Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

Not sure about the box sets since I've never had any of them, but one great sleeper album you might try is Tomorrow Is a Long Time, which is 18 tracks from 1966-68, most of which is terrific. As I said upthread, the title cut vies for best Dylan covers ever--reeeeal slow and bluesy, just devastating, pure torch.

I'm obviously not talking about his early breakthrough and image; of course he's by far the ultimate rock and roll star, but even then, in the more limited context of Memphis/the South, he's still a reference for other music and a super-fan.

One Elvis song no one talks about much is "How Can You Lose What You Never Had," which is on the double CD I have of "Speedway" and "Clambake" (it also contains his very generic but nicely retrospective and self-referential--he's his own super-fan here) "Guitar Man," which is really referential to Jerry Reed, and that's odd, shows how willing EP was to reference anything that caught his ear.

Anyway, check out "How Can You Lose What You Never Had," which is nicely Band-esque. I'm surprised this reissue of his two best movies left off the incredible "Who Needs Money" from "Clambake" in which he sings a duet with a guy who looks a lot like Jerry Reed while riding a motorcycle thru Florida.

Classic.

but this might be total bullshit

i think eddie's post about elvis's soundtracks is pretty right-on, but i take exception when he says that elvis's is "a rather generic rock and roll sensibility with few real marks of actual personality or musical detail." i think the five sun singles are overflowing with both, though maybe that's due as much to scotty moore and bill black and sam phillips as it is to elvis. it's amazing how well those performances hold up; even the lesser stuff, like "just because," bubbles with genuine spirit compared to some of the more self-conscious stuff he was doing even a year later.

would someone please tell me where i might find a recording of the above quote?

I bought a 3CD Elvis set yesterday. Delightful: the first CD is early Sun stuff, Scotty Moore solos and all that - with an explosive live 'Money Honey' that feels like rock&roll is being invented on the spot - the second starts with 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Blue Suede Shoes' and 'Hound Dog', late 50s classics I suppose; the 3rd takes it through to more shlocky material including 'True Love'. It's treasurable. I could listen to Elvis all day, or for a lot longer than I could listen to most people.

There's a great collection available on eMusic, "Elvis Presley Portrait". I've never seen it anywhere else. The sound quality is a bit patchy, and I'm not sure of the exact copyright status, but it's a well-chosen overview of Sun sides and the early RCA hits.

Three underrated albums that would make a really good 2CD set: Raised On Rock, Good Times and Promised Land. All recorded in 1973, some tracks in the Stax studios with the Stax band and some elsewhere with other musicians. The story is, the Stax musicians were so intimidated to work with Elvis that he had to leave the building while they laid the tracks down, and then he'd come in and do vocals, rather than do the interacting-with-the-band thing seen in Elvis: That's The Way It Is. But there are 30 tracks (10 per album), and some real killers among 'em: "I Got A Feelin' In My Body," "Talk About The Good Times," "Promised Land," "If You Talk In Your Sleep," "You Asked Me To," "Raised On Rock," "Find Out What's Happening," "If You Don't Come Back," "Just A Little Bit," "Three Corn Patches"...the best are on the level of the 1969 Memphis sessions, but with more funk and a slightly harder country edge. I'm telling you, if you don't hear these records, you will never get the full picture of Elvis's awesomeness.

Little Milton's Stax cover of "If You Talk in Your Sleep" is a great one.

Elvis' studio recordings from the 70s are totally deep blues; shit can knock you over, particularly Elvis Country and the companion Essential Elvis vol. 4. I have no idea how these are rated, but they're incredible.

Today has been the day to dig out the vinyl 33 that is ELVIS' CHRISTMAS ALBUM and set it whirling.

I remain a little troubled by the lack of an S on the end of the first word, though maybe ELVIS'S would look and feel worse.

He kicks off with 'Blue Christmas'!

As for the mid-1950s material again - I still cannot believe the raw power of the live 'Money Honey'. No wonder people were shocked, scared, excited and all the rest of it.

Hang up your pretty stockings
And turn off the light
Santa Claus is comin' down your chimney tonight!

does anyone actually listen to Elvis Presley's music? All I ever hear about is his cultural influence and his persona. I'm very curious to see if I would actually like his music.

if you like great early rock'n'roll vocals and/or rockabilly at all you ought to try Elvis at Sun. it's been reissued a million times, but the 2004 issue is one i can vouch for, sonically speaking. imo he's one of the greatest rock/pop vocalists ever and could cover so much ground. on the other side of the Elvis spectrum is Amazing Grace, a sublime collection of gospel performances. From what i've heard of his 1968 comeback, he was still inspired and at the top of his game.

The production on Blue moon is so amazing. Are there more songs that are this minimalistic in his catalogue ?

elvis is back!, his first post-army album and the last thing he did before he got dragged into soundtrack hell, is one of the best things he ever did. uneven, but full of great, sneery stuff like "make me know it" and his cover of "fever," and the closing track, "reconsider baby," is right up there with the sun sides.

But often, when I actually go and play the stuff rather than just think about it abstractly, it surprises me. It turns out to be more exciting than I imagined, or there are great songs I'd forgotten about; etc. I mean: the reality of Elvis might, possibly, be more (rather than less) interesting than the idea.

