Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

40th anniversary of his death today. I still say the music he made between 1969 and his death is every bit as good as the music he made in the 50s. Often better.

You're not the only one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_pmor3iPbw

Seems to me 1969-1972 was a high point but 1973-1977 not so much, although someone here was saying his '73 sessions in Memphis are really rich; I haven't explored that, I only know the singles.

Obvious, but I'd take The Sun Sessions over everything else.

The 1973 Stax sessions are great.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3EHxFLhmgSGEBmJ7tFXwRz

I can still remember exactly what I was doing 40 years ago when my dad told me the news. Led to 40 years of musical joy.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/da/37/8f/da378f4558eeaa5f0aaf3bf139b63e6c.jpg

also hi Elvis! if he faked his death and has been living in a cave in Tibet for 40 years instead

🖼

also hi Elvis! if he faked his death and has been living in a cave in Tibet for 40 years instead

Pretty sure that the nose had secret squirrel stash zones hence more puffy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyKWLmi3wPo

which reminds me i've been meaning to watch the above, "The Elvis Cover-Up" (1979) from 20/20 ABC News wherein a young Geraldo helped fan the flames of conspiracy

Seems to me 1969-1972 was a high point but 1973-1977 not so much

cosign

73-77 has its lows but some undeniable highs. Jungle room sessions.

The angels called him home so that we were spared a Bono duet.

Thanks, I needed an excuse to post this:

http://www.thetravelmemo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/JUNGLE-ROOM.jpg

Country funk is the best elvis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxnunLJ_fH4

The angels called him home so that we were spared a Bono duet.

I can still remember exactly what I was doing 40 years ago when my dad told me the news.

I was 15--can't say that I do. I was buying albums by then, but I'm pretty sure I didn't own a single Elvis album until I bought The Sun Sessions a couple of years later.

It's coming closer
The flames are reaching my body
Please won't you help me
I feel like I'm slipping away
It's hard to breath
And my chest is a-heaving
Lord have mercy,
I'm burning a hole where I lay

Shoulda mentioned this! Don't totally agree w xgau's take, although do about"the knockout rockouts"---album is def worth looking for:

Scotty Moore/DJ Fontana: All the King's Men [Sweetfish, 1997]
There's no rationalizing the success ratio of this tribute comp--I mean, gosh, Elvis Presley's original sidemen collaborate with artists who like them. I'd like to credit Scotty and D.J.'s groove, but with second drummers powering the two rockingest cuts and extra guitarists everywhere, let's just call it serendipity. Plus maybe--since Joe Ely, Steve Earle, and Raul Malo all benefit from not trying too hard--the kind of affable discretion that stays out of talent's way. The knockout rockouts are Cheap Trick's "Bad Little Girl," which sounds like great John Lennon, and Keith Richards and the Band's "Deuce and a Quarter," which sounds like great old roots-rock and also like nothing I've ever heard. And then there's Ronnie McDowell with that essential soupcon of Memphis-to-Vegas schmaltz. A-

Any album on which a Cheap Trick song is a highlight is gonna be lost on me. I hate that band.

Yeah but still the Keith / band track sounds like a must hear. Firing up slsk

https://youtu.be/l0jpqF1uolk

Marshall Crenshaw on bass, natch

What? Then what's Rick Danko doing?

Also bass. And a third guy on bass too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mJlcW3X4PQ

how is this so great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_UHZ_62GCI

Happy birthday yesterday

^ great song I'd never heard. Some speculation that Bowie used it as a jumping-off symbol for his last work.

I found the weirdest Facebook group recently.

https://i.imgur.com/JF7O5ss.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6cS2H43.jpg

The weird part being not so much the website itself, but that there are so many altered photos of EP that someone felt obliged to start a Snopes-like site to combat them all.

Because, believe me, I really wanted to submit this one of Madonna getting an autograph to the Photos taken of famous people together that you would never have expected to be together but make you happy all the same. thread.

https://i.imgur.com/N64KUXi.jpg

Thanks for the "Black Star" YouTube, that really is great

ha that picture is terrific, I am opting to believe it's true

http://alldylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Elvis-Bob-Cowboy.jpg

lol i love these

is this the thread where we post great videos of Elvis live? cause I can only find stuff on Youtube where he seems pretty drugged out

heh that's the best stuff. Polk Salad Annie '72 to thread

love the photos! long live the king

Just yesterday I found a good one of an early performance of “Burning Love” in which he is still reading off the lyric sheet. Will re-search and post in a bit

One of the weirder connections of 70s rock is that drummer Ronnie Tutt was in the TCB! band backing up the King and then would also do gigs in the Jerry Garcia Band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx7I4DfUGM4

i didn't realize how many shitty bootleg outfakes of "dark moon" there were

here's a good one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQAa4arQCIc

Tutt was Neil Diamond’s drummer forever. (Might still be.)

Isn't there some story of the Memphis Boys initially being mumped up when Elvis came to American to record because Neil Diamond had been bumped?

from Elvis On Tour: You Gave Me A Mountain

at this point he could sing anything & the way he goes SO big in the chorus with so little effort gives me chills

https://youtu.be/yg9B6ciuAzg

Majestic

from Elvis On Tour: You Gave Me A Mountain

at this point he could sing anything & the way he goes SO big in the chorus with so little effort gives me chills

https://youtu.be/yg9B6ciuAzg🕸

Thanks for that Burning Love clip James, hadn't seen that before.

The 1976 Birmingham concert is well worth checking out. He was so fired up and in good spirits.

https://youtu.be/B7HdFF5w408



Damn links!

good stuff guys, thanks!

interesting to see him in such a playful mood, laughing with that sly smile... I'm glad the musicians are also laughing and smiling, and it doesn't look like it's from anxiety

and then he's switching from playfulness to full on passion out of nowhere, really something special

sounds grrreat!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GG9NBKur1Q

can't beat this kind of stuff