Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, May 26, 2019.

  1. At the time it was released, I was disappointed that it didn't follow the format of the two other decade box sets in presenting the studio masters in roughly the recording session order, and - more importantly - left off seemingly random studio masters. I felt they did this intentionally as they had recently released the 70's studio albums like 'Fool', Raised On Rock, Today, etc. on CD for the first time and that by holding out a couple of tracks from each of those albums it made fans double-dip in order to get the complete catalog digitally. If the 70's box had contained all the studio masters like the 50's and 60's boxes had, there wouldn't have been any need to purchase those individual studio albums on CD.

    IMO they shouldn't have included a disconnected, hodge-podge of live tracks on disc 5 and instead presented the studio masters across the first 4 or so discs, and then filled the remaining space (up to and including disc 5) with outtakes.
     
  2. ClausH

    ClausH Senior Member

    Location:
    Denmark
    I think only approx. 20 studio masters are missing from the 70s box, excluding the Gospel and Christmas material so they could have ditched the live disc and included those studio masters instead. Much of the material is remixed (1973 Stax, Elvis Country and the 1971 sessions) and some songs appear in stereo for the first time on the box (I've Lost You, Patch It Up).
     
  3. kreen

    kreen Forum Resident

    That was Elvis' choice. The story could have played out exactly the same had he fired Parker; indeed, things might have been even worse. We'll never know. Like I said before, we look at Elvis' career and everything that went well, we assume would have happened without Parker, and everything that went bad, we assume would not have happened with Parker gone. But it doesn't work like that.
     
  4. Hooperfan

    Hooperfan Your friendly neighborhood candy store owner

    Location:
    New York
    Here's a song that sounds great with just the rhythm section

    Elvis Presley-My Little Friend (Full Version)
     
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  5. This x a million, very well stated DirkM! And ClausH, thanks for posting the mono mix. When the Legacy of FEIM came out with the mono mix, it was immediately noticeable to my ears that it didn't sound quite right. I played it against my 45 and the 45 sounded a lot more clear. For those with a turntable, it's worth seeking out until a better digital mono version comes out.

    I'm also a fan of My Little Friend, in part because it's one of the lesser heard songs in the Elvis cannon, and it has a somewhat haunting melody/arrangement.

    A very clear memory in my mind is my mom driving me and my sister home after shopping for some clothes at a local mall, it raining outside and this song (Kentucky Rain) coming on the radio. Just perfect. This was while Elvis was still alive, sometime in the mid-70's. I was already a fan, but as I didn't own a radio it was a treat to hear a song by the big guy over the airwaves instead of on my portable record player.
     
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  6. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Kentucky Rain is a hard song to sing. Elvis slays it. Kentucky Rain/My Little Friend (which I actually like even more) is ANOTHER great pairing that Elvis has consistently put out since at least Love Letters/Come What May. Just about every studio single comprised of new recordings from 1966-1970 were simply dynamite.
     
  7. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Yes, it's a weird lyric. I'm pretty sure Eddie Rabbitt intended the song's protagonist to be a sympathetic figure, but if one pays attention to the lyrics he really is not sympathetic at all. Barring the unlikely possibility that his girlfriend was kidnapped, she clearly is hiding from him and does not want to be found, and does not want to speak to him again. We don't know why she left... maybe he was a jerk, or maybe it's just that the North wind flows through her veins and her mom has a dream in her brain. But regardless of the backstory, for him to look for her under these circumstances is disrespectful if not a bit creepy. She snuck out in the middle of the night for a reason, because she didn't want to talk to him and he should respect her wishes. This doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the song, but it's interesting because as I said I'm pretty sure the songwriters viewed the guy's actions as acceptable and his position as sympathetic, and I do not.

    The other interesting thing is that the following year Elvis did "The Sound of Your Cry" which is basically the other side of the story. In that song, Elvis' character is the one who sneaks out in the middle of the night because he's afraid to deal with the painful emotions his girlfriend will feel when he leaves her. I wonder if the girlfriend in Sound of Your Cry goes out looking for Elvis in the rain?
     
  8. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    I stand by my opinion. The 70s box should have been handled like the 60s box. I find it interesting you consider the Christmas and Gospel material some of the best vocals of the 70s. Wonderful World Of Christmas and He Touched Me were the indicators to me that Elvis was starting to sound older than his age. The weakness and vibrato displayed on these albums was the seed to my abandoning buying his future releases. Sure he could belt out, but the weakness shown through in his softer singing, And his louder singing sort of over compensated for this in my opinion
     
  9. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    There seems to be a certain sensitivity you must have pertaining to this particular subject. I think the character in Kentucky Rain is FAR more sympathetic than the character in The Sound Of Your Cry. The Sound Of Your Cry character is a coward. The character in Kentucky Rain is a potential problem solver. He wants to LEARN why. The Sound Of Your Cry character wants to avoid any conflict or ownership of his actions.
     