― the pinefox, Monday, 30 April 2001 01:00 (8 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^ I think this idea of Elvis being "more impressive in reality than as an abstract idea" is interesting, certainly when most artists and groups seem to be the opposite - impressive as an abstract idea but a total disappointment in reality. Even when Presley was overweight and drugged up, there was still enough of his greatness to keep people interested. An LP like "Having Fun With Elvis On Stage", which on the surface is such a cynical cash-in rip off that even the most money grabbing of acts wouldn't have released it, actually becomes an insightful view of Presley's situation and even emotionally moving. No matter how bad Elvis got, there was always a sense that he was giving the audience something extra compared to other singers, giving people a piece of himself in a way. Which I suppose is one reason why people still care about Presley 30+ years after his death.

More people should listen to his 1970s albums, particularly Raised on Rock, Good Times and Promised Land. They're amazing collections of country, soul and rock 'n' roll songs that show a real artistic maturity. Elvis was terrible in the '60s, but starting with From Elvis in Memphis, he came back really fucking hard, in the studio at least (and some of the live albums are great, too).

. . Elvis being "more impressive in reality than as an abstract idea"

Absolutely. Coming across his music by chance, I'm often shocked by just how intense and unhinged it is.

I want to second what unperson said here: Raised on Rock is really great, in particular. You may know the title song since it was a single, and it's excellent. But for me the real knockout is "For Ol' Times Sake": a deep and tender vocal (and heartbreaking since we know how it all ends up), but the playing is great too, esp. the organ which plays up the high lonesome of the lyric.

Elvis was terrible in the '60s, but starting with From Elvis in Memphis, he came back really fucking hard, in the studio at least (and some of the live albums are great, too).

RCA has just reissued From Elvis In Memphis. It now includes a second disc that contains just about all the tracks recorded at Moman's studio in 68/69. So awesome. This stuff rocks hard.

Very cool. Looks like there's a lot that was not included on the bizarrely out-of-print "Memphis Record" album

It sure does. My intention in reviving this was to talk about the '68 comeback special cd Tiger Man, which is so urgent (even without the visuals): by the end of "Tryin' To Get To You", Elvis is screaming hoarsely, but while it's not clear that he's actually enunciating words by that time, he's making his point about longing more articulately than he was at the start of the song. This performance burns my ears it's so intense and so horny.

But then after reading unperson's post I've spent the rest of my work day with 70s Elvis on, which seems quite inappropriate for mid-summer. This is September music, trying to make deeper the sounds of his past and while failing at that (because the voice fails, because the time has come for the blues), ends up with the spook of Lefty, Hank Snow, George Jones, trying to rebuild amongst the wreckage. It's absolutely gorgeous.

The production on Blue moon is so amazing. Are there more songs that are this minimalistic in his catalogue ?

After hearing Dylan's version on Self Portrait the other day, I dug this out and was shocked by how weird and electronic it was. Not listening to the Sun stuff often, I lazily tend to remember it as sounding very live-in-the-studio, but this seems to have been beamed down to tape from the moon. Needless to say, Dylan did not fare well in the comparison.

He sounds like Morrissey on that one.

classic for having the gall to tell his backup singers that their breath smelled like catfish.

We have David Lightbourne's account of seeing Elvis's first concert in Chicago (1957) in the <a href="http://newvulgate.blogspot.com/2009/09/issue-10-september-9-2009.html";target="_blank">New Vulgate</a>.

Let's try it again: the New Vulgate.

But often, when I actually go and play the stuff rather than just think about it abstractly, it surprises me. It turns out to be more exciting than I imagined, or there are great songs I'd forgotten about; etc. I mean: the reality of Elvis might, possibly, be more (rather than less) interesting than the idea.

most definitely. i have to admit i barely get the 'king' stuff, my frames of reference and i daresay those of any random person of my generation is too scrambled for his specific 'star' to come through very coherently other than as a collection of milestones (and i wouldnt say that about many artists, even earlier ones); anyone with appreciation for great songstylism (?) can't help but be smacked in the face with the material however. and most interestingly it comes through more with the balladry, for me at least

The actual 68 comeback special comes across as Elvis hosting Laugh In. The acoustic sit down sessions are fab, though.

As the year ends I'm on another big Elvis kick. It looks like Follow That Dream, the deluxe reissue label, is putting out two-CD remastered versions of his '70s albums...Raised On Rock is already out, Good Times was supposed to come out in November but isn't listed on the ShopElvis website (the only place these discs are available AFAIK) and there's no word on a deluxe Promised Land. But as soon as they're all available I'm grabbing all three for sure.

Any idea how long FTD cds stay available at ShopElvis.com? I can't buy these at present but the Raised on Rock they're selling looks absolutely fantastic.

oh, my grandma says she remembers being blown away by an elvis cover of ave maria, anyone know where i can find it?

Would get Having Fun With Elvis On Stage deluxe box

Interesting bit of info about how a famous photo of Elvis was taken: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-elvis-photos8-2010jan08,0,5003931.story

Watching Elvis: That's The Way It Is on TCM. The version of "Suspicious Minds" in this movie is just crushing, plus the rehearsal footage of Elvis whipping the band into shape is killer.

the "suspicious minds" studio recording is a lesson in the art of ear candy, the way the strings, horns, and backup vocals trade off

There is a great story about how when the American Studio musicians first heard the playback of "Suspicious Minds" they got "that slimy feeling" because they knew it was something special and it was going to be a big hit.

No, I am mistaken. That was "In The Ghetto." When I heard the tune I really just felt slimy all over.