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Sunday, January 8, 2012
Life / Death Birthday DEATH MATCH: Elvis Presley vs. David Bowie!!!
Posted by Grant Brissey on Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 11:47 AM
In the first corner, Elvis Presley, born January 8, 1935, who is often regarded as the King of Rock 'n' Roll for being white and taking a bunch of African American tunes to screaming white women all over network television, shaking his hips all the way into bigtime controversy (and thereby setting a blueprint for stardom that pop artists follow to this day). Then he died at the age of 42 partly because he took too many pills all the time. His first big hit:
In the second corner, David Bowie, born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947, made a name for himself with the psychedelic rock classic "Space Oddity," then recreated himself as glam/space rock with the Ziggy Stardust persona, then again recreated himself as the Thin White Duke, then basically recreated himself forever and stayed excellent (Except for that Glass Spider tour).
2
I always think of Elvis as being a Dean Martin impersonator, myself. I still voted for Booie, even though his window of awesomeness was actually pretty short (Young Americans through Lodger, for me).
3
I realized as I grew older and consumed more music that Bowie appropriated as much as Elvis. Just one example is Tin Machine's complete pastiche-ing of the Seattle grunge sound. Elvis was more pure musical genius, Bowie was more image/marketing genius, had a broader range of music to sample, and a more established music industry to work within. They'd have tossed Davey Jones to the hogs in the 1950's South.
4
Elvis's B-day marks my 8th year of not drinking! Yay! I see it like this: Each was huge in their own way but Bowie had more talent and was supremely versatile. Elvis was like The Freud of Rock and Roll...if nothing else, he brought it to the masses(like Frued did w/ psychology). Bowie was more like Jung in that he played w/ different concepts and experimented.
5
Elvis had a magnificent influence, which others would have had if he weren't there. Elvis was what he was and was happy to have people know it - a mother-loving fellow with great pipes, not too bright.
Bowie was magic, quicksilver, one of a kind. Nobody else could have done what he did, moving the entire world from behind a series of masks. Today everyone wants to be as plainly knowable as Elvis, but Bowie wanted you to admire his costume. No surprise a pseudonymous commenter like me would prefer him. Yes, his window was brief, but he changed everything during his time. Petridis of the Guardian put it very nicely in a piece that opens thus:
Bowie was magic, quicksilver, one of a kind. Nobody else could have done what he did, moving the entire world from behind a series of masks. Today everyone wants to be as plainly knowable as Elvis, but Bowie wanted you to admire his costume. No surprise a pseudonymous commenter like me would prefer him. Yes, his window was brief, but he changed everything during his time. Petridis of the Guardian put it very nicely in a piece that opens thus:
It's a cliche when a rock star reaches 65 to mention the time when it didn't look like they'd make pensionable age, but with David Bowie who marks the milestone on Sunday, it's almost unavoidable. Look at a picture of him in the mid-70s, when he was ravaged by cocaine, living off a diet of red peppers and milk and so paranoid that he apparently kept his own urine in a fridge lest persons unknown steal it: this is not a man destined to make old bones.http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan…
7
Elvis is a dirty R&B-thieving-thief but he was the right thief at the right time and his importance to culture is indisputable. If you're gonna pick either him or Bowie on the basis of influential, I think it has to be Elvis. But I like Bowie better. And since it therefore feels sorta like I'm being blackmailed into voting for a Republican, I'ma shun this poll. Shunned!
8
Elvis's reputation is so inflated that it is entirely self-sustaining now- not without reason, perhaps, I'm not commenting on that, but it's still there. I don't care for his music and I resent the implication by so much of society that everybody likes him, and that he featured so prominently in Civilization 4.
Bowie's great, though, so.
Bowie's great, though, so.
10
Elvis was more influential, Bowie was more excellent. WTF is White Lion doing in this poll?
Lets face it, without Elvis, everything that happened after 1957 would have been different. Sure, someone was bound to come along and teach suburban white kids to loosen up, dance, and lose their marbles at a concert, but Elvis was the one who did it. Without Elvis there are probably fewer English kids seeking out American records. Without Elvis, the sexual revolution may have been less of a revolution. Also, with Elvis, we get the first cautionary tale about the hazards of success, the hazards in Elvis' case mainly being an over domineering manager. Lets remember that Elvis did what he did in part by being honestly eclectic, much as Bowie did in the 70's. He did it by being a true mucic lover, just like every other great post-ww2 musician did.
Elvis didn't invent rock n' roll, but he played it like he did.
But I'd much rather listen to Bowie's 70's work than anything Elvis ever did.
Lets face it, without Elvis, everything that happened after 1957 would have been different. Sure, someone was bound to come along and teach suburban white kids to loosen up, dance, and lose their marbles at a concert, but Elvis was the one who did it. Without Elvis there are probably fewer English kids seeking out American records. Without Elvis, the sexual revolution may have been less of a revolution. Also, with Elvis, we get the first cautionary tale about the hazards of success, the hazards in Elvis' case mainly being an over domineering manager. Lets remember that Elvis did what he did in part by being honestly eclectic, much as Bowie did in the 70's. He did it by being a true mucic lover, just like every other great post-ww2 musician did.
Elvis didn't invent rock n' roll, but he played it like he did.
But I'd much rather listen to Bowie's 70's work than anything Elvis ever did.
11
But there are so many other great recording artists that were born on this day it sorta makes this poll ridiculous.
13
I'd argue that Elvis was inevitable, at least in the sense of making more money than the black artists whose work they covered. As a for instance, let's not forget that Pat Boone preceded his success by a year or so, and that Elvis was his opening act.
16
I remember listening to Bowie's Queen Bitch in 1971 or 2 on KISW-FM or some
other Seattle FM station. I was amazed. It is still a wonderful song. It truly transcended
the then current established paradigm of rock music featured on FM radio of the
period. Certainly one of Bowie's best, and was far beyond Elvis.
other Seattle FM station. I was amazed. It is still a wonderful song. It truly transcended
the then current established paradigm of rock music featured on FM radio of the
period. Certainly one of Bowie's best, and was far beyond Elvis.
19
I LUVLUVLUV Bowie, but if not for Elvis, there would have been no Bowie. Considering that it was part of his artistic training, David Jones would probably have been a mime instead. And how sad is that?
Gotta go with Elvis.
Gotta go with Elvis.
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