Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

Wow. It's merely unnecessary, not inhumane. The biggest shame on those records is removing some of the additional instrumentalists, particularly on the later songs that didn't need it. The orchestral parts are for the most part decently fitting.

Burning Love comes to mind as an exception. The parts are nice, but not really suited for this treatment.



You're welcome.

 

Here is one of the five after show recordings. They were included in the U.S. version which was broadcast on April 4, 1973.



The other songs were:
Blue Hawaii
Hawaiian Wedding Song
Ku-U-I-Po
No More (not used)

The recordings were originally to be included in the canceled Elvis Fool album, compiled by Joan Deary. Blue Hawaii was released on Elvis - A Legendary Performer, Volume 2 from 1976 and all of the songs were finally released on the Pickwick album Mahalo From Elvis from 1978.

They are available on cd on the remixed Aloha From Hawaii released in 1998 and they are also included in The Complete Masters and The Album Collection box sets.

 

The entire post-show session should be issued in its entirety as part of a FTD edition of Aloha.

 

All five are also on the Aloha From Hawaii Legacy Edition.

All five songs could benefit from fresh mixes. The existing mixes that continue to be used are murky and hissy in spots.

 

The after-show recordings are also on the Fool FTD, along with other goodies like Reconsider Baby from the afternoon MSG concert, the studio version of For The Good Times, and an alternate mix (IIRC) of Steamroller Blues. Some alternate/early takes from the post-show session are available on the Alternate Aloha CD from the late 80s, although the mixing decisions are...questionable.

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply Skatterbrane. Your point about avoiding the "Bradford Plates" to focus on buying the music - tongue firmly in cheek - is one that I concur with heartily. Among my own circle of friends, male and female, Elvis is simply not on the radar except as a cultural icon that isn't taken too seriously, or is at worst a joke. So I'm an outlier full stop. Not that I care. I see that you too were an outlier back in Elvis' heyday!

Allow me to say that I really enjoy reading your posts because of the good-humoured perspective you bring as a fan of the music who lived it as it happened, throughout the highs and lows, (+ two gigs, you lucky dog) and the depth of knowledge that your lived experience brings, which I have drawn on many a time. It's thanks to fans like you that have gone out and bought everything and that pore over the statistics that I'm able to cheat a little bit. So thank you.

Like you, I also stick to the music, a few key books and essential films. My very first exposure to Elvis was at age 7 when I heard 'In the ghetto' on the radio and I clearly remember being transfixed by that disembodied voice and the story of the song. So from day one I connected with the emotion and 'feel' expressed in Elvis' voice, which to this day I favour over the technical aspects of the music and that's probably a female thing. He next appeared on my radar aged 10 when I saw 'Loving You' on TV and shortly after that when he died and the 68 Comeback was screened. The triple whammy of the voice, the way he looked and how he moved when he sang marked the moment when I became a fan.

I've joked before that Elvis was the seed for the womens' movement, but there's no question in my mind that he played a significant part in liberating women. His beauty and sexuality were undeniably riveting and made a deep impression, but he wasn't just eye candy and on its own, I seriously doubt his beauty would have been enough without the music.

On that note, over the years I've come to see that beauty as a double-edged sword that was used against him when he lost it towards the end of his life. As Tom Petty put it in 'The Searcher', to gain weight was an unforgivable sin. On the other hand, it forces the music of his later years to stand or fall on its own merits, and as the un-dubbed outtakes from the FTD releases have shown, quite often and surprisingly it does stand up in a way that conveys a frail humanity.

As for the audiences being 75% women, I just think its taken a lot longer for the guys to figure out what the ladies spotted from day one

Cheers mate.

 

IIRC these after-show songs were remixed for the 25th anniversary CD in '97.

 

LOL

 

Love your posts mate, cheers....

I wonder if a lot of guys are just intimidated by him having the look and the musical know-how to carry it off ..
I was only insecure as a teen ... and maybe in my twenties, but not about other guys, and what people thought about them ...

The line you draw between Elvis in his latter days and the women's movement is quite poignant, I think I am yet to meet a woman (that I have spent any decent amount of time with) that doesn't almost incessantly focus on her weight.
Sadly the facade has become the be-all and end-all for way too many folks and the plasticity of those with the money has become a focus for society in some ways. You see aging rock stars that feel the need to dye their hair and get face-lifts to try and move the product/concert tickets/whatever ... Male and Female, and it just saddens me.
Maybe I am a goofball, but in this world of plasticity it is so cool to see Bob Seger, just being Bob Seger, no hair colour, no facelifts, just a person that is older doing what they love.

 

Linda Ray Pratt, in her great essay "Elvis, or the Ironies of a Southern Identity," touched upon some of the differences in how men and women responded to Elvis and his later troubles. Excerpts below:

"The music echoed the physical pleasure in rhythm and the emotional need in lyrics that said 'Love Me,' 'Love Me Tender,' 'Don't,' 'I Want You I Need You I Love You,' and 'Don't Be Cruel.' Unlike many later rock stars whose music would voice an assault on women, Elvis's music usually portrayed an emotional vulnerability to what women could do to him, as well as what he could do for them. When the public's notion of his heartbroken private life confirmed this sense of vulnerability, the image took on renewed power...

