Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

Yeah, my dad could not stand Cash's, Kristofferson's nor Dylan's voice. I am quite a Dylan fan, (up until Slow Train Coming), and I like Kristofferson's first 4 albums or so and his Austin Sessions album. I like a select few of Cash's songs. But I am a big fan of his daughter Roseanne's music.

 

Love Dylan.
Enjoy a lot of Cash.
Kristofferson's debut is sensational, I also enjoyed Silver Tongued Devil, but don't know more than that.

 

Well, Jarvis eventually was correct, as Elvis did get played on country radio, with the last two single he released even hitting #1 country. Going for the country audience made sense because that's what Elvis' first-generation fans were listening to, and it seems to be what Elvis was listening to also. Not saying it was the best decision artistically, but it made sense from a commercial standpoint.

 

Yes and no. Elvis got airplay, but it didn't necessarily result in relevant sales. By most accounts, including Ernst's research, overall sales per MOR/Country album were modest. And Elvis never tried to build on any success he was generating from that musical direction -- it was a strange dichotomy because Jarvis was producing MOR/Country albums, yet Elvis was largely performing hundreds of concerts annually that contained very little country outside of one-two songs.

 

One of the problems was that Elvis only recorded seven songs in March 1972, so there wasn't much to work with. The other thing to consider is that Parker again saw the financial value in placing singles on budget albums with the idea of increasing royalties (a misguided line of reasoning because the budget albums were so poorly compiled that they had commercial limitations and short-term value). You are correct though, it was appalling at the incompetency surrounding RCA's release strategy, which was directed by Tom Parker and accepted by Elvis.

 

Here are his MOR/Contemporary Country albums sales: (initial/as of 2017)

Elvis (Fool) (1973) 200K/350K (This album went OOP within year or so of having been released. The supplementary sales were probably while on CD)
Raised On Rock (1973) 200K/275K
Good Times (1974) 200K/225K
Promised Land (1975) 300K/425K
Elvis Today (1975) 350K/400K
From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976) 400K/600K
Welcome To My World 400K/1.4M
Moody Blue (1977) 400K/2.3M

None of them barn burners. But few Elvis LPs were, at least during their initial chart run.

 

Great post. No yawns from me as I absolutely adore Burning Love. Doesn’t bother me if Elvis liked or disliked the song. I’m not a student of or studied Presley’s music in detail, but I know what I like and Burning Love is one of those tracks that I will always turn up the volume when it comes on. To me, it’s a rocks and that’s all that matters to me. May be heresy, but I put Burning Love up with Suspicious Minds and Kentucky Rain in my primo Elvis list.

 

No doubt. Not that reaching # 1 is everything, as many chart toppers have sold far less than many non
# 1s. Still, it reached the top on Cashbox which was aimed more at weekly sales than Billboard which focused on a combo of sales and airplay, where it reached # 2. Regardless, it was a huge record and his biggest since Suspicions Minds for a reason.

 

I really liked Roseanne's music from the 80's. She even used some of Elvis's TCB band a lot too on her studio recordings, like Glen Hardin and Tony Brown on piano. Seven Year Ache is one of my all time favorite songs. Just fantastic lyrics and a melody that you simply cannot get out of your head. I guess I like her father's music a lot more than you do, but I understand that some people might not consider him a great singer in the traditional sense as he has a very narrow vocal range, but he is a great singer neverthetheless to my ears. I mean if God ever chose to sing to us, he just might pick Cash's voice to do it.

 

Thank you for the compliment, and I totally agree with you about the greatness of those three songs, Suspicious Minds, Kentucky Rain, and Burning Love. All three of those songs would be candidates for my top ten favorite Elvis songs of all time in any given week.

 

I see it the same way as you do Jason, but perhaps you and I appreciate the country genre a lot more than some of our other Elvis fans. I really do not think there was anywhere else Elvis could logically go to get consistent radio airplay without losing all credibility or sanity as an artist. I mean he was not going to follow the latest disco phase or become a hard rock artist, which is something he never desired or tried to be in the first place. I do wish he had experimented with his appreciation for blues and soul music a little more, even if it meant sacrificing some on the commercial side. Charlie Rich made arguably his greatest album in his career, Pictures and Paintings, when he pursued his own musical muse for the first time, with Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick's direct help ironically. It is also one of his most meager selling albums, despite the fact that it also maybe one of his very best albums. Commercial success and artistic success are often two very different things in the music business as Elvis found out with both Elvis Is Back! and From Elvis In Memphis.

