Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Feb 10-Elvis, Post-Army




Reading:

  • Freya Jarman-Ivens (2007) “’Don’t Cry, Daddy’: The Degeneration of Elvis Presley’s Musical Masculinity,” from Oh Boy! Masculinities and Popular Music

Listening:

  • Elvis Presley (Excerpts from Aloha from Hawaii, in Blackboard)

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Question:
Were Elvis’ arrogant and ostentatious Las Vegas shows his own vision? Did he personally want to resemble 2001: A Space Odyssey or was that the Hollywood/Parker vision for him? The article portrays these choices as his desire but really what was his role in his own change?

Artifact Discussion:
Listening to “Something” during Elvis’ Aloha performance I notice the “camp” that Jarman-Ivens was talking about. The author does note that today, after thirty years, Elvis’ sound could sound cheesy. But for me it is hard to imagine it did not sound cheesy back then. The girls initially screaming when Elvis said “we’re gonna try to do all the songs you wanna hear,” stopped their screaming when “Something” came on. The song sounds like an overblown misfit. The tastefulness of the British Beatles is lost on Elvis’ vibrato voice that does not fit the somber track. Even though Elvis’ style had shifted to a more ballad type of music, I agree with Jarman-Ivens in that the horns and strings make this version seem like it belongs in a Disney movie. To me, the Aloha version of “Hound Dog” has a similar effect. Elvis’s voice is less pronounced over the background music. The distorted guitar sounds cheesy in comparison with the sophisticated jazz sounds in the original version. His voice seems to lack the raspy full quality it originally had. Now it seems like the superstar is gasping for breath to rush through the brief throwback. Even his physique in the picture is less limber and fatter. He does not look like a fashion icon, rather an astronaut.

Evan said...

Question:

We talked in class about how when the Beatles changed their sound, they lost a lot of their teenage girl fan base and gained a more male audience. It seems as if Elvis was trying to keep his female fan base by not changing his style at all. Was he successful in doing this, or did his fan base change as he got older?

Artifact Discussion:

Elvis’s music of the 1970’s is exactly as described by critics. It is bland and glossy as compared to his “‘energetic’ and ‘edgy’ work from the 1950s” (Jarman 175). It sounds as if while he has grown up and musical styles have changed, he hasn’t changed the sound of his music with his age or the times. The only difference is that he just doesn’t have the power or emotion in his voice that he had when he was younger. In fact, some of his songs sound like they’re straight from an older generation even than he. In what sounds to me like a classic 50’s style with background singers and hardly a whisper from an electric guitar, Elvis sounds like a poor karaoke attempt at Frank Sinatra. I disagree with Jarman that his music of this era was “devalued”. I think that it lacked the creativity and energy that gave any value to his work in the first place. In his rendition of Can’t Help Falling in Love he sings, “some things are meant to be” but clearly this song was not meant to be sung by Elvis.
The most telling for me was his late rendition of Hound Dog. While the guitar sounds more like the 70’s, the song as a whole lacks the feeling of that from the older version. It’s faster, poorly executed, and much less sexual. With no emotion in his voice, it’s just not a good rendition of the song. It’s sad to say but from what I can hear, his later music really does sound bland.

Samantha said...

The Beatles are glorified for their early and later work, although the two eras hardly resemble one another. Why do we hold Elvis to a different standard, expecting the same quality and type of music in his late career as in the beginning?

I think the idea of castration by over-sexualization is very interesting within the context of pre and post-war Elvis. I agree that as Elvis became a “brand” within the music industry, he essentially sold his sexuality to his zealous fans, giving them exactly what they wanted with his thrusty dance moves and deep, masculine sounds. However, I do not believe that Elvis became de-masculinized or musically-castrated within his later work. I agree with Jarman-Ivens that he merely became normalized as a result of his stint in the military. When thrown into the context of an anti-individualistic normative environment of the military, Elvis could no long exemplify or embody his previous qualities of hyper-masculinity. His later work is referred to as “bland” and “camp.” However, is it possible that Elvis merely shifted his style just like many artists of his time (ex: the Beatles, etc)?

In my opinion, Elvis just sounds older in songs like “See See Rider.” His voice sounds tired, and there is more emphasis on the background vocals and the accompanying band than in previous works like “Hound Dog.” In his introduction for “Something,” it really sounds like he might be on some type of drug from the wavering, weakness of his voice. His choice to sing a Beatles song exemplifies his ultimate defeat within American rock n’ roll. He has conceded to the reigning more popular group, a group he once tried to keep out of America.