  10. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    The 70s Box was effective from a marketing standpoint, but it's disappointing in that it takes a completely different tack than the two earlier boxes. The first two boxes were intended for completeists, and the 70s box is obviously not satisfactory for completeists and strangely seems more aimed at the casual fan. The big difference is the introduction of subjectivity to the track selection. The 50s box had everything, and the 60s box used simple objective criteria to determine what to include and what to exclude. In the 70s box they made decisions based on opinion about what was and was not better and I don't always agree with those opinions. I think the compilation live disc was unnecessary and doesn't flow well as a listening experience, and I think the set would have worked better without it. I also dislike the decision to not follow a strict chronological order, though I imagine that was done to conceal Elvis' decline by spreading the later material across discs 2, 4 and 5 rather than having it all on the last disc.
     
  11. JLGB

    JLGB Senior Member

    Location:
    D.R.
    The character in "Kentucky Rain" was desperate and does not know why she left. He wanted to know. Another guy?... He said something wrong? She stopped loving him? There's no answer here.
     
  12. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I wasn't intending to suggest Elvis' character in The Sound of Your Cry is sympathetic. You are correct, he is a coward and a bit of a scoundrel. I think the difference is that the songwriters intended us to see him that way. Whereas I think the songwriters of Kentucky Rain intended us to view their protagonist sympathetically, even though he is trying to hunt down someone who clearly doesn't want to talk to him with the intent of browbeating her into getting back together. I can understand the desire to learn why you've been dumped if you truly have no clue, and it's frustrating if the person leaving you provides no explanation and doesn't give you a chance to try to work things out. But trying to force them to talk rarely works out well. And in this case, where she took the extreme step of not just breaking up but sneaking out in the night and leaving town, it seems pretty disrespectful of him to force the issue.
     
  13. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    True. But sometimes in life you don't get answers. Trying to force someone to give you an answer (or to cajole them into changing their mind, as is his intent) is not a good thing. I'm not saying the girlfriend here is sympathetic either. Like the Sound of Your Cry guy, she seems to be a coward who's sneaking off rather than confront the situation. But I don't think the appropriate response is to hunt her down like a fugitive when she clearly doesn't want to see him.
     
  14. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Well I appreciate your great sense of humor here a lot, "maybe it's just that the North wind flows through her veins and her mom has a dream in her brains," but I disagree with at least one of your assumptions about our missing lady and your conclusions about the protagonist. We do not know that she plans to stay "hiding" from him indefinitely, perhaps she has rekindled an old flame or has unfinished business to wrap up with an old lover or boyfriend and wanted time to find closure with that relationship, and once she figured it all out in her mind, she would come back to our protagonist in the story. The man in the story clearly is looking for closure or an explanation, and I do not think this qualifies by itself as being creepy. I do not know anybody that would not want some sort of explanation from a lover that left him or her so suddenly in their life.
     
  15. JLGB

    JLGB Senior Member

    Location:
    D.R.
    She was long gone "maybe yesterday, no wait, the day before". The guy wasn't hunting with bloodhounds after her. Seems to me he just wanted to find her to know...whatever it was to know.
     
  16. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    And the 70s box did not sell nearly as much as the 60s box. (of course the 50s box is KING). So their marketing ploy was not successful. And I agree the format tends to disguise the vocal and artistic decline better than a chronological format would have.
     
  17. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Well you seem to think of a worse case scenario for the character. That is fine. What is great about songs is we can all interpret them as we see fit. I just disagree. Hardly a problem but simply a point of interest.
     
  18. Interesting, purely circumstantially I would have thought that, of the three, the 60's box would have sold the least. Do you know what those sales #'s are? Google has not helped me find them.
     
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  19. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Yep. Like I said, it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the song. I view it as a point of interest. Songs about ambiguous or unsympathetic characters can be great. In this case it's interesting to me because I think the songwriters intended to portray the narrator as romantic, but he comes across to me more as pathetic. But it's open to differing interpretions too.
     
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  20. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Putting myself in the character in Kentucky Rain: She would be someone I cared for and loved. Not only do I want an answer but I want to know if she is in trouble or if there is something I can do for her. It do not think it is reasonable (at least not for me) to simply shrug it off and think "I better respect her wishes", when I do not even KNOW what her wishes are. Put in her place a adult child of yours, certainly you would seek out what in the heck is going on. (I say adult child because I do not think there would be any disagreement on what one would do in the case of a juvenile or younger child).

    I do not think the writers were thinking of an overly possessive, creepy woman abuser when they wrote the song. If they had it would not be written in a manner where one would have to INFER this about the character, there would have been a hint at least. It is a romantic song.
     
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  21. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Let me see if I can dig it up.
     
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  22. Another tiny thing about Kentucky Rain that I smile each time I hear it is that guitar flourish at roughly 1:52-1:55. So (relatively, for a session player) simple yet so cool.
     
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  23. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    I do not know how old you are, but maybe it is a generational point of view that differs between us here.
     
  24. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    True that we don't know her reasoning or what her future intentions are, but we do know she doesn't want to talk to him now, and I think he should respect her wishes. If I had a friend in that situation and he asked for my advice, I wouldn't advise him to spend seven days hunting for her nonstop when she clearly doesn't want to be found right now. That's all I'm saying.
     
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  25. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Maybe it is. I'm 52, so I know I'm a bit younger than you since I recall you talking about buying records in the 60s when I was a baby.
     

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