lol...good eye
Was Elvis known to be a decent pool/billiards player?
- Thread starter ROB.M
- Start date
lol...good eye
I never said I was not a fan of his music. I hope you didn't go to see his silly movies. I liked him and thought in the grand scheme of things he was a decent guy. He was more tragic then anything else.
I actually saw him live at one of his last concerts in 1977 in Hollywood Florida and it was terrible. I can't believe I found a review of that concert on line
http://www.elvisconcerts.com/newspapers/press118.htm
I think you need a reality check when it comes to Elvis Presley's talent.
You can be a fan just as I was, but you have to also be honest.
I don't know whether the 'King of Rock and Roll' was an accomplished player, or not, but some indication of his fondness of the game can be found in the lyrics of one of his songs:
You know I can be found, playing pool downtown,
and if you come around, just lay your money down.
Let's play pool, and don't you be no fool.
You know that if I made you mad, about calling your pool play bad,
you shouldn't feel so sad, your future looks bright ahead.
Don't be no fool, you're just not that cool, at playing pool.
I don't want no other game, it's only your money, to me it's all the same.
RCA didn't care for his reference to pool so they requested a rewrite prior to publication. Now you know the end of the story. :smile:
You know I can be found, playing pool downtown,
and if you come around, just lay your money down.
Let's play pool, and don't you be no fool.
You know that if I made you mad, about calling your pool play bad,
you shouldn't feel so sad, your future looks bright ahead.
Don't be no fool, you're just not that cool, at playing pool.
I don't want no other game, it's only your money, to me it's all the same.
RCA didn't care for his reference to pool so they requested a rewrite prior to publication. Now you know the end of the story. :smile:
I guess that is why the Beatles loved Elvis cause he did not have talent. To say the man can't sing is retarded. Elvis made a lot of bad movies and a few that were good ones but they always made plenty of money. That's all they care about in Hollywood.
If you need talent to be commercially successful in show business and entertainment, Kim K and Paris H would be working as cleaners or strippers
What are you talking about?
Since when did talent =commercial success in showbiz?
Yes you need talent to be critically successful/acclaimed but you do not need talent to be commercially successful in showbiz. To be commercially successful in showbiz you need luck, looks, boobs, sex on casting couch
:grin:
I think if Elvis was "known" to be a 'decent pool player' you wouldn't have to ask.
You would know.
I liked him in Viva Lost Wages
I think what the Beatles liked was the Elvis industry, the amazing way they built Elvis into what he was to become. If Elvis would have lived I think there would have been an Elvis part 2.
We can only speculate on what that would have been. As much money as he made and he didn't really have much when he died, he must have wanted to be taken more seriously. I think in his mind he must have had some ideas for life as an older Elvis but we will never know.
He was certainly a cut above the rest in many respects. If not he would not have had such a long successful career. He also managed to do it without having to keep reinventing himself.
He kept selling the same formula and the public kept buying it. Few were ever able to do that, maybe the Rolling Stones but not many.
The list of famous singers who never wrote a line of music or lyrics is far longer (and more distinquished) than those who did:
Frank Sinatra
Ella Fitzgerald
Muddy Waters (Lord, thank you for Willie Dixson)
Tony Bennett
Judy Garland
Nat King Cole (great piano player, but trusted others to write the music)
Louis Armstrong (wrote some music, but no lyrics)
Patsy Kline
Loretta Lynn
Janis Joplin
and so on, ad nauseum
The combination "singer/songwriter" didn't come along until the late-1950s folk music movement.
Even today you'd be surprised at the number of "hits" that were ghost-written but are attributed to the performer. Songwriters can still make good money...they just don't get the credit.
IMHO Elvis had what is called a "show-stopper, head-turner" voice: even people who had never heard an artist before, would stop and say "Wow, who is that?" It's what separates the hit-maker stars from the lounge singers.
It's what separates Beyonce from the Beyonce-wannabees...and Elvis had it in spades.
I must have upset you for you to look up all that stuff just to dispute what I said. I apologize, Elvis was not the worst singer ever he was actually pretty good.
Singing the type of stuff he did is different the listening to Pavarotti. It is a complete packaged show. I saw Elvis live three times and his show was good except for the last time I saw him that was a disaster.
I saw Sinatra live and he didn't even do a show to speak of. He stood on the stage and sang with no gimmicks. That takes balls and "REAL" talent.
I am not sure about the others but you should take Loretta Lynn off your list.
