Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

The point about Sam Phillips is probably true, but I see no reason to think your first point is. If it wasn't Elvis it woulda been -- who?? Jerry Lee? He's great but he seriously doesn't have more than a fraction of Elvis' talent, let alone his ability to connect with such a broad swath of the population. That's the thing about Elvis: He really was unique. There's NO ONE else who could have done what he did in the mid-fifties.

Wuh-huh I don' know whether tuh thank ya or hate ya Geir!

I find EP, even at his best, almost always lacking in some kind of telling detail/nuance/aesthetic distance, blah blah, that for me is necessary--his music just seems one-dimensional to me. Occas. it does not, but only seldom. There's something great about him but his "art" seems smug, involuted, airless...his presence is something else entirely, and he did have a good voice...I dunno, it just doesn't move me, I want to get real gone for a change but EP don't do it, not like the greatest man to ever record for Sun, Howlin' Wolf.

interview snippet ("Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I can't help it.")
That's All Right
Mystery Train
Heartbreak Hotel
Blue Suede Shoes
Blue Moon
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
Hound Dog
Don't Be Cruel
Love Me Tender
All Shook Up
Teddy Bear
Jailhouse Rock
Love Me
It's Now Or Never
Are You Lonesome Tonight
His Latest Flame
Can't Help Falling In Love
Return To Sender
Devil In Disguise
Viva Las Vegas
Guitar Man
In The Ghetto
Suspicious Minds
interview snippet (Elvis leaves for Germany "I am going away...")

(this one's only about 60 minutes long so I've got about 20 extra minutes for more stuff. Anybody want to finish it for me? Also, try to place any contributions chronologically)

"Help Me Make It Through The Night" - token C&W choice

Spencer, does this mean that you don't own an original copy of The Memphis Record??????

In "Return to Sender" when he says "I took it to the mailbox, I sent it 'Special D'" it's so great, you just want to hang out with him all day and get him to teach you all the other slang he knows.

So, so true.

When you left you know you told me
That some day you'd be returnin'
In a fancy car, all the town to see, oh yea,
Well now everyone is watching you
You finally had your dream, yea
You're ridin' in a long black limousine

You know the papers told of how you lost your life, oh yea
The party, the party and the fatal crash that night
Well the race along the highway, oh the curve you didn't see
When you're riding in that long black limousine

Through tear filled eyes I watch as you pass by oh yea
A chauffeur, a chauffeur at the wheel dressed up so fine
Well I never, I never, never, never
Oh my heart, all my dreams yea, they're with you
In that long black limousine

Yea, yea, they're with you in that long black limousine
Yea, yea, they're with you in that long black limousine

----

great call Matos. it's like "Will the Bitterness Be Unbroken," basically

Should I go for the 50s, 60s, and 70s box sets? Or is there another tack I should take? (Amst highly recommended at least the 70s set.) Also, what about the live recordings box sets? What is recommended in that area? (I am partial to the Las Vegas concerts.)

What is a good Elvis gospel compilation? Or should I just let this be taken care of by the box sets?

Finally, what are your favorite LPs? 50,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong looks enticing.

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.