Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

A friend of mine asked me what was so great about That's The Way It Is, and first thing I thought of, Well, there's this one part during "Love Me Tender" where he kisses every woman in the room.....

And there's this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2akVrPYBMA

such a great clip ...

this is all time classic elvis ..

relaxed, swagger-n-curled lip, prime time band clearly loving the groove, the shirts etc.

fucking love this clip ..

Even the sycophancy is amusing. There's one song in the studio where they're all jamming and Elvis' mic there slips to where it's impotently pointing at the floor. He points at it and grins a little, and the whole room goes nuts.

totally.
i chanced upon these clips a year ago and have them favourite'd ..
they just underline all that i love re the man ..
he had so much more talent than the colonel ever allowed him to give.

oh hey looky here amazon prime has 'on tour' streaming free :D

I'm kind of obsessed with late '60s/early '70s Elvis - basically, everything from From Elvis in Memphis on, but especially the trilogy of 1973/74 albums Good Times, Promised Land and Raised On Rock. I have the limited edition 2CD versions of all three, which are jammed with alternate takes, studio rehearsals, etc.

The recent deluxe edition of From Elvis in Memphis is a 2CD set, too, with Back in Memphis (the 1970 album that gathered the rest of the sessions) appended, plus the non-album singles. Totally worth getting. Elvis Country is a 2CD set now, too, and I'm thinking about picking that one up soon.

i have come into a new appreciation of his gospel stuff too.

Mum loved Elvis, but she only mostly had his gospel albums, and one compilation of his movie songs...I used to get so mad that she didn't have any cool Elvis. And it wasn't like she was terribly religious. I think she just really loved his singing voice, and she was right that that's kinda where the key to him is. I really quite enjoy the gospel stuff now, damn it's moving. That gospel interlude in 'On Tour' just made me bawl like baby

Mum used to get *so* mad when we made fat Elvis jokes, or talked about how fucked up he was. She wouldnt hear a word against him, bless her heart lol

the "Good Rockin Tonight" boxset is really good!

C. Grissom and J.D.: I've actually got a decent amount of core Elvis...Sun Sessions, both Worldwide Hits boxes, another four or five albums. I just can't ever think of a time when I was as caught up in Elvis as I was with Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, or Bo Diddley at various points in my life. And I've never quite been able to figure that out. The big early hits are dead for me ("Jailhouse Rock" maybe the one exception), and some, like "All Shook Up," I never much liked in the first place. The operatic stuff like "Now or Never" I really dislike. "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame" is my favourite Elvis song, which tells you something about how out of it I am when it come to him. I like "Kentucky Rain" and the comeback singles. And "Mystery Train." And I love talking to students about his impact. But I haven't put an Elvis album on the turntable in 30 years.

Recorded Live in Memphis, 1974

Kentucky Rain is beautiful. Some days it's my all time favorite

On Tour was great!

How great are JD Summer & that quartet, and the Sweet Inspirations? Damn they are talented, and so perfectly matched for Elvis.

from elvis in memphis is like an all-time top ten record for me, that shit smokes.

you all kind of need this bootleg, although here it is in most of its glory on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IOAOCduoa4

if you're skeptical, scroll to 58:00 and listen.

you also get to hear elvis cuss a lot on this album.

Wow. "Got My Mojo Working" is aces.

When I worked at a used record store about ten years ago, we had a five disc player and usually four employees on staff and Cut Me and I Bleed was almost always the consensus fifth pick. It's funny as hell, but worth repeat listens.

I picked up the Legacy Edition of Elvis in Memphis today. Even though it's my first time hearing the album in full, I was surprised at how much of the material I already knew. Still, hearing it all at once like this, wow. Win for including the mono single mixes at the end of disc two as well.

Slight bummer though: they forgot to put a booklet in the one I bought.

i love how in the cut me & i bleed outtake stuff elvis will slip from these profane asides to singing with utter fluency and conviction in a heartbeat. guy was such a natural.

WHATCHU THINK I AM?

Elvis At Stax 3CD set coming out in August. No word as to what's on it, though.

(I mean, presumably his Stax sessions, but no further details)

Amazon says there's also gonna be a 1-disc version. Kinda interested to know what's on it, but since I already have the 2CD Follow That Dream deluxe editions of Good Times, Raised On Rock and Promised Land (the three albums that include Stax recordings), and they're jammed with bonus tracks, outtakes, etc., I'm pretty sure I have all I need already.

I'm kind of obsessed with late '60s/early '70s Elvis - basically, everything from From Elvis in Memphis on, but especially the trilogy of 1973/74 albums Good Times, Promised Land and Raised On Rock. I have the limited edition 2CD versions of all three, which are jammed with alternate takes, studio rehearsals, etc.

yeah "Only the Strong Survive" is FUCKING AMAZING. Btw in my copy "I'll Hold You in My Heart" has a great false start and I've always wondered if that was on the original album when it was released or not.

