19 Elvis Fans Can Be Polled: The ILM Elvis Presley poll roll out thread

We've had a good time so far, but the rest of the poll is where it really shines imo.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/b8/2f/acb82fcfbc8df7a6c8bf108ba3739a2a.jpg

Had it at #19. Love that little “Aquerela do Brasil” lick. Perhaps in this thread I will finally tell my story of meeting Doc Pomus.

So all 50s and Sun Sessions from now on?

http://www.essentialelvis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/small_1381435122-10h0n82.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/w6iOFBf.jpg

29. Elvis Presley - “Trying To Get To You” 219 points, 7 votes

One of my favorite Sun sides

"Blue Suede Shoes" was my #15, "Trying to Get to You" was my #42. Didn't vote for the others.

https://vimeo.com/170507670

when I watch this, I think, I shoulda voted this #1, #infinity, godhead
I mean, he's fucking the guitar at 2:00
& it's a religious song!
Elvis, like Prince, had the deepest glimpse of the unity of sex & religion, "the roots of rock and roll", America at its most primal

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

28. Elvis Presley - “An American Trilogy” 236 points, 9 votes

That performance of “trying to get to you” is sooo fucking good.

Yeah, just added to my relevant playlist

It’s also great to compare his voice on the original single and the comeback performance as he still didn’t have the well-known “Elvis voice” on the former. He sounds like someone else.

The audio of the video I posted is track 10 on Tiger Man, from the 2nd show of the comeback special.

https://i.imgur.com/TU4EdBL.jpg

27. Elvis Presley - “Milkcow Blues Boogie” 237 points, 8 votes

34. Elvis Presley - “Are You Lonesome Tonight?" 193 points, 8 votes, 1 number one

My number one! And the first of my ballot to appear!!

My ballot has
#29 Only the Strong Survive
#30 Lawdy Miss Clawdy

“Are You Lonesome Tonight?” didn’t quite make it

― 3-Way Tie (For James Last) (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, July 31, 2018 2:34 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LMC my no.8. I love the NBC special when he sings it because it was Scotty Moore's favourite from way back...

Almost forgot about “Milkcow Blues Boogie,” then ended up putting it #3

Re Scotty: Weird fact I just learned, H.P. Lovecraft’s dad was also a Winfield Scott

27. Elvis Presley - “Milkcow Blues Boogie” 237 points, 8 votes

waaay too low. any song that has elvis talking in it (cf. are you lonesome tonight) is a total winner. plus the whole slow fast thing in this one. and no drummer. just.

Mind you, who am I to talk, just checked my ballot and had MBB at no.12...

Highest average points per vote so far = Trying to get to you (31.29)
Lowest average points per vote so far = Always on my mind (17.00)

Hold it, fellows -- that don't move me. Let's get real, real gone for a change.

WELLLLLLLLL

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

26. Elvis Presley - “Return To Sender” 244 points, 10 votes

A+ image.

https://i.imgur.com/nr4h6ZE.jpg

25. Elvis Presley - “If I Can Dream” 245 points, 7 votes, 1 number one

I didn't expect a number one for this song, but it's cool!

Did Elvis' had problems with chronic migraines and glaucoma all of his life or just in the final years? Looking at the image I chose on "return to sender" and this one of him looking at a poster it seems to me like he needs to get too close to the object to see it properly. Maybe he needed prescription glasses all of his life?

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

Oh wait I see in that poster he's reading a very small print. So it makes sense for him to get so close to it.

https://i.imgur.com/bZQ2iSq.jpg

24. Elvis Presley - “Promised Land” 257 points, 8 votes, 1 number one

"Promised Land" was my #1. Fucking love that song, and the band absolutely tears it up. Those 1973 sessions at the Stax studio were really great, second only to the American sessions of '69 (in his late career, I mean).

https://i.imgur.com/1J3QSLB.jpg

23. Elvis Presley - “Promised Land” 259 points, 9 votes

ah shit

https://i.imgur.com/1J3QSLB.jpg

23. Elvis Presley - “Stranger In My Home Town” 259 points, 9 votes

man these last two cook

"Stranger..." was my #22.

I want to finish for the day so here's one last doozy

Mine:
15 Return To Sender
48 If I Can Dream

Slept on “Promised Land,” will revisit
“Stranger In My Home Town” never paid attention to, will review

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

22. Elvis Presley - “One Night” 260 points, 9 votes

Slept on “Promised Land,” will revisit

Dude, it cooks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9YfEZtQBtY

“One Night” is another one that just didn’t quite make the Redd Hott 50. Need to get over the bowdlerized lyrics, maybe

https://youtu.be/XI_DaBGjQNA

I love how he switches the two versions.

It occurs to me that I've never read contemporary accounts of the 68 comeback special from other musicians. Like, did Lennon say anything about it? Elvis is so ferocious here, it's just completely different from, like, watching the rooftop concert a year later.

That concert makes me almost wish he retired for a decade after 1970. Get clean, enjoy life and eventually do a comeback... maybe he could've kept recording just without doing live performances which I feel are what really took a toll on him. He was a bit of a workaholic.

I think if he had retired 1969 or 1970 for a decade or so that 1968 performance would've been just as mythic in the rock pantheon as that rooftop performance of The Beatles.

xp "Promised Land" is one of the very few Chuck Berry covers that is better than Chuck's version ... Elvis' "Memphis, Tennessee" comes close too

What about Lonnie Mack’s “Memphis” instrumental, which features tangentially in my Doc Pomus story?

I loooove that Lonnie Mack guitar sound, but to me "Memphis" is about the message on the wall, the Mississippi bridge, and the twist ending

personally I am always ready for a Doc Pomus story

I didn't expect a number one for this song, but it's cool!

My number one, just such a committed performance which wrenches empathy and hope in dark times.

It occurs to me that I've never read contemporary accounts of the 68 comeback special from other musicians. Like, did Lennon say anything about it? Elvis is so ferocious here, it's just completely different from, like, watching the rooftop concert a year later.

― droit au butt (Euler), Tuesday, July 31, 2018 6:28 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

funny you should ask that Euler, and weird synchronicity that i had a day off work today to go buy some records and on the way found that elvis book that i'd never heard of before, because it mentions john lennon talking about elvis... i'll see what i can do.

In the HBO doc, Springsteen said it was a huge and exciting event for him, and he can remember exactly where he was sitting/where the TV was/etc. (Can't remember what else he says about it, though...should rewatch)