#some manage to make a career of it

[canisalbus]

Abt the ask that’s about how the Boys would be remembered, I feel like there’d be a small group of historians completely obsessed with them.

I spent a lot of time around historians last year for my course and most of them have like. A weird niche Guy that they’re just obsessed with. That’s who they would be!

Yes I've heard of this being a thing, I think it's terribly endearing. You just pick a special little dead guy to fixate on and go through their life with a fine-tooth comb.

[septembersghost]

"(and take a guess at who destroyed the professional affinity they built with him" is this the colonel? jfc I keep hating that man

who else? leiber and stoller initially didn't know who elvis was and had some preconceived judgment in place (which happened to him a lot), but then once they actually met with him, they were impressed and developed a rapport. elvis wanted them to be in the studio when he recorded. they had suggestions and encouragement for him, about songs, about his career, and parker didn't like that, was threatened by the idea of them getting in the middle, or worse, giving him ideas (this would repeat throughout his life, it's not dissimilar to what happened with steve binder). the colonel eventually destroyed the relationship they built by sending leiber and stoller a blank page and calling it a contract as an intentional slight. they told him exactly what they thought of that, and never worked with elvis again.

longer details from here

"Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were like the rap artists of the early '50s, pushing buttons, inviting scorn and testing the limits, as rock roared into being from its roots as blues and rhythm and blues. They were writing music for black artists, when one of their songs, Hound Dog, was heard by a young Elvis Presley. His adaptation turned it into a No. 1 hit and helped aim Leiber and Stoller toward the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

They wrote 20 songs for Elvis until the brash young songwriters had a falling out with Colonel Tom Parker, the Svengali they now remember as a 'bully' and a 'foul, greedy' man who helped destroy Elvis. But the estrangement didn't change their respect for Elvis.

'We feel that Elvis Presley was the high water mark of the 20th Century. He's legend. No, he's myth. He's in that celestial place for mythological figures. At the time, we just thought he was a white kid trying to make it as a singer', says Leiber, the man who supplied the words as lyricist of one of the worlds' best-known songwriting duos.

Leiber and Stoller originally met in 1950, sharing a love of the blues and boogie woogie. They were writing for black artists, their earliest songs recorded by Jimmy Witherspoon, Little Esther, Amos Milburn, Charles Brown, Little Willie Littlefield and, among others, Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton.

It was for Big Mama Thornton that they wrote Hound Dog in 1952. Her version came out in 1953 and was adapted by several groups. Stoller had gone to Europe with royalties from some of those early songs and was on his way home aboard the Andrea Doria when it sank in 1956.

Rescued by a lifeboat, Stoller arrived in New York with Leiber yelling from the dock: 'We've got a smash hit'. 'I said, 'You mean Big Mama Thornton's record?' He said, 'No, some white kid named Elvis Presley'. Elvis had heard Hound Dog in a Vegas Lounge by a group called Freddie Bell and the Bellboys', says Stoller.

Elvis' recording of Hound Dog was released in July of 1956 and bounded up the charts, selling millions of copies. Released the same year as Heartbreak Hotel, it put Elvis on TV and turned him into a phenomenon.

After Elvis' great success with his version of Hound Dog, Paramount Studios and music publishers Hill and Range selected additional Leiber and Stoller songs for Elvis' 1957 film Loving You. It was on April 30, 1957 while working on the movie Jailhouse Rock that Elvis first met Leiber and Stoller. They were skeptical of meeting the newcomer, thinking he was a country bumpkin. However, they were very impressed when upon meeting and talking to Elvis that he was very knowledgeable of R&B music and could discuss its nuances in great detail. They went on to work closely with Elvis on the Jailhouse Rock soundtrack with Stoller appearing in the film playing the piano for Elvis' character. After an incident of pitching songs and movie ideas directly to Elvis and not going through the usual chain of command with Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, they had a falling out with Parker and essentially ended their collaboration with Elvis. Fast-forward to 1960, they did write a couple of songs that were in the running for inclusion in Elvis' first post-army movie, G.I. Blues, but, ultimately they were not used. Although the direct collaboration ended, Elvis did choose several additional Leiber and Stoller tunes to record over the years.