Recently I found a book in a thrift store called "The Most Incredible Elvis Presley Story Ever Told", which is really quite batshit insane. Basically it is a take on Elvis faking his own death, as told by a woman who wrote a book of fiction about a singer called Orion who faked his own death, and the bizarre circumstances surrounding the release and suppression of her book at the same time as the release of an Elvis sound-alike named Orion:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Orioningold_photo_by_Shelby_Singleton.used_with_permission.JPG/220px-Orioningold_photo_by_Shelby_Singleton.used_with_permission.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_%22Orion%22_Ellis

It's pretty darn entertaining, if more focused on the conspiracy to suppress her book than prying apart facts surrounding Elvis's death. The greatest parts are when she slips in anonymous anecdotes about people running into Elvis randomly and the 'lost tape' transcribed at the very end of the book that more or less amounts to Elvis telling his fans he's doing OK (just chillin' in Hawaii, dating again, jamming on tunes now and then, etc) and she makes a very strong effort to insert "uh"s often enough to make it seem like something he would say. It's pretty entertaining. Apparently she wrote the Orion book using some kind of New Agey automatic writing techniques or something.

whoa can anyone hit me up with Cut Me & I Bleed?

I think I remember that book and if my recollection is correct, they actually sold the tape with the book!

here it is

http://cdn2.sulitstatic.com/images/2010/1025/080615990_dscn6924.jpg

http://tiptopwebsite.com/photos4/lindahoodsigmoncom/GailsbookonEbay.jpg

http://www.basedefotos.com/files/images/2011/11/fotos-de-elvis-5.jpg

i saw elvis in the freehold raceway mall standing in front of macy's. he just looks like a normal seventysomething but the sideburns were the giveaway.

Yeah that's the lady. This is probably my favorite passage, pretty much representative of the book:

Another gentleman said he actually ran into Elvis in Atlanta. "I can't believe what I'm seeing?" he said he told Elvis. "I don't believe it!"

He said Elvis adjusted his sunglasses and smiled sheepishly, then said, "Man, you ain't seen me, O.K.?"

Every minute of every hour you'll be shaken by the strange and mighty power

I remember that book. I think I even bought a copy from a Woolworth's at the time, but lost it or threw it away. Never listened to the tape.

oh man. forgot about the 900 number too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_s_CXh3YPQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um57FvM220U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtGb0lQovZU

i think i might buy a blu-ray and flat-screen TV just for "elvis on tour"

also, from orion's wiki page:

Ellis first album appearance for Sun was as an unidentified singer singing duet with Jerry Lee Lewis on ten tracks of the 1978 album Duets (Sun 1011).

i have that album and it is great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyXk1iZffGM

So the more I listen to Elvis lately, the more curious I get about his early/mid 60's work. Has there ever been a good compilation that attempts to to sum up those years and does so in a respectable way?

I saw this thing (and a similar-looking one on Pickwick) this past weekend at my local used record store, but I would like to get a semi-informed recommendation before I jump in.

Does the Pickwick one have a version of "Cycle Annie"?

I don't remember. It looked a little cheesy honestly — like only eight songs total on the album.

This box (From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential '60s Masters) appears to be what you're looking for. (I don't have it.) Note that it stays away from movie music - that stuff is on its own two-disc compilation.

I have a playlist of all his '60s singles, soundtrack or not, and after repeated listening here's what I would say... It seems that 1963 to 1967 is the deadly period, but there are highlights. "Devil in Disguise" and "Bossa Nova Baby" were from '63 and you might like "Viva Las Vegas" and "Ain't That Loving You Baby" from '64.

He had a big hit in '65 with "Crying in the Chapel" but that was a five-year old recording.

The rest of the pre-'67 singles are not that interesting (to me), whether they're retreads of earlier, better hits ("Kiss Me Quick," for example) or cheesy movie songs or leftover ballads.

Things get more interesting at the beginning of '67 with "Indescribably Blue." But for that song and the whole 1966-1968 period there is this great handy CD - Tomorrow Is a Long Time that collects the stuff he recorded in Nashville (not in Hollywood) during that period.

the 60s box is so so so fantastic; the best part for me was discovering those tranked out mid 60s cuts like "Beyond the Reef", the Jordanaires like some Greek chorus you're hearing from 1000000 miles under the sea

10,000 years ago! Great description of an incredible track.

i do think of the three big box sets release in the early 90s the 1960s one was the least impressive, not that it doesn't have a lot of good stuff on it. the 50s one is about as amazing as you'd expect and the 70s box is a revelation.

That "Beyond the Reef" is pretty good though. Like another helping of Roy Orbison's "Leah."

Well, I went ahead and ordered Elvis is Back last night and I'll look into the Tomorrow is a Long Time set (which looks awesome, by the way).

Just want to put a word in for This is Elvis, the '81 documentary. A bit hard to find. Good soundtrack though. My moms played it all the time when I was a kid.

http://www.johnnyharrathelegend.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/This-Is-Elvis-LP.jpg

personal fave on this album is "His Latest Flame" which is just so groovy

I can also highly recommend Peter Guralnick's two volume Elvis bio

yes, guralnick + marcus's 'mystery train' and 'dead elvis' are pretty much the definitive writings on elvis.

i need to read those guralnick books