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"plaintext": "The image above is AI-generated. Yes, I understand the irony of using synthetic imagery on this topic."
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"plaintext": "Baz Luhrmann’s recent “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” catches a moment most people haven’t seen from the “King of Rock and Roll”: a flub. "
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"plaintext": "Built from long‑thought-lost 16mm and 35mm reels found in underground studio vaults and restored over years, the footage seen in this film was digitized, cleaned, and synced to multitrack recordings so that Elvis’s rehearsals, backstage moments, and full‑tilt performances flow together as one continuous, large‑format concert experience (Luhrmann promotes the fact that AI was not used in reconstructions of Presley’s image or voice). "
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"plaintext": "The premiere performance in 1972 of “Burning Love,” shows a moment in which the band messed up the ending. Elvis called it out, both in the performance and in later footage offstage. "
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"plaintext": "I suspect that nobody really noticed but them. Elvis and the band kept moving, continuing on, and the crowd didn’t care. They were enthralled in the performance. They were in love with The King. "
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"plaintext": "The power of human performance"
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"plaintext": "Elvis did not write many of the songs that made him famous. His first single, “That’s All Right,” was written and originally performed by blues singer Arthur Crudup. ”Hound Dog,” written by hit songwriters Lieber and Stoller, and originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton), became a massive hit for Presley. "
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"plaintext": "In the years portrayed in the film, Elvis covered dozens of songs from other artists ranging from The Beatles to The Righteous Brothers. “Polk Salad Annie,” a hit for the great Tony Joe White, became a staple of Elvis’s shows, which is portrayed in the film. "
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"plaintext": "Those songs stand on their own, but when Elvis performed them, they became his. You’d never confuse his rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” for Simon and Garfunkel. When Elvis did “Polk Salad Annie,” it became an Elvis song, no matter how cool the original was. "
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"plaintext": "Elvis had something — and that something came through no matter what he was singing – a “performance filter” on top of the creation. That’s the interpretation, the arrangement, and the way you make something your own by lending it your authentic voice or style. "
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"plaintext": "Exploring the performance filter"
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"plaintext": "The performance filter is what happens when raw material passes through your taste, experience, and voice. For example, some musicians have a style or tone so distinctly theirs that you’d recognize it instantly through a cheap amp, a tin can, anything. You hear about it a lot with some of the most legendary rock musicians: Jeff Beck had it. Keith Moon had it. Duane Allman had it. Brian May (still living) has it. Within a few seconds, you recognize exactly who’s playing. "
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"plaintext": "Pictured above: a visual look at the Performance Filter (AI-generated image)"
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"plaintext": "The performance filter: how you take something that exists, filter it through the things that make you, you, to make it your own. "
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"plaintext": "Elvis had it too, except he wasn’t just a musician, he was a performer. The voice, the movement, the presence, the way he commanded a room – you couldn’t separate any of it from what made him Elvis. "
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"plaintext": "He never hid his influences. He wasn’t afraid to tell people where his music came from. In the documentary, he talks about it directly. As a kid, he listened to everything: gospel, blues, country & western, opera, and ethnic music from many cultures. "
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"plaintext": "Radio helped. The “music discovery app of the day”, listeners, mostly at night, could pick up AM radio programs and music from all over. That stretched Elvis’ sphere of influence from the blues, country, and gospel of his region of Mississippi. "
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"plaintext": "He was never shy about the fact that he was interpreting those influences, pulling from that deep well and making something that was unmistakably his own. Elvis had a rare ability to synthesize and revitalize American music styles. That synthesis was what built Elvis’s performance filter. "
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"plaintext": "That was the foundation that made everything he did, whether he originated it or covered it, his own. "
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"plaintext": "Technology + human skill"
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"plaintext": "Something about watching Elvis on the big screen, restored and remastered, made him feel present for me in a way that has never happened when looking at old footage. It made it real. "
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"plaintext": "To see him backstage talking to Sammy Davis Jr. in Las Vegas, interacting with his musicians, or meeting a little girl who broke down in tears when she saw him. To see all the time he kissed young women on the mouth in fully restored and vivid high definition (ok, didn’t actually love that part). "
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"plaintext": "Discomfort aside, it was the same feeling I got watching Peter Jackson’s restored Beatles footage from the “Let It Be” sessions. It was a similar feeling I got to seeing David Bowie’s final Ziggy Stardust performance on the big screen. "
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"plaintext": "Modern restoration technology brought those moments to life. In “EPiC,” Luhrmann brought Elvis Presley back to life in a way I’d never really considered — both highlighting Presley’s performance filter by creating a work of art made by painstakingly restoring and editing old footage and presenting it through Luhrmann’s own performance filter. "
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"plaintext": "We’ve all got a filter"
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"plaintext": "Elvis may have been The King, but Elvis was also a person, just like us. The struggles he had and the manner in which he passed away, just a few years after the performances shown in this film, were unquestionably human. Possibly too human."