'We were completely unconscious of what it might imply. We were just doing numbers', says Leiber. Stoller says those numbers were unfamiliar to white audiences because he and Leiber had written 'almost exclusively for black performers, so we wrote in a black idiom. People started thinking it was entirely new, but the base we started from was the blues and boogie woogie'.

Stoller says they didn't specifically tailor songs to that early Elvis persona but began by supplying songs they had already written, like Love Me, a ballad they had already recorded. 'Then we were asked to write for a movie, Loving You, with Elvis and Lizabeth Scott'. The next project, Jailhouse Rock, included four songs Leiber and Stoller wrote while held captive in a New York hotel.

They had been living in Los Angeles, and Stoller says they rented a New York hotel suite with a piano in the living area. 'We were given a script for the movie and kind of tossed it in the corner. We were having a ball in New York, going to jazz clubs, cabaret, going to the theater and hanging out. Finally, Jean Aberbach who ran Elvis Presley Music knocked on the door and said, 'Well boys, where are my songs?' I think Jerry said, 'Oh, Jean, you're going to get them'. Jean then pushed a big overstuffed chair in front of the door and said, 'I'm not leaving until I get my songs'.

They wrote four songs in five hours, including Jailhouse Rock, the movie's title song and Treat Me Nice, both major hits.

After that, Elvis 'wanted us in the studio with him whenever we recorded', says Stoller. It was part of Elvis' 'perfectionist' tendencies in the early stages of his career, says Jerry Schilling, a member of Elvis' Memphis Mafia. Leiber says Elvis 'was like an Olympic champion. He could do 40 to 50 takes. I never saw him happier than when he was on a microphone, performing'.

Both songwriters say that studio time was their primary contact with Elvis, who was kept at arm's length from them by Colonel Parker. Stoller says Elvis once asked, 'Mike, could you write me a real pretty ballad?' Over the weekend, they wrote the song Don't for him and handed it to him only to be berated by Parker.

'He was upset that I handed a song directly to Elvis. They didn't want anybody to have direct access to Elvis. It was like Elvis was kept kind of in a glass box and away from contact except for the Memphis Mafia. They were like paid companions'.

Like almost everyone else, they also had little contact with Parker himself. 'The longest I ever spent with him was a dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel around 1956, after Hound Dog', says Stoller.

The breaking point for them came when Leiber was recovering from a bout with pneumonia about two years later, and Parker ordered them to California to write songs for a new movie project. Leiber explained that he had just been released from the hospital and was unable to travel. 'Parker said, 'You'd better get your ass out here'. He then sent a packet with a contract for them to sign. Leiber says he pulled the contract from the packet and found only a dark line across the middle of a blank page for his signature.

'I called and said, 'I think you made a mistake. There's no contract in here'. He said, 'Don't worry about that, boy. Just sign your name, and I'll fill it in later'."

"Jerry Leiber: I called and asked to speak to (Colonel) Tom. He got on the phone and said (Leiber imitates Parker) 'How you doin' boy?' I said, 'I'm OK. I had a real close call there. I had walking pneumonia and I just got out of the hospital.' He said he wanted me to pack right away and catch a plane. I told him I wasn't in any shape to catch a plane because I'd just gotten out of the hospital. He said, 'If they let you out, that means you're all right'. I told him I needed a day or two to get myself together, but he said the schedule was very tight and he needed me to come out right away.

Then he said, 'Did you see the contract yet?' I said, contract?' He said, 'I'm sure it's there by now. It's a contract covering the forthcoming movie and soundtrack album. You better take a look, sign it and send it back. So I hung up, took the contract out of one of the manila envelopes, and saw nothing but a blank page. Nothing was written on it except two lines at the bottom where Mike and I were supposed to sign our names.

I thought they had made a ridiculous blunder. I called Parker's secretary and said, 'There's been a mistake', she said, 'Let me get Tom.' Colonel Parker got on the phone and I told him, 'There's a piece of paper here with two places for signatures, but the contract is missing'. He said, 'There's no mistake - just sign it'. Then he said, 'Don't worry. We'll fill it in later'.