 

I'm really curious about the Separate Ways album covers. Who designed the U.S. cover in the first place? It stands out for being different than the average Elvis cover of the time, but it's also corny beyond belief. It's hard to believe the designer wasn't producing deliberate satire... It's almost Terry Gilliamesque.

But the real puzzle is the British cover. Why was it redesigned? The original cover is silly, but it at least makes sense... Elvis is standing at a crossroads, symbolizing the "separate ways" in the lyric. Whereas on the new cover, he's standing in the middle of the freeway. And he's gigantic. What sense does this make? And it must also have been confusing to British audiences that a U.S. highway was used, so the cars are going the wrong way from a British perspective. One is almost left with the conclusion that British RCA redesigned the cover because the original wasn't quite silly enough. It's hard to think of any other plausible reason.

 

I had some catching up to do but I've enjoyed the various opinions on the Burning Love and Separate Ways albums. I'll start by saying that I absolutely loved the Burning Love single and loath the album to this day. The songs on the Burning Love LP could have at least been some rockers from Elvis' movie days instead of the bizarre mish mash junk that was used. Now to the Separate Ways single and album. To my ear Always On My Mind is the clear A-side on the single. After the This Is Elvis soundtrack LP came out, the unreleased strings overdubbed version of Always On My Mind became my go to version. What can I say about the song Separate Ways? It's ok musically and Elvis does a decent job on vocals but I've never liked the song lyrically. I could never put my finger on exactly why I didn't like it until I heard the term "mansplaining". That is exactly what the song lyrics do. Unlike songs like I've Lost You or Always On My Mind where the singer knows that the relationship is in serious trouble and is desperately trying to reconnect with his love, Separate Ways is a bore. It's as if he sits his wife down and explains the demise of the relationship with bar graphs and pie charts and gives a yawn inducing PowerPoint presentation on what they can expect as a divorced couple. As for the Separate Ways album, I like it. It has a country vibe even if it is mostly old material, it just works (unlike the Burning Love LP that seems like the musical equivalent of floor scrapings from the slaughter house piled onto a choice cut of meat and then packaged).

 

The Separate Ways Album Cover is probably the most "artistic" of all of the Camden albums. I can think of a few album covers to place along side of Separate Ways by Elvis.












What other album covers fit in this set?

 

Cash related how traumatised yet defiant he was when his voice completely gave out at a 1962 Carnegie Hall gig thanks to his colossal appetite for uppers.

A man I didn't know who'd been watching me from the corner of the dressing room came over and said "It's called Dexedrine isn't it?"
"What is?"
"What you're taking."
"Yeah. Why?"
"I just kinda recognised it...I've been into all that stuff myself...That stuff will kill you, y'know."
I had a whole arsenal of flippant little dismissals for occasions like this. "Yeah?" I said. "Well so will a car wreck." [abridged]

 

ALOHA FROM HAWAII VIA SATELLITE (LP)
(US) RCA VPSX 6089
Released: February 1973



Released February 4, 1973
Recorded January 14, 1973
Genre Rock, pop
Length 62:48
Label RCA Records
Producer Joan Deary, Marty Pasetta

Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite is a live album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released by RCA Records in February 1973. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard chart in the spring of the same year. Despite the satellite innovation, the US did not air the concert until April 4. Aloha from Hawaii (which was a worldwide ratings smash) went to #1 on the Billboard album chart.[6] The album dominated the charts, reaching #1 in both the pop and country charts in the US.

Aloha from Hawaii is a two-disc set—only the second such release of Presley's career (the first being 1969's double set From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis, which contained one album each of studio and concert recordings). It was initially released only in quadraphonic sound, becoming the first album in the format to top the Billboard album chart. After Quadrophonic sound failed to catch on, RCA issued a standard stereophonic version of the album.

The album contains all the live performances from the TV special, but omits the five songs Presley recorded after the show and which were featured on the original broadcast; these would be issued later on the album Mahalo from Elvis. The album also omits Presley's brief announcement concerning the concert being presented for the benefit of the Kui LeeCancer Fund.