"Women's sexual imaginations of Elvis have rarely been openly expressed, in part because women weren't supposed to have any explicit sexual fantasies and in part because those who did were perhaps least likely, because of the cultural and regional prohibitions, to admit them... Seeing or hearing Elvis was never enough; one had to try to touch him. In life, such fans tore at his clothes and his person; in death, they visit his grave. Does any woman really care whether or not Elvis loved his mother or Jesus? But I never met a female fan who did not detest Priscilla. 'Somebody ought to put a bullet through her,' a pleasant faced middle- aged saleswoman in a bookstore once told me.

"Elvis said he grew sideburns because he wanted to look like truck drivers, and many such men would later want to look like him. One important element in Elvis's sexual appeal for men seemed to be the acting out of the role of the 'hood' who got the girl, won the fight, and rose above all the economic powerlessness of real hoods. Men who because of class and economic binds knew their own limitations seemed especially attracted to this aspect of the image. They wore their hair like his, affected his mannerisms, sang with his records. Men too sophisticated to betray themselves in such overt ways betrayed themselves in other ways. I remember a highly educated man rhapsodizing about how phallic the black leather suit was that Elvis wore in his 1968 television appearance. When Elvis aged and put on weight, men were his cruelest detractors. They seemed to take his appearance as a personal offense."

 

Thank you for a wonderful post. Just your being here makes you an outlier! One of my main appreciations for Elvis the singer, is his uncanny way of conveying emotion. Of course it is an art, but he makes it sound so authentic. Sometimes it is more contrived of course. Example being "I'll Remember You". To me the studio version is pure authentic emotion. The Aloha version is a bit shmaltzy by c0mparision "I will remember too..." portion, I am speaking of.

But that aside, he seems to actually pay attention to the words and adjusts his style and mood accordingly. I get NOTHING from Gentle On My Mind from Glen Campbell, John Hartford or Dean Martin on the emotional level. Elvis' version breaks my heart.

 

Over analysis for me. It is simple, I was and always will be disappointed that women don't come out of the woodwork and start go-go dancing all around me when I burst out into song. And it also bothers me that I don't constantly have to choose between the "teenager" the "goody girl" and the "sexy vamp" by the end of the movie.

 

I've always said that from the beginning of his career, Elvis flipped the sex roles in music. Before Elvis, the guy was always chasing the girls and she was either always declining his advances or at least allowing herself to be vulnerable to him. The guy was usually the big lug that whether he got with the girl or struck out, he didn't wear his heart on his sleeve. He saved that mushy stuff for the bartender as he dulled the pain one drink at a time (especially the country singers). Here comes young Elvis being an open book without the booze. Take the song Tomorrow Night. Sinatra would look silly singing to a lady "will you still be around after we get busy? I don't know if I could take the heartbreak of a one night stand". But Elvis pulls off the song equivalent of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" while other male crooners are singing "Baby It's Cold Outside". Elvis comes across as a fragile little puppy that she wants take home and treat it with the upmost care and tenderness, totally flipping the roles.

 

Hence Teddy Bear.

 

I am usually not too big on psychoanalyzing Elvis or his fans to any great degree as I think it is sort of a fool's errand at best, but those last two sentences about men being some of his "cruelest detractors" seems to ring true around these parts on occasion. There is a certain bitter and belittling tone regarding Elvis's eventual downfall and physical appearance that I have never seen from any of his female fans. His female fans often seem to be more empathetic and forgiving about his whole downward spiral at the end of his career, and they also seem to concentrate on his better moments during this downward trajectory.

 

Yeah and get ravaged within an inch of his life! He knew what he was doing the crafty bugger.

 

She definitely has a point there in as far as Elvis being the only male singer/actor/popstar whose looks get mentioned by men and women alike. It's as if Elvis gives us (men) the opportunity to see a man through a woman's eyes. Which would explain why men paradoxically felt almost never threatened by him.

 

ALMOST IN LOVE (LP)
(US) RCA Camden CAS 2440
Released: March 1973

1970 album of the same name with the only difference being the replacement of "Stay Away, Joe" with "Stay Away".

 

Steamroller Blues (from Aloha in Hawaii)
Fool *
(US) RCA 74-0910
Released: March 13, 1973
* Recorded: RCA Studio C, Hollywood, March 28, 1972



It is interesting that they used Steamroller Blues as the A side of this single, and also that they had the virtually inspired choice to use the recently popular Aloha concert to promote a song off the upcoming album.
It is also very interesting that the single had a picture of a steamroller on the cover, and not a picture of Elvis taken at one of his shows.
It is also interesting, and a little bit weird that underneath the fool song they are promoting the Separate Ways album .... I wonder if that confused people, as it kind of suggests that Fool is off that album.

