Quote:
Originally posted by Abe Lenstra:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Originally posted by Bliss Seeker:
Elvis Impersonators are brilliant you fools!
Some of them are clichéd and rubbish, yes. But there's some out there that do their research and spend hours upon hours rehearsing. Watching them is the closest we'll ever come to see the King himself.
It's not perfect, but it's all we have.
|
but WHY?
I'm a huge fan of Humphry Bogart. I think, despite movies are things that get affected by time and changes in taste, Bogart preformances remain the ultimate cool.
I'm not going around dressed in trenchcoat 'bogying' ciggarettes saying "Here's looking at you kid".
Just like i, at age 36, don't dress up as a cowboy and play cowboy's 'n indians.
It's embarassing. sure, every selfrespecting artist wants to do his own thing instead of desperately trying to copy somebody or something else?
I have seen tribute shows on Elvis and there was this American guy (
prolly well known in C&W-circles; i never heard of him) who did his take on Stuck on You which was utterly brilliant.
Elvis' version is a doo-wop style pop tune but this was something different. You can always prefer version A over Version B but at least he gave it his own interpertation.
I think it has a distinct sadness to it if you desperately want to re-create something that you cannot recreate. Elvis had something in his stage presence that stuck with him throuout his career and you can try and copy his moves, his looks or even his voice but without that certain charisma Elvis had it remains a dead, liveless parody of the Man himself.
imo obviously.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
yea, i doubt any of his impersonators seriously hold any ambitions of actually surpassing or equalling his stage presence, or ability to perform.
they're just paying tribute to someone they greatly admired, respected and loved. There's nothing wrong with that.
There's obviously a market for it, there's millions of people out there who's only experience of Elvis has been through videos and recordings. If they get to see a well rehearsed stage performance, then so be it. It's the closest they'll ever get to the real thing.
Like i said, nothing wrong with Elvis Impersonators in general.
ohh and your Bogart thing - I very much doubt that most Elvis Impersonators go round saying 'ah-hu' and 'thank you very much' after every sentance when they're not on stage.
Linear Mode
