Thursday, September 27, 1990
Entertainment
Led Zeppelin, reggae style
Dread Zeppelins covers aren't exactly faithful
(CPS)- "I was actually
created by aliens, and I was
patterned and modeled after the
most popular person to ever
walk the earth, who of course is
Elvis Presley. And I look like
him, and sound like him, and
everything, and a lot of people
mistake me for him, but I'm
actually not."
Are these the words of a
National Inquirer interviewee?
The real subject of those Elvis
sightings at the Burger King in
Kalamazoo?
Nope. Meet Tortelvis, the
Elvis impersonator who sings
for Dread
Zeppelin, arguably the
strangest new group of the
season.
The group's repertoire
consists almost entirely of
reggae covers of Led Zeppelin
songs, which are now collected
on Un-led-Ed, its newly released
album from IRS Records.
The record already has
climbed to 23rd on the album
charts in the Aug. 31 edition of
CMJ New Music Report, a trade
magazine that tracks the college
music scene.
The music is as eccentric as
Tortelvis, who just a few
months ago was claiming to be
the actual legitimate son of the
king himself.
Then again he might have
come from outer space.
"I'm really vague about the
aliens themselves," Tortelvis
admits. "All I know is that as a
child, for the first couple years
of my life, I believe I orbited
the earth in Skylab or
something and I fell down into
Daddy Telvis's backyard in
California. He's the one who
raised me from a small child,
and the way he figured out that I
was modeled after Elvis Presley
was, of course, by my beautiful
singing voice."
As for where he got the idea
for the reggae/Zeppelin thing,
"It was actually Elvis Presley's
idea. He came to me in 1977.
He just told me simply, *Do Led
Zeppelin songs reggae style, the
way they were supposed to be
done.'"
But then there were
rumblings from nonbelieving
lawyers from Graceland. "Well,
boy we've had quite a bit of
problems with (the son-of-Elvis
story)," the singer recalls.
"We've had Bad PR people and
rumors getting around, but
actually not true, that whole
thing. Oh yeah, I guess rumors
have gotten around that I'm the
illegitimate or legitimate son of
Elvis, but it's not really true."
"They changed the story on
their own," says David
Millman, an IRS publicist, of
the band's recent disavowal of
the Elvis story. "They would
A different "Stairway": Fronted by an Elvis
impersonator, Dread Zeppelin reinterprets Led
Zep classics through reggae music.
get bored doing the same show
all the time."
Just to be safe from legal
claims that the band was
trespassing on any Graceland
copyrights, the record company
issued a video press kit along
with a letter from company
President Miles Copeland
letting everyone know that the
band was kidding. IRS's mock
tabloid bio of the band carefully
avoids all Presley references.
"Writers press me for details
all the time," says Millman.
"What are their real names?
Where are they really from? But
I always say the less that's real
about this band, the better."
So, in the interest of fact-free
journalism, here's that man with
the beautiful singing voice, on
how the band started.
While making his appointed
rounds as a milkman, "I ran into
the back of a Ford Pinto. In case
you're wondering, it didn't blow
up or anything, but out popped
about five reggae musicians, and
I pretty much hired them on the
spot, and we've been doing it
pretty much since then. That
was about two years ago."
Thus, destiny was served.
"Yeah, it was just pure luck.
Yeah, that was one of the things
that was just fulfilling the
whole. The whole thing made
sense to me, you know?
Everything kind of fell
together."
The lucky guys in the Pinto
were rhythm guitarist Jah Paul
Jo, bass player But Mon,
percussionist Ed Zeppelin, lead
guitarist Carl Jah - who
The Collegian
Tortelvis calls "one of the top
500,000 guitar players ever to
live in the Richmond Virginia
area" - and drummer Fresh
Cheese, "the former light
heavyweight champion of the
world."
Although he wasn't in the
ill-fated Pinto, no Dread
Zeppelin show is complete
without the sixth Dread, Charlie
Hodge, whose sole function is
to bring Tortelvis water and
towels on stage.
"He pretty much makes the
show happen," says Tortelvis.
"If I sweat, he wipes me down.
