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

Perhaps I am projecting my own attitude at the time onto others, sorry.

yeah i dunno, maybe ppl think that bcz he stopped doing live shows when he was stuck doing movies all those years that his later period residencies would be sleepwalking through sets etc. But his skills & commitment were so ingrained, it’s honestly naive to think it would drop off. The “freedom” to perform again gave him a vigor to approach it wholeheartedly. I say “freedom” bcz the concert grind did turn into a prison sentence of its own too, sadly.

Also the fact that this dude had an incredible work ethic because of his dirt poor upbringing. Everything, whether it’s recording, acting, performing live - he knew it could be taken away at any moment, that nothing should be taken for granted, AND that you should always give people their money’s worth. Sure he might be playing every night in this ballroom but Mr & Mrs Hamhock from Idaho might be treating themselves to a once in a lifetime show. He understood that on a serious level imo.

Otm

In other news, just noticed super-low subwoofer backing bass vocal on the chorus of “Suspicion.”

Also sometimes think the rhythm of James Brown saying “Que pasa, people?” at the beginning of “Get On The Good Foot” sounds like the drum break intro to “My Baby Left Me.”

Mmm the Arthur Alexander version of Burning Love sounds like freaking John Mayer. I thought a different take on the song would be interesting but Elvis’ version is pretty much definite.

This has been posted on other threads but not on this one yet, where it is needed now in case there is an iota of doubt remaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVPS0ETuUYE

Wait, sorry, I had one of those weird copy paste YouTube things happening, meant to post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx7I4DfUGM4

Also the fact that this dude had an incredible work ethic because of his dirt poor upbringing. Everything, whether it’s recording, acting, performing live - he knew it could be taken away at any moment, that nothing should be taken for granted, AND that you should always give people their money’s worth. Sure he might be playing every night in this ballroom but Mr & Mrs Hamhock from Idaho might be treating themselves to a once in a lifetime show. He understood that on a serious level imo.

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, August 6, 2018 9:40 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is otmfm.

Also sometimes think the rhythm of James Brown saying “Que pasa, people?” at the beginning of “Get On The Good Foot” sounds like the drum break intro to “My Baby Left Me.”

― Suspicious Hiveminds (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, August 6, 2018 10:02 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Speaking of James Brown, this is from Brown's autobiography The Godfather Of Soul (I think this is around 1965-66):

At a big party he threw in the Hyatt Continental, I think, when it got late, we threw everybody out of the room, and Elvis and I sang gospel together. We sang "Old Jonah," "Old Blind Barnabas," all the ones I'd been singing since I was little. He knew the harmonies, too. That's how we communicated -- by singing jubilee, the real upbeat kind of gospel. He told me he wanted to use my band to record. He said he wanted the horns and things behind him, but he wanted them strong.

If Elvis's Memphis '69 sessions have got you interested in hearing more music recorded by Chips Moman, Tommy Cogbill and the American Studios musicians, I made this Spotify playlist.

Cool, thanks!

Nice, but don’t forget Mike Leech, who passed away last December and who had a health scare causing him to leave during the middle of Elvis’s sessions, but not until after he already played the iconic “Suspicious Minds” bass line. Played on “Drift Away” too, in the running on another thread right now.

Finally getting caught up on the results and really enjoyed both threads. Thanks, Euler and Moka, for doing this. And thanks, cryptosicko, for putting together the Spotify playlist. Here's my ballot:

Blue Moon
Long Black Limousine
Stranger in My Own Hometown
Crawfish
Memphis Tennessee
The Girl of My Best Friend
Suspicious Minds
Polk Salad Annie
Promised Land
All Shook Up
If You Talk in Your Sleep
I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine
Mystery Train
Heartbreak Hotel
Don't Be Cruel
Milkcow Blues Boogie
(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame
That’s All Right
Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues
Summer Kisses, Winter Tears
Wearing That Loved On Look
Snowbird
(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
Moody Blue
Blue Moon of Kentucky

The recent Malcolm Gladwell podcast w Jack White on Elvis’ parapraxis when it came to singing ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ is pretty interesting, would def recommend.

Thanks.

That Ray Connolly book looks good. May have to get myself a copy.

yeah otm, i just put it on my to-read list

Just finished it yesterday. Not as insightful as I had anticipated but a decent read none the less.

Seems pretty smoothly written but ... a little simplistic maybe?

Okay, he tells of Vernon being fired for using the company truck for bootlegging before the move to Memphis but Guralnick seems to label this story a supposition. How to triangulate the true story?

Or maybe I just need to read the Elaine Dundy book as well, to see how she originally reported it.

Popped into a Barnes and Noble for a quick look at the books I shouldn’t buy or have already bought and should probably read sometime and almost as soon as I got in there “Hurt” started playing. /ElvisIsEverywhete

Relistening to the Walk a Mile In My Shoes box. Lots of good stuff on that, still sticking with my #1

This poll has made me reevaluate a lot of the 70s stuff which is far better than I gave it credit. Particularly stuff on the Burning Love compilation that I have no recollection of purchasing.

Also, I had Where Do I Go From Here too low at 12. It's Top 5 fer sure

Hey, just looked up one of my non-finishing votes, the James Taylor composition “Steamroller Blues” and see that an ilx0r weighed in on the song, if not Elvis’s version of it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamroller_Blues?wprov=sfti1

Rolling Stone Album Guide critic Mark Coleman, said Taylor's song "effectively mocks the straining pomposity of then-current white bluesmen."

