TCBCast 426: Lawdy Miss CLAUDE-y: EPE's Anthropic Suit & Why AI Still Can't Get Elvis Right (feat. John Michael Heath)

Authentic Brands, the company who owns the largest chunk of the Elvis business, recently filed a lawsuit against AI company Anthropic alleging infringement on the rights of songwriters whose material was recorded by Elvis and represented by his publishing companies. 

In light of this, Justin asked John Heath to join him for the first major update on Elvis & the wider world of AI that we've tackled since 2023, recapping Tennessee's Elvis-themed legislative changes protecting artists' voices, looking at how both generative and transformative AI applications have progressed as increasingly more "Elvis slop" has piled up online, with fake photos, videos and songs proliferating. 

Has AI gotten better at capturing or re-creating Elvis? The guys take a listen to a few examples of recent AI Elvis songs and discuss where the technology has improved, where it falls short... and how its failures reveal so much more about the innate sensibilities and style that inform what makes an authentic, original Elvis performance tick. 

For our Songs of the Week, Justin leads off with Elvis' partial 1975 live performance of Hank Williams' iconic "Jambalaya" and the history of the Cajun song, while John brings us home with a thorough exploration of the shared admiration and rivalry between Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, whose smash hit cover of Big Maybelle's "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" paved the way for Elvis' revisit of the song both on "Elvis Country" and during memorable live shows like "Aloha from Hawaii." 

If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.