This is the penultimate live album that Presley released during his lifetime, the last being Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis the following year. (Later soundtracks for the TV special Elvis in Concert and the documentary This Is Elviswere released posthumously).

Side one
1. "Also Sprach Zarathustra" Richard Strauss 1:11
2. "See See Rider" Ma Rainey, Lena Arant 2:27
3. "Burning Love" Dennis Linde 3:09
4. "Something" George Harrison 3:28
5. "You Gave Me a Mountain" Marty Robbins 3:15
6. "Steamroller Blues" James Taylor 3:04
Side two
1. "My Way" Claude François, Jacques Revaux, Paul Anka 3:58
2. "Love Me" Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller 1:53
3. "Johnny B. Goode" Chuck Berry 1:42
4. "It's Over" Jimmie Rodgers 2:08
5. "Blue Suede Shoes" Carl Perkins 1:15
6. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" Hank Williams 2:15
7. "I Can't Stop Loving You" Don Gibson 2:25
8. "Hound Dog" Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller 0:55
Side three
1. "What Now My Love" Gilbert Bécaud, Carl Sigman 3:15
2. "Fever" Eddie Cooley, John Davenport 2:47
3. "Welcome to My World" John Hathcock, Ray Winkler 1:53
4. "Suspicious Minds" Mark James 4:26
5. "Introductions by Elvis" — 1:41
Side four
1. "I'll Remember You" Kui Lee 2:33
2. "Long Tall Sally" / "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" (medley) Robert Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, Richard Penniman / Dave "Curley" Williams 2:08
3. "An American Trilogy" Mickey Newbury 4:31
4. "A Big Hunk O' Love" Aaron Schroeder, Sidney Wyche 1:56
5. "Can't Help Falling in Love" George Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore 2:54
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I was 4 years old when this happened, I guess it is possible I saw it, but I son't remember it.
This was a huge event. This was a first. The biggest music star the world knew was playing a concert in the middle of the pacific ocean, and the whole world was going to get a chance to watch it.
I can't imagine how nerve wracking it must have been to know that you are about to play the biggest concert ever held. I suppose in this day and age it seems quite trivial, but in 1973, the though of satellite broadcasting an event all over the world was a completely new idea.
Here is a short Rolling Stone Article Flashback: Elvis Presley’s ‘Aloha From Hawaii’ Marks His Final Truly Great Moment

I actually like this album, I know we're probably going to keep on with the Elvis was losing it mindset, but that all seems a little futile to some degree. To me, Elvis put on a very good performance in light of all the extreme circumstances. Although there may have been a couple of weaker performances, I think there were some truly wonderful performances and when I lkistened to the album the other day, I really enjoyed it.
To be honest I normally watch one of the dvd concerts, and they somewhat make the cd a bit redundant, but anyhow.
I think it's a pretty good set, that mixes up the proceedings a little, and it seems taylor-made for the international audience that was going to see it.

Have no doubts, this was a landmark event, and important on a whole bunch of levels. Even though this event was sparked by Parker knowing he had to get Elvis out to the rest of the world, but he was too controlling to allow Elvis to tour without him, and Parker being an illegal alien in the US was unable to leave the country, or he wouldn't get back in. Yet another manipulative piece of work, from the man so often lauded as being a great manager, yet mismanaged the biggest star in the world for so long, that nobody seemed to notice.

Anyhow, I reckon this is a very good album, sure it has faults, but it is actually live, it is recorded well, and for my money, Elvis puts on a good performance.

So what do you guys reckon about this album, and concert?
If any of you guys would care to share your feelings about the actual televised event, especially folks that weren't in the US, it would be great to hear about.
Please give us your heart and mind on this album, concert, dvd, and satellite tv event, and we'll hook into it tomorrow.

 

Concert starts at 2:00

 

The Rehearsal Concert

 

The Multiscreen version

 

Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite favorites...

It's Over
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
What Now My Love
I'll Remember You
A Big Hunk O' Love

 

I enjoy the audio of the show, and Elvis looks great (for possibly the last time! It's a shame about the cover photo...) but I found the concert a bit boring to watch as I was surprised at how little he moves - even in Elvis on Tour he's jumping around a bit, but for Aloha he appears almost stationary other than at the conclusion of a song - it's very odd. Perhaps he was nervous... maybe I'll watch the rehearsal show to see if he moves a bit more. A great version of American Trilogy though.