I got off the phone with Parker and immediately called Mike. I told him, 'Breaking up with the Presley outfit is like throwing away a license to print money. After all this work, I really hate to do it, but I am really offended' (When I was on the phone with Parker, I almost told him that I wasn't one of his 'okie dokies'). I told Mike I didn't want to work with this jerk anymore.

I asked Mike, 'How do you feel about this?' Now Mike is a very measured and modest with very good manners. He paused for a moment, and then he said, Jer ....tell him to f**k himself!'

So I called Colonel Parker back and said, 'Tom, I thought about what you told me'. He said, 'Good! What time are you gonna get here?' I said, 'Tom, I spoke to Mike about the contract, and he told me to tell you to go f**k yourself'.

I hung up, and I never spoke to him again."

"Like many others, [Leiber] wondered about Parker's hold on Elvis. 'I think he (Elvis) had a very weak father and didn't get a sense of what a father was like. Parker came along, and his attitude was, 'Do this, do that, and I'll take care of everything'. Parker became his surrogate family'."

"Leiber: Of course, the Colonel wasn't really a colonel. He was Thomas A. Parker, whose former job as a carnival barker defined his personality. He had a definite shtick ('Pick a number from one to ten'). He told dozens of canned jokes. I can't remember any of them except that they weren't funny. But it didn't matter that we didn't laugh, because the Colonel wasn't really conscious of us. Of course, he knew we were the songwriters of 'Hound Dog' and the new songs for Jailhouse Rock. He knew more hit songs for Elvis meant more money for him. Beyond that, though, he was more interested in putting on his own show than getting to know us.

He had his long cigar and his confected Southern accent. He was a nonstop talker whose ego was always on parade. He told us in great detail all he had done for Elvis - and all he intended to do.

'Elvis' he said, 'is going to be bigger than the president, bigger than the pope'.

Naturally we agreed.

Stoller: The Colonel had the kind of energy that sucked all the air out of the room, even the dining room at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I had little interest in the man. Elvis was the guy we were eager to meet.

The session was due to start later that week.

Leiber: My heterosexual credits have long been established, so I can comfortably say that the first thing that hit me when I walked into the recording studio and found myself standing next to Elvis Presley was his physical beauty. Far more than his pictures, his actual presence was riveting.

He had a shy smile and quiet manner that were disarming."

"Stoller: It's important to remember that on the day we met Elvis, he was twenty-two and we were twenty-four. We were contemporaries. Remember, too, that Jerry and I shared the uppity view that he and I were among the few white guys who knew about the blues.

In the first five minutes of conversation with Elvis, we learned we were dead wrong.

Elvis knew the blues. He was a Ray Charles fanatic and even knew that Ray had sung our song 'The Snow Is Falling'. In fact, he knew virtually all of our songs. There wasn't any R&B he didn't know. He could quote from Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, B.B. King, and Big Bill Broonzy.

Leiber: When it came to the blues, Elvis knew his stuff. He may not have been conversant about politics or world history, but his blues knowledge was almost encyclopedic. Mike and I were blown away. In fact, the conversation got so enthusiastic that Mike and Elvis sat down at the piano and started playing four-handed blues. He definitely felt our passion for the real roots material and shared that passion with all his heart.

Just like that, we fell in love with the guy."

"'Whenever I record' he said, 'I want you guys in the studio. You're the guys who make the magic'."

"When Elvis returned (after a studio break), his head was down and his demeanor totally changed.

'I'm really sorry, Mike', he said, 'but you're gonna have to leave. The Colonel came in and he doesn't want anyone here but me and the guys'. 'Okay' I said, not wanting to make any more trouble. And with that, I left. The next day at the shoot I mentioned the incident to one of Elvis' Memphis buddies. 'Don't take it personally, Mike,' he said, 'It's just that the Colonel doesn't want Elvis to develop a friendship with anyone but us'."

[ranger-kellyn]

oh it's over for y'all i did it. i cracked the code. i FINALLY. after all these years of making them my favorite accessory pairing, i FINALLY>>> have an idea for a full airplaneshipping fic where they are the main focus

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[violettierre]

I : majored in english, has a masters degree in it, studying philosophy, and have been an English teacher/Junior translator for almost a decade now.