Harold said...

Question: It seems as though Elvis lost his stage presence and musicality as both his health and career deteriorated. While many experiences, like a stint in the military and death of his mother, have shaped the musician, is his poor performances and changing music due to his declining health or declining fan base?

Artifact discussion:
I decided to listen to the artifacts before I read the Jarman-Ivens article. My immediate reactions were disbelief. Though Presley never impressed me musically (i.e. without his performance), his recordings of his later years were quite boring and it seemed like he did not put any effort at all into these performances. In particular, “Hound Dog” was in such contrast with his previous rendition of the song that I thought it was a different song. The newer “Hound Dog” had been relinquished to a 45 second blurb in the middle of a new Elvis where ballades were tantamount. Moreover, the tempo of “Hound Dog” was extremely fast, which contributed to the fact that only three lines were repeated for the duration of the song and the rushed feeling.

I was also very disappointed to hear the lack of effort from Elvis during this time period. This lack of effort was epitomized in “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” where Elvis sounded like he was not even trying. Even among the screams of the fans when he starting singing his ballad, the lyrics were incredibly mumbled and sung without emotion. I was so curious to the horrible performance, I youtubed a recording of Elvis singing the exact same song at an instance that was not a tour/performance. He sounded much more put-together and very musical and emotional. It was refreshing to hear him in this light and it a little disheartening to hear later performances of this musician. This begs the question: Was it drugs deteriorating his performance capabilities or a musician just getting older?

Emily Chang said...

Discussion Question:
From what I heard in the song selections for this class, it sounds like Elvis was living in the past but desperately trying to keep his audience base wide through his music. He made notable changes in his music – such as making his songs more romantic, using different instrumentation, and relying more on the music than on his own voice that the “Don’t Cry, Daddy” article touched on – but it seems like his music could have been made more “modern” with other changes to make it sound more like the songs of other artists of that time period. What changes would these be?

Artifact Discussion:
The selected Elvis Presley songs from “Aloha from Hawaii” definitely display the “over-sentimentality” attributed to his later musical performances (Jarman-Ivens 167). First of all, the song “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is a slow, very drawn out ballad that contrasts with the image of the younger Elvis as the fast-paced, energetic dancer of his past. The other notable slow song in this set is “Something” – and here Elvis’s voice does not exhibit the usual strength and defiance that was present in many of his old works. The “romantic lyricism” and the presence of elements such as a “more elaborate use of amplification, vocal backing groups, strings” cause the listener to wonder what happened to the “in-your-face” Elvis that sounded fresher and more confident than he does in these recordings (Jarman-Ivens 164). In particular, back-up vocals in these two songs made me notice how much Elvis depended on them in these two songs – for without them, the choruses and other lines with back-up singers would not sound nearly as strong, which would make people notice what the lead singer’s voice was lacking.
In addition, the two fast songs – “Hound Dog” and “See See Rider” – sounded a little too fast. Compared to the other version of “Hound Dog” that we listened to from Elvis’s younger years, this one sounded like it was a car speeding along a highway. The unnaturally quick tempo of that song was similar to the high speed of “See See Rider,” and it even had a slightly country flavor to it, as if Elvis were trying to appeal to a country music audience in a desperate attempt to increase his popularity. Overall, the use of exaggeration and a faster tempo were the two main strategies that Elvis employed to counter the antagonistic effects of his aging.

Angela said...

Discussion Question:
In class on Tuesday, we talked about how Elvis lost much of his fan base as he aged. What were the reasons for this: his age, a change in how he portrayed his masculinity, his drug usage, a change in musical style, and/or some other factor(s)?

Artifact Discussion:
Although I believe that the critics gave Elvis too much grief and not enough praise early in his career, I completely agree with the critics of his later music. It is very bland and, indeed, unmusical. For instance, in “See See Rider,” Elvis’s voice is extremely featureless, and it fades on phrases that seem to demand a crescendo. For instance, the phrase at time 0:44 to 0:53 should become louder as it nears the end of the phrase, but instead it fades into nothing as a decrescendo would. It even seems that this effect is unintentional, as though Presley had merely run out of breath and was unable to sustain the phrase. I couldn’t understand the words at that point. The discrepancy between Presley’s vocals and his backup music is very noticeable; the music is much more exciting than the emotion in Presley’s voice even begins to express.

