Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Oct 7, 2018.

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  1. Iceman08

    Iceman08 Forum Resident

    What was the name again of the woman who sang the intro on "Crawfish"? I know it's not a duet but she had a fantastic voice and I bet it would have made an excellent duet if they gave her more lines of the song in the front.
     
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  2. Iceman08

    Iceman08 Forum Resident

    I'm so glad they discovered this acetate. To me it's one of the best rockin' tracks from him, voice- & rhythm-wise. I don't care about the lyrics, it has a lot of energy, Elvis gives his best voice and the drummer is great!
     
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  3. PepiJean

    PepiJean Forum Resident

    I agree, it should have been part of the "Roustabout" soundtrack in the first place, knowing how short it already was.
    Plus I'M A ROUSTABOUT is really fun, rock'n'rolling and everything.

    THIS IS THE STORY
    Some pretty nice vocals on a soulful melody: it's Elvis doing Percy Sledge during 2:30 minutes. Even if it's not among the top recordings of those sessions, I still wish Elvis had recorded more Soul ballads like this one after 1969.
     
  4. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    The verses on This Is The Story are pretty good, with that creepy-sounding guitar and a genuinely dark atmosphere, but the chorus really lets it down. It just doesn't work for me, musically or lyrically. It sounds like it's trying to go for a big, sweeping climax, and it doesn't get anywhere close.

    I like the undubbed master (as heard on Memphis Sessions) a lot more than the master. It's driven along by an organ-guitar combo that's much more effective than the strings-and-backing-vocals sound of the BIM version.
     
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  5. ClausH

    ClausH Senior Member

    Location:
    Denmark
     
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  6. ClausH

    ClausH Senior Member

    Location:
    Denmark
  7. Pelvis Ressley

    Pelvis Ressley Down in the Jungle Room

    Location:
    Capac, Michigan
    Kitty White.
     
  8. MRamble

    MRamble Forum Resident

    That's a classic shot of James and his boss.
     
  9. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I agree. Elvis just excelled at these types of soulful ballads as both you and @mark winstanley so well point out. Every time I listen to this album, I am always amazed by how much I enjoy each individual performance. And we have not even gotten to the best songs yet, but we are still off to a pretty good start. Obviously as so many of us have said before, this album could have been moved up dramatically in the Elvis hierarchy of albums by including a single or two from the American Sound sessions well. Even without them, Back In Memphis rates as a pretty good studio album in the Elvis cannon.
     
  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I would agree, but alter pretty good, to excellent.
     
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  11. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Elvis was certainly drawn to songs about failed relationships, but I think we should be careful not to just presume he's singing about Priscilla. Elvis had many relationships over his life, quite a few of them fairly serious despite being short-lived. The Memphis Mafia guys made a point of stressing that in their perception, Priscilla was not the love of Elvis' life but (at best) one of many. I'm sensitive to this because it seems that since his death she's tried to inflate her importance, or (as Marty Lacker put it) to get people to think she's Elvis' widow rather than his ex-wife.

    This is the Story is an average song that is elevated by Elvis' performance and the overall creative vibe of the sessions. At these sessions Elvis made great songs into masterpieces, but he also made average songs seem better than they were, and I think that's the case here. I'm puzzled this one got the nod over better tracks that were overlooked. This one should be Camden fodder in my opinion.
     
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  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  13. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    I liked it, too. I also appreciated that they were equal subjects of the photo. A lot of the other ones were Elvis and a tiny James WAY in the background.

    I may get another one that is color and features the pink paisley Tele since I own one of those.
     
  14. MRamble

    MRamble Forum Resident

    That's a great point actually which is why I probably always loved that photograph. Those two figures are equally huge in my book for different reasons.
     
  15. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Stranger In My Own Hometown
    Written By :
    Percy Mayfield

    Recorded :

    American Studios, Memphis, February 17-22, 1969 : February 17, 1969. take 1

    I really like this song, but perhaps not as much as everyone else seems to.
    We start off we a really solid beat, with the bass and the drums and then we get the horns playing a really well spaced series of riffs. Also notice the call and response going on between the horns and the organ. It has a really nice feel and works well.
    Elvis comes in and gives us a somewhat laconic vocal delivery and then at the end of the phrase yells something I haven't made out. This introduces a guitar with a sitar effect, which sounds good, but I am not a big fan of the sitar sound ... it still sounds good.
    Elvis steps the vocal up in the second verse and again ends the phrase with the "blow your brains out" holler, but unfortunately to me, the harmonica is mixed a little low. On the up side we have the band really getting into the groove and the drummer is really giving this track some great fills and the feel of the band here is really wonderful.
    We move into the shortened vocal section with a command of "Play it again, Play it again".
    This is an excellent vocal from Elvis and the band is really just banging it out with such a good feel and groove and everyone is definitely getting into this track, The thing that makes this song so important to me is its position on the album. This track comes in after the opening two ballads to put some bump and grind into this album. Without tracks like this positioned as they are this album would start to feel a little too much of a ballad collection, which is fine, but it is the diversity of tunes that make an Elvis album so special, and for me this album is just a whisker below From Elvis In Memphis in some form of catalog rating.
     
