Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

My first post in this thread (and a little untimely). I've heard all the regular albums released by Elvis during his lifetime, but some of them (like the soundtracks, i'ts been a while since the last time i've played them). Probably i'll be more active when you enter the 70's.

Anyway, i only want to add that i remember reading a review of Harum Scarum, which declared very seriously, that this album was an "important inspiration" for the mid-60's interest in eastern music that The Beatles, Stones, Byrds and others eventually developed. Any company will be happy hiring this particular reviewer as their marketing man.

 

Welcome, feel free to chip in anywhere you feel comfortable to.

 

HUGE step up. The songs are competently mixed and actually sound good. Sadly, the mixing/sound will deteriorate again on some of the 1966-67 recordings, though it never again gets as bad as Harum Scarum/F&J.

"Scratch My Back" is probably the best song on the record from a purely musical perspective (though there's a couple of other songs I like better overall for non-musical reasons, which we'll get to tomorrow). The lyrics are pretty inane, but musically it's got a nice do-woppy feeling as Steve noted. What's with the G/B/K fascination with back scratching, though? They return to the theme next album...

"Drums of the Island" feels like hackwork to me. It's about as generic a Hawaiian style song as you could ask for.

 

Ironically, George Harrison’s interest in the sitar was sparked by its use by extras during the filming of Help!, a film that is as bad as the Elvis movies of the era in general, and which traffics in many of the same “exotic Oriental” clichés as Harum Scarum in particular.

 

Agree with you in everything but considering Help as bad as Elvis movies from the era. Perhaps the plot is as silly as Elvis ones, but production-wise, and most important song-wise, i think Help is much much better than most Elvis movies from the 60's. Just compare the way in which the songs are presented, while the Elvis ones (not always, but generally) follows the old Hollywood Musicals clichés from past decades, the songs in Help are pioneering MTV-styled videos.

 

I don't recall any Elvis films from 1965 being directed by Richard Lester and having songs anywhere as good as "Help!," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," or "Ticket to Ride." The film's storyline is intentionally silly, as are its use of “exotic Oriental” clichés, and they're used with more humor and style than in a badly directed, garish, bargain basement Elvis film like Harum Scarum. It's certainly true that very few people consider Help! a better film than a Hard Day's Night. But only a defensive Elvis fan would consider it as bad as the movies that destroyed Elvis's reputation.

 

If the songs in Help! are pioneering MTV-styled videos, what is Jailhouse Rock?



Of course Help! has better songs than Harum Scarum or Paradise Hawaiian Style, but it’s just as awful as a movie. Just like the Elvis movies, it’s a travelogue - now we’re in the Alps! Now we’re in the Bahamas! I guess its advantage over the Elvis movies is that they generally stuck to one exotic location, while Help! gives the viewer several of them. But the script is awful, the Beatles were high all day every day and didn’t care or try to act, and, as I noted above, the “plot,” and I use that word loosely, traffics in basically the same Oriental clichés as Harum Scarum.

 

I still think that Help!, as silly as his plot is, is a little more interesting than the boy-meets-girl-in-exotic-location formula which Elvis films were mostly based at the time. It has an hilarious British humor, courtesy of Richard Lester, which i found more appealling. Also, i've just compared Help! with Elvis movies of the 60's, and used the word "most" intentionally, because probably Flaming Star or Wild In The Country are better films than the Beatles's one. That also leaves Jailhouse Rock, the film and the video of the song, out of the comparison.

 

To me, Help! Isn’t much more than a James Bond 007 cash-in. And I say this as someone who is a Beatle fan.

 

There’s less boy-meets-girl, but just as much exotic location.

If Help! is hilarious, it’s unintentionally hilarious. But then I don’t find Monty Python, Benny Hill, or most British humor funny at all.

 

If you have very little ability to appreciate British humor (my condolences by the way), then you're not in good position to know whether the humor in a British film is intentional or not.
Incidentally, Elvis himself was a huge fan of Peter Sellers (whose humor influenced that of the Beatles) and Monty Python.