Listening to him singing “Something” and there is, um, something that sounds likes a theremin every now and then

Is it the live version on the '70s box? I'm 90% sure that's one of his backing vocalists...but I wouldn't rule out a theremin.

Yes and I agree with your assessment

Listened again. Doesn’t quite sound like a human voice.

Maybe it’s a pedal steel?

Perhaps some astute YouTube commenter will know

Just listened again, and am leaning more towards the sound being a backup singer. There's a slight breathiness to the sound, and you can hear her joined by the rest of the singers on the chorus.

(I almost added, "and anyway, Elvis wouldn't hire a theremin player for his touring band just to play one small part on one song," but then realized, of course he would.)

I'm pretty sure it's Kathy Westmoreland. It's more recognisable as a vocal line here (at 00:38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdDhwa3WYHo

Okay, I’ll take your word for it

I’m a big fan of E thanks to my parents, but I was too lazy and uninformed to vote in this poll. But if I had done it, I would have voted all the songs on the This Is Elvis movie soundtrack, which was a frequently spun disc when I was a lad

would have been solid votes imo

Got my copy of Elvis Country and gave it a few spins. I like it, it's pretty solid. It's so all over the place stylistically, and also so beat-heavy, that you don't feel like you're listening to a "country" album. (Not crazy about the gimmick of fading in & out of "I Was Born Ten Thousand Years Ago" between every track though). The single, "I Really Don't Want to Know" is a good cut... I first heard this tune when Jason & the Scorchers did an excellent version of it back in the '80s. Elvis does a Lee Hazlewood song here, "The Fool" - wonder if he ever did another one (wish he had); would think the Speedway soundtrack would be the time for it, but evidently no.

These June 1970 sessions in Nashville must have been one of Elvis's most prolific moments. He cut 35 songs then that were spread over four separate albums. None of them made the cut in our poll, sadly. Which is curious, considering that this was his next big recording project after the early '69 Memphis sessions that we all love so much.

(Not crazy about the gimmick of fading in & out of "I Was Born Ten Thousand Years Ago" between every track though).

Oh yeah. I shared the album w/my dad (who's a big Elvis fan from way back--he bought the s/t on original release, which had for a little while before his mom threw it out) and he couldn't make it to the end solely because of those edits.

And so 41 years ago today....

... I seem to recall seeing Geraldo on tv in a jumpsuit. An unfortunate image I can thankfully usually keep at a considerable distance.

At the time I didn’t really know the fuss what about. I had mostly only seen the artist on television when my mother would watch his films. But then soon after I saw this and it opened my eyes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0Rz-uP4Mk

I would like to think one of the connections James Brown saw with him was the dancing, the ability to feel the rhythm all over his body and to use different sections of his limbs and torso as if they were parts of a drum kit.

That clip I hadn’t seen before, the films my mother watched always seemed to have him in a marina with a little captain’s cap or some other boring getup.

Two years later there was an intriguing tribute from Rockpile to pique my interest once again:
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/22/archives/rock-rockpile-performs.html

Then a few months later they also came up with this tribute, playing a song I had never heard of before https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/11/concerts-for-the-people-of-kampuchea-little-sister-rockpile-with-robert-plant2.html, which eventually led to my fateful encounter with Doc Pomus and the minor blues turnaround.

Of course, prior to this, in addition to the studio films I had also seen my mother watching some of the concert films or performances but to be an honest I had a hard time telling him apart from Tom Jones although it was clear to even me that Engelbert Humperdinck was a distant third.

In high school I knew the songs that were oldies staples on WCBS-FM and I ended up buying A Date With Elvis and Elvis' Golden Records. A few years later in the college library I ran into and befriended a guy wearing a little Elvis pin on the lapel of his denim jacket, a fellow now known on WFMU as Mr. Fine Wine. Finally right after college I read a excerpt from an upcoming book about soul music in the Village Voice about Roosevelt Jamison, Quinton Claunch and the Goldwax label and their artist James Carr, none of whom I had ever heard before, http://www.peterguralnick.com/post/47106712366/roosevelt-jamison-1936-2013 and of course that ultimately led me to further Elvis exploration

Tbh not sure what date or year Geraldo started wearing the jumpsuit but it was pretty early on

The local multiplex has had limited screenings of the Comeback Special--last Thursday, the anniversary of Elvis's death, and again today. (That's it.) Saw it tonight in a theatre that was almost full.

My favorite songs were the three Sun recordings, and the Jimmy Reed and Lloyd Price covers. The hits medley reminded me again that my appreciation of a lot of Elvis's music is arm's-length. The "Guitar Man" set-piece, which was like some bizarre synthesis of The Band Wagon and Laugh-In, went on forever. I liked Elvis's throwaway mockery of "MacArthur Park," and the Steve Binder/Priscilla making-of interview beforehand was really good.

My favourite moment of all was non-musical: when Elvis got very quiet and said he wanted to say a little about music. ("Very little.") He came right up to the edge, then backed off into generalities--if felt like he wanted to say a lot more than he actually did. Maybe he wanted to apologize for the movie phase of his career, or confess that he was completely baffled by what was going on around him. He said he liked the Beatles, but I don't know how convincing he was ("The Beatles, the Beards..."--that was great.) It was a great, vulnerable moment, and he got to pay tribute to the importance of gospel in his life, but I do think he left some things unsaid.

ARGHHH i forgot to go & i missed it ;_;

I don't know why they limited this to two days. I was in Oakville, 25 miles outside of Toronto, and the theatre was almost sold out. I'm sure they would have done well with a week-long run.