My grandma : there is our future doctor <3

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

Had insomnia and two nightmares 😞 and my Italian archaeologist trench co-supervisor isn’t here again so I’m calling the shots on my own which is kind of stressful BUT the site director came by my trench and said I “run a tight ship” and that my trench was clean so I’m #winning

[frootbyethefoot]

oh the legion comics are REALLY good actually. holy moly!!!

[rubyreverie]

watched alex's goodbye episode yesterday and i am conflicted

[silly-mode-cilia]

hi I like yelling silly little life updates into the silly little void so here we go

I'm leaving for my internship thing on Monday (slay) and my last three weeks have consisted of 1. Finals (best semester since i started college thank u curves and nice teachers for boosting me), 2. Socializing, 3. Medical appointments (my eyes have gotten worse but I'm good otherwise) and 4. Prepping for my trip

And. This past week. I have had a cold, of all things, which is not good timing because I'm trying to finalize and get stuff done and was not understanding why I couldn't focus AND I was on my period but now it's a bit better I have entered the "expelling fluids" phase where I feel fine but the symptoms persist. Chilling.

So trip prep has included setting up my new laptop because the other broke during finals week, the keyboard started malfunctioning and the repair date was past when I would leave so new laptop ended up being the only option (which is nice) but I have to manually set up all my bookmarks still because I forgot my Firefox sync password and that will take a couple hours probably (last I went through and organized them it took a whole day)

And then excessive amounts of laundry that are still not done, realizing I lack more than 1 field work outfit and having to go to REI too many times to finish the pack list. Although a closet clean out was done and I'm satisfied with where the personal style development is headed I like my clothes.

But that's done so now I just have to. Pack.

And then my travel request for a conference got approved (!!) When it was expected to take until like, July so now I'm trying to finalize and coordinate stuff earlier than expected! But that is welcome that is good.

And I also got accepted to Job B which doesn't actually pay but is very few hours so I'm doing the tutoring and the mentoring both and hopefully not going insane! Might drip volunteering if I need to which reminds me I need to email them! okay!

[badedramay]

I would like your thoughts on something..... everyone is hyping Hamza Sohail to the 7th heaven because of his performance in ft including various portals (which have sidelined sehar completely). I don't want to get into whether or not he's a good performer (I have some thoughts but ya nvm). However, I do think Sehar has a lot of potential but I also noticed that she's not from the same elite background and rest of the ft cast (adnan lol, aena, amna and hamza) so I was wondering whether she will benefit from this show like the others (tvcs, brands, shoots etc) or whether she would get sidelined because of her background? What are her chances of succeeding (ik it's subjective but asking anyway) in this industry in the long term?

okay first off I don't think Sehar Khan is someone one should take "halka". Fairytale might be her breakthrough role on social media but this girl has been part of hit dramas before it. Geo dramas? they have VIEWS. they have an audience that is hooked to them. and it's the audience that actually makes the PH money. Sehar is a known face to THEM. critics and twtawaam didn't watch it people watched Rang Mahal and Farq. she is a 7th Sky Productions ki leading lady. this girl might not be from an elite background (idk i don't know about her background at all) but she has blessings from inarguably the biggest PH of the PakDrama industry right now. so, success? she has that. she has tasted that already. FT gave her the attention of the more "cooler" part of the online fandom which is always the smaller percentage.

what she doesn't have is the right management. where Hamza wins either due to his connections or background or whatever and Sehar loses is that Hamza is being handled by a management that is making the right calls at the right time. I always believe there's a small window of chance that an actor gets after their projects becomes a success where they get to leverage their success to be part of bigger brand deals. i dont think companies are foolish enough to not take on any celeb that's currently having a successful project solely because of what their background is. if the celeb's current image aligns with the company's philosophy or the product, the companies are fine with it. at the end of the day it's all business. jo dikhta woh bikta hai. Hamza's management KNOWS that and is doing that for him. the teaser for his campaign for Republic just released and Republic is a big brand. I doubt he got it solely cuz of his surname. i bet his management made the right calls and warmed up the brand to Hamza which got him that deal. yes of course some form of favoritism might be at play here but all of this cannot be attributed to it.

