Elvis Presley: Classic Or Dud?

Would love to rant on about Elvis for ages but loads of work to do before I leave tonight so I'll just quote Andrew from way up thread:

"above all else he's a great singer, of all different kinds of material - country, r'n'b, rockabilly, gospel, soul, torch songs, etc. Contrary to all that 'creatively dead after leaving Army' bollocks, he made fine records at every point in his career"

Sadly, Jerry Lee has had very bad management and frequent bad health for the last 15/20 years. His 95 or 96 album Young Blood was decent, but not what it could have been.

Plus, Elvis had many successful imitators, but Jerry Lee has none. Nobody dared. Partly this has to do with the expense and imcompatibility of travel intrinsic in being a piano man. But nobody has used the piano as the primary instrument ni Rock/Roll since JLL and Little Richard.
Elton John/Ben Folds/Billy Joel all play pop, not rock/roll.

And as for JLL: Nobody cuts the Killer, baby, NOBODY!

Classic.

Plus now he's droppin' some lite techno! "A Little More Conversation" is what Bob Mould's new shit SHOULD sound like.

The point about Sam Phillips is probably true, but I see no reason to think your first point is. If it wasn't Elvis it woulda been -- who?? Jerry Lee? He's great but he seriously doesn't have more than a fraction of Elvis' talent, let alone his ability to connect with such a broad swath of the population. That's the thing about Elvis: He really was unique. There's NO ONE else who could have done what he did in the mid-fifties.

Wuh-huh I don' know whether tuh thank ya or hate ya Geir!

I find EP, even at his best, almost always lacking in some kind of telling detail/nuance/aesthetic distance, blah blah, that for me is necessary--his music just seems one-dimensional to me. Occas. it does not, but only seldom. There's something great about him but his "art" seems smug, involuted, airless...his presence is something else entirely, and he did have a good voice...I dunno, it just doesn't move me, I want to get real gone for a change but EP don't do it, not like the greatest man to ever record for Sun, Howlin' Wolf.

interview snippet ("Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I can't help it.")
That's All Right
Mystery Train
Heartbreak Hotel
Blue Suede Shoes
Blue Moon
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
Hound Dog
Don't Be Cruel
Love Me Tender
All Shook Up
Teddy Bear
Jailhouse Rock
Love Me
It's Now Or Never
Are You Lonesome Tonight
His Latest Flame
Can't Help Falling In Love
Return To Sender
Devil In Disguise
Viva Las Vegas
Guitar Man
In The Ghetto
Suspicious Minds
interview snippet (Elvis leaves for Germany "I am going away...")

(this one's only about 60 minutes long so I've got about 20 extra minutes for more stuff. Anybody want to finish it for me? Also, try to place any contributions chronologically)

"Help Me Make It Through The Night" - token C&W choice

Spencer, does this mean that you don't own an original copy of The Memphis Record??????

In "Return to Sender" when he says "I took it to the mailbox, I sent it 'Special D'" it's so great, you just want to hang out with him all day and get him to teach you all the other slang he knows.

So, so true.

When you left you know you told me
That some day you'd be returnin'
In a fancy car, all the town to see, oh yea,
Well now everyone is watching you
You finally had your dream, yea
You're ridin' in a long black limousine

You know the papers told of how you lost your life, oh yea
The party, the party and the fatal crash that night
Well the race along the highway, oh the curve you didn't see
When you're riding in that long black limousine

Through tear filled eyes I watch as you pass by oh yea
A chauffeur, a chauffeur at the wheel dressed up so fine
Well I never, I never, never, never
Oh my heart, all my dreams yea, they're with you
In that long black limousine

Yea, yea, they're with you in that long black limousine
Yea, yea, they're with you in that long black limousine

----

great call Matos. it's like "Will the Bitterness Be Unbroken," basically

Should I go for the 50s, 60s, and 70s box sets? Or is there another tack I should take? (Amst highly recommended at least the 70s set.) Also, what about the live recordings box sets? What is recommended in that area? (I am partial to the Las Vegas concerts.)

What is a good Elvis gospel compilation? Or should I just let this be taken care of by the box sets?

Finally, what are your favorite LPs? 50,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong looks enticing.

Not sure about the box sets since I've never had any of them, but one great sleeper album you might try is Tomorrow Is a Long Time, which is 18 tracks from 1966-68, most of which is terrific. As I said upthread, the title cut vies for best Dylan covers ever--reeeeal slow and bluesy, just devastating, pure torch.

I'm obviously not talking about his early breakthrough and image; of course he's by far the ultimate rock and roll star, but even then, in the more limited context of Memphis/the South, he's still a reference for other music and a super-fan.

One Elvis song no one talks about much is "How Can You Lose What You Never Had," which is on the double CD I have of "Speedway" and "Clambake" (it also contains his very generic but nicely retrospective and self-referential--he's his own super-fan here) "Guitar Man," which is really referential to Jerry Reed, and that's odd, shows how willing EP was to reference anything that caught his ear.

Anyway, check out "How Can You Lose What You Never Had," which is nicely Band-esque. I'm surprised this reissue of his two best movies left off the incredible "Who Needs Money" from "Clambake" in which he sings a duet with a guy who looks a lot like Jerry Reed while riding a motorcycle thru Florida.

Classic.

but this might be total bullshit