Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Hound Dog
This particular clip misses the spoken intro that Was supposed to9 add some shock I guess... He talks about this deep meaningful track he's about to do and then explodes with this super powerful vocal .... I reckon this is a great piece of rock, but I have never understood why he just sings the one verse. I think this would be so much more effective with the other verse to break up the song a little.

 

Cissy Houston

 

I Can't Stop Loving You
This is quite a swinging version of this song, and again Elvis is pushing the vocal to the limits, and it sounds really good.

 

Cheers Mate

 

This is perhaps one of the biggest surprises I got from that album. Here is our man transforming a Country standard into a R&B song (plus those awesome Gospel backing vocals.) The thing is in the others renditions Elvis did over the years, he never recaptured that rhythm and blues feeling on that tune. It become more of a Country Pop/Rock (sort of) thing. But here, in 1969, it was infectious (Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin would have done it that way) and that was marvellous.

 

Oh I listened to Elvis almost exclusively from 1968-1970 or so. But to this day, I do not like to listen to the same SONG, let alone album more than once a week. (this is why I could never tolerate listening to the radio much). Furthermore, for me to watch the same movie more than 3 times in a lifetime would be incredibly unusual.

 

Are You Lonesome Tonight? is one of those indestructible Elvis songs for me. I've never heard a version that I didn't enjoy at least to some degree (yes, even the 1977 versions), but the In Person version is a particular favourite. The "laughing" version gets all of the kudos (or at least all of the attention), but there's something magical about the performance, the sound, the overall feel of the In Person version. I actually like the backing vocals - in fact, the relatively subtle ones near the very end ("Tell me, dear...") are what really seal the deal to me. I can't explain why...they just feel right.

Hound Dog is about as good as it gets for the post-1961 performances. It does a decent job at trying to capture the energy in the live 50s performances, but by speeding it up, the menace gets lot. Still, it's enjoyable enough.

We have quite a few versions of I Can't Stop Loving You; I think it appeared on all of his lifetime live albums save for On Stage, and even there, we got two extra versions on the FTD. It was obviously a live favourite of Elvis', and they're all decent performances, but the one that I really love is the rough run-through taped at American Sound. The slow pace works wonders, and a part of me wishes that they'd picked up on that jam and recorded a full version...but another part of me suspects that it wouldn't have captured the same magic. Anyway, as far as the live versions go, the In Person version of ICSLY works nicely in the context of the album, but it's not my preferred version (the backing vocals do get in the way a bit for me on this one).

 

That annoying spot when Elvis pauses was LOOPED by Failtone Jarvis. But I Can't Stop Loving You is one of the highlights on the album and the best version commercially released by Elvis. As for Are You Lonesome Tonight, I prefer his sitdown TV Special version over the '69 version. On the '68 version he achieves the softer falsetto. He does not even try to do this in '69. In fact in the '70s he abandons that soft upper register altogether. I don't mind the Cissy Houston backup singing at all.

Note about that fantasy 3 disc compilation. The Viva Las Vegas Bridge Over Trouble Waters is from 1970. He never sand that song in 1969.

 

I guess actually it's not an album cover but more an "alternate FTD CD cover" which they often print on the front of the included booklet. But great picture anyway.

 

I fear the public mind never really was aware (or they simply didn't care) of this release as "The Lost Album" was more or less from the beginning an album for hardcore Elvis collectors even if it was released by RCA (in the late 80s..?).

I'm not even sure if the public mind really was aware of the excellent documentary "The Searcher"? It's really a shame over here in Europe so far there's not even an official DVD release. And I think it didn't got a tv showing here, too.

To me the situation is such a downer. When I was listening to all the Elvis stuff I could get my hands on from the early 1980s onward there was no one I could share my enthusiasm with.
And I've got the impression it's getting worse and worse.
And the two times I went for holidays in the USA I got the impression most of the Americans don't care about Elvis anymore. They think he's a joke and stole the black men's songs (then the usual discussions: did Frank Sinatra wrote all of his songs? Did Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton wrote "Hound Dog"? Didn't the Beatles cover other hit recordings in their early years? In the 1950s it was a normal situation to have singers on the one side and songwriters ("The Brill Building") on the other side. And often songs were on the charts at the same time by different singers/ bands. Etc.).

When I visit the annual Elvis festival in Bad Nauheim it's a highlight for the region and it's a three days party. But on the other side they are not showing his movies on tv anymore. In the 1980s/90s there were always his movies screening during every official holidays (Easter/ christmas etc.). His songs are not heard on the radio anymore (only "In The Ghetto" but very rarely). How can the next generation even be aware of someone like Elvis?

When I visited last year the new fantastic Graceland complex it was nearly deserted. Something is very wrong. It would be heartbreaking if his legacy is gone in the next 10 years or so.
Sorry for throwing in here such a depressening view - that's maybe a total other discussion that has to be lead on an extra forum.

 

I love the "In Person" album. Especially "Johnny B. Goode", "My Babe", and "Words". Three of my all-time favorite Elvis tracks.

This is one that me and my brother would jam in the old '65 Mustang on the way to and from school. We wore that 8-track out!!

