There have been more than a few songwriters who use "bitter" like it is grammar for more than just "bit". Hey he is bit, but his sister is bitter. It SHOULD be the MORE bitter they are, the harder they fall. Big Head Todd has a song that does this too. Bittersweet Surrender: "It's bittersweet, more sweet than bitter, Bitter than sweet" Yeah it's bitter than sweet. ha ha.
That's only because it was the first song tackled at the sessions, and those releases went for a chronological approach. It is one of the better results from that week in February 1976.
Just when you think things might be starting to get better with the opener song on side 2, Bam!, here comes round two. At this point in the album, I'm fighting to keep a cheerful attitude. That's why I think the sequencing is what makes this album work so well. Elvis does a fine job here.
This is another gem on this album. Elvis at this point in the album is almost saying to me that "hey you wanted to know about pain and loneliness? Here you go! I heard someone say of Elvis that at this point in his life that he only felt alive on stage. After the show and until the next show, that was the loneliest man that he'd ever known. He doesn't have to stretch to sell these lyrics just like most songs on this album.
Ugh, Solitaire. Solitaire was one of those ubiquitous songs of the 70s. If you watched any 70s variety show more than a couple times, you would invariably see some celebrity take a crack at it. "This week on Tony Orlando... Karl Malden sings Solitaire. This week on Donny and Marie... Fred Grandy and Lauren Tewes duet on Solitaire." It was one of those songs that blended corny melodrama and bombast in a way that was uniquely 70s and uniquely appealed to a 70s audience. Solitaire is as 70s and bell bottoms and polyester. And who was more of a sucker for melodrama and bombast than Elvis? No one, that's who. Elvis' recording of the song is exactly what you would expect. Aside from maybe the Ramones, I don't think there is any 70s artist who could have recorded Solitaire and made me like it. But Elvis in 1976 certainly wasn't going to do anything to make the song palatable. As much as I wish we had more recordings from Elvis, I will say that I am actually thankful that Feelings never got beyond the rehearsal stage in the Jungle Room and he never attempted a vocal. And that he didn't live long enough to take a crack at You Light Up My Life, something that would have been inevitable if he'd lived into 1978. Elvis could sing just about anything, but that doesn't mean he should.
Reflecting more on these recordings and my dislike of some of them, I think the problems (for me) are twofold. One is that Elvis is wholeheartedly embracing a genre (easy listening/adult contemporary) that I am not a big fan of and prefer in small doses. And two is that he's lost much of his gift for subtlety and nuance. I've used "melodramatic" as an adjective many times in discussion of this album, and I'm hard pressed to think of a better word. I think a song like Bitter They Are would have benefited from a subtler approach, more like his sublime 1967 reading of You Don't Know Me. That type of approach is mostly gone in 1976, and he's like an old slugger who always swings for the fences and often strikes out as a result. Here's the original Dottie West version. It's more country and less Humperdinck than Elvis' version, and her vocal is subtler. I wish Elvis would have dialed it back sometimes in 1976:
I think the grammatical error in this case is intentional on Gatlin's part, as it's a pun on "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." If he added "more" to the phrase, the pun would not be as effective.
That was funny. Doesn't sound pretty. Disagree with the rest. I was a kid in the 70s so don't have the baggage you speak of. The way I see it, it's a bit like poetry. You learn it at school and and think ...what's it for?? God it's awful stuff. Then life hits you and the words you were forced to learn come back in a way that's surprisingly comforting. The take on the Jungle Room FTD is my favourite. Sounds achingly beautiful, understated and bombast-free to these ears.
I have to say, I am in much the same mind. Until last year I am not sure whether I ever heard Solitaire or not .. So I have no scars lol
I find "Bitter They Are" moving, whereas "Solitaire" leaves me cold (and I'm not familiar with most of the other versions). To my ears, Elvis sounds engaged and genuinely sorrowful on "Bitter," but stolid and uninspired on "Solitaire." This might be down to the quality the songs. "Bitter" is over-produced but has a core of simple feeling that Elvis sinks himself into. The lyrics are effective and efficient in their simplicity: "I told her to leave me alone/That's what she's done, just what she's done." It's a slow march through the wreckage of a love affair caused by the singer. "Solitaire" deals with a similar subject but spells everything out in too much detail, so the poetic symbol in the title becomes labored and obvious by the end. It's purple melodrama masquerading as poetry, and as with "The Last Farewell" Elvis becomes a less interesting and less inventive singer when he's deferential to undeserving material.
Oh I know it is intentional, so is Big Head Todd's and everyone else who's ever done it. But it gets old after the first dozen times. There are other words treated this way in song, I can't think of other at the moment. But I relish Dylan's rhyming Road with Knowed.