If I'm thirsty, he gives me
water. If I'm hungry, he’ll give
me a jelly doughnut, or a peanut
butter and banana sandwich."
Like any man of destiny,
Tortelvis is sure of his future.
"I've got only 13 more years to
live," he states. "I'm 29 years
old now, and I probably will be
dying at the age of 42, just as
Elvis did, and Elvis's mother
did. So I've pretty much got to
do everything I want to do
within the next few years."
Dread Zeppelin's whole
National Inquirer-inspired gestalt
may be silly, but if you hear the
music, you won't be able to
dismiss them as pure novelty.
Sure, the whole concept of an
Elvis impersonator fronting a
band doing covers of Zeppelin
tunes is wholly preposterous,
but their version of "Whole
LoUa Love” cooks like nobody's
business. No matter what
Tortelvis's real name and life
story are, he really does possess
a beautiful singing voice.
Feldman faces new
drug charges
The Collegian
Teen actor Corey Feldman faces new drug charges after
police found heroin while booking him for traffic warrants.
Feldman ( Stand By Me), was released early Friday on $5,000
bail. The charges stem from an incident March 9 when police
stopped Feldman's car and found 25 balloons, each containing
cocaine or heroin.
• Charges have been dropped against Bobby Brown, who
was arrested after a confrontation with police in an Atlanta
restaurant. Brown intervened in a scuffle between his brother and
a local police officer.
• Mickey Rourke and Carre Otis have privately settled
the lawsuits they brought against Vision International for selling
nude photos of the couple to Playboy. Rourke and Otis claimed
the company's release of the photo stills, taken from the film
Wild Orchid, was unauthorized and detrimental to their careers.
• Whitney Houston denies rumors that she is gay in the
Oct. issues of Life and Fame. Stories had spread that the singer's
relationship with executive assistant Robyn Crawford
extended beyond friendship. Houston said she "has no desire for a
woman," and noted her latest beau "is very much a man." Glad
she noticed.
• New material will highlight the forthcoming Byrds
retrospective, including live "lost" tracks originally recorded for
the 1968 LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo. The four-disc set will also
include a 1970 cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman"
which includes Jackson Browne on piano.
• Rumors that Michael Jackson was recording a duet with
Bart Simpson are not true, according to Simpsons producer
James L. Brooks. Jackson was interested in the track, titled
"Do the Bart, Man," but he did not have time to work on the
single. The track will now be recorded by Bryan Loren.
• Director Michael Moore has signed a $lO million deal to
CPS photo
Liner Notes
make an investigative film about presidential son Neil Bush
and the defunct Silverado S&L. Moore's debut Film, Roger &
Me, documented his attempts to interview Roger Smith, the
elusive head of GM.
* Poison drummer Rikki Rockett recently branched into
the fashion industry with the debut of his "Rock and Roll Slut
Wear” clothing line. The clothes are described as "tribal and
primitive, with a strong dose of cut-and paste." Sounds to me
like Rockett has finally found something he is worse at than
drumming.
• Elektra Records celebrates its 40th anniversary with a
double album of current label stars covering past Elektra classics.
Cuts from the compilation include a rendition of the Doors’
"Hello, I Love You,” performed by the Cure, and a Faster
Pussycat remake of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain."
• Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses,
probably won't inspire any death warrants with his newest book.
The new book, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, is a children's
fairy tale. Haroun and the Sea will be available in the United
States next year.
• Just when I thought bootleg Bart Simpson merchandise
was reaching nightmarish levels, I read about the multiple New
Kids comic books that recently hit the newstands. It doesn't get
much worse than that
• Director Spike Lee hasn't received a warm welcome since
beginning work on his next film, Jungle Fever, in the
Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. Additional police were posted
after the windows of a florist shop used in the film were smashed
and the shop-owner received several threats.
• Don Henley, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons and
U2's Adam Clayton have contributed to the forthcoming Taj
Mahal release, which is being recorded in Philadelphia and Los
Angeles.
• Former Creedence Clearwater Revival guitarist Tom
Fogerty, 48, died Sept. 6, of a respiratory failure caused by
tuberculosis.
Robb Frederick
Todd and Robb turn 20
You ain't seen nothin'yet
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