What Song Are You Currently Listening To?

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I remember staying up all through the night and well into 11 am in the morning to watch Live 8.

I watched hundreds of performances and the person who stole the show, for me, was Robbie Williams.

He, came on, blitz the stage, stole the show, and left me in awe.

Now, that was legendary.


The make-shift, shortened, mic-stand, I felt was a fitting tribute to Mercury 20 years previous.

[MACAQUEINBLACK]

Well, if you look at it a certain way, but let's not get delusional here.

Definitely a relative thing. Is he an ATG writer? Nah. Are any of his albums among the Greatest of All-Time? Nah. Is he an ATG vocalist even? No, although he has a very fine, versatile voice and is a very solid interpreter. But within a certain realm of performer/entertainer, he definitely makes a strong case - and all of those guys are just looking up to the big E in the end, anyway.

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MJ surpassed E a long time ago, mate.

In fact, I won't even class anyone with MJ, he's in a league of his own.

[MACAQUEINBLACK]

I remember staying up all through the night and well into 11 am in the morning to watch Live 8.

I watched hundreds of performances and the person who stole the show, for me, was Robbie Williams.

He, came on, blitz the stage, stole the show, and left me in awe.

Now, that was legendary.


The make-shift, shortened, mic-stand, I felt was a fitting tribute to Mercury 20 years previous.

Weirdly, I missed most of Live 8 the event (although I heard plenty about it), so this is my first time catching any of Rob's set. Just digging it now.


That he'd waltz out and blow everyone else out the water is typical of the cat, though.

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Weirdly, I missed most of Live 8 the event (although I heard plenty about it), so this is my first time catching any of Rob's set. Just digging it now.


That he'd waltz out and blow everyone else out the water is typical of the cat, though.

He's just one of those performers, a scene-stealer, probably the best in the world in his prime 5 odd years ago.

[MACAQUEINBLACK]

MJ surpassed E a long time ago, mate.

In fact, I won't even class anyone with MJ, he's in a league of his own.

Somehow forgot about MJ when I was making that comment.

And I think the reason why is only because Elvis preceded him. Elvis pioneered a certain type of stagecraft and is a lock for a Top 5 interpreter of All-Time, his body of work is insane and his impact was seismic, really can't be overstated.

Jackson is just as immense and just as complete and unique of an archetype, only a couple decades on.

Truthfully, I have them on equal terms (for Rob, though, the E reference is probably the more apt).

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Somehow forgot about MJ when I was making that comment.

And I think the reason why is only because Elvis preceded him. Elvis pioneered a certain type of stagecraft and is a lock for a Top 5 interpreter of All-Time, his body of work is insane and his impact was seismic, really can't be overstated.

Jackson is just as immense and just as complete and unique of an archetype, only a couple decades on.

Truthfully, I have them on equal terms (for Rob, though, the E reference is probably the more apt).

Stage-craft aside, what do you make of Presley's song-writing abilities?

I don't know much about his studio albums or LP's or even if studio albums really meant that much in his time and were just an amalgamation of various singles he worked on, but I do have a few compilation albums of his finest work, and have a feel for what his best songs were, but my opinion of his song-writing talents is limited to the songs I've heard from these various Best Of albums. This is obviously a very narrow judgement call on my part, but just at a glance of his work, from his Best Of sets, he didn't seem to have an immense input as far as song-writing is concerned. This may be, because the songs he wrote, might not have been hits, and therefore never made the cut, in which case I'd like you to recommend me several of his best, personally written tunes.


I haven't thought this question through and I could word it better but I'd like to know your opinion on this. Excuse my naivety.

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Listening,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3GNKUE-d9c

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Stage-craft aside, what do you make of Presley's song-writing abilities?

I don't know much about his studio albums or LP's or even if studio albums really meant that much in his time and were just an amalgamation of various singles he worked on, but I do have a few compilation albums of his finest work, and have a feel for what his best songs were, but my opinion of his song-writing talents is limited to the songs I've heard from these various Best Of albums. This is obviously a very narrow judgement call on my part, but just at a glance of his work, from his Best Of sets, he didn't seem to have an immense input as far as song-writing is concerned. This may be, because the songs he wrote, might not have been hits, and therefore never made the cut, in which case I'd like you to recommend me several of his best, personally written tunes.


I haven't thought this question through and I could word it better but I'd like to know your opinion on this. Excuse my naivety.

Sorry, this question reads all over the place, I'll articulate my question in a more proper and understandable manner some other time.



Currently;

[MACAQUEINBLACK]

Sorry, this question reads all over the place, I'll articulate my question in a more proper and understandable manner some other time.



Currently;

Great single. The Archies albums kick a lotta tail, too, seriously.

The Jingle Jangle/Justine 45 is one of my fav double-sided singles OAT.


The question was fine, just needed some due attention to reply it.

Stage-craft aside, what do you make of Presley's song-writing abilities?

I don't know much about his studio albums or LP's or even if studio albums really meant that much in his time and were just an amalgamation of various singles he worked on, but I do have a few compilation albums of his finest work, and have a feel for what his best songs were, but my opinion of his song-writing talents is limited to the songs I've heard from these various Best Of albums. This is obviously a very narrow judgement call on my part, but just at a glance of his work, from his Best Of sets, he didn't seem to have an immense input as far as song-writing is concerned. This may be, because the songs he wrote, might not have been hits, and therefore never made the cut, in which case I'd like you to recommend me several of his best, personally written tunes.


I haven't thought this question through and I could word it better but I'd like to know your opinion on this. Excuse my naivety.

He wasn't really a songwriter. Mike has him there.


What he was, beside the incalculable cultural impact he had (like Mike in that respect), was a master interpreter, peerlessly versatile, possessed of amazing depth of interpretive range and a mastery of dynamics like very few others could lay claim to - his voice wasn't just an instrument that technically could do everything a singer could ever need to do, he knew how to use it...and all of that is his true worth. While many look at original composition as the #1 factor in judging music artists' creative talents, interpretation is creation in itself. And Mike had many collaborators over his career, so, in one sense, you could view the many people who wrote E's material as his collaborators, E doing things with their work that nobody else could, it would be the height of a budding songwriter's ambition (in those days when the song was everything) to have his or her song touched by Elvis. With good reason, the man was insanely gifted. He could sing a phonebook and it would be profound. When I say Top 5 interpreter, I'm just leaving room for debate. He's quite probably #1, certainly as worthy a contender as any other you might consider a Top 10.


And his recorded body of work probably has the solid edge over Mike, if I'm honest (that's in overall terms, as I consider the peaks of each man's recorded artistry to be equally skyscraping). Music video wasn't developed in his day and he wasn't a dancer per se, but his entertainment Legacy is strong in his ability to work a stage and command an audience (like only Mike beside him could) and the defining concert movies and TV specials are essentials. He also had an absolutely Epic run as a stage performer that not even Mike could match.


BUT, Mike WROTE Great songs. He's a music-video Giant with no equal. His shows and tours were beyond immense and were something that could never have been imagined previously, superlatives fall flat to describe it. He moved things on massively in that way, and made himself a whole new archetype of performer 20 odd years after E. 30 years on and we're still waiting for another archetype in pop/RNR, which tells you how big an achievement that was.

His stage presence and performance ability and craft were on their own planet, just as E's was. And he's an ATG vocalist/interpreter himself.


All of that evens it up and the two are very much equal to me. Their silhouettes are the two most defining/recognizable in pop/RNR and music-centered entertainment history.