 

Help! is quite a bad film, I think. It's boring, it's silly, and yeah it's quite racist and wouldn't get past script-approval today (and rightly so). It's one of the rare instances -- maybe the only one such -- where The Beatles were trapped into "playing The Beatles" for the lowest-common denominator audience.

I do think some of Elvis's post-Army films are better than that. I'd certainly rather watch Wild in the Country or Viva Las Vegas than Help!.

The difference, of course, is that The Beatles controlled their manager, not the other way around. When they (quickly) realized that Help! was a bit crappy, they immediately decided they weren't doing a third film unless they completely controlled it, and that was that. Whereas Elvis just kept churning 'em out according to the Tom Parker's schedule.

 

We're getting off topic, but there's a WIDE variance between types of British humor. There's about as much similarity between Benny Hill and Monty Python as there is between Henny Youngman and George Carlin.

I agree that Help isn't particularly funny, nor does it exemplify the intellectual, absurdist style of British humor that the Goons and Monty Python did to perfection (in my opinion). It's like an extended episode of the Monkees with a bigger budget... much more silly than witty.

 

In 1967 they (or at least Paul) got their chance to completely control a film ... and promptly turned out an even more incoherent stoned travelogue redeemed only by the great songs they couldn’t help but write.

 

At least they actually went overseas to film them. Double Trouble, anyone?

 

Elvis and Beatles films are apples and oranges anyway. Elvis did genuinely want to pursue dramatic and comedy roles and did a great job to that end in films like King Creole, Flaming Star, Wild In The Country, and Follow That Dream. Unfortunately, audiences preferred Elvis in formula light fare musicals like G.I. Blues, Blue Hawaii, and Viva Las Vegas. Elvis did start to leave that formula very late in his movie career but the formulaic "Elvis Movie" was already set in the public mind. Elvis surely knew by that time that no breakthrough role was going to materialize.
The Beatles on the other hand had no serious prospects of anything more than a light comedy fare to be the vehicle for some great songs. I have read that Ringo did have a desire to do serious acting. I'm not sure about the others. Even if they had all wanted dramatic roles, it wouldn't have been as The Beatles on a film. They had too much invested in the playful, witty (sometimes), self deprecating humor that was their image. The closest an Elvis movie came to being like a Beatles movie would have to be Tickle Me. The music was poached from previous studio sessions so the plot line was arranged to accommodate the songs instead of the music being written to accommodate the movie. The movie was campy and silly and it gives me that Hard Days Night vibe. Elvis actually comes across Beatle-esque IMO.

 

Datin'
Written By :
Fred Wise & Randy Starr

Recorded :
Radio Recorders, Hollywood, July 26-27 and August 2-4, 1965 : August 4, 1965. take 14

This song a little bit of strut about it, but falls just short in terms of classic Elvis. It is a pretty good song, and certainly for me a lot better than most of the songs on the last two albums. To me so far this album is an improvement on F&J and HS ... but it would be hard to make worse albums.

 

A Dog's Life
Written By :
Sid Wayne & Ben Wiseman

Recorded :
Radio Recorders, Hollywood, July 26-27 and August 2-4, 1965 : August 4, 1965. take 9

Again this song is certainly not Devil In Disguise, but it is still better than what went prior. So far aside from Queenie, I actually quite like this album to be honest.

 

Just for the Record ... Is the Elvis Sings Memphis Tennessee FTD, the missing 63 album we were talking about earlier?

 

The lyrics to Datin' and A Dog's Life are pretty dire, but on a musical level, both songs are quite good, with catchy guitar riffs and some snappy drumming. It's a measure of Elvis' talent that he was able to sing the absurd lyrics with such energy and power, particularly on A Dog's Life. I always enjoy hearing these songs.

 

Yes; it has the same songs as The Lost Album (aka For The Asking), albeit in a different sequence. I'd say it's an essential purchase if you enjoy early 60s Elvis. The "first takes" section is particularly entertaining (as it often is on the Classic Album FTDs).

 

Cheers mate!

 

Datin' is one of my least favorite Elvis tracks but I do kinda like A Dog's Life. Probably because it's a bit fun to play on guitar.

 

"Datin'" is worthwhile just for the wiggle-walkin' outtakes.