Unpopular Musical Opinions

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Elvis was a fat, racist piece of s**t (not unpopular)

His music was mainly s**t too

‘With Elvis, there was not a single drop of racism in that man. And when I say that, believe me I should know'.

- BB King.

Black man, fellow musician, contemporary of Elvis Presley

Think I know who to trust on this one.

Never mind that Presley himself adopted profoundly black musical styling in a lot of his work.
 

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Elvis was a fat, racist piece of s**t (not unpopular)

His music was mainly s**t too

James Brown wrote several books one of which includes this quote about Elvis: “I wasn’t just a fan, I was his brother. He said I was good and I said he was good; we never argued about that. Elvis was a hard worker, dedicated, and God loved him … I love him and hope to see him in heaven. There’ll never be another like that soul brother”.

Another black man, fellow musician and contemporary of Elvis. Also, a renowned black rights activist

When Elvis died, James Brown sat at his coffin for several minutes paying his respect. He was the only celebrity that went there.

Elvis Presley was the sweetest, most humble and nicest man you'd want to know - Muhammad Ali (Another black rights activist.)

Lots of similar quotes from Little Richard, Isaac Hayes, Jackie Wilson, Laverne Baker, Chuck Berry... that all put that racist accusation to bed.
 

JimDocker

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Elvis was a fat, racist piece of s**t (not unpopular)

His music was mainly s**t too

As for his music...

"Describe Elvis Presley ? He was the greatest who ever was, is or ever will be." - Chuck Berry

"Elvis was a major hero of mine. I was probably stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something." - David Bowie

"The highlight of my career ? That's easy, Elvis recording one of my songs." - Bob Dylan

"None of us could have made it without Elvis." - Buddy Holly

"Before Elvis there was nothing." - John Lennon

"There's only one person in the United States we ever wanted to meet ... not that he wanted us. And we met him last night. We can't tell you how we felt. We just idolised him so much. ... You can't imagine what a thrill that was last night. Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles." - John Lennon

Elvis is the greatest cultural force in the twentieth century.
He introduced the beat to everything, music, language, clothes, it's a whole new social revolution… the 60's comes from it. Because of him, a man like me hardly knows his musical grammar anymore." _ Leonard Bernstein

"That Elvis, man, he is all there is. There ain't no more. Everything starts and ends with him. He wrote the book." - Bruce Springsteen

"Before Elvis, everything was in black and white. Then came Elvis. Zoom, glorious Technicolor." - Keith Richards

"When I first heard Elvis' voice, I just knew that I wasn't going to work for anybody, and nobody was going to be my boss. He is the deity supreme of rock and roll religion as it exists in today's form. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail. I thank God for Elvis Presley." - Bob Dylan

“You have no idea how great he is, really you don’t. You have no comprehension - it’s absolutely impossible. I can’t tell you why he’s so great, but he is. He’s sensational.” - Phil Spector

It goes on...
 
The problem in regards to Elvis' music is that you have to look at him in the context of his time. These days, his music is still good but it symbolises that era and for a lot of people it's outdated.

He pioneered so much, but we're closer to, if not at, the point where his style isn't in modern music anymore. We've moved on from that era.

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The problem in regards to Elvis' music is that you have to look at him in the context of his time. These days, his music is still good but it symbolises that era and for a lot of people it's outdated.

He pioneered so much, but we're closer to, if not at, the point where his style isn't in modern music anymore. We've moved on from that era.

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That's probably it.

I've never gotten the Elvis hype. I admire him for being pretty much the first frontman, who changed performing live forever, by being the first to really entertain the fans with swings and dances, rather than just standing and singing, but I just don't like his music and never will. It always seemed a bit wacky and over the top (Love Me Tender would be in my top five worst songs ever). My decision isn't being based on time either - i'm pretty big on Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly from the same time period but Elvis' stuff hasn't appealed to me.
 

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Arcade fire have lost thier soul since the suburbs album. The bends is the best Radiohead album by a mile.ok computer is horribly overrated. Nick caves creative peak was tender prey and the good son. Progressive slide since.
 

JimDocker

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The problem in regards to Elvis' music is that you have to look at him in the context of his time. These days, his music is still good but it symbolises that era and for a lot of people it's outdated.

He pioneered so much, but we're closer to, if not at, the point where his style isn't in modern music anymore. We've moved on from that era.

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That's probably it.

I've never gotten the Elvis hype. I admire him for being pretty much the first frontman, who changed performing live forever, by being the first to really entertain the fans with swings and dances, rather than just standing and singing, but I just don't like his music and never will. It always seemed a bit wacky and over the top (Love Me Tender would be in my top five worst songs ever). My decision isn't being based on time either - i'm pretty big on Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly from the same time period but Elvis' stuff hasn't appealed to me.

Reasonable perspectives, both.
 
