Grab a beer or grab your pack of cigarettes because their is a lot to take in here. TCM usually sticks to reviewing facial hair in all it’s glorious permutations and while that is a small factor in this we couldn’t help but show you the whole damn thing. We present to you a chart of rock and roll hair styles since it’s birth in the 1950′s till now.
Please note that Captain Polish’s looks strikingly similar to a mix of Prince and Bjork.
Big thanks to N. Schwartz for sending this to the Captains.
For my birthday I decided I would pay tribute to the King by driving 20 hours from New York down to Graceland in Memphis. Being a Northerner and only visiting the South a handful of times it was easy for me to forget their undying passion for religion and their boy, Jesus Christ. Here is a small sampling of what was encountered on the road.
Elvis Presley would have turned 75 today.
Presley was called the king for a reason. As a shy youth, he transformed popular music and played a vital role in creating rock and roll. His early music was hip, sexy, cutting edge and electrifying. He tore up the billboard charts with almost every song he put out regardless if it was rockabilly, torch songs, rock and roll, country, ballads, gospel, black, white it didn’t matter. There was no distinction.
For me, his best music was some of his earliest, from 1954-1958. Everything recorded before he was drafted. The music that came when he returned home in the 1960′s and 70′s were just missing something. If you follow his early records you can hear his voice mature as he becomes more confident and self assured until he is style is a mix of cockiness and sheer exuberance.
Recommended Listening:
It’s hard to pick one song to sum up how I feel about Elvis. But the song, “Big Hunk O’ Love” from 1958 (not to be confused with “Burning Love”) does it for me.
Dig the Piano:
TCM would also like to commend Elvis for his incalculable sexual appetite comparable only to Wilt Chamberlain
Long Live The King!
It’s a known fact, women love Christmas music. It’s also another known fact that most Christmas music sucks..hard STD infected cock. Christmas music wasn’t always bad though, but the last 40 years of it would make you think different. Here is a small list of albums you can listen to with your girl this Christmas and not have to hate every second of your life.
3. A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector (1963)
He may have killed a chick and even pistol whipped Leonard Cohen, but damn can that guy make records. (I even liked what he did to the Beatles “Let It Be” album). If you like 1950′s/60′s girl groups with high octane over the top production, you won’t be disappointed.
2. Elvis Presley – Elvis’ Christmas Album (1957)
Recorded at the peak of his early career, it doesn’t get much better than the King singing Christmas classics with other Rock and Roll Christmas songs written specfically for him (“Blue Christmas”, “Santa Claus Is Back In Town”, “Santa Bring My Back To Me”). You also get a whole side of gospel songs. Jesus (and you) will love this album.
1. Frank Sinatra – A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra (1957)
Ol’ Blue eyes loved Christmas more than little kids love Santa. He’s got one of the best voices of all time to pull it off and this album absolutely shines. Fans of the cocky, drunk, smug Sinatra with power punch brass section may be a little let down. These songs are mostly, slomen, reflective, and spiritual takes on Christmas standards like “The First Noel”, “Silent Night”, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”. To me this is the essence and sound of Christmas. NOT Faith Hill and that other bull shit they try to pass off now a days.
