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. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Kismet is I think probably one of the better songs on the record, though that's faint praise. It's got kind of a jazzy feel that works all right. Maybe Tepper and Bennett took a little more time on this song, since they weren't cranking out a half dozen other ones like Giant/Baum/Kaye were this time around.

    By contrast, Shake that Tambourine is one of the worst, with dopey lyrics and little to offer musically. A song doesn't rock just because it's fast.

    Giving the album a fresh listen last night though, it reminds me that Elvis' singing is really not his best on this record. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what I'm hearing, but something in his phrasing and the tone quality of his voice just sounds off. The singing is perfectly competent but lacks emotional intensity, and just has a sort of casual feel to it, like he's not taking it seriously. I've always had that reaction to his voice on this stuff, and I used to blame it on the mix but even listening to the 90s remix I'm hearing it.
     
  2. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    I figured it was too good to be true. I disagree about the role being bland. Glen Campbell did a great job as La Boeuf in the original film. It would have been refreshing to see Elvis acting with a larger than life star like John Wayne. I seem to recall Elvis himself saying that he was going to start filming for "The Rainmaker" in the TV guide interview back in the 1950's. We all know that never happened. I figured it was common to get these offers and for whatever reason besides the Colonel, it didn't come together. Colonel Parker surely would have sunk this offer quick if it had ever been more than a rumor. He would have never had another (even John Wayne's) name above Elvis' on the marquee.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2019
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  3. Revelator

    Revelator Disputatious cartoon animal.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I thought Matt Damon in the remake was far more memorable, just as the remake was almost entirely superior to the Wayne version.

    I certainly would have loved seeing Elvis play Jeffrey Hunter's role in The Searchers, or Ricky Nelson's in Rio Bravo. Those would have been far better roles parts in John Wayne films. La Boeuf in the '69 film is too much of a beta next to Wayne's scene-chewing alpha, and the Colonel would have had some justification in thinking the role not right for Elvis. In any case, I'm sure we all agree that Elvis should have been appearing in better films before 1969, and the Colonel and Hal Wallis richly deserve the blame for not making that happen.
     
  4. Dave112

    Dave112 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Carolina
    Well said Revalator.
     
  5. Kismet is an alright track, and one I could almost see being on Something for Everybody.
    What Elvis heard on the film stage was oftentimes different than what was later dubbed in to the finished film. He’d often lip-sync to an acetate that may or may not have been what ultimately made it in to the film (so the timing and/or instrumentation could be off). This was a symptom of many cheap movies of the era.

    Regardless, Shake That Tambourine is my least favorite song on the album. Kismet is an alright track, and one I could almost see being on Something for Everybody or Pot Luck.
     
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  6. Revelator

    Revelator Disputatious cartoon animal.

    Location:
    San Francisco
    By the Mark, congratulations on having taken us halfway across the 1960s! This magnificent beast of a thread now spans a half decade of Elvis music, from "Stuck on You" to "Shake That Tambourine." The second half promises to be just as fun and will definitely have a terrific end!
     
  7. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Truer words have never been said on this forum. My father and aunt were early pioneers in the burgeoning television industry of the 1950's, before they switched over to radio in the late 1950's. My Aunt in fact was the first woman in the world to own and manage a television station when she and her partners launched KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My father worked along side of her in many capacities, spending some time as a director of live television shows like Zoorama in San Diego. It was always a kick watching a show on television with him as he always commented on the directing one way or another. I remember his complete distain for Hal Wallis and his cheap production values on Elvis's movies. He felt Elvis deserved way better directors and production values than Mr. Wallis and Parker were giving him.