Comparing the pathos of this album to the likes of his recordings of Anything That's Part Of You, You Don't Know Me, I'll Remember You, I Met Her Today (the list is LOOOONG) he is now depending on maudlin, pathetic, self-pity than the fantastic interpretive skills and his master of tone and virtuoso vocal performances.
Elvis by the 70s has more in common with the fore mentioned Engelbert Humperdinck and the likes of Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, Wayne Newton, Tom Jones, Paul Anka, Barry Manilow than he had with Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holley, Chuck Berry, Fat Domino, Solomon Burke, Ivory Joe Hunter or Roy Hamilton. He lost the flick. He abdicated his throne.
I don't see any of those first artists you mention having much of an impact on country music, where Elvis seemed to be concentrating his efforts in the middle 70's. Tom Jones finally managed to score one single number one country song in 1977, but Elvis would go out with 6 number one country albums during the last part of his legacy as a recording artist. Elvis had almost nothing in common with Barry Manilow or Engelbert, other than the latter artist and Elvis both cut pretty fine versions of Spanish Eyes and There Goes My Everything. I cannot begin to picture Barry Manilow or Neil Sedaka cutting strong versions of Polk Salad Annie, Proud Mary, Walk A Mile In My Shoes, Merry Christmas Baby, Burning Love, Don't Think Twice It's All Right, Steamroller Blues, I Got A Feeling In My Body, Promised Land, T-R-O-U-B-L-E, or Way Down. I doubt that either was capable of cutting both a Grammy winning album (He Touched Me) or a Grammy Winning live concert song (How Great Thou Art -1974 version From Elvis Live On Stage In Memphis). Elvis had obviously become more infatuated with MOR styled music as he got older, but there was still some country/rock left in the boy as well, right up to his final recordings.
I don't think that was a conscious decision. I think that was who he was at that point and that was all he had left.
"Maudlin, pathetic self-pity" is a valid emotion. Not the most noble, perhaps, but I've been there, and Elvis captures it perfectly in many of the JR recordings. Whilst I prefer the beauty of the early 60s recordings, few of them have the raw emotion of the JR performances.
You're lucky. If you were in the US in the 70s and had any contact with radio or TV (or ventured into a store that played muzak) there was no way you could NOT hear Solitaire eventually. But like I said, that pales in comparison to the thought of Elvis doing Feelings.
What was it that singer/actress Julia Andrews said about the song Feelings? Something along the likes of "Its just too hard to sing, because the lyrics actually have no real meaning." I am actually quite fond of the lyrics to Solitaire, but it might have been interesting for Elvis to take a crack at Sedaka's The Hungry Years as well. 4:07NOW PLAYING
I can remember those days TOO vividly and I was just a kid! You have a great flair for describing the variety tv wasteland back then. Folks singing Rhinestone Cowboy with a glazed look and dimpled smiles that would make any Stepford wife envious. I do think Elvis nailed the song however as he could relate to the lyrics well, even with the cheese. I might also add that Karl Malden could probably relate to those lyrics too. Everyone wants you to be there for them when their traveler's checks get stolen but do they want to help you through your rough times? Karl would probably say that was a big fat NO! I'm glad that Elvis never took a swing at People Who Need People though.
I disagree. We can't have it both ways. Through most of the movie soundtracks and even into the 1970s, we longed for Elvis to record what he wants and cast publishing concerns to the four winds. Every one of us has a long list of songs that were around back then that we would have loved for him to take a swing at. What does he record? The Last Farewell, Solitaire, Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, etc. are the answers. Is this really unexpected? Way back when Elvis walked into Sun records to make a private recording (and unofficially audition), what did he choose to wow Sam Phillips with? A poppin' R&B song? An uptempo dance song? NOPE! He plopped down his money to record My Happiness and That's When Your Heartaches Begin. He loved the goop as some have said. It worked at least good enough until he could stumble onto That's All Right and really wow Sam Phillips. It's funny that he was so well suited for Rock & Roll though. I think he would have been content to record ballads and gospel. I've read that Karen Carpenter wanted so badly to be a rock performer but her commercial success was easy listening pop songs. It's like Elvis was the opposite and was a rocker that preferred the easy listening stuff.
Elvis surely loved r&b music too. His best lp, EIB, is full of it. He just wasn't really into it by the mid 70s. Something got lostalong the way.
Sadly I think it was his heart. Even an R&B song that has a sad theme seems to have a bit of heart.... like a wry smile in the face of adversity. I think we kind of see Elvis heart break in slow motion over the course of about six years ... and then it just stopped working altogether ....