  16. ClausH

    ClausH Senior Member

    Location:
    Denmark
    Complete and undubbed.
     
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  17. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    Between those sleazy horns and the menacing drum beats, Stranger In My Own Hometown sets up a perfect atmosphere, full of darkness and dread...and that's before Elvis even comes in. I love the uncontrolled feel of his voice; it feels like it could go anywhere (and in some ways, it does). Paul Williams once said that Dylan had the ability to "play the musicians with his voice; they are helpless (but happy) instruments." Elvis does the same thing here; the band is absolutely in step with his every inflection, following him wherever he goes.

    I still think it was a mistake to bury this phenomenal performance as track 3 (at least let it kick off side 2!). It's always a joy to hear. Dubbed, undubbed, the Memphis Record remix...they're all great. I know I'm crazy, but I wish RCA had rolled the dice and put this out as a single instead of Don't Cry Daddy. Now that would have been a statement!
     
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  18. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Yep... After the brilliantly-sequenced FEIM, this album is sequenced with no rhyme or reason I can detect. This would have been a great opening track, with the references to coming home.
     
  19. PepiJean

    PepiJean Forum Resident

    STRANGER IN MY OWN HOME TOWN

    Here it is, at last: my favorite 1969 Presley studio cut.
    STRANGER is not only Elvis' toughest Blues since RECONSIDER BABY (or maybe since I FEEL SO BAD) nearly a decade before, it is also a wonderful reinterpretation of Percy Mayfield's composition: the original, a standard classic R&B tune, gets an infectious funky beat coupled with Presley's mean voice, the same he had used two years before during the recording of GUITAR MAN. The ad libs all through the recording show how much our man was enjoying the moment: "blow your brain out!", "yeah baby", "now give me the clap", "play it on", etc. There is a wonderful exuberance on this track and Elvis is totally into it. (Note: Do you remember that old bootleg titled "Get down and get with it!"? Well, that's a fine description for Elvis' own version of STRANGER IN MY OWN HOME TOWN.) History says that STRANGER was the very first cut during the second sessions at American Sound Studio: clearly, Elvis was more than happy to be back at work next to the Memphis Boys.

    And there is also the "message" per se: was Elvis feeling out of place in his hometown? Did the recent event (like Martin Luther King assassination a few months earlier) made him feel like a stranger in his beloved Memphis? We will never know for sure but it's no less fascinating thinking that, perhaps, part of Presley's own feelings were somehow coming out, or showing up (more or less) through significant recordings. Like this one.

    original recording by Mayfield:
     
  20. Revelator

    Revelator Disputatious cartoon animal.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    The "driving that motherf***ing truck again" line in the 1970 rehearsal version of "Stranger In My Own Home Town" hints that Elvis took the song personally:

     
  21. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Elvis making real music without concern. THAT'S what I would like to hear a whole album contain.
     
  22. Love Stranger In My Own Home Town. The only thing that I question is the use of the (I’m guessing) Choral Electric Sitar. Oddly, it doesn’t sound as dated now as when I used to listen to this song as the opener on The Memphis Album (around the time that album came out).
     
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  23. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I agree. Why Elvis did not perform this masterpiece in Las Vegas and take advantage of the full brass section of the orchestra and the great TCB band is beyond comprehension. Well, maybe Elvis realized he could not have improve on perfection. I have always felt the same way about why Elvis dropped Kentucky Rain from his setlist in Las Vegas very quickly, even though I really like the live version a lot. I believe to Elvis's ears the live version of Kentucky Rain was no match for that complicated masterpiece that Chips Moman massaged to perfection in the studio. Just my suspicion anyways and no pun intended.
     
  24. PepiJean

    PepiJean Forum Resident

    I very much agree: there are moments in time you cannot replicate. It happened with Elvis on songs like BABY WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO: amazing during those sit-down shows but not as impressive at the International Hotel. I'LL HOLD YOU IN MY ARMS and, yes, STRANGER IN MY OWN HOME TOWN were all one take attempts, some pure "spur of the moment" recordings. How do you get back that perfect studio setting, that particular atmosphere and feeling, in a Vegas lounge?
     
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  25. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    It sounds like someone did a seperate brass and string arrangement then couldn't decide which to use so put them both on at the same time. It's completely bonkers.
     
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