    My other memory is that of my father and mother dancing to the 45 records that he brought home from the Mighty 690 radio station in San Diego, which he owned a share of along with his sister and brother. He also served as Program Director and helped to break some of Elvis's records in the late 1950's. The Mighty 690 was a so called "border blaster" based out of San Diego, California, but transmitted out of Mexico, so it could avoid FCC limitations on wattage power. It was one of the most important top 40 stations in the country, because of its 50,000 watts of power and directional signal at nighttime, which would allow it to reach all the way to San Fransisco at times as well as Los Angeles. I remember that he usually brought the records home and asked my mother which ones he should play. He said my mother had a way better ear than he had and of course she was actually the huge Elvis fan in the family. He would ask my mother which side of Elvis's new 45 she thought he should he play and her usual answer was "I think you are going to need to play both sides."
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2019
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  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Cheers mate
    It is somewhat daunting that we haven't quite reached the halfway mark lol
    :righton:
     
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  9. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Golden Coins
    Written By :
    Bernie Baum, Bill Giant & Florence Kaye

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, February 24-26, 1965 : February 26, 1965. splice take 16 and 11

    I quite like this song. Again it isn't a-list Elvis, but it has a nice evocative sound and feel to it.

     
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  11. ClausH

    ClausH Senior Member

    Location:
    Denmark
    Yup. Only 44 albums to go. :)
     
  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    So Close Yet So Far (from paradise)
    Written By :
    Joy Byers

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, February 24-26, 1965 : February 25, 1965. splice takes 3 and 4
    This is actually a pretty good love song, and Elvis puts in a good vocal. It has a very grand style and quite a dynamic delivery.

     
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  13. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    Not much to say about Hey Little Girl other than that it's even less successful at rocking out than Shake That Tambourine is. I think there's the ghost of a good song in Golden Coins, but it's not quite there yet. Still, it's enjoyable enough.

    So Close, Yet So Far is a stunner. Like so many Elvis songs, it's both beautiful and dramatic. The first two-and-a-half minutes are great, but the real meat of the song is at the end: "Waiting for you!" The little guitar figure is lovely, the Jords help to make it seem like everything's at stake, and of course, Elvis completely sells the lyrics. I particularly like the little quiver in his voice at the end of the last "here am I" line; it makes him sound vulnerable, which makes the song that much more powerful.

    To be a broken record, the original album mix completely strips the song of its intensity, and as with Go East Young Man, the movie mix is far superior. I know some people prefer the alternate take on Collector's Gold, but Elvis doesn't sing that last "here am I" in quite the same way (or maybe it's just buried in the mix), making the Double Features mix of the spliced master take my clear preference.
     
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  14. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    So Close, Yet So Far is an underrated gem which Elvis sings with real passion. Take 1 on the FTD release in particular.

    The line "In my arms is where you'll belong" sounds like an echo of It Hurts Me (itself written in part by the writer of So Close, Yet So Far: Joy Byers a.k.a. Bob Johnston), as well as more than a hint of what the Memphis sessions would bring.
     
  15. johnny q

    johnny q Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergen County, NJ
    Yes, yes, yes....a diamond in the rough for sure.
     
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  16. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Finally a decent song! So Close Yet So Far.
     
  17. Pelvis Ressley

    Pelvis Ressley Down in the Jungle Room

    Location:
    Capac, Michigan
    I gave the Harum Scarum FTD a fresh listen last night. The sound quality of the sessions is quite good. Bill Vandevort is listed as the engineer for the sessions. Do we know who mixed the album?
     
  18. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I'd say it's more like finding cubic zirconium amid a pile of sh!t. I think this song gets overpraised because of the context it's in. It's a competent, sort of okay song, but if it was say on Pot Luck I don't think anyone would single it out as anything other than average album filler at best. Still, Bob Johnston once again establishes himself as the one-eyed man who is king of the blind men in Elvis' 1965 stable of songwriters.

    Johnston was not infallible, though, because he was also responsible for "Hey Little Girl." To steal a line from Paul Westerberg, "Hey Little Girl" sounds like a song that was written ten minutes after Elvis recorded it. It sounds more like a half-finished jam than a song.

    "Golden Coins" is another one that puts me in the mind of a television commercial. "Persian Rugs to enhance your floor." Come to Elvis' Discount Furniture and Housewares! Have we got deals for you!
     
