Sonny West, Red West, Billy Smith, Marty Lacker & Lamar Fike...
One of the coolest bunch ever in rock history, along with the King himself
and his musicians.

Thoughts?

[www.blacksheep.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-03-24 02:59 by Baboon Bro.

Is there an angel maffia on the highway to hell to heaven?Baboon or am I surounded by false whore s.

Southern legends. Friends and relatives of the King. They have hurt their legacy by writing books, etc. about their time with Elvis. Wish they would have asked me to hang with them! We coulda partied!

=====Wish they would have asked me to hang with them! We coulda partied! =====

Woulda been nice to score a Cadillac for a gift as well....as well as any left over groupies that Elvis spun off. Man he had it all.

#......Go ahead....Bite the Big Apple....Don't mind the Maggots.....Uh Huh...#

Baboon Bro! I visited Memphis last year, to see the Stones. The day before the concert we stopped to visit Graceland. Very surreal. The visit rekindled my interest in Elvis. Recently read two great books on him:
1)Last Train to Memphis
2)Careless Love
both by Peter Guralnick.
Two of the better books out there. I strongly recommend them. By the way, I will get what we talked about in the mail next week.

Baboon Bro Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sonny West, Red West, Billy Smith, Marty Lacker
> & Lamar Fike...
> One of the coolest bunch ever in rock history,
> along with the King himself
> and his musicians.
>
> Thoughts?
>

Disagree. If Elvis wasnt surrounded by so many "yes men" who were content to go along for the ride instead of saving him from himself, he'd still be around today.

And The Wests are scumbags.

kienan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Baboon Bro! I visited Memphis last year, to see
> the Stones. The day before the concert we stopped
> to visit Graceland. Very surreal. The visit
> rekindled my interest in Elvis. Recently read two
> great books on him:
> 1)Last Train to Memphis
> 2)Careless Love
> both by Peter Guralnick.
> Two of the better books out there. I strongly
> recommend them. By the way, I will get what we
> talked about in the mail next week.


Not only the best books on Elvis, but two of the greatest books on rock n roll ever written.

correct Gazza,
these leeches helped him to an early grave

====If Elvis wasnt surrounded by so many "yes men" who were content to go along for the ride instead of saving him from himself, he'd still be around today.=====

No debate here either....however Elvis had a personal responsibility to himself not to burn himself out on drugs and food. I don't blame the yes-men who only facilitated his demise, they didn't cause it. Elvis was ultimately responsible for it. He was a good guy who died far too young from his own excess.

#......Go ahead....Bite the Big Apple....Don't mind the Maggots.....Uh Huh...#

Check out Elvis Aaron Presley by Alana Nash if you can find it (it came out in '95 and is currently out of print). It's a huge biography told through anectodes from Marty Lacker, Billy Smith, and Lamar Fike. It's fascinating, brutally honest, and really, really funny.

Definitely not a hack job like Elvis, What Happened?

So Elvis was an innocent Saint with no responsibility for himself
& the Mafia were nuthin' but the bad guys. Must have
got it all wrong.
Maybe its more complicated; or maybe I read too many books from the Mafia's
point of view.

gut Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ====If Elvis wasnt surrounded by so many "yes men"
> who were content to go along for the ride instead
> of saving him from himself, he'd still be around
> today.=====
>
> No debate here either....however Elvis had a
> personal responsibility to himself not to burn
> himself out on drugs and food. I don't blame the
> yes-men who only facilitated his demise, they
> didn't cause it. Elvis was ultimately responsible
> for it. He was a good guy who died far too young
> from his own excess.
>
>

they didnt 'cause it' directly but they were employed for many years to look after the man's welbeing, something which by not advising him properly and being content to enjoy the party regardless of the consequences, they eventually failed to do.

Easy to say from our perspective leading the lives we do that the guy should have looked after himself better. We werent in that goldfish bowl removed from the real world, and unlike nowadays where there are help groups for rich addicts regardless of what their craving is, he didnt have that luxury. Had he become successful 10 or 20 years later, he'd probably have gone and got himself cleaned up by now and would still be performing. Unfortunately being the first world superstar of the rock n roll era, there was nobody else who had come before him who could be used as the template for how not to deal with fame and money.

Baboon Bro Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So Elvis was an innocent Saint with no
> responsibility for himself
> & the Mafia were nuthin' but the bad guys.
> Must have
> got it all wrong.
> Maybe its more complicated; or maybe I read too
> many books from the Mafia's
> point of view.


Not as black and white as that. Some of them had a very genuine affection for him - guys like Charlie Hodge and Joe Esposito still have a lot of respect amonst fans - others showed their true colours as soon as they left his employ by muck-raking and cashing in on him.

Elvis' drug dependency was never public knowledge until "Elvis - What Happened" (a National Enquirer style hack job with the Wests) was published. According to them, they did it "just to set the record straight and in the hope that he'd see what was people he regarded as family betraying him like that. He died within 3 weeks of the book being published. Draw your own conclusions.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-03-24 19:01 by Gazza.

======Elvis' drug dependency was never public knowledge until "Elvis - What Happened" (a National Enquirer style hack job with the Wests) was published. According to them, they did it "just to set the record straight and in the hope that he'd see what was people he regarded as family betraying him like that. He died within 3 weeks of the book being published. Draw your own conclusions. =====

No doubt the book and betrayel did play a large part in depressing him and his demise. I think he could have survived if his family would have had him committed to a rehab....but they were probably powerless to "make" him do anything. Self-destructive people with too much power are beyond help most of the time.

#......Go ahead....Bite the Big Apple....Don't mind the Maggots.....Uh Huh...#

Dont seem he got much support from ool' Daddy Vernon, did he?
On the contrary... You're right in many senses, Gary, on that
drug thing... Still the parent generation of ours cant comprehend
the man was far out and lost from the early 60s.

I also see biblical dimension in this; the Leader and his adepts.
I've seen it at very close distance with rock musicians reachin'
the Stairs of Success. It's a Cross to bear, almost a Stigma.

I like Elvis Baboon.Mystery Train.

Pic from [www.epgold.com]
That big dude should be Lamar Fike.


Pic from [www.kki.pl] (Home: [www.kki.pl]) ...Some real cool pix there.
At the original pic spot there is a description of the folks at the photo.

The guy with the white hair beside Elvis on the bottom pic is the infamous Dr Nick, who prescribed him all those little white pills! the also infamous Red West is on the other side

I think that pic is when they were all made Shelby County sheriff's deputies or somethin'

Speaking of . . . Charlie Hodge croaked a couple of weeks ago.

RIP, Scarfman.

He did?? Never knew that. Too bad

Gazza Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The guy with the white hair beside Elvis on the
> bottom pic is the infamous Dr Nick, who prescribed
> him all those little white pills! the also
> infamous Red West is on the other side
>

Do you ever watch the Simpsons? They have a quack doctor character named Dr. Nick. I wonder if that's where they got the idea.