Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

Arguably the gold standard for the 1970’s, but I would argue 1969 tops it.

 

The August 21st 1969 midnight show is the best concert performance in my opinion.
Nobody can top that, not even Elvis.

 

You Gave Me A Mountain
Watching the Aloha dvd back in the day, was the first time I heard this song. I really loved this song, and still do. I can't see how anyone would suggest Elvis isn't committed to this song, to me he is fully immersed into it, and again to me, gives this song a great shake up. I have never heard Marty Robbins version to compare, but it is hard for me to believe that I would like it more than this. Elvis himself may have done better versions, but I am not as familiar with all of Elvis desk tapes etc as most here, so all I will say is I think this is pretty magnificent.

 

Steam Roller Blues
We get a nice dirty blues guitar from Burton. I think this track has a really good feel to it. I find it funny that Elvis would do a James Taylor song, but I am a fan of Taylor, so it is pretty cool to me. I could actually see Elvis doing other Taylor songs, but I don't know that that ever happened.
Again I think this is a good version.

 

My Way
This isn't a favourite song of mine, but as far as the song goes, lyrically it makes sense for Elvis to sing it.
I think this is a good version.

 

That one is a real highlight. Still, the rehearsal version is even bluesier BUT... Elvis messes up with the lyrics so, at the end, I always come back to the main event performance.

 

Love Me
Another pedestrian version of Love Me. This is more about Elvis interacting with the crowd, and probably why it lasted in the set so long.

 

This was a hit single in Australia. They split the Steamroller Blues/Fool single in half and added Mountain and It's Impossible and got an extra record out of it.

 

A ruse worthy of the Colonel himself, bet he was miffed he missed that trick in the US!

 

I own a LP titled "Raised in rock"
What is the consensus about it?
I like it

 

I like it, but I think most find it a little substandard.

 

We will actually be going through it in probably two weeks ... roughly

 

Which one is the best Stax sessions album?

 

For me, this is excellent.
As we have been talking through the thread and going through the albums, I have come to agree with @czeskleba, that the best way to listen to Elvis' stuff is via the sessions.



https://www.amazon.com/Elvis-at-Sta.../ref=tmm_abk_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Elvis Presley - Elvis At Stax

As for the best individual album from those sessions. I think that the other guys on here have more experience with the seventies stuff than I

 

I guess to elaborate a little at least.
Promised Land may be the most balanced album, but I really have a soft spot for Good Times.
Good Times is a really solid Country type album ...

 

This is where Aloha finally starts to pick up, imo. You Gave Me A Mountain is one of those songs that always brought out a fine performance from Elvis (well, maybe with the exception of that "recite the verses like a poem" arrangement), and though the Aloha version is far from my favourite, I usually end up enjoying it more than I think I will. It's a testament to Elvis' greatness that he's able to make such an absurdly melodramatic set of lyrics sound convincing.

I can't stand the original mix of Steamroller Blues, what with those ugly-sounding horns, but the 1998 remix is much better. On the whole, this is probably my second-favourite performance from the concert.

My Way is lovely, but I prefer the more passionate 1977 versions (I'm also not a fan of the violin, so I'm glad that they dropped it from the arrangement). The 1977 versions build to a shattering climax; the Aloha versions are too polite and restrained to really deliver on that front.

 

The party line is that it's one of his worst non-soundtrack albums (and possibly THE worst), but you'll find plenty of people who disagree. I personally enjoy all of the Stax albums, with Good Times being my favourite of the three original albums, and Raised On Rock being my favourite FTD (the rough mixes section alone makes it worth the price of admission).

As Mark suggested, the Elvis At Stax collection is fantastic, and it strikes a happy middle ground between the relatively sparse original albums and the packed-with-outtakes FTDs. It misses the Palm Springs recordings, which makes sense, given the focus of the set, but I Miss You and Are You Sincere? are two of the very best ROR tracks, imo.

 

I like Promised Land expanded from the year 2000.

 

Steamroller Blues and I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry are the two highlights of Aloha for me. Maybe Elvis had incorporated Steamroller Blues into his set before the Aloha concert, I’m not sure about that, but this would have been most fans’ first exposure to the song. “I’m a churning urn of burning funk” and “I’m a napalm bomb” are jarring lyrics to hear from Elvis: we’re a long way from his 50s and 60s lyrical content here, but the musical backing is a bluesy groove, similar to some of the blues songs from the 1971 Christmas album, that suits him well. Great playing by James Burton and the horn section on this track.

 

From what I was told by a former Sony/Legacy producer, there are two vintage tapes for Aloha in the vault, not counting the 16-track masters: Dick Baxter's 4-channel quadraphonic mix, and a 2-channel stereo fold from the quadraphonic mix. The main release in 1973 was the 4-channel vinyl issue, with the RCA Record Club vinyl using the 2-channel fold tape (as well as RCA cassette and stereo-8).

 

The three-CD deluxe edition of Elvis At Stax is absolutely essential, in my opinion.

 

I don’t think of it as essential because so much of its content is inessential. The remix of the outtakes is the real attraction, but even so, I still think it is an odd mainstream multi-disc set.

 

I love non of them. There are for sure a few gems (the funky IF YOU DON'T COME BACK, FOR OL' TIMES SAKE and I'VE GOT A THING ABOUT YOU BABY - personal favorite - from July 1973 plus I GOT A FEELIN' IN MY BODY, THINKING ABOUT YOU and the rocker PROMISED LAND from December 1973 sessions) but the rest goes from average to bad. Had RCA published a single album with the very best of the sessions, it could have been a pretty decent one. But, of course, they released instead 3 mediocre LPs filled up with too many uninspired performances, IMO. If you dig Country&Western music, there maybe some interest for you but if you really enjoy Elvis at full blast, I would recommend the 1968-1970 era instead.

 

Definitely one of the show’s highlights. A number of fans prefer the Elvis In Concert version (one of only a few redeeming recordings from that atrocious project), but I have always viewed the Aloha version as being noticeably superior with a more controlled and commanding vocal, and a more tasteful arrangement.

 

Loving Arms, Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues, There’s A Honky Tonk Angel, If You Talk In Your Sleep, etc. are not “average to bad” in my book. I hear far more good than bad in the Stax sessions.