  19. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    Trawling through my files, I've found a few other observations I made a few years ago about the Harum Scarum soundtrack on Another Website. I thought I'd share them.

    "So Close, Yet So Far" could almost be a description of the Harum Scarum soundtrack as a whole. While certainly a long way from rock & roll, the majority of the songs are very well crafted; however, Elvis' performances, almost without exception, fail to do justice to the material. If Elvis had truly been involved (and not simply sung to prerecorded backing tracks), it might have been a very good album.

    Of the songs in the film. I personally happen to like Harem Holiday, Go East, Young Man, Hey Little Girl (FTD, Take 3), and, of course, So Close, Yet So Far.

    Of the songs not in the film, I like Animal Instinct (which, to my ear, sounds a lot like Catchin' On Fast - also written, like Animal Instinct, by Giant-Baum-Kaye). I also like Wisdom Of The Ages, the sound of which, curiously, isn't that far removed from folk rock (presumably due to the presence of Kenny Buttrey on drums). It's particularly evident on FTD Take 3.

    While the lack of echo on the FTD outtakes is an improvement over the originally released versions, it doesn't improve the quality of some of the material. Golden Coins Takes 4 and 8 and Kismet Take 2, while easier to listen to than the versions on the original LP, are still pretty bad. As is Mirage, on which Elvis croons like Bing. Is it just me, or is the ending of this a bit like Angel?

    The whole Harum Scarum sessions can be pretty much summed up on the Today, Tomorrow and Forever version of My Desert Serenade, in which Elvis sounds extremely uncomfortable, as if he'd rather be anywhere else than stuck in the studio at this particular moment. So, most of the time, would we.
     
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  20. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Wow, your hearing the album exactly the way I do as far as the highlights are concerned. I can hardly wait to get my hard copy of the Double Features version of the CD. It is on its way. You make me almost want to get the FTD as well, but I am not sure the overall quality of the album merits that double expenditure.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2019
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  21. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    The only songs sung to a backing track were Harem Holiday, Go East Young Man and Mirage. The rest were recorded live.
     
  22. DirkM

    DirkM Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA, USA
    Does the Harum Scarum FTD sound as lousy as the other Lene Reidel-mastered soundtracks? I still have yet to pick up a copy, as I fear that I'll never play it due to sound quality issues.
     
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  23. When In Rome

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

    Location:
    UK
    You'll certainly play it once, it's been that long since I listened to it I can't even remember how it sounds now. I only seem to remember that the alternate take of 'So Close Yet so Far' off 'Collectors Gold' wasn't on and I felt slighty miffed...
     
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  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Animal Instinct
    Written By :
    Bill Giant, Bernie Baum & Florence Kaye

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, February 24-26, 1965 : February 26, 1965. take 6
    This isn't a terrible song, but in its environment it tends to make it sound a little redundant. Again we have a mix that seems someone with very little idea put together, and that certainly doesn't help matters. We have the vocal and the drums sitting right up front, with an occasional flute coming in, but the music is a mush and I have more clarity after a couple of bottles of vodka ... that isn't much clarity folks.

     
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  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Wisdom Of The Ages
    Written By :
    Bernie Baum, Bill Giant & Florence Kaye

    Recorded :

    RCA's Studio B, Nashville, February 24-26, 1965 : February 25, 1965. take 5
    I would categorise this song the same as the song prior. It is probably a little better, but suffers all the same problems..... It is hard to have much sympathy/empathy with this album, with the sound and recording being so poor. With the fairly half baked songs, and Elvis whether uninspired or not, being unable to put magic into tracks that just don't have the ability to hold much if any.

    Memory tells me this was my least favourite of the soundtracks, but in all honesty having listened to these sixty albums, most for the first time in the last three months, this little section of movie albums tends to blend a little. I don't absolutely hate any of them, but whereas I can happily listen to anything before this album as a worthwhile investment of time ... these don't quite reach that particular mark for me.

     
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