Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

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

  1. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Most music fans are CASUAL music fans. They only care about the hits. Isn't there a industry quote that goes something like this: "I don't know what I like, but I LIKE what I KNOW."? Regardless of the artist, if you are a serious fan, you will often find the "deep cuts" to be some of your favorites, even over the hits.
     
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  2. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    I find on ALL the songs from EIC CD that Elvis' voice when he puts any force or volume in his voice it has a nasal-like and cutting/thin quality to it. Something completely unheard of just a few year prior.
     
  3. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    As for reissuing EIC on CD. I would like Sony to re-edit it. First of all take out ALL the fan commentary and even Vernon's epilogue. I would rearrange the songs to as best as possible to simulate the running order of either of the two concerts from which they came. I would eliminate any and all overdubs. I would include Unchained Melody. I do not care whether they re-release the special on DVD or Bluray or not. I would like the CD straighten out as I described though.

    I have made a CD-r doing this, but I would like a nice Sony release doing so.
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I agree totally
    Also Sprach Zarathuthra
    See See Rider
    I Got A Woman/ Amen
    That's All right
    Are You Lonesome tonight
    Love Me
    If You Love You
    You Gave Me a Mountain
    Jailhouse Rock
    O Solo Mio/ It's Now Or Never
    Trying to get To You
    Hawaiian Weeding Song
    Teddy Bear
    Don't Be Cruel
    My Way
    Early Morning Rain
    What'd I Say
    Johnny B Goode
    I Really Don't Want To Know
    Hurt
    Hound Dog
    Unchained Melody
    Can't Help Falling In Love
    Perhaps a bonus EP of all the talking, for those who love it..... and yes I will remix it in 5.1 :)
     
  5. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I must be crazy too, and I guess so is Elvis author Robert Matthew-Walker, because he likes this version as much as we seem to as well. Yeah, I really dig those blaring Spanish trumpets on the chorus.
     
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  6. shanebrown

    shanebrown Forum Resident

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    The problem here, I guess, is that the footage is already out there and has been broadcast on TV around the world forty years ago, and licenced for use in This is Elvis and The Great Performances, amongst other documentaries. That said, I don't see any reason why it should be released on DVD.

    But the audio issue is very strange, I think. It has been intimated by Ernst that the Estate don't want FTD to do something with Elvis in Concert audio, which seems downright nuts given that FTD have given us some decidedly ropey performances captured on soundboard, and also the recordings from the spring tours - and that the original double album was issued in 1977, reissued in UK and mainland Europe in 1985, and released on CD in 1993 on both sides of the Atlantic and been in print pretty much ever since. It does seem odd, bearing that in mind, for the powers that be to then pretend that the recordings don't exist. With the exception of And I Love You So, there is nothing worse vocally here than the worst of EP Boulevard, and one has to wonder if the Sony/Estate would be viewing these recordings in the same way if it wasn't for the fact they were videoed at the same time. That's not me saying there is artistic worth here, because there isn't, but In Concert has been part of the Elvis story for 42 years, and for the recordings to be ignored even within items destined solely for fans just seems ridiculous.
     
  7. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Until this subject was brought up here and on FECC how EIC was the legacy that brought us the terrible impersonators and all the derision against Elvis' image and so on. It never really clicked in my head that EIC was the reason for this. Why? Because in my life my being an Elvis fan has ALWAYS brought on sniggers and ridicule well before Elvis died. I have the experience of people making fun of Elvis as far back as I can remember. So I think even if there was no EIC, his posthumous depiction in pop culture would still be ridden with the fat talentless impersonators, the ridicule, the fat man in a jumpsuit, the clown from the movies etc. There are people who out and out HATE Elvis. And he is a joke to many more.

    So, I am very glad to be among his true fans here on this thread. And I appreciate (although am still taken back and confused by) the MANY people who like and even prefer the 70s Elvis over the rest.
     