In the song “Something,” Elvis’s emotion does not match the lyrics. Rather than using a timbre of voice to portray infatuation and adoration, Elvis sounds almost sad, dull, and bored. Also, I compared two versions of “Hound Dog”: one rendition from early in his career, and one from later in his career. In the rendition Elvis’s later years, his voice has much less energy. Like “See See Rider,” the background music has an excess of energy, and Presley just cannot match this. It is as if the background instrumentalists are trying to “make up” for Elvis’s enervated style, but in reality, they are only amplifying it and drawing more attention to it. His musicianship definitely declined in his later years, as described by the critics in the reading selections.

AJ said...

Question: How might an even more gradual change in Elvis’ image and his style been taken? Would Elvis still have been seen as emasculated in his later years? How might a more gradual evolution have been achieved?
What grabbed me most in the reading was the intersections of race and gender brought up in the latter parts of “Don’t Cry Daddy” by Jarman-Ivens, which brought up the interesting notion that it might be possible that rooted from early stereotypes, blacks had been seen as more overtly sexual, more animalistic, “bestial” even creatures with greater sex drives than whites. Thus, the article discusses the possibility that the fusion of black and white musical influences in Elvis’ earlier work’s contribution to the said masculinity of his early performances, masculinity then being tied up in sexuality and “sexual potential”. If that was the case, then the question, as it was posed, is does “musical whiteness conversely defuse or …in some way limit the sexual potential of the music? And did the music have to be sexual in order for it to be masculine? Going back to Sue Wise’s point that many of those who praised Elvis’ music early on did so from a masculine perspective—from one that tied the brand of Elvis to his ability to get girls and in a way, dominate them; even as he was a male “object of the gaze”, his ability to transgress norms and styles and still maintain an image that could make a girl fall for him, seemed to keep his image still masculine. It seems ironic to me that going to war, a task I’ve always thought people have seen as valiant and courageous (qualities often valued in men) would lead to the demise of Elvis’ image of masculinity in the eyes of the spectators. But the articles brought to light that perhaps it is not just the act of going to war but the musicality he strayed from upon his return. From listening to his songs as the later Elvis, they do have more emotional tones to them, for example in the song “Something”, he speaks about “not wanting to leave her”, his love interest perhaps. There is a clear distinction then from the earlier songs where he was seen as dominant, and his later songs that may have been in touch with a side that was more vulnerable through lyrics and rhythms. But did this really have a different racial association? It is difficult to draw a direct linkage between what it means to be a man and maintain animalistic, edgy qualities; phrases that seem quite contradictory; Perhaps what his manager was trying to do was to shape the image of Elvis, as the image of mature masculinity was changing in the times, in Hollywood and in the industry. It is an image that seems was difficult from others to see in Elvis and praise him for, but one that perhaps others coming later were able to achieve.

Athira N said...

Question:
Is there a correlation between the “degenerating masculinity” that Jarmen-Ivens talks about and the deteriorating quality of Elvis’ music?

Artifact Discussion:
Wow, the version of “Hound Dog” on this album is so much worse than first version we listened to. The words are barely distinguishable; Elvis sounds like he’s drunk and mumbling. There was so much personality and passion pronounced in the earlier version. I agree with Jarmen-Ivens’ assertion that the quality of Elvis’ music deteriorated in the 1970s. I’m not entirely sure why, but this recording reminds me of Big Mama Thornton’s recording of “Hound Dog” – which means Elvis’ previously distinct style isn’t coming through anymore. Again, this goes along with Jarmen-Ivens’ assertion that Elvis began making more “safe” choices in music. (I’d be interested to hear some explanations for why Elvis felt compelled to make these types of choices in the later years. From the Jarmen-Ivens article, it seems that these “safe” choices were occurring not just in the music he was recording but also in his clothing choices. Was it really, as Jarmen-Ivens seems to suggest, the fact that “sexually conservative authorities” were trying to tame him? Or did it stem from changes in his attitude?) I also want to point out that Elvis’ deterioration is in stark contrast to the Beatles who seemed to get better and better with each year, according to their producer. And finally, the last thing to strike me about the Jarmen-Ivens article was that there seems to be a link between the “physically uncontrollable” and the masculine. When Jarmen-Ivens suggests that Elvis became less effective as a male, he points to Elvis being tamed as his evidence.

Go to hell, Carolina, go to hell! :o)