Elvis is everywhere

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:49 pm

All popular culture is paying homage to EC right now:

1. Napoleon Dynamite movie
2. Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams high in the charts
3. Episode of Blackpool (BBC1, very entertaining, features Dennis Potter style bizarre musical interludes, all mimed to famous songs) opened with Brilliant Mistake the other week.

There's no escaping Elvis at every turn.

Branst · Post by **Branst** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:57 pm

What's Green Day have to do with EC?

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 7:54 pm

going out on a very shaky and creaky limb, I think it bodes well for that grammy thang. but he's walked that fine line between credibility and popularity so long and so well, I'm starting to go all bamboo on this.

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 7:56 pm

Napoleon Dynamite isn't an Elvis reference. Crazy, I know, but the writer/director had no idea.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 9:25 pm

Well, it's an EC coincidence!

One more thing...didn't get to hear it, actually, but today's installment of "The Loh Life", the usually hysterical public radio commentaries by writer/performer Sandra Tsing-Loh was about pop-culture in general and apparently referenced how she was the only the person she knew who DIDN'T love EC's music. (Her loss, but she's pretty darn cool, overall, and was very sweet to me when she signed my copy of her book....which I havent' read yet....maybe that's why!)

Post by **DrSpooky** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 11:34 pm

I had a dream that EC and the Imposters played our basement. Mrs S and I had apparently bought an EC concert for our friends at a charity auction.

As I woke up, all I could think was .. why didn't we have it at our kids' school as a fund raiser! DOH!

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:56 am

Branst wrote:What's Green Day have to do with EC?

Yeah, what gives?

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:32 am

I guess what Otis means is that the title (Boulevard Of Broken Dreams) sounds like a quote from "Brilliant Mistake".

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:24 am

Oh...thanks. One could connect EC with quite a lot then...

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:58 pm

Awww man I missed that Blackpool thing. I saw a bit of it last night (singing Queen) and it looked really good.

John · Post by **John** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 4:31 pm

Likewise, laughingcrow. I have caught bits of this programme and it looked good. Did they actually mime to Brilliant Mistake or was it just a song in the background, Otis?

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:59 pm

They mimed, Ripley in the casino. Not mimed as such, cos you the actors' voices too. It was edited down, the 'boulevard of broken dreams' bit was cut, I think.

Are you guys telling me that Green Day song title ain't a direct quote from Elvis? It must be!

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:45 pm

'fraid that Boulevard of Broken Dreams is not an Elvis original. I know it as a famous pastiche of a more famous painting. This link may work:

http://content.barewalls.com/closeup/c5H264c.jpg

Of course, the phrase may well be older still.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 8:03 pm

wehitandrun wrote:Napoleon Dynamite isn't an Elvis reference. Crazy, I know, but the writer/director had no idea.

In the same way that the melody of George Harrisons "My Sweet Lord" was coincidentally identical to the Chiffon's "She's so Fine".

Coincidental? Probably not.

Plagarism? Probably not (although the legal system thought differently).

Subliminal recall? Probably

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 8:05 pm

Actually, Mr A- the director has already stated that he had no idea E.C. had used it. Somebody on set for the film asked him about it, and that was the first he had ever heard of Elvis using it. We all know that there were many shorts before the film was made, so "Napoleon Dynamite" is not an Elvis reference.

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 8:52 am

'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' is the name of a song from the '30s. Tony Bennett did a version... as did Diana Krall!!

The title was then used for loads of other things, including the parody of Edward Hopper's painting (from the early '40s, I think) The Nighthawks. The phrase has become a shorthand to refer to Hollywood's failures and fallen angels.

THE NIGHTHAWKS

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:50 pm

... and Nighthawks gives us a Tom Waits connection. These things are very circuitous.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:12 pm

The "Napoleon Dynamite" story is that the filmmaker actually met some crazy/homeless-or-whatever type guy who used the name, and he just thought it was "cool." Perhaps the crazy guy was a EC fan (or, more likely, had picked up the album cover for the vinyl version, saw the name, forgot it when he had it recycled, and "sublimininally recalled" it for his own new moniker!)

It actually sort of burns me that "Napoleon Dynamite" guy makes such of point of NOT being an EC fan. Couldn't he at least say something sort of generically complimentary since, in some way, he does owe him the name of his movie!

wehitandrun · Post by **wehitandrun** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 3:27 pm

Hah, I dunno Bobster. I don't think he should compliment Elvis any more than Elvis should compliment him for getting the name out further than Elvis could.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 6:42 pm

It's clear, the statement Waits wanted to make with this photo... that he can take you inside even mundane worlds and make them seem brilliant... you don't have to pursue glamour.