  8. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    An excellent idea by @SKATTERBRANE and put together in great fashion by Mark. Yes indeed, I would gladly buy a remastered CD version of this live compilation. It just shows the oversight of not including Elvis's last version of Unchained Melody on the original album. I don't care if there was a another version of it on Moody Blue, it still belonged on Elvis's last live album as well. Nice job, gentlemen!
     
  9. ZoSoUK

    ZoSoUK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cambridge UK
    its not a battering ram but its fact ! i actually love all of those songs you listed except padre ! elvis would have cut them anyway even if he was totally drug free, just like he cut "my happiness"

    its not his song choices - its his performances that are affected by drugs that is the issue and you cannot ignore that fact because the drugs had a HUGE bearing on his voice & ability ! its like putting a boxer in the ring who lost 1 arm, hes going to be able to box but obviously not like if he had 2 arms !

    i AGREE that the music is first & foremost but you cant ignore the drugs because they played a huge part in EVERYTHING ! to his detriment
     
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  10. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Such a fine post there, Skatterbrane, that I had to highlight it. I agree with every point you make there. People have made fun of Elvis since the very beginning of his career, whether saying he couldn't sing at all at the very start of his career in the early 50's, which would actually be funny, if it was not so ludicrous, to mocking his cheesy movies in the middle sixties, to attacking his country/MOR tastes in the 1970's. Just remember a lot of people made fun of Abraham Lincoln's gangly looks back in his day too, so there is no accounting for cruelty and poor taste among the folks out there, but just like you, I respect most of the differences among all of us Elvis fans, and I especially admire members like @Dirk, @Spencer R, @Shawn and @Dave, who are not the least bit afraid to challenge the conventional wisdom on Elvis or his music.
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2019
  11. I've got an idea, they should do an album Having Fun Offstage that's nothing but fan comments, from all stages of his career. We could get the two sisters who have now been edited out of TTWII, comments comparing Elvis to Marconi and Bell and - for the limited edition vinyl version - the run-out groove could be 'locked' so it plays 'he's a good, clean fella' over and over again.

    ;)
     
  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    We could even patch in Ed Sullivan's very fine young man speech as well ... So much fun could be had....
    These fan blurbs could be set to music.... it could be like a float tank tape lol
     
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  13. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I think the drugs did play a part in some of his worst vocal performance as it could effect his breath control occasionally, but I do not agree with anyone who says it ruined all of his best vocals from the 70's or Elvis's voice was shot after 1971. Elvis's voice definitely changed as all male baritones do, but it was not all from drug use in my opinion, and I still think he had some amazing vocal chops right up until the end, but the drug use did become a factor in those last few years. I think it effected his stage persona and focus sometimes more than his raw vocal ability. It definitely caused his physical appearance to go to pieces in the last few years.
     
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  14. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Hey let's get it out now. In part 4 we can comment on RCA/BMG/Sony achievements and failures.
     
  15. I'm in agreement - the drugs without question affected his health (duh!), slurred vocals and focus/drive but let's not forget his poor diet and - like the rest of us - aging. A 42 year old will not sound like he did when 30. It's all these factors combined that led to his deteriorating vocals.
     
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  16. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Hey I sound just as bad at 63 as I did at 23. (but boy did I look good at 23)
     
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  17. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I should have added @Revelator, @czeskleba and our own thread leader, @mark winstanley to the fine list of rather independent minded, but critical fans among this forum. A lot of people I can pretty much accurately predict what they are going to say before they write it, but these fine posters, as well as the previous ones mentioned in my post above, are a lot more unpredictable, and I always look forward to their analysis, even when I don't agree with it, because they usually have something new to say that has not been already said a hundred times before on these Elvis threads.
     
  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    If you could predict what I was going to say before I did, you'd be doing better than I lol
     
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  19. Revelator

    Revelator Disputatious cartoon animal.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Heredity plays a part too, since Elvis's mother also had substance abuse issues, weight problems, and died in her 40s. Even without drugs, Elvis would have probably encountered health problems as he entered middle age.