Loretta Lynn was a great song writer.
http://www.biography.com/people/loretta-lynn-9389831#coal-miners-daughter
A commercial and critical smash hit, Van Lear Rose injected new life into Lynn's career. "Jack was a kindred spirit," Lynn explained to Vanity Fair magazine. White was similarly effusive in his praise:
"I want as many people as possible on earth to hear her, because she's the greatest female singer-songwriter of the last century," he told Entertainment Weekly.
The pair won two Grammy Awards for their work together, for best country collaboration with vocals for the song "Portland Oregon," and for best country album
I didn't need to look it up. I know music like you know pool.
For some reason I've always gotten Loretta Lynn and Brenda Lee mixed up. Thanks.
BTW, I was not a big Elvis fan. He was a few years before my time; my first memorable music was The Beatles. By that time, Elvis was for old folks. But as I became a musician and listened to some of his "old stuff" I began to appreciate how good he was.
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This lady wouldn't have made it today...back then, looks were secondary to the sound..when video came to be the standard, that changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FOUqQt3Kg0
BTW, Elvis said the best voice in rock n' roll belonged to Roy Orbison...
Dunno if Elvis was a good pool player or not...the one photo in the opening post doesn't tell much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHPgco6GQk8
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I love old movies preferable 30's and 40's. I look at most of the leading actors and have to wonder if any of them would have a career today. The women seem to not have that problem, but the male leads, forget about it.
Take Mickey Rooney for example. It is a chore to sit through any of his early stuff.
When I was there in the late 80's that tear was there. I remember not being too impressed with the table. I guess they wanted to keep it the way it was when he was alive.
Well Mac,
You said his singing was mediocre at best. You would have been right if you said it was mediocre at WORST! I've seen film of him at his later years and I wouldn't have paid a dime to see him then. But how about, "It was a kiss.....ooooh it was a kiss you know it really was!" GOD!!! GOD!!! That's the most FABULOUS bit of singing I've ever heard...EVER! God!!! Also; he was not a bad guitar player. He obviously only devoted a small amount of time to practicing it and he executed the simple riffs just fine. He didn't try to play in an advanced manner and fail. Why spend a bunch of time practicing the guitar when you have a voice like that. I'm sure he practiced singing a whole lot.
So he wasn't a songwriter. He sang as well as anyone in American history when he was at his best. So you have a problem with the fact that he didn't have more talents? Sorry for piciking on ya' dude, it's just that there are so many folks who think like you. I heard Dennis Miller on his radio show call Madonna talentless because she couldn't play her guitar well. PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS PLAY THEIR INSTRUMENTS IN EXCESS OF 4 HOURS A DAY. No matter how talented you are, if you only practice for 15 minutes a week, you're never gonna be good. She doesn't want to be good. She's a singer. She practices her singing instrument! She just wants to fill in with a few chords, that's all!
So he couldn't act and made bad movies. Maybe he shouldn't have done either. So how does that take away from his singing (and in his early days...dancing) talent?
Anyhow; there were still some good reasons for watching those movies.....
You said his singing was mediocre at best. You would have been right if you said it was mediocre at WORST! I've seen film of him at his later years and I wouldn't have paid a dime to see him then. But how about, "It was a kiss.....ooooh it was a kiss you know it really was!" GOD!!! GOD!!! That's the most FABULOUS bit of singing I've ever heard...EVER! God!!! Also; he was not a bad guitar player. He obviously only devoted a small amount of time to practicing it and he executed the simple riffs just fine. He didn't try to play in an advanced manner and fail. Why spend a bunch of time practicing the guitar when you have a voice like that. I'm sure he practiced singing a whole lot.
So he wasn't a songwriter. He sang as well as anyone in American history when he was at his best. So you have a problem with the fact that he didn't have more talents? Sorry for piciking on ya' dude, it's just that there are so many folks who think like you. I heard Dennis Miller on his radio show call Madonna talentless because she couldn't play her guitar well. PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS PLAY THEIR INSTRUMENTS IN EXCESS OF 4 HOURS A DAY. No matter how talented you are, if you only practice for 15 minutes a week, you're never gonna be good. She doesn't want to be good. She's a singer. She practices her singing instrument! She just wants to fill in with a few chords, that's all!
So he couldn't act and made bad movies. Maybe he shouldn't have done either. So how does that take away from his singing (and in his early days...dancing) talent?
Anyhow; there were still some good reasons for watching those movies.....
I visited Graceland back in the 80s and, if I remember correctly, I read or heard that somebody (maybe Elvis) threw a pool stick during one of his parties and that is what tore the cloth. I don't remember a sign explaining the tear.
He also was known for "shooting out" one or more of his TVs if he felt like it for whatever reason.
He also was known for "shooting out" one or more of his TVs if he felt like it for whatever reason.
Here are those reasons
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