by Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schmidt, but I was too attached to give my one partial listen of the cast recording much of a chance. Hairspray beat the odds as a…

God, that's right! I remember, not being a fan, being doubtful if "that guy from 21 Jump Street" could even carry a movie. This performance broke him out of strictly TV star status, quite a milestone really.

Please Mr. Jailer is so fabulous, and sounds so context inspired that I was shocked to learn that, unlike the other songs performed dramatically, it is not an original but a classic R&B cover of an artist named Wynnona Carr (who btw was marketed, not so successfully it would seem, as "the female Little Richard." Like…

Exact same sentiment from me, right down the line, if we're talking strictly film work; his monologue work is great (hence the love,) and I'm guessing his book on hitchhiking is worth a read also. But yeah, outside those two mainstream odes to roots rock culture, his films are a wash for me.

It's absolutely true, and one thing you will never hear is someone who takes country music seriously as an art form claim that Elvis was just copying blacks, he was steeped in it - no less so than Jerry Lee Lewis, though it's more omnipresent with JLL. Not that the black rockers weren't also in turn influenced by…

Well spotted. I surfed that thoroughly once, and it is confirmed. I felt sure it had to be based on the voice, and on the connection that Russell starred in Used Cars, Robert Zemeckis' first feature as director. That was another breakthrough for Russell as well, his first adult theatrical film role, in a raunchy R…

Agreed, and this had some great points about how Elvis is more a true Carpenter film than meets the eye. I'll be thinking about all of that next time I put in my Shout Factory DVD.

Yes, a great tidbit from the DVD. Carpenter is also kind of laughing because their reasoning was far from fool-proof, since the sequenced synth of the Halloween score bears no relation whatever to rock 'n' roll. It paid off only because they got lucky that he just so happened to be a rock 'n' roll fanatic as well.

Careless Love gets my nod as the better of two great volumes, for dealing with the most complicated and demoralizing of circumstances with such clarity, eloquence, and grace. But it can't escape the curse for all the bios that after the triumph of Aloha in Hawaii in '73, it's an excruciating trainwreck in slo-mo to…

Dewey's debut of "That's All Right" on the WHBQ Red Hot and Blue show is a great litmus test that it wasn't just about white guy singing black music. The show was musically integrated, and the telephone switchboards were jammed with people wanting to hear the record again - because like Phillips' first impression,…

The Guralnick twin set is definitive, but if you want a short volume chock-full of passion and razor sharp, warts-and-all analysis, for my money Dave Marsh's (former Rolling Stone editor) bio packs the hardest punch. The forward alone is pure genius, if I were arguing Elvis' importance as the ultimate American symbol…

Personally I'd like to see an approach akin to what Michael Mann did with Ali, take slices of the life, let the audience fill in the "greatest hits" history - which they already know, and keep it as up close and intimate as possible. Even though the rags to riches rise is a crowd pleaser, I'd focus on the portion…

Prior to Roustabout Elvis had it in his movie contracts that, despite studio insurance concerns, he would be allowed to ride a motorcycle to and from the set. So they figured might as well put his riding ability to use.

You must be thinking of Shelly Fabre (a solid A-M substitute) or possibly Mary Tyler Moore, E took a shine to both but it was no go. Ann-Margret and Elvis were practically doing the nasty before finishing the introductory handshake. There were probably others too, it's just Elvis myth.

Particularly the sit-down jams, often referred to as "unplugged" style, though Elvis guitar (or rather Scotty Moore's which he borrows) is very much plugged, and to great effect - a rare example of very solid lead fills on Elvis' part - later remarked upon even by Eric Clapton.

It is Kissin' Cousins of which you speak, Elvis meets himself crossed with Lil' Abner, or at least Jethro Bodine. That was a pinnace of the quickie kiddie crap matinee fare, turned around on an 18 day shooting schedule. The "special effects" shots with both "Elvis'" in the frame, sometime with a laughably bad body…

Yep, he was in danger of being known only as "former child-star." Not mentioned in the (very good) write-up is that the child actor Russell crossed paths, literally, with Elvis, prominently featured in a single short scene in the vehicle It Happened at the Worlds Fair. Elvis pays young Kurt to kick him, to leave…

How about Harold Ramis, he's at least concurrent with early SNL.

I'm almost 50 and a classic rock fan, but not on the level where I know the lore of bands like Zep or Alice like I do The Beatles, Elvis, or 60's soul/Motown. Hence I have no impression of the Plant depiction's accuracy, and didn't even know Alice Cooper was the bands name. (I do though recall a "rumor" at school,…