    Over the course of this thread, I also realized that much of what I disliked about the vocals of the 1971-9173 period arose from increased drug use coupled with boredom, whereas the better Stax tracks and Elvis Today material coincided with periods of partial detox and/or rest. But shortly afterward Elvis became even more erratic, and as I think the Jungle Room sessions showed, his ability to deliver could fluctuate from one day to the next.

    In concert Elvis had to deliver an hour's worth of material upfront and wasn't up to it, so he threw away most of the songs and concentrated only on two or three that still meant something to him and could summon him out of his narcotics-induced haze. While searching for the Great Performances video of "Unchained Melody" I also sampled the EIC version, where Elvis introduces the song beforehand. He's a complete babbling mess, and if I didn't know what came afterward I'd predict he'd barely be able to stumble through the song. And yet when he sits down something locks in and he draws on an inner reserve, along with a larger-than-life expansiveness and warmth that might have characterized this period if he'd been healthy and continually able to give as much of himself. Moments like that are what a fan has to look for when they trawl through the recordings from 1976 and 1977.
     
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  20. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Here is the CD-r I made:

    Also Sprach Zarathuthra
    See See Rider
    That's All Right
    Are You Lonesome Tonight
    I Got A Woman/Amen
    Love Me
    Fairytale
    If You Love Me
    You Gave Me a Mountain
    Little Sister
    And I Love You So
    Jailhouse Rock
    How Great Thou Art
    O Solo Mio/ It's Now Or Never
    Trying to get To You
    Hawaiian Wedding Song
    Teddy Bear/Don't Be Cruel
    My Way
    Early Morning Rain
    What'd I Say
    Johnny B Goode
    I Really Don't Want To Know
    Hurt
    Hound Dog
    Unchained Melody
    Can't Help Falling In Love
     
  21. When In Rome

    When In Rome It's far from being all over...

    Location:
    UK
    That's gonna be some thread!
     
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  22. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    That’s my problem with the argument by the estate that “we can’t let this footage out there, we know the fans want it, but we can’t give the haters ammunition to make fun of Elvis with.” The footage is out there, and has been out there for 40 years. In the Internet age, it’s only a click away. Why would the haters drop $20 or $30 on a DVD of the 1977 special when they can simply type “Elvis 77” or “Fat Elvis” into the YouTube search bar, and make fun of Elvis for free? The first video that comes up when you type “Fat Elvis” into the YouTube search bar is the 1977 Unchained Melody clip. The entire 1977 CBS special is on YouTube, for free. The cat’s out of the bag. If Elvis’s estate truly cared about keeping this material out of the public eye, they’d send a cease and desist letter to YouTube, or sue YouTube if necessary. Prince kept tons of his videos off of YouTube for years. The Jimi Hendrix estate manages to keep the Hendrix Dagger bootleg albums off of YouTube. EPE has the money and resources to get this material off of YouTube, but they can’t be bothered to do so.

    If EPE is going to continue to turn a blind eye to this footage being out there for free in poor quality, I don’t understand their reluctance to present it to the super fans in the best possible quality.
     
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  23. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Yes there are a LOT of interesting (and also strange) releases after 1977. Some are FANTASTIC. And the Elvis in the 90s campaign ALMOST set the catalogue straight. (RCA, BMG, Sony always manage to fall short or not finish what they start, but not nearly as bad as the various start and stops of Van Morrison's various reissue programs. But then again not nearly as GOOD as the at least 3 successful Elvis Costello reissue programs! Then there are the non-stop King Crimson reissue programs)
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2019
  24. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    I think I like the EIC My Way best of all the versions of his I've heard. And the "meet you again, adios" in retrospect almost seems like a "we'll meet on the other side" comment. Just my sentimental imagination.
     
  25. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Hearing that line always sends a chill down the back of my neck.
     

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