Beach Boys and politics

[shelter]

Elvis didn't put political messages into his songs (unless you count "In the Ghetto"), but he met with Nixon and told him that drugs were bad, Communism was bad, and the Beatles were bad for the American spirit.

Elvis was also known to be a homophobe and a racist.

[MBE]

Not even going to dignify that with a full responce but your slander to Elvis Presley is ignorent at best. Before you make such harsh accusations learn a little bit about what you are saying.

[MBE]

Also must say that Elvis did like the Beatles, but he was offended by of some of their more blatantly drug oriented songs. He may have later developed a pill problem but he was not part of the "drug culture" and disapproved of it. What he said to Nixon didn't mean he didn't respect them as entertainers and earlier that year had invited Ringo to be on a (ultimately scrapped) closed circut TV special.

[pixletwin]

Not even going to dignify that with a full responce but your slander to Elvis Presley is ignorent at best. Before you make such harsh accusations learn a little bit about what you are saying.

WORD. 

[mozelly]

  i'm not saying an artist can't express themselves, but when those expressions are opposing to my own beliefs, why would I buy their music?  As a listener,why would I want to hear someone bash my own beliefs in a song?
 That's just goofy.   Bruce Springsteen And John Mellencamp are two good examples of what I mean. Really loved the early stuff, but both went from" blue collar singers"  singing for the working man to so far left ,they left their fans.
  Sheryl Crow driving around in a Bio Bus telling people how to conserve energy and stop global warming.
  I wonder how much pollutants she pours into the air manufacturing CDs or travelling to concerts etc...?
  It's hard to take her music serious when you think of the one sheet of toilet paper idea ,which was not a joke as she now claims.
           
   Elvis is RULES and you know it.

[the captain]

I don't care what musicians' politics are, or whether they bash my beliefs in song. It is irrelevant to me: it isn't as if I have to vote them into office. Why would I take a musician's politics any more seriously than those of the guy next door, or some woman at work, or of any other random person?

[MBE]

I like how Dylan wrote about politics. Either he said it with humor, or it had a universal message against racism etc. When you directly attack someone or somthing who is not going to mean much in 20 years I think it's dumb. It dates the song, and second  it takes too many liberties. Lennon wrote in "Attica State"  "Rockafeller pulled the triger that is what the people feel." Obviously not all the people ARE going to feel that way and the ones who don't won't relate to the song. Sure Lennon had the riight to voice his views, but it' didn't last like say the universall message of "Give Peace a Chance".  Music should always be somthing that brings all people together not tear them apart. If you look back at the fifties and sixties music brought about more social change then anything else. Why? Because it was for everybody.

[mozelly]

  I agree with that. 
The main thing I'm saying is , it was good the Beach Boys ,no matter what there party affiliation, were able to perform for a Republican President and a Democrat President.  They put politics aside and did it.

[shelter]

Not even going to dignify that with a full responce but your slander to Elvis Presley is ignorent at best. Before you make such harsh accusations learn a little bit about what you are saying.

I read at least six books about Elvis.

Unfortionately I don't have those books here at the moment, but I recall a story in the book "Elvis in Deutschland". In the book it says that a homosexual guy once tried to hit on Elvis and that Elvis ran out of the room in a panic, screaming something about that guy being possessed by the devil.

I don't remember where exactly I read it, but I somewhere read that one or more of Elvis' background singers were sometimes offended by the degrading and sometimes downright racist comments that Elvis used to make about colored people.

[the captain]

I don't remember where exactly I read it, but I somewhere read that one or more of Elvis' background singers were sometimes offended by the degrading and sometimes downright racist comments that Elvis used to make about colored people.

 

Like using the term "colored people"?

[MBE]

Not even going to dignify that with a full responce but your slander to Elvis Presley is ignorant at best. Before you make such harsh accusations learn a little bit about what you are saying.

I read at least six books about Elvis.

Unfortunately I don't have those books here at the moment, but I recall a story in the book "Elvis in Deutschland". In the book it says that a homosexual guy once tried to hit on Elvis and that Elvis ran out of the room in a panic, screaming something about that guy being possessed by the devil.

We'll I will tell you the story about both but I can put them both in proper context. Elvis was on the set of Fun In Acapulco and an extra kept grabbing his balls making Elvis squirm and ruining a shot where he was being lifted on a surfboard.. Elvis was taken aside by the director and asked why he didn't stay still. Elvis quietly explained it, and without calling the guy out the director simply said there were too many people in the scene and asked the one who was grabbing Elvis to sit down. Elvis was sensitive to the guy's feelings and handled it well. 

As far as the black issue Elvis did an interview with Jet magazine in 1957 where he spoke out against the rumor that he was prejudiced. At a time where very few public figures from the south would have stuck their neck out like this, he said that many of his favorite singers were black and he thought everyone was equal. While this seems like a mild thing to do then, for Elvis to do this in 1957 he was taking a huge risk about loosing both promoters and audience members. He frequently gave to black causes, hired black musicians, broke the race barrier by attending black public events, and never once did anything remotely racist. The thing on stage was that he was having an affair with one of his white singers and she had decided to go out out with one of the members of the band instead.  He was a little jealous and made a few crude jokes about her on stage. She got mad and told him to stop it, he also got mad and went on stage that night with a bad attitude. He made a joke about his black group eating catfish, that was out of character. It wasn't said in an overtly racist tone, but he usually didn't do racial humor. Then he told the white singer to get off the pot if she didn't like the way he spoke of her. She and two members of the black group walked off stage. They quickly made up and it was put behind them. all. All would swear up and down that Elvis had no color prejudice and simply was in a foul mood that day. In fact one of Elvis' friends Jerry Schilling, who you should know from his Beach Boys involvement, dated of of the black singers with Elvis' encouragement. If you don't take my word on this please read the following book. It is the most important document written about Elvis' positive effect on race relations and lack of color prejudice.

http://www.amazon.com/Dispelling-Myths-Todd-Rheingold/dp/0966219708

[shelter]

I don't remember where exactly I read it, but I somewhere read that one or more of Elvis' background singers were sometimes offended by the degrading and sometimes downright racist comments that Elvis used to make about colored people.