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"plaintext": "There are glimpses of his humanity in the documentary where he’s laughing and joking with his band, handling that on stage mistake, or being kind to a little girl that’s thrilled to meet him. "
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"plaintext": "We all have a performance filter in us to. Great storytellers – people who know how to convey information in a way that’s compelling and engaging – exist across every medium. Musicians, writers, visual artists, dancers, software developers, content creators. Some humans are just simply good at taking something that already exists and making it theirs. "
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"plaintext": "Interpreting existing art and making it your own is a tradition that goes back as far as art existed. I think that’s how we grow. How we move forward. "
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"plaintext": "Is your filter working?"
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"plaintext": "One way to know that you’ve got a functional filter is that it’s easy to tell when that filter is missing. Not that I’m comparing LinkedIn content to the music of Elvis Presley, but just try scrolling through LinkedIn right now. You’ll find post after post of AI-generated content, and when you don’t find that, you’ll find people talking about how all the content on LinkedIn is AI. It’s like that snake eating its own tail thing. Everything is the same (and the algorithm keeps dishing up more of it)."
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"plaintext": "This isn’t meant to take a stance for or against AI. I use it daily for many, many things. But I suspect that the problem is not really that AI is used in content, but because people aren’t passing AI-generated information through their own human performance filters. They’re not providing any real point of view, or anything unique. They’re not conveying their own authentic voice. "
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"plaintext": "That’s always noticeable, even when AI isn’t. The performance filter is where the humanity lives. It’s irreplaceable. It’s why it all matters, no matter how technology evolves."
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"description": "In this age of synthetic art and content, how do we make things our own?",
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"textContent": "The image above is AI-generated. Yes, I understand the irony of using synthetic imagery on this topic.\nBaz Luhrmann’s recent “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” catches a moment most people haven’t seen from the “King of Rock and Roll”: a flub. \nBuilt from long‑thought-lost 16mm and 35mm reels found in underground studio vaults and restored over years, the footage seen in this film was digitized, cleaned, and synced to multitrack recordings so that Elvis’s rehearsals, backstage moments, and full‑tilt performances flow together as one continuous, large‑format concert experience (Luhrmann promotes the fact that AI was not used in reconstructions of Presley’s image or voice). \nThe premiere performance in 1972 of “Burning Love,” shows a moment in which the band messed up the ending. Elvis called it out, both in the performance and in later footage offstage. \nI suspect that nobody really noticed but them. Elvis and the band kept moving, continuing on, and the crowd didn’t care. They were enthralled in the performance. They were in love with The King. \nThe power of human performance\nElvis did not write many of the songs that made him famous. His first single, “That’s All Right,” was written and originally performed by blues singer Arthur Crudup. ”Hound Dog,” written by hit songwriters Lieber and Stoller, and originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton), became a massive hit for Presley. \nIn the years portrayed in the film, Elvis covered dozens of songs from other artists ranging from The Beatles to The Righteous Brothers. “Polk Salad Annie,” a hit for the great Tony Joe White, became a staple of Elvis’s shows, which is portrayed in the film. \nThose songs stand on their own, but when Elvis performed them, they became his. You’d never confuse his rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” for Simon and Garfunkel. When Elvis did “Polk Salad Annie,” it became an Elvis song, no matter how cool the original was. \nElvis had something — and that something came through no matter what he was singing – a “performance filter” on top of the creation. That’s the interpretation, the arrangement, and the way you make something your own by lending it your authentic voice or style. \nExploring the performance filter\nThe performance filter is what happens when raw material passes through your taste, experience, and voice. For example, some musicians