# Was late period Elvis viewed as a tacky joke at the time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 7, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624 "2013-10-07T21:36:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/41 "2013-10-08T18:54:51Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > A small tangent: I’m seeing some very poor pluralization in this thread. The plural of Lady Gaga is Ladies Gaga. Miley Cyruses is acceptable, but the preferred form is Miley Cyri. You are probably right about _Ladies Gaga_, and I apologies for my careless mistake, but I suspect _Miley Cyrus_ is more etymologically akin to [_octopus_](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2139/what-is-the-plural-of-penis) than _fungus_,\* with the more authentic pluralization thus being _Miley Cyrodes._ \*As evidence, I cite that tentacle thing that seems to have started growing from her face area recently, now she is out of her larval phase. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/42 "2013-10-08T20:03:42Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > In his time at Sun, before he made any movies, he was not tacky or a joke at all. He was the real thing: original, fresh, and dangerous. He did, however, go downhill quite quickly, as showbiz people who did not understand what was so special about his original work exploited him, and got him to do things (bad movies and schlocky songs) that had little or nothing to do with his roots or his real talents, just his good looks and his rich vocal tone. Through the '60s he remained a decent pop singer, although not one with anything fresh or original to contribute, but by the later '70s (though his voice was still there) he was much less than that. > > In my opinion, Elvis peaked with his first recording of “That’s Alright Mamma” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky”, and began to go downhill, slowly at first, but with increasing speed, pretty soon after. Stuff like “Hound Dog”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, and “Jailhouse Rock”, made after he signed to a major label and started to absorbed by the showbiz machine and ‘Colonel’ Tom, are still pretty good, but not _as_ good. And it would soon get much worse. But if Elvis had never made another record after “That’s Alright Mamma” he would still be massively important (and nobody would ever dream of thinking of him as tacky). I didn’t even really know about that Elvis until I got older and started getting in to early blues and rockabilly, that’s when I first paid any attention to early Elvis and he absolutely could rock. It’s weird I ended up following his influences to Elvis instead of the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/43 "2013-10-08T20:21:49Z")
Some of us who remembered his early work found his last days tragic, not amusingly tacky. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/44 "2013-10-08T21:28:43Z")
I wonder if some of what propped him up at the end might not have been the church crowd as he had quite a repertoire of gospel songs. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/45 "2013-10-08T22:04:32Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > You are probably right about _Ladies Gaga_, and I apologies for my careless mistake, but I suspect _Miley Cyrus_ is more etymologically akin to [_octopus_](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2139/what-is-the-plural-of-penis) than _fungus_,\* with the more authentic pluralization thus being _Miley Cyrodes._ > > \*As evidence, I cite that tentacle thing that seems to have started growing from her face area recently, now she is out of her larval phase. Hmm, you’ve got a point, but doesn’t Cyrus come from Persian? Maybe it should be Miley Cyrusân. I remember that article you linked. Extrapolating from that, the plural of Elvis is simply Elvises, or Elves if you’re a urologist. (Or an urologist?) ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/46 "2013-10-09T00:12:06Z")
It’s interesting how musicians went to the shows Elvis gave in New York in 1972 and how a struggling musician/taxi cab driver named Paul Stanley was inspired listening patrons rave about the show. Maybe this is too “fan boy” wiki article. > **[As Recorded at Madison Square Garden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Recorded_at_Madison_Square_Garden)** > > Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden is a live album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released in June 1972 by RCA Records. It peaked at No. 11 on the Top 200 US Billboard albums chart on August 26, 1972.\[citation needed\] Recorded at the Madison Square Garden arena in New York City on Saturday June 10, 1972,\[citation needed\] the concert, and the subsequent album, were promoted as being Presley's first live concerts in the Big Apple since the 1950s. > The album was certified Go... Wilt Chamberlain in his 1974 memoir says he is an Elvis fan because he has shown he has staying power. I won’t call myself a huge Elvis fan but imho “tacky joke” is a little too strong. But we also had fewer information about him at the time. I don’t have the 1980 “Rolling Stone Rock Record Guide” anymore but my memory is the ratings for the 1970s material was generally three (out of five) stars…far better than what Black Sabbath or the Osmond family got. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/47 "2013-10-09T01:15:19Z")
I was 23 when he died and I’m another vote for tacky joke, when we thought about him at all. I was less than a month old when he recorded “That’s All Right.” He was from somebody else’s youth and was irrelevant to mine, like the Beach Boys. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/48 "2013-10-09T05:26:12Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Jim’s Son: > Wasn’t “My Ding-A-Ling” a # 1 hit for Chuck Berry in the era we’re describing? > [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Are you suggesting that made him vital and fresh? It was popular because it was a novelty song. The sad thing was that of all the great songs he wrote and recorded, “My Ding-A-Ling” was his only gold record. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/49 "2013-10-09T08:03:50Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I think a good comparison would be Michael Jackson in the latter part of _his_ career. That is to say, not dismissed as a musician and performer by everyone in the world, but at the same time, yeah, an object of ridicule to quite a few people. Probably a decent analogy. When I watched the '68 special, while some portions were kinda cheesy, it seems that if he had been given the right guidance, he would have had the chance to return to some type of relevance and continued his career. If you could have gotten him away from Tom Parker and his entourage and maybe some one off collaborations with some of the younger blues inspired artists of the time. He may have ended up as a Johnny Cash type elder statesman instead of a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/50 "2013-10-09T10:34:50Z")
It’s too bad he died when he did. If he’d have somehow cleaned up and got his ass in shape, I’m sure he would have evolved into something highly respectable by the late eighties. Not necessarily relevant, but respectable, and the jumpsuit era would be looked at as the kind of embarrassing aberration that most artists go through at some point. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624/51 "2013-10-09T14:52:41Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > It’s too bad he died when he did. If he’d have somehow cleaned up and got his ass in shape, I’m sure he would have evolved into something highly respectable by the late eighties. Not necessarily relevant, but respectable, and the jumpsuit era would be looked at as the kind of embarrassing aberration that most artists go through at some point. I’m reminded, a little bit, of one of Presley’s contemporaries, Roy Orbison. Orbison, too, fell out of popular favor after the British Invasion. He kept recording through the 1960s and 1970s (and even made a bad movie), but nothing charted, and he suffered his own health problems, including heart bypass surgery. Oh, and he, too, was wearing [bad](http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/images/2009/05/11/roy_orbison_guitar_bob_mundy470_470x365.jpg) [jumpsuits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roy_Orbison.jpg) in the 1970s. OTOH, he was never as much of a cultural icon as Presley, nor was his decline quite so publicly visible. But, unlike Presley, Orbison survived his health crises, and by the late 1980s, he was working with some of the top talent in rock music (on his solo album _Mystery Girl_, as well as with the Traveling Wilburys), and was back in the top 40. It’s interesting to think about whether he would have been able to continue that resurgence (had he not died suddenly in '88)…it’s also interesting to consider whether Elvis could have pulled off something similar. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-late-period-elvis-viewed-as-a-tacky-joke-at-the-time/670624.md?page=2)