These are my unpopular opinions:

The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Yes are fab.
Whatever your musical tastes are, good on you .... the main thing is that music brings you some joy in life.
People who put down others' musical tastes are boring and they can GAGF


IMHO :$
 
These are my unpopular opinions:

The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Yes are fab.
Whatever your musical tastes are, good on you .... the main thing is that music brings you some joy in life.
People who put down others' musical tastes are boring and they can GAGF


IMHO :$

The first one isn't super unpopular
But the other two should be how everyone thinks. Especially the second one.

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The problem in regards to Elvis' music is that you have to look at him in the context of his time. These days, his music is still good but it symbolises that era and for a lot of people it's outdated.

He pioneered so much, but we're closer to, if not at, the point where his style isn't in modern music anymore. We've moved on from that era.

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I don't think he pioneered much at all. He was popular in an era where a lot of black artists made great music that white artists made popular.
 

JimDocker

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I don't think he pioneered much at all. He was popular in an era where a lot of black artists made great music that white artists made popular.

I think that is a common over simplification of how music develops between cultures.
 
I thought Way Down and Moody Blue which I think were two of the last songs he released were ok.

Saw one of the Motlops (the Motlop family home in Darwin has a massive Elvis statue in the front yard) do an amazing rendition of Burning Love at Uluru in 2002 when all indigenous players gathered for their biannual conference.

Other than that I'm with james Dean

Don't believe the hype.
 
‘With Elvis, there was not a single drop of racism in that man. And when I say that, believe me I should know'.

- BB King.

Black man, fellow musician, contemporary of Elvis Presley

Think I know who to trust on this one.

Never mind that Presley himself adopted profoundly black musical styling in a lot of his work.

Interesting that a modern black political activist like Chuck D had this to say in the song "Fight The Power"

Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant s**t to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain

Mother * him and John Wayne
Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
 
May 5, 2016
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The perception of his racism is based on a single quote - which he never actually said.

‘The only thing negroes are fit to do is shine my shoes.’
Not a single person has been able to provide a shred of evidence that he said it. And an absolute gaggle of his black contemporaries speaks glowingly about how much they loved him and about how he never had a bad word to say about anyone.

I think I’ll take their word over that of Chuck D, who’s music became popular a decade after Elvis took his last breath.
 
Rage Against the Machine's Renegades covers album is as good as their other 3 albums and Renegades of Funk, Microphone Fiend and Maggie's Farm are RATM classics.

Maggie's Farm close to top 5.
Evil Empire is RATM’s best album.

Battle of LA is commercial trash.
 

JimDocker

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Even more interesting that he went back on the remark later on.

Chuck D later clarified his lyric associating Elvis Presley with racism. In an interview with Newsday timed with the 25th anniversary of Presley's death, Chuck D acknowledged that Elvis was held in high esteem by black musicians, and that Elvis himself admired black musical performers. Chuck D stated that the target of his Elvis line was the white culture which hailed Elvis as a "King" without acknowledging the black artists that came before him.

The Chuck D quote (from Public Enemy’s ‘Fight The Power’) is again regularly used to denigrate Elvis but is never fully explained. What Chuck D actually says - should anyone bother to ask him or check the facts – is that what he actually disliked was Elvis’ "culture-blurring genius". This is because it happened to play into the hands of a racist music industry that, at the time, was hungry for a white artist who could play black music. Chuck D in fact agrees & says that, "Elvis was a door, a gateway through to the roots. In the beginning of his career Elvis admitted where the roots came from, but did anybody care?"

 

JimDocker

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The perception of his racism is based on a single quote - which he never actually said.

‘The only thing negroes are fit to do is shine my shoes.’
Not a single person has been able to provide a shred of evidence that he said it. And an absolute gaggle of his black contemporaries speaks glowingly about how much they loved him and about how he never had a bad word to say about anyone.

I think I’ll take their word over that of Chuck D, who’s music became popular a decade after Elvis took his last breath.

Claim - Back in June of 1957, while in Boston (or during an interview with Edward R. Murrow on CBS), he uttered the now-infamous declaration, “The only thing n*****s can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes.”

Fact - At this time in 1957, Elvis had never been to Boston, nor had he ever been interviewed on CBS, by Edward R. Murrow or anyone else.
 
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I hate to bring race into this, but Jerry Lee Lewis is a very overrated musician and should not be considered a pioneer of rock and roll. He was the Caucasian counterpoint to African-American rock pianists, thus more marketable to a racist 50s audience than Little Richard or Fats Domino and that's the only reason to me why he has a legacy. Famous for standing and playing the piano, Little Richard was doing that long before he was. He barely has any memorable songs either - Eddie Cochran is a fella who could be more deserving of his immortalisation.

Also if Buddy Holly didn't die at 22, he'd have had a bigger legacy than Elvis, or at least comparable.
 
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