 

In Person is the live album that, as we discussed above, George Harrison apparently wanted Elvis to make: more so than anything that would follow, here we find Vegas Elvis primarily backed by a small rock band, with James Burton to the forefront to a degree that he would never be again. Whether on purpose or by accident, Elvis was finally back in tune with the times: on their own comeback tour in 1969, the Rolling Stones left psychedelia in the rear view mirror and featured two Chuck Berry songs - Little Queenie and Carol - in their set list every night, and here we have Elvis performing Johnny B. Goode and his own 50s classics as well as he ever would, even if there are hints of the boredom he would later exhibit with the likes of All Shook Up and Hound Dog. For me, the highlight of the opening rock and roll half of this album is My Babe, which repeats the success of Baby What You Want Me To Do from the Comeback Special in giving Elvis a raw, down and dirty blues to sink his teeth into. James Burton and the rest of the band really cook on this record, and we are introduced to the secret weapon of Elvis’s 70s career, the Sweet Inspirations, who add their powerful backing vocals to Elvis’s lead throughout. In typical Elvis fashion, arguably the best of the 50s rock numbers from the engagement, the Jailhouse Rock/Don’t Be Cruel medley, was originally left on the cutting room floor, but at least we have it today as an FTD or bonus track.

The real interest of the album comes with the final three numbers, where we shift to contemporary material. As always til near the very end of his life, Elvis demonstrates his uncanny ability to listen without prejudice and find a great song from any source, as he takes the Bee Gees’ Words and runs it through the Elvis filter, with amazing results. Once again, he turns a song from another genre into a quasi-R&B/gospel song, and the Sweet Inspirations are on stunning form on this number. In The Ghetto loses some of the subtlety of the studio recording, but both it and Suspicious Minds are powerful here. Before Elvis got bored with Suspicious Minds and started inserting all of the ad-libs such as “shove it up your nose” and “if this suit weren’t too tight,” it was a show-stopper. I’m a huge fan of the expanded arrangements and big band of the Joe Guercio orchestra that would soon follow: tracks such as Bridge Over Troubled Water and American Trilogy would become operatic in their power, but the relatively stripped-down and raw 1969 shows, as captured on In Person, are great in their own right.

 

If this suit weren't too tight is from You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.

 

"I hope this suit don't tear up baby"

 

Wasn't BOTW included in the first "Viva Las Vegas" disc (the best-of the 1970/1972 era)?

 

Elvis did not write his songs but he would breath some life into them, which is no easy task.
Does De Niro write the script of his movies? No, but he is still one of the best actors in the world by breathing life to his characters. Same with Elvis.
I think that there is a lot of snobbery when somebody dismisses Elvis legacy only because he did not write his lyrics.
And that he stole the black men's music is plain stupid.

Here in Spain, you can hear from time to time BURNING LOVE in "Rock FM" but that's it.

 

first section - that is a wonderful way of describing it! These days it seems the interpretive singer is classed as no good, because they didn't write a song ... and it is ridiculous.
second point - I think a large amount of people are finally starting to realise that Elvis was reflecting his environment, not stealing anyone's music. Thankfully greats like BB King and many others stood up and defended Elvis' on these matters. I believe even Public Enemy apologised for their ignorance, even though the damage was done.

 

You brought up a lot of good points!

The Searcher was good, but not enough imo, to tip the scales with changing Elvis' image here in the US.

 

Yes it was, but you notated it was 1969, it was actually 1970.

"SIDE D
Bridge Over Troubled Water (1969, "Viva Las Vegas")"

 

When you are as big as Elvis, stereotypes are going to dog you. I’ve met countless people over the years who seem to know Frank Sinatra primarily as the Rat Pack caricature, not as the genius interpretive singer that he was.

 

I enjoyed the Searcher, but there is so much more that needs to be covered. Elvis, his personality, his music, his hangers on, his management, his record company ... to try and really get one's head around all that would be probably five 2 hour movies lol ... but they really should have taken it to the American Studio sessions. It seemed to me like some good back story with a focus on the TV special
If they did one for the Sun days, one for the pre army Rca Days, one for the post army Rca days, One for the movies, One for the tv special, one for the american studios recordings, one for the stax recordings, one for the jungle room recordings, and one for the seventies live shows, we may get close to having a comprehensive documentary .... urrmmm and that's 9x 2 hour documentaries there... and that doesn't include any of the gossip type stuff hahaha

 

A docu-mini-series: "24 hours with Elvis"

 

Oups, sorry: my mistake.

 

I do not think that Parker had any influence whatsoever on Elvis's concert setlist from 1969 on, and for the most part I don't think he ever did, besides his fight to get at least one Christmas song included on the 68 Comeback Special.

 

I think that "The Searcher" is a wonderful documentary for newbies or simply for music lovers that, for some overwhelming reasons, do not know what was all the fuss about the King of Rock'n'roll. The best thing from this rockumentary, IMO, is that it's mostly focused on the music. For a change. Of course, you could focus on some particular studio session or on some special events but, as a doc about Elvis Presley career as a whole, I think it is pretty well done and enlightening.