in very rare cases does a company chase a celeb. it's almost always the other way around. and these things are handled by the management. it's a management's literal job to make sure the celeb they are handling are in the right books of the right companies at the right time. actors don't sit around keeping tabs on which company is looking for what? the management does either on their own or by the actor's specific request. in cases like FT where a pairing becomes a success, it then becomes both the actors' joint efforts and wishes if they want to further cash in on that. just take any brand or magazine photoshoot after a pairing became a success in the past. I am sure that happened because both the parties involved were offered such terms that were acceptable for both their managements so the deal was signed. maybe in Hamza/Sehar case..Sehar's management has different plans for Sehar and Hamza's management has different. it's clear that at least from Hamza's side they are not interested in solely riding on the "Farmeed" wave. they want to establish Hamza as a solo hero and it's shown in the kind of exposure he's getting and the deals he is signing. ab either Sehar's management isn't making enough efforts to get a joint deal that is favorable to both of them or maybe the lack of effort is from Hamza's part..the point I am trying to say is that things behind the scene work a lot more differently than how a normal audience assumes it does.

(some points i couldn't fit in anywhere above)

agar background hi sab kuch hota toh Adnan would be doing Republic, not Hamza.

it took Ahad and Ramsha a year after Hum Tum to do their first tvc together while Sahad had multiple tvcs on air while their projects were onair. the latter had the same management goals while the former didn't.

does anyone remember the Lipton TVC Maya, Hamza, and Aisha had done during peak Mann Mayal success days?? that's using the small window of opportunity at the right time when a project is successful.

i bettttttttt Wahaj is being chased by many more brands but his management is making sure to keeping him aligned with brands that are either of better standard or contribute to his image of being a "hero".

similarly Yumna must also be chased by brands but i think since she has a very strict image that she wants to stick to no matter what..she might have turned down a few deals that she feels won't align with that.

I don't remember Maya having ever done a tvc where she's a mother? you know the baby ka doodh and baby ke diaper type ads. cuz they don't align with the image she likes to maintain.

baat itni hai ke kitna brand aapko kitna paisa deta hai. deal achi honi chaiye phir toh Mahirah bhi washing powder ke ishtehaar mein naachi thi.

Obi's supreme tvc has a very progressive messaging behind it aligning with his own feminist philosophy. so yeah again..image of a celeb aligning with the brand/product's philosophy. a feroze khan wouldn't have fit that tvc let's be real.

haan abhi ke liye yehi bohat hai.

[friendofthecrows]

Popular people these days are all like "yeah I'm a vtuber and I stream on twitch and I'm an artist and a writer and a musician and a game designer and a model and an activist."

Like how do they have time for it all???

What level of time management are these people on because my ADHD ass could NEVER

[snailobituaries]

That’s it. Bard alum are never allowed to play root again unless they graduated >10 years ago or have a note from their doctor saying they don’t have a inferiority complex or a gear fetish

[silas-lehnsherr]

I hate that apparently to be a fan of Liam’s you have to invest in the narrative that he is an innocent little lamb who is being forced against his will to date all these problematic women publicly and play up his party boy/womanizer image. It can’t be that Liam is a deeply troubled person who is/has made choices that are actively harmful to him and not in his best interest. He can’t make mistakes or be wrong or choose to associate himself with these women for any other reason than he was forced to by his manager. And I’m sorry, but I can’t just keep telling myself that. I’m not saying that Liam is a bad person, just that he is a human being who can make mistakes, and as a person who has struggled with mental illness, I can attest that often times you make the choices that are wrong for you because you don’t realize that you deserve better or can strive to be better. I just saw a celebrity my age, who I grew up with as a fan when I was younger, die because of his struggles with substance abuse. He had just gotten out of rehab, just become a father, and now his child will grow up without him. He wasn’t even 40. I don’t want to see something like that happen to Liam. But most of you want to just bury your head in the sand and act like Liam’s drinking and partying and taking up with women who clearly help to contribute to that lifestyle is all a part of some narrative crafted to make Liam look bad. If he says he has a drinking problem you guys say “they made him say that” as if we can’t see that he very clearly has a drinking problem. And I’m not saying that his manager isn’t awful or that he hasn’t faced any kind of pushback or sabotage in his career, but I cannot abide willful blindness. I do not want to open up my phone one day soon to the news that Liam is dead. Call me a fake fan for not buying the whole “he can do nothing wrong” narrative if you want, but I am more concerned for Liam’s mental and physical health than I am for whether or not he’s stuck in a fake relationship.

