Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

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.

'70s box set also the only way to hear "elvis country" without the interludes afaict

'70s box set also the only way to hear "elvis country" without the interludes afaict

Some of the tracks yes but not all from the album. Plus the versions on the box set are not necessarily the album masters. However the box is one of the few places where you can hear the interlude song in full (I was born 10000 years ago)

I'd not heard the 1968 semen anecdote before. What's the source? (of the anecdote not the semen obv)

'I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago' also available on the Legacy Edition of Elvis Country.

It's also on the 90s reissue as a bonus track

Re: The Semen story--It was in some Elvis bio that got reviewed in Blender in the early/mid-00s. They ran an excerpt w/the anecdote alongside a still from the special wherein Elvis has this very goofy look on his face and a caption speculating that perhaps that moment was when it happened.

Oh man...."An Evening Prayer" from He Touched Me, take 3

Back-up singer proposes way to sing the closing "Amen...."

Elvis: Good Idea. Now get your ass back in the room.
Back-up singer 2: It's easier just to do it the other way.
Back-up singer 3: It's easier to do it the other way.
Back-up singer 4: It's easier to do it the other way.
Back-up singer 3: We like the other way.
Elvis: We're not looking for easy ways.

The FTD Jungle Room sessions is great late Elvis.

RCA just dropped their own version of that collection: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22213-way-down-in-the-jungle-room/

Ah, that most have been what showed up in my Release Radar on Friday.

Finally reading Guralnick's Last Train To Memphis
Barely begun and already teared up

so good

this seems to have rattled a few cages.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/16/millennials-elvis-presley-legacy

idk, i feel like it's a very statistics-driven piece and i dont disagree but it's kinda ignoring the reality of what elvis has become

I dont think i really started buying elvis albums until my late 20's or early 30's when i realized on my own that it wasnt just nostalgic hits my mum liked that i heard growing up, that there was a whole world of stuff that was pretty cool

frankly i dont think he's been an artist for the "youth" for a long time, decades even

im not mad about it

agreed, and anyway good music endures, esp. in a digital marketplace that obviates the choice of one artist's work over another. It's not like Elvis is gonna go unheard.

my feeling about the article is that the argument it makes is probably pretty much right -- but, yknow, who cares. i don't think elvis's greatness should be judged by how many millennials are listening to him on spotify. his place in american culture is secure and isn't going to vanish just because we aren't experiencing an "elvis moment" the way we arguably had a bowie moment last year.

my sense is that he's falling into obscurity slightly faster than his contemporary musical icons

That article is "true" but also completely wrong. It pertains to Elvis the business not Elvis the artist. He has one of the richest outputs out there so as long as there are music heads around he'll be fine.

well, it pertains to Elvis the Baby Boomer messiah.

Elvis the interpreter vs Elvis the songwriter
Have to go interpreter right? I mean, an American Trilogy.

how many songs did he even co-write? maybe a dozen?

according to a snap YouGov poll of 2,034 British adults, a hefty 29% of 18- to 24-year-olds said they had never listened to an Elvis song

lol wow you've proved a specific demo of British 20 somethings don't care about Elvis