Elvis or Buddy Holly?

[rurallib]

Poll question: Elvis or Buddy Holly?

[SacredCow]

1. I have to go with Buddy....

:thumbsup:

[edbermac]

2. Elvis a great singer, Holly a great musician.

Elvis pissed his talent away, Buddy had it taken away from him way too soon.

Sun Records Elvis was a killer, Las Vegas Fat Elvis was a tragic joke.

[gmoney]

8. Well, Col. Tom pissed Elvis' talent away...

Squeezed the golden goose for all he was worth, sticking him in all those shitty movies, and only having him record songs written by songwriters who could be persuaded to sign over most of the royalties in hopes of boosting their careers.

[Dr Fate]

16. One of the lone hold outs was Jerry Reed.

Who wrote "Guitar Man" for The King, among others.

Reed refused to cave in and would not sign over the rights, but Elvis wanted to do the song so badly that an exception was made.

That's Reed himself playing acoustic guitar on the track, BTW.

[MrSlayer]

3. At least Holly wrote his own material.

Crappy material for the most part but still it was his own. Little Richard owns the both of them.

[Dr Fate]

14. The King arranged most of his records.

If you listen to people who were there, they all say that he should have gotten production credits on a majoirty of his records- he often showed the session musicians what he wanted them to play.

Contrary to myth, The King could play guitar, bass, piano and even the drums.

That's gotta count for something.

The King is a great "stylist" in my opinion...

Holly's material "crappy"? LOL!- to each his own. I'm glad The Beatles didn't think that when they copped his style (and Richard's)

[MrSlayer]

19. I guess for the 50's he was somewhat "rockin".

But I find much of his stuff to be cringe inducing. It's just so weak and non threatening. Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis scared people.

[Dr Fate]

20. We agree that Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis are the bomb. n/t

n/t

[melman]

4. Elvis

Buddy wrote some great songs but Elvis made better records.

[cloudbase]

5. Buddy Holly

Best thing to come out of Lubbock. Ever.

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - Butch Hancock

[Moondog]

6. Hmmmm.

Holly was a superior composer, but he wasn't much of a performer. And his career was really, really brief.

Elvis wasn't a composer, so the only ground upon which you can compare the two was as performers. And as a performer, Elvis wasn't known as "The King" for nothing.

Ergo, as a performer, Elvis. Not even close.

But as a composer, Holly. And again, not even close.

[merh]

7. Since Holly acknowledged that without Elvis, the music he made

would not have had a chance and since Holly changed his style after seeing Elvis perform in Lubbock and since Holly opened for Elvis, I'd bet that even Holly would vote Elvis.

“Without Elvis, none of us would have made it." ~ Buddy Holly

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/without_elvis_none_of_us_could_have_made_it/15430.html

[OmahaBlueDog]

9. Cannot freaking stand Buddy Holly

:nuke:

[madinmaryland]

10. And to think some people like Rush more than those two.

madinmaryland shakes his head in disbelief.

[Mike 03]

11. Buddy Holly, because he not only sang the songs; he wrote them.

I don't get it. My dad is from that generation that makes no distinction between a "singer" and a "songwriter/singer."

I make a huge distinction between the two. To me, a person who writes his/her own songs is a true artist.

[Dr Fate]

13. Then again...

...back then you could have a great performer who did not write, or a great writer who did not perform. When they got together- you get nearly all those great Rock & Roll songs/performances from 1955-1966 or so.

As far as "legit" Rock & Roll goes now-a-days, if you cant do both, then you will not get a record deal.

While The Beatles & Bob Dylan set the high standard of being able to do both, I have to wonder how many great talents we have missed out on as a result.

Somewhere out there is a killer singer & guitar player who cant write, and a great song writer who has stage fright- and we will never know about either of them...

[Jetboy]

17. I agree with you Dr Fate.

I love that stuff from 55-66 like Lieber and Stoller writing for the Coasters for example. I really don't care who wrote a song, just give me a good song.

IMO Elvis was better than Buddy until E went into the army. After the army, Elvis was a joke of a rock-n-roller, but that does not take away from the fact that he was a complete bad-ass in 1956.

[Dr Fate]

21. I even like a lot of his post Army material. He had literally hundreds of solid, post-Army tracks.

The slow ballad stuff from the early to mid 60's with Hank Garland is sublime, and his "Back to Memphis" comeback era is very funky & soulful. There are even a few fantastic Vegas era moments...

"Little Sister", "I Gotta Know", "I Love My Baby (and My Baby Loves Me", "Down in the Alley", "Guitar Man", "Power of My Love", "Wearing That Loved on Look", "Polk Salad Annie", "Burning Love", "Patch it Up"- just a few post Army tracks that measure up, in my humble opinion.

Then again, I guess I'm just one of those "Elvis people." LOL! I would probably even argue that the movies are good.

[Dr Fate]

12. The King has more records, and displayed more artistic range. Buddy Holly is killer too...

...but I have to go with The King.

Who knows what Buddy Holly may have done had he lived- but as it is, we only have about 60-70 songs, max.

The King wins for me, based on volume & range of material.

[Va Lefty]

15. I vote Buddy, but it's close

[Vidar]

18. I'll go with the King, though Buddy Holly was also great. I'm 53.