Recently in Music Category

It's just about time for me to lay to rest the Elvis-and-Michael-in-parallel meme, but for one last post, The Globe and Mail of Toronto does a side-by-side comparison of the two superstars' funerals:

Elvis Presley's sudden death in 1977 at the age of 42 prompted an outpouring of grief the likes of which had never been seen for an American musician. At the time, journalists tried to explain why the star's death had such a profound effect on fans who had never met the King. In 2009, the death of another King shares some similarities - though there are many important differences - with that 32 years earlier.

There is some interesting Elvis lore in this article, such as this passage about Elvis' burial:

Elvis was entombed in a white marble mausoleum at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Tenn., near the grave of his mother. Just 13 days later, a trio of would-be grave robbers was arrested near the crypt. Elvis's father then got permission to move the remains of his son and wife back to Graceland and the pair were buried there on Oct. 2, 1977.

As of this writing, it is still unknown where Michael Jackson will be laid to rest.

Mediabistro.com picks up on Fox News anchor Shepard Smith's comments during today's coverage of the Michael Jackson memorial service, in which the Holly Springs, Miss., native says that a similar event -- Elvis Presley's funeral in August 1977 -- inspired him to go into broadcast journalism:

"It was a hot August day in Memphis, I think it was August 16 of 1977 when Elvis died at 42 years old. And, live television events were relatively new to the nation; and, completely new to Memphis," said Smith around 1:20 this afternoon. "That was the first, to my recollection...it was the first live mini cam that a local television station had ever used in this way. And, it was a fascinating thing to see."

John Fry, owner and founder of Ardent Studios and engineer on the original Big Star sessions, returned to the mixing console after 20-some years to mix six tracks for the forthcoming Big Star box set Keep an Eye on the Sky, according to an item from Broadcast Newsroom.

"Of course I enjoyed working with Big Star back in the day, but I had forgotten what a momumental work we had created until I put up those old 2-inch tapes and listened to the individual multitracks.  It was like opening a time capsule and finding all sorts of forgotten treasures. We are all very lucky to be able to relive those days and bring Big Star's legacy to full circle completion."

Ardent's own blog runs down the tracks that Fry worked on for the box set, including a rough instrumental version of "O My Soul" and a cover of "Til the End of the Day" by the Kinks.

For further reading, check out this story on Terry Manning, who worked closely with Fry in Ardent's early years.

PICTURED: John Fry at Ardent Studios in 1970.

Gearing up for a July 4 show in Provo, Utah, Disney tween-pop superstars the Jonas Brothers tell the Salt Lake Tribune about some of their fondest memories of playing shows on Independence Day. It turns out the boys had a blast a few years back in Memphis (I haven't been able to figure out what year this was; can anyone help?):

Joe: We have one big memory when we first started touring. We were actually in --where were we, in Tennessee?

Nick: We were in Memphis.

Joe: We spent the whole day walking around, having barbecue. Just one of those memories that you kind of never forget.

Tim Spanton of British tabloid The Sun does a side-by-side comparison of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch and Elvis Presley's Graceland (scroll down below main story). At 2,800 acres, Neverland dwarfs the 13.8-acre Graceland estate in Whitehaven. However, Jackson won't be buried on the site, as Elvis is interred at Graceland, the L.A. Times reported Wednesday:

Jackson's family wanted him interred at the Santa Barbara County estate, the site of some of the happiest and saddest times in his life, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had agreed to help clear any state bureaucratic hurdles, a source close to the situation told The Times.

But in the end, the source said, county officials could not find a way to quickly circumvent legal restrictions governing burial at a private residence.

"It's nobody's fault. Everybody in Santa Barbara feels bad about it," the source said.

NPR's Song of the Day segment today features "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" by red-hot Memphis rock-and-roller Jay Reatard. The song is the advance single from the forthcoming album Watch Me Fall, due out Aug. 18 on Matador Records.

Here's what NPR writer Alex Cohen has to say about Reatard (who I never would have described as "plus-sized"):

Reatard has a big voice and bigger stage presence: Hailing from Memphis, Tenn., he's a plus-sized guy with a huge mop of long curls that thrash wildly when he whales on the guitar. He may not look the part of a long, lean, Mick Jagger-style beanpole, but "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" demonstrates that he's got all the star quality he needs.

And, in case you missed it, here's the article from a couple of weeks ago tracing Reatard's and Amy LaVere's paths to success in music.

The Daily Star of Bangladesh carries an item from the Times Online that says the Jackson family, at the time of Michael Jackson's death last week, already had been in talks with CKX Inc., the company that took over Elvis Presley Enterprises in late 2004, about transforming the Neverland Ranch (right) into an attraction along the lines of Graceland:

The company's ideas include a traveling exhibition of Jackson memorabilia, the licensing of theme park rides and an updated version of the musical "Thriller Live," first staged in London in 2006.

...

