Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

The spoken intro to PSA is part or what makes it so great, although I heard a faster version without it this weekend that was cool. It even had a bass solo, perhaps to compensate for missing intro.

Looking forward to that future date when Hurting finally gets into Elvis.

I've been trying for like 15 years on and off. I can't exactly pinpoint what misses about him for me. I could say his singing is a bit too hammy, but I love Roy Orbison who is way hammier. I don't really hear all the "vulnerability" that Guralnick keeps talking about though.

The spoken intro to PSA is part or what makes it so great,

he flubs this a lot. "some of y'all might have been down s--, i mean might never been--, I mean might never have been down south.... down there we have a po-- i mean we have a weed that gr-- we have... (grunts a few times)"

B-b-but don't all of those flubbed versions have a compensatory electric bass solo or something similar?

Those all should've been compiled into Having A Compensatory Bass Solo On Stage With Elvis.

Ha.

One of the things that Conan mentions in that Jibber Jabbar is that artists like Elvis who lived into the 80s and 90s got redeemed and to work with great producers again.

I can't even imagine an Elvis via Rick Rubin type album.

I can.

"Uh pardon me I'm only blee-din'
Cause-a you cut me to the bone
Like a hyooo-man cannon BALLLLL'

Like the Arthur Crudup "That's Alright Mama" is so assured and easy, whereas the Elvis version sounds a little bit manic and confused.

This is 100% OTM, but to me that's exactly what makes the Elvis version awesome. He sounds a teenager trying on an adult persona that doesn't really fit him; you can hear his anxiety but also his hilarity.

Crudup sounds like he is talking to a particular woman about problems he and she know all about. Elvis sounds too young to know anything or to be addressing any actual woman, unless maybe it's his mother, Gladys; that ambiguity makes the song even more confused, twisted, and funny.

otm. You might as well complain, as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller did, that Elvis's version of "Hound Dog" didn't make sense.

PBS is showing Aloha From Hawaii as a pledge special tonight--had forgotten he already was doing "My Way" that early ('72-3).

One of the things that Conan mentions in that Jibber Jabbar is that artists like Elvis who lived into the 80s and 90s got redeemed and to work with great producers again.

pretty sure in the 80s he'd have gotten to work with Jeff Lynne not Rick Rubin

but his 70s stuff doesn't need any hipster retooling

They did a doc on his Gospel stuff afterwards. This clip (from Elvis: On Tour) is rather chilling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzjP-hXrzpo

^^^ love that so much

One of the things that Conan mentions in that Jibber Jabbar is that artists like Elvis who lived into the 80s and 90s got redeemed and to work with great producers again.

pretty sure in the 80s he'd have gotten to work with Jeff Lynne not Rick Rubin

aw man, he'd be showing up on records with bruce springsteen and garth brooks and jay-z and madonna and arcade fire and brad paisley and maybe in a quentin tarantino movie or two. maybe he'd have done the "look who's talking" movies too.

damn there are some amazing youtubes on this thread.

Damn, I dug out my dad's clean vinyl copy of the '74 Sun Sessions reissue and...well, DAMN.

https://vine.co/v/ePmzxKzKnLK

Polk Salad Annie... A Gator's got your granny...

That's it.

RIP Scotty Moore, by proximity alone one of the most important guitarists of the 20th Century:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA5HErVE9oI

That right there really is the end of an era at last.

He was only about 3 years older than Presley. I always had the sense that Scotty and Bill were a decade older. Bill was, but both of them were raised in a pre-rock 'n' roll world, so it makes sense that they'd read a generation older when standing next to the first of the new breed.

RIP Scotty, those Sun singles made a lot of people pick up guitars for the first time

RIP Scotty. They don't come much more god-like in the annals of rock and roll than that. Here was the man who played guitar on "Mystery Train." Jesus. I'm glad we had him around all these years.

RIP!
i read that sam philips bio last month, and it is crazy the amount of sheer happenstance/good luck went into those Presley Sun sessions. just change one tiny element and it wouldn't have worked.

It's crazy how they found that feel. "Mystery Train" ain't hard to learn to play, but it's nigh on impossible to do it justice.

i have said this a bunch of times elsewhere but I love the joy on Elvis's face in the 68 Comeback Special - he loves being back with the guys again. grinning & wooping, throwing to Scotty for the killer solos

Yup. I love the part in the Comeback Special where Elvis tells some story about how Old Scotty almost never said anything and then one day leaned over and said "Can you play that 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy'?"
Or something to that effect.

Haven't seen in twenty years, memory may have shapeshifter a little over that time.

Ha, found it on Vimeo. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2sn6ss

Kind of gives an idea of when Elvis might have died had he not been so tortured.

I love the joy on Elvis's face in the 68 Comeback Special - he loves being back with the guys again. grinning & wooping, throwing to Scotty for the killer solos

I saw excerpt about the '68 Special from some Elvis book that revealed that his leather suit had to be dry cleaned quickly between the two 'sit down' shows. According to one of the cleaners, they inspected it for any problem areas before cleaning, and found semen in the crotch...so yeah, The King was really happy to be back with the old gang.

sounds apocryphal

can I be excused to listen to Marie's the Name?

Please

Love the switch between the two bass parts (acoustic and twangy electric) on that one.

What was the story about "You're So Square (Baby, I Don't Care" again? That Bill was comfortable playing the electric bass so Elvis finally just grabbed it and played the intro, I believe.

Dude couldn't play shit. C F G Am at the most

Bill?

Big E

r.i.p. scotty, the elvis sun sessions are one of those things that will just sound awesome forever

RIP!
i read that sam philips bio last month, and it is crazy the amount of sheer happenstance/good luck went into those Presley Sun sessions. just change one tiny element and it wouldn't have worked.

― tylerw, Wednesday, June 29, 2016 3:41 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I just finished the Guralnick Elvis bios not too long ago. Even his first meeting with Scotty and Bill... I knew how it would end, but still worried he was going to blow it.

I just love that imagery of Elvis, Scotty, Bill, and Sam Phillips crammed into one car, with Bill's bass strapped to the roof, and driving from show to show all over the South.
Now they're all gone. RIP

Really in a "Moody Blue" mood lately. great song

Is the 70s masters box set worth seeking out and digging into?

Really in a "Moody Blue" mood lately. great song

Is the 70s masters box set worth seeking out and digging into?

100%

The FTD Jungle Room sessions is great late Elvis.

The at stax set is excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB74JaVoWLA

20/20 The Elvis Cover-Up (1979)

Excited to find this documentary. This is referenced a lot in an Elvis conspiracy book "The Most Incredible Elvis Presley Story Ever Told" by G.B. Giorgio.

Anything new in that special ? I like the vintage feel but the content is pretty well-trodden at this point

Just echoing above: the '70s masters box is fantastic, and so is the recent Elvis at Stax 3CD set.

Is the 70s masters box set worth seeking out and digging into?

YES. it is my favorite of the three box sets. it's addicting. i spent one week listening to nothing else and i regret nothing.