The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge

One of my personal favorite albums. 80s post-punk with existentialist-inspired lyrics. This is a 2012 reissue on 2xLP that was mastered at Abbey Road. All older pressings got it wrong by trimming songs from the album or trying to cram too many songs on 1 LP.

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Impulse buys here, don't think I have to say too much about these. Both are recent reissues that can be picked up at reasonable prices.

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That Chameleons would be right up my alley. Frankly I gotta say, It's nice to have a post punk expert in here.

Seeing that Elvis surprises me though. I never took you for an Elvis kind of guy. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just seems like a curve ball pitch coming from you.

I don't know or care to know too much about Elvis, I just never ever got into any of his music I've heard. Although, I do like Heartbreak Hotel, that was the perfect song for him. Speaking of which I usually like the various covers of that song as well, Lynyrd Skynyrd does a great acoustic cover of that track. I like a lot of Rockabilly, so I'm sure I'd dig some of his rockabilly and old country stuff if I gave it a chance, but I'm not chomping at the bit to do so. I guess I should admit I have my ear blinders on for him.

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“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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Elvis is a curve ball, hahaha.

Honestly I never thought too much about him until I saw his '68 comeback special video. I'd recommend that to anyone really.

As far as his music goes, I do think he was a little watered down and commercial compared to early rockabilly guys like Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins. That said, he did record some good music and was a massive influence on so many musicians (i.e. everyone from the Clash to Nick Cave) that it's unfair to ignore him entirely.

I don't think I actually had any of his albums on vinyl or CD until I picked this one the other day on clearance. I HAVE been looking for a clean copy of "Elvis in Memphis" for some time but whenever I see that record it's always scratched to shit.

This album was actually his first for RCA and is as heavy on the ballads as the rockin' stuff. I actually like his version of Blue Moon a lot. If you were looking for early Elvis, I'd try this one or a comp. of his Sun Sessions material.

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I guess I've always considered him more of an icon and a performer vs an interesting musician. Pretty much everything he sang had to be written by someone else almost karaoke style, so it's not like he was as creative as he gets credit for. Every woman on the planet for a while thought of him as a heart throb so I kind of look at him as the first boy band (without the band).

He did hundreds of movies, all of which come off as corny, kitsch 50s and 60s crapola. He pretty much went wherever his money managers told him to go in terms of album styles. I mean, he did a few Hawaiian albums during that craze (pathetic), country, rockabilly, even some Brazilian influenced music when Sergio Mendes started getting popular. Whichever way the wind blew, you'd find him hitching his star to that style. Some might call that an ability to adapt, I call it fake and an ability to follow the dollar at the expense of his own artistic integrity.

Not to mention, all the times I've seen his crap albums and singles in every dollar bin on the planet, and yet for some reason, every old fat white guy who thinks his own forgotten records are uber-valuable sites these albums as highlights of his collection. Hell, even my parents didn't like the guy, my Dad was a Buddy Holly fan but not Elvis.

In the end of his life, Elvis died on his toilet from a drug overdose. So when you add all that up it's hard for me personally to take the guy too seriously. In a nutshell, I think of him as the Beatles in terms of mass, worldwide popularity only without even a smidgen of their creativity. Mind you I'm not a Beatles fan, but I can recognize their musical genius in comparison to him.

That said I'm not entirely closed minded to his earliest pre-stardom hillbilly music or country styles on Sun, maybe he wasn't tainted by star power so maybe that more simple music has actual substance.

I realize I sound like a giant rock snob, but I'm only being honest. I just can't get past all that too easily, for his music to impress me it would have to be so great that it overshadowed all that baggage I associate with the guy, and frankly, I kind of doubt any of his music is capable of changing my mind.

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“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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