Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

I love Elvis version of The Grass Won't Pay No Mind. It is the song Elvis recorded by Neil Diamond as his promise for taking Diamond's time slot with the studio. It is a sublime performance easily overlooked by the sheer quantity of quality recordings done in Memphis that winter.

 

Back In Memphis certainly had its share of inferior songs, especially in comparison to From Elvis In Memphis and the American Sound associated singles, but I do not think TTWII had an overall stronger body of material over Back In Memphis. TTWII definitely has its share of filler material, such as Twenty Days and Twenty Nights, Mary In The Morning, and How The Web Was Woven. Elvis sings the material just fine, but those are not top-shelf tracks.

 

What an absolute gold nugget! That loping bass brings to mind another later Jerry Scheff performance:
Cars Hiss by My Window

 

I should have been clearer in my comments... I wasn't intending to say that TTWII as a whole has better material than BIM. Someone made reference to the "soft, pleasant songs" on BIM, which I took to mean kind of the adult contemporary, easy listening songs that dominate the record. I meant that in the particular category of easy listening songs, TTWII has stronger material than BIM. But BIM has a few songs that are not easy listening, most obviously Stranger and From a Jack to a King, recordings that are quite good. I don't think any of the easy listening type songs on BIM are exceptional however, whereas TTWII has some really strong songs in that genre, like You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and I've Lost You.

I do have to say I'd disagree with your characterization of BIM as "country soul/R&B." I hear nothing on it that strikes me as R&B influenced (beyond the straight blues of Stranger) and there's little country (aside from the straight country of From a Jack to a King). It's on balance an easy listening/contemporary pop album to my ears.

 

Inherit the wind ... Country Soul
This is the story ... Soul
Stranger in my own home town ... R&B
A little bit of green ... Pop
And the grass won't pay no mind ... Pop

Do you know who I am ... Pop
From a jack to a king ... Country
The Fair's moving on ... Pop
You'll think of me ... Country Soul
Without love ... R&B / Soul

So here is the reason why I consider it Country Soul / R&B (and Pop). Of course, this is to my own ears.

 

the songs on BiM sound more generic to me, as opposed to the songs on FEiM, which you could mistake for songs that Elvis had written himself, they sound so personal to him. with the stunning exception of "stranger in my own hometown," of course.

 

I absolutely love And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind, and never get tired of hearing it. The unrepaired/undubbed version ("You can hear Chips calling...") is particularly beautiful. This is the song (via the Elvis performance) that turned me into a Neil Diamond fan, so there's that as well. Side note: I'm currently thinking that the And The Grass... session may well be my favourite Elvis studio session (it also gave us Stranger In My Own Home Town, True Love Travels On A Gravel Road, and the This Time/I Can't Stop Loving You jam). Overall, I love the second set of American Sound recordings much more than the first batch.

A Little Bit Of Green is decent, but not a particular favourite. Ironically, I enjoy it more as a come-down after the intensity of Stranger than I do in isolation. It's an odd sequencing choice, but I sort of like it.

 

I'm with you on this. I think the Double Trouble FTD is more revealing as a "what could have been" release, but the BIM FTD made me really appreciate many of the songs (not to mention the album itself) more than I did before. It also has one of the absolute best "early takes" sections on any FTD.

 

A little exaggerated comparison I think. But I'd agree if it didn't have the title it did. Elvis is in Las Vegas playing live and goes back to Memphis. I found it relaxing after the hysteria of the live half to go into the studio and start quietly with the opening track. Back in the 70's, it was impossible to know who played on what, so I bet many (as I), thought they were mostly (I just concentrated on Elvis ), the same musicians (especially thinking that the Memphis session backup singing ladies were the Sweet Inspirations).

 

Interesting take on the double album.

 

I enjoy A Little Bit Of Green for the very same reasons that you do. Bobby Wood's piano gives the whole song a nice melodic boost and Elvis's gentle vocal delivery is spot on. A very nice sounding track, not outstanding to my ears, but I never skip it, whenever I play the album.

 

I can’t say I haven’t skipped it on occasion, but it is a pleasant enough track.

 

I feel exactly the same way. I really like early Neil Diamond a lot, but I have to say I think Elvis's version is slightly superior to Neil's. Just a really terrific performance all around.

 

I think this is an interesting discussion and I know we will be getting to TTWII a little later in the thread, but I have to say that I think @czeskleba has an excellent point about the strength of the latter album versus Back In Memphis. That may be almost sacrilegious to fans who prefer a couple of those outstanding blues or soulful numbers from Back In Memphis, like Stranger In My Own Home Town or Without Love and prefer it over the Nash/Vegas sound of TTWII, but the latter album clearly has some beautifully produced and sung MOR material. The funny thing is that I rank Elvis's performance of Stranger In My Own Home Town as one of his all time top ten album cuts ever, but than again, I feel exactly the same way about Elvis's stupendous version of Bridge Over Troubled Water on TTWII. Go figure.