Last year, days before debt collectors seeking $24m in overdue mortgage payments were due to auction it off, Jackson signed a rescue deal with Colony, a Los Angeles property developer. Colony hopes to put the restored property on the market for up to $90m by the end of the year, with a share of profits destined for Jackson's children's trusts.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph of Australia, Tim Blair furthers the Elvis-Michael Jackson-link meme by comparing Jackson's personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray with Elvis' notorious sawbones Dr. George Nichopoulos, aka "Dr. Nick." I can't vouch for the accuracy of all the Elvis lore, but Blair presents it with his usual verve:

At one point the colourful Memphis medico was charged with oversupplying drugs to Presley after a TV investigation discovered that he'd prescribed the singer more than 5300 tablets in the seven months prior to Presley's death. Dr Nick beat the charge. Incredibly, his lawyers were able to show that this huge quantity of drugs actually represented a bid to reduce the amount Presley previously consumed.
The boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, had an appetite for more than just fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Blair moves on to mention that just as Dr. Nick accompanied Elvis during his late-career stand in Las Vegas, Murray had taken a leave of absence from his practice (which happened to be in Vegas) to be by Michael's side during the looming 50-show run in London. And he includes a helpful rundown of the pharmacopia found in Elvis' system, as well as a list of drugs that Michael is believed to have been taking.

Finally, Blair links to an episode of the hilarious online cartoon Achewood that pretty well sums up the impact of Michael's death on us 30-somethings ...

Mark Milian, who hosts a travel blog on the Los Angeles times Web site, added Memphis as a last-minute stop on his "two-week, music-inspired road trip." As a result, he ended up in town fairly late on a Sunday, which is not the ideal time to get the measure of the place -- for example, he found a lot of restaurants and attractions closed, and left unimpressed with what he found:

Readers hyped it up as a cornerstone of American music, but it felt more like a history class field trip. Then again, I might just be bitter about missing some of the classic barbecue joints.

Kudos to Milian for tweaking the unbearable song "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn:

Just as I was driving into the city on Sunday, the teeth-grinding country ditty "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn started playing on the radio. The song basically references the titles of Elvis songs along with places around Memphis to create an overarching story that doesn't make much sense. For example, Cohn says he "saw the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue / Followed him up to the gates of Graceland." OK, that's a two-hour walk, dude.

Follow Milian's travels here, and keep up with him on Twitter here.

One of the emerging memes in the wake of Michael Jackson's death last week has been the similarities between his life arc and that of Elvis Presley. Bob Mehr delved into it with a front-page piece in Sunday's editions of The Commercial Appeal. And I've got a stack of articles that touch on the meme, as well. Special thanks to newsroom librarian Rosemary Nelms for sending me more material than I could possibly get through.

Blogging at In From the Cold, Spook86, who says he is a former intelligence agent, compares the initial news coverage of the two superstars' deaths.

(I)n contrast to the media firestorm that ignited with Jackson's arrival at a Los Angeles hospital, initial press accounts of Elvis's passing were almost accidental, more the product of timely tips to the Memphis media, rather than tenacious reporting.

Spook86 quotes extensively from Janice and Neal Gregory's book "When Elvis Died" to trace the timeline of reporting, which will bring back memories for Memphians old enough to remember Aug. 16, 1977.

The post rang a more recent bell for me (I was just 2 months old when Elvis died): Writing in a special section to mark the 20th anniversary of Elvis' death in 1997, former Commercial Appeal editor and publisher Angus MacEachran recalled a reporter telling him, "Angus, there's an 'Elvis is dead' call on line 2."

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune continues in the same vein, noting that CBS didn't even lead the Aug. 16, 1977, newscast didn't even lead with Elvis' death (a fact that would shape its coverage decisions for decades to come). He also accurately captures the delicate first few hours of the Michael Jackson story, when outlets like ours didn't want to be left behind but didn't want to get caught in a hoax:

Time Warner's TMZ.com and Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s LATimes.com were out front on Jackson's condition, and other outlets -- initially able neither to ignore the dispatches nor corroborate them -- had to tread carefully.

Back on the celebrity angle, British tabloid The Sun catches up with Jackson friend and sometime-Memphian David Gest, who says the stress of preparing for 50 shows in London killed the King of Pop:

"They should have realised doing a concert one day on, one day off, would be tough for any performer, let alone someone who hadn't been on stage for nine years. It was ridiculous. ... "

Some writers are speculating on whether Jackson's Neverland ranch might become a tourist attraction like Elvis' Graceland. The Jackson family did say today that Michael would not be buried at the Santa Barbara playland, but that's beside the point. Here's Sean Hamilton writing in the Sunday Mirror:

And just as Elvis rakes in more now than when he was alive, Michael too will be worth more dead. Even if the family opt not to have Michael buried there, the estate, near Santa Barbara, California, is certain to prove a vast money-spinner for his three children. Although he owed up to pounds 250million, that debt could be quickly wiped out by profits that could rapidly top pounds 300million from opening the estate to the public.

I'll have more on Elvis-Jacko connections throughout the week.

UPDATE: Hamil Harris of The Washington Post happened to be in Memphis when word broke of Michael Jackson's death, and he interviewed Graceland visitors for their perspective on the King of Pop.