 

Like using the term "colored people"?

Oops.

Sorry, I'm not American so it's a bit hard to keep up with what term is considered politically correct there nowadays and what isn't... Seems to change almost every other week...

[shelter]

OK MBE, thanks for writing all that. I'll be more careful with accusations like that in the future.

On a sidenote: have you ever read the book "Elvis: What Happened?". It's the one that two former Memphis Maffia members wrote about him after they got fired, and it's full of all kinds of wild accusations. It's probably not exactly the most reliable source of information... But do you think they just wanted to get their revenge, or do you think there's some truth in it?

[Rocker]

Elvis didn't put political messages into his songs (unless you count "In the Ghetto"), but he met with Nixon and told him that drugs were bad, Communism was bad, and the Beatles were bad for the American spirit.

Elvis was also known to be a homophobe and a racist.

I'm sorry, but that is bulshit. I haven't read "Elvis in Deutschland" yet, but being german, I know that here's alot of trashtalk going on of Elvis. There are not many good books about Elvis out there, and those who are good mostly are not written by one of my fellow-germans.

I guess MBE has explained enough. I just want to add, to get back to the Beach Boys, that the one singer from the Sweets that remained on stage during that "Catfish"-incident was Myrna Smith who later married Jerry Schilling and worked with Carl Wilson on his soloalbums.
You oughta get "That's the way it is" and you'll see how nice Elvis was with the colored people in his group. He also never made a secret out of his love for black-music and was good friends with Muhammed Ali and James Brown.


No hard feelings from my side of course

[MBE]

Thank you for reading my post and I do appreachate you taking what I said to heart. I hope that somebody buys that Dispelling the Myths  book because it is terrific. Anyhow Elvis What Happened is not too great a book. It was written by a tabloid journalist Steve Dunlevy who twisted what the three bodyguards said. Not that they shouldn't take some blame. Elvis had fired them because their excessive roughness had led to some lawsuits. He may of hired two of them back because they were old friends but they instead decided to get revenge by writing this book. Some of the stories are true but they are told out of context in order to make Elvis look bad. For instance the drug stories are told without any regard to some of Elvis' real health problems with his colon, blood pressure, insomnia, and glaucoma. The only things in the book really untrue are the stories that Elvis was prejudiced or anti Semitic. They also are wrong about Elvis not liking other performers. They were hurt and angry and while they say the wrote the book to wake Elvis up, really it was something done out of anger.

[pixletwin]

The only things in the book really untrue are the stories that Elvis was prejudiced or anti Semitic. They also are wrong about Elvis not liking other performers. They were hurt and angry and while they say the wrote the book to wake Elvis up, really it was something done out of anger.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Elvis was even known to play raquetball at the local Jewish recreation center in Memphis (which believe it, has a LARGE Jewish population).

[MBE]

Yes it's true his mom was 12.5 or 25 percent Jewish I forget whcih. His co best man Marty Lacker was Jewish, and he was also close to many other Jewish people such as George Klein and Larry Geller.

[carl r]

Just to add a bit to this sleeping thread here, a clip on you tube shows Brian's heart was absolutely in the right place -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytx4bs5YxGs&NR=1

[Roger Ryan]

Thanks for the "Smog" link. This is the first time I've had a chance to hear that little recording and I have to say that Brian sounds exactly like Mark Whalberg as "Dirk Diggler" professing his philosophy of life (and porn films) in "Boogie Nights"!

[carl r]

 

I wonder if the song he talks of writing eventually became "Day in the Life of a Tree" ?

He sounds sincere about this, about as much as you'd expect. Anyway, I gather he cut down on his air miles from the mid-60s, which is more than I've managed. Maybe he also adjusted his fleet of Rolls Royces ? 

[Smilin Ed H]

"Again I can't say they did based solely on a boot because I have all the fanzines and news stories of the era and I would think at least one would mention something this big. Never heard of it in a book or saw a picture either. AGD can you tell us if they played for Carter???"

Not that this means anything, but to tidy this up, according to AGD's Bellagio site, the BB did indeed play Carter's Inaugural Gala on 21 Jan 1977 (http://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/gigs77.html).

[Surfer Joe]

Brian once said he was bi-partisan.

Think he meant bi-polar. You can be arrested for being bi-partisan in North Dakota - it's right up there with being ported, relieved, stroked & bored. 

How could you possibly be bored after those first three?

 

[MBE]

"Again I can't say they did based solely on a boot because I have all the fanzines and news stories of the era and I would think at least one would mention something this big. Never heard of it in a book or saw a picture either. AGD can you tell us if they played for Carter???"

Not that this means anything, but to tidy this up, according to AGD's Bellagio site, the BB did indeed play Carter's Inaugural Gala on 21 Jan 1977 (http://www.btinternet.com/~bellagio/gigs77.html).

I know it says it there but I just would like to see some documentation. I think it would have garnerd some press.

[Smilin Ed H]

I'd assumed the purpose of Ian and AGD's work was to counter some of the erros in Badman so they'd researched everything.

[MBE]

They have done a great job, but I do wish to know the details. It's still hard to think that Leaf wouldn't have mentioned it in his newletter or his book. Priess, Elliot, none of the roughly contemporary books says anything. I never have seen a picture either.