[mariocki]

Infinite list of favourite lyrics: 217/?

O. V. Wright - Everybody Knows (The River Song) (1965)

"I am so miserable,

I am so tired.

Oh, I just sit on the Mississippi River

And watch the fish swim by.

My life is so confused,

But I don't wanna die;

I wanna go to heaven,

But I'm scared to fly."

[tomwambsmilk]

Do you ever see a take from a professional journalist that’s so bad your eyes roll to the back of your head

[gyudons]

despicable

updates as of 22 oct

Travis Dermott knew that he would draw attention with his actions in the Coyotes’ home opener against the Anaheim Ducks at Mullett Arena on Saturday. The Arizona defenseman just hoped that the spotlight might shine on the issue that he was addressing, not on him.

“You don’t really want to go against rules that are put in place by your employer, but there’s some people who took some positive things from it,” Dermott said. “That’s kind of what I’m looking to impact.

“You want to have everyone feel included and that’s something that I have felt passionate about for a long time in my career. It’s not like I just just jumped on this train. It’s something that I’ve felt has been lacking in the hockey community for a while. I feel like we need supporters of a movement like this; to have everyone feel included and really to beat home the idea that hockey is for everyone.”

“I won’t lie,” said Dermott, who is playing on a one-year, two-way contract. “From the outside, it’s easy to see that I’m putting my career on the line for something. I definitely went through some emotional ups and downs that night, not regretting anything by any means, but I’d love to have maybe done a couple of steps a little different by making sure that everyone was aware of what was going on before I did it.

“I don’t want to put my teammates or my coaches or my GMs or the equipment managers in any kind of bad light when it’s their job to kind of look out for something like this happening. It was definitely something that I did just by myself and was prepared to kind of deal with whatever repercussions the league decides to push towards that. I’m not going to back off and say that this battle is won, but we’re going to find better ways to do it.”

As Dermott noted, LGBTQ+ inclusion is an issue that he has supported for a long time. Without getting into specifics, Dermott said the issue is personal for him because it impacts people close to him.

“I’d be lying if I said I haven’t shed tears about this on multiple occasions,” he said. “So yeah, it’s something I’m definitely very passionate about.

“I’ve met a lot of people that from the outside, it looks like they have everything going right in their life and they have a smile on their face every time they talk to you. But sometimes when we get closer to people and get comfortable enough for them to open up to you, you can see that there’s some pretty dark stuff happening to some good people. It doesn’t take too many times encountering something like that for it to really change someone.

“I’ve been blessed to have some of those opportunities put in front of me to really change my view of what being a good person means; what being a good father and a good example and role model means going forward. You really see how people are hurting and it’s because of a system that maybe no one’s intentionally trying to be malicious about, but until you’ve really had that first-person experience seeing people hurting from it right in front of you, it’s tough to kind of take steps.”

It would be a surprise if the league handed down any sort of punishment. The optics alone would add to the public relations damage that the original ban created. Even so, Dermott reiterated his desire to bring the entire franchise into the fold before he takes similar actions in the future, but he also made it clear that he will not be silenced on the topic.

“It’s not like I’m shutting up and going away,” he said. “I know more questions are going to be coming. We’re just going to be as prepared as we can be to just spread love. That’s the thing. It’s gay pride that we’re talking about, but it could be men’s health. It could be any war. It’s just wanting world peace. Everyone’s got to love each other a little bit more.

“Like my parents said growing up, ‘How awesome would it be to be the guy that people look up to?’ That’s what really hit home when I was a kid, especially from my mom. You want to grow up and be that guy. You want to be the guy that’s having the impact on kids like NHL players had on you. If they had been racist or bigoted, that’s going to have an effect on you.

“With how many eyes are on us, especially with the young kids coming up in the new generation, you want to put as much positive love into their brain as you can. You want them to see that it’s not just being taught or coming from maybe their parents at home. They need to see it in the public eye for it to really make an effect.”