 

Yeah, my analogy was deliberately exaggerated, but I do stand by my opinion that the two albums don't work well together. The live album is heavy on rock and roll and the studio album is mostly mellow and easy listening. And the stylistic differences between the musicians stand out pretty clearly, even if one didn't know who was playing what. In particular, Reggie Young and James Burton are very different guitarists, and Chrisman and Tutt have very different drumming styles. I think That's the Way It Is would have been a much better choice to be a half studio/half live double album, because there's a much greater commonality of feel and style between the studio and live stuff from that era.

 

I cannot disagree with you write. I have looked at this from the kid of the 70's to this day, that for this fan, had a great package with live material ranging from oldies to latest singles...and then studio tracks that were an enjoyable listen after the show.

 

Yes, TTWII would have benefitted by using 4 of the best studio tracks used on Love Letters on one disc replacing the 4 live tracks and picking the best concert for the live disc (Aug 12 MS?) Or even a collection of the best performances of the live shows would have been fine. It would have made a more interesting two record set than FMTV/FVTM. Or why not have both as 2 LP sets? Of course the remaining tracks that were used for Love Letters would have ultimately made it to a LP anyway, maybe a Camden or spread across 2 or 3 Camdens.

 

I can't access the YouTube source here at the moment- is this the gospel song which Ray Charles (and then covered by the Everly Brothers) made into "This Little GIRL Of Mine"?

 

Do You Know Who I Am
Written By :
Bobby Russell

Recorded :
American Studios, Memphis, February 17-22, 1969 : February 19, 1969. take 7

It's one of those funny things about life, but ten years ago I wouldn't have liked this, much too soft and lush for my younger tastes.
The thing is though it isn't ten years ago, and when I hear this, I hear a beautiful melody and a delicate vocal.
This track starts with a nice piano, as we move into the vocal, the guitar holds the main focus of the backing music. As I say Elvis is doing this really good vocal that is so gentle it carries a message of pain, there are certainly moments of dynamics that raise up, but there is a certain depressed mellowness through the vocal that is effective at selling the song.
The strings fill out the landscape quite well, and we have a good song. This still isn't the pinnacle of Elvis' recorded work for me, but there are certainly qualities that raise this above some of the other artists and songs of this style, of the era.

 

I didn't think you exaggerated at all, but was spot-on.

I can't speak for other places, but at the time, we knew Elvis' band in Vegas was not the guys Elvis used at American Sound...

 

I'm right there with you. Fast version also for me, please. The slower version drags along endlessly. There's a nice ca late 50s "psycho-rock'n'roll" version of "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby" by Link Wray & The Wraymen- but I think this song is a Jimmy Reed cover which just has the same song title.

 

Call me insane but I love this soundtrack album to death. Lots of lucky memrories watching the movie lots of times on sunday afternoons during childhood days and enjoying the hell out of these songs. I think Elvis voice was again escpecially great and the musicians are rockin'. I already knew at this point "Do The Clam" from the rare German compilation album "Golden Boy Elvis" and went crazy as a kid when he sang "The Meanest Girl In Town", "Startin Tonight" (drum rolls!), "Girl Happy", "Do The Clam", "I've Got to Find My Baby" and especially "Spring Fever" as a duet with Shelley Fabares (another still unreleased duet, right?). And then there's this very rare co-written song by Elvis. Seriously- this album still gives me so much joy. It's one of his soundtrack albums where I'm immediately on the very sunny side of the street. Thanks El.

 

...and as a German I have no clue what that means and (because of that?) I enjoy the song a lot. ;-) But the original stereo mix is very bad- Elvis screams in your ear on one speaker (especially after the very long instrumental break) and all the instruments/ backing vocals are very low on the other speaker (kind of a typical early 60s Beatles stereo albums situation)- it's much better in the movie. The same goes with "Starting Tonight".

 

It really is interesting how our music sensibilities can dramatically change over the years. Obviously, the music we get exposed to in our youngest days has a lifelong impact on us for a host of reasons, but then as we age we discover new songs or genres of music that we might have never even considered listening to in our youthful years.

I have always loved Elvis's take on Bobby Russell's great song, Do You Know Who I Am? I seem to recall a story about Elvis singing that song to Priscilla privately shortly after he recorded it, if I am remembering it correctly. Bobby Russell wrote several monster crossover country-pop or soul records during his peak writing years in the late 60's and early 70's, including O.C. Smith's Little Green Apples, Vicki Laurence's (his wife at the time) The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, and perhaps the greatest country-pop tearjerker of all time, Honey, by Bobby Goldsborro. My personal favorite and apparently Frank Sinatra's favorite of the bunch was O.C Smith's splendid soulful version of Little Green Apples, which ended up earning the legendary songwriter a pair of Grammys.

 

I really like it too