have a style or tone so distinctly theirs that you’d recognize it instantly through a cheap amp, a tin can, anything. You hear about it a lot with some of the most legendary rock musicians: Jeff Beck had it. Keith Moon had it. Duane Allman had it. Brian May (still living) has it. Within a few seconds, you recognize exactly who’s playing. \nPictured above: a visual look at the Performance Filter (AI-generated image)\nThe performance filter: how you take something that exists, filter it through the things that make you, you, to make it your own. \nElvis had it too, except he wasn’t just a musician, he was a performer. The voice, the movement, the presence, the way he commanded a room – you couldn’t separate any of it from what made him Elvis. \nHe never hid his influences. He wasn’t afraid to tell people where his music came from. In the documentary, he talks about it directly. As a kid, he listened to everything: gospel, blues, country & western, opera, and ethnic music from many cultures. \nRadio helped. The “music discovery app of the day”, listeners, mostly at night, could pick up AM radio programs and music from all over. That stretched Elvis’ sphere of influence from the blues, country, and gospel of his region of Mississippi. \nHe was never shy about the fact that he was interpreting those influences, pulling from that deep well and making something that was unmistakably his own. Elvis had a rare ability to synthesize and revitalize American music styles. That synthesis was what built Elvis’s performance filter. \nThat was the foundation that made everything he did, whether he originated it or covered it, his own. \nTechnology + human skill\nSomething about watching Elvis on the big screen, restored and remastered, made him feel present for me in a way that has never happened when looking at old footage. It made it real. \nTo see him backstage talking to Sammy Davis Jr. in Las Vegas, interacting with his musicians, or meeting a little girl who broke down in tears when she saw him. To see all the time he kissed young women on the mouth in fully restored and vivid high definition (ok, didn’t actually love that part). \nDiscomfort aside, it was the same feeling I got watching Peter Jackson’s restored Beatles footage from the “Let It Be” sessions. It was a similar feeling I got to seeing David Bowie’s final Ziggy Stardust performance on the big screen. \nModern restoration technology brought those moments to life. In “EPiC,” Luhrmann brought Elvis Presley back to life in a way I’d never really considered — both highlighting Presley’s performance filter by creating a work of art made by painstakingly restoring and editing old footage and presenting it through Luhrmann’s own performance filter. \nWe’ve all got a filter\nElvis may have been The King, but Elvis was also a person, just like us. The struggles he had and the manner in which he passed away, just a few years after the performances shown in this film, were unquestionably human. Possibly too human.\nThere are glimpses of his humanity in the documentary where he’s laughing and joking with his band, handling that on stage mistake, or being kind to a little girl that’s thrilled to meet him. \nWe all have a performance filter in us to. Great storytellers – people who know how to convey information in a way that’s compelling and engaging – exist across every medium. Musicians, writers, visual artists, dancers, software developers, content creators. Some humans are just simply good at taking something that already exists and making it theirs. \nInterpreting existing art and making it your own is a tradition that goes back as far as art existed. I think that’s how we grow. How we move forward. \nPictured above: Elvis Presley on stage. \nIs your filter working?\nOne way to know that you’ve got a functional filter is that it’s easy to tell when that filter is missing. Not that I’m comparing LinkedIn content to the music of Elvis Presley, but just try scrolling through LinkedIn right now. You’ll find post after post of AI-generated content, and when you don’t find that, you’ll find people talking about how all the content on LinkedIn is AI. It’s like that snake eating its own tail thing. Everything is the same (and the algorithm keeps dishing up more of it).\nThis isn’t meant to take a stance for or against AI. I use it daily for many, many things. But I suspect that the problem is not really that AI is used in content, but because people aren’t passing AI-generated information through their own human performance filters. They’re not providing any real point of view, or anything unique. They’re not conveying their own authentic voice. \nThat’s always noticeable, even when AI isn’t. The performance filter is where the humanity lives. It’s irreplaceable. It’s why it all matters, no matter how technology evolves.",
"title": "Elvis and our human performance filter"
}