Obviously we will go through the Fool track on the upcoming album.

 

On March 13, 1973 RCA continued with re-releasing singles, that had previously been released, as part of their "Gold Standard Series".

(US) RCA 447-0685 (45rpm) American Trilogy (Live) / Until It's Time For You To Go

 

ELVIS (LP)
(US) RCA APL1 0283
Released: July 1973



Elvis is the eighteenth studio album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley, released in July 1973. It sold over 1 million copies worldwide (despite being released five months after the much more successful Aloha from Hawaii). To differentiate it from his eponymous 1956 release it is sometimes called The "Fool" Album, after its first track which appears just below Elvis' name on the front cover. In the US, "Fool" was issued as the B-side of "Steamroller Blues" from the Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite album. In the UK the sides were flipped and "Fool" was issued as the A-side. It reached No. 15.

The album tracks "Fool" and "Where Do I Go From Here" were recorded in March 1972. "It's Impossible" is a live recording from the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas from February 1972. The remaining tracks were leftovers from the March and May 1971 recording sessions at RCA's Studio B in Nashville. Three songs feature Presley on piano: "It's Still Here", "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" and "I Will Be True". These three selections were all released together for a second time as part of the 1980 boxed set, Elvis Aron Presley. The song "Fool" was also released in this collection. Four other songs in this album were also reissued in other albums: "It's Impossible" (Pure Gold, 1975), "Padre" (He Walks Beside Me, 1978), "(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me" (A Canadian Tribute, 1978) and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (Our Memories Of Elvis Volume 2, 1979).

• Elvis Presley – lead vocals, piano
• James Burton – lead guitar
• The Sweet Inspirations – background vocals on "It's Impossible"
• The Nashville Edition - background vocals on "(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me"
• Joe Babcock – background vocals
• Kenneth A. Buttrey – drums
• Jerry Carrigan – drums
• Chip Young – rhythm guitar
• Glen D. Hardin – piano, string arrangements
• Dolores Edgin – background vocals
• Joe Esposito – guitar, percussion

• Emory Gordy, Jr. – bass on "Fool" and "Where Do I Go From Here?"
• Charlie Hodge – rhythm guitar
• Ginger Holladay – background vocals
• The Imperials Quartet – background vocals
• Millie Kirkham – background vocals
• June Page – background vocals
• Norbert Putnam – bass
• Temple Riser – background vocals
• Jerry Scheff – bass on "It's Impossible"

• J. D. Sumner – vocals
• Ron Tutt – drums
• Hurshel Wiginton – background vocals
• John Wilkinson – rhythm guitar on "Fool," "Where Do I Go From Here?" and "It's Impossible"
• Mary Holliday – background vocals
• Kathy Westmoreland – background vocals on "It's Impossible"
• Charlie McCoy – harmonica
• Joe Guercio – conductor on "It's Impossible"
• David Briggs – piano

Side one
1. "Fool" James Last, Carl Sigman March 28, 1972 2:40
2. "Where Do I Go from Here?" Paul Williams March 27-29, 1972 2:38
3. "Love Me, Love the Life I Lead" Roger Greenaway, Tony Macaulay May 21, 1971 3:03
4. "It's Still Here" Ivory Joe Hunter May 19, 1971 2:04
5. "It's Impossible" (live dinner show) Armando Manzanero, Sid Wayne February 16, 1972 2:51
Side two
1. "(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me" Gordon Lightfoot March 15, 1971 2:06
2. "Padre" Jacques Larue, Paul Francis Webster, Alain Romans May 15, 1971 2:28
3. "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" Thomas Paine Westendorf May 19, 1971 2:23
4. "I Will Be True" Ivory Joe Hunter May 19, 1971 2:30
5. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (edited version) Bob Dylan May 16, 1971 2:42
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I actually enjoy this album. I get the impression that many don't, from our previous discussions, but In all honesty there isn't much from here out, in the regular line of albums, that I dislike. We are coming to a spot where Elvis really settles himself into a (then) modern country styling, and to be honest I have no problem with that. Country isn't my number one go to music, but when it is done well, I am very open to it.
I tend to shy away from the (now) modern country music, as to my ears it is merely a pop variation, and everybody seems to put on a twang in their vocals to fit some particular model that is expected or something. The artists in the seventies that I loved doing country just sang .... I mean I don't hear Waylon, Kristofferson, or even Elvis putting on a voice, they are just singing the songs.

Most of these tracks are still fairly new to me in the big scheme of things, so really I will have more to say as we go through the songs, but I don't think anything here was particularly disappointing at all.

So what do you guys think of this album?
Let us know your thoughts and feelings about this one, and we'll hit the first couple of songs tomorrow morning.

Cheers,
Mark

 

I also wish he had just dropped some of the 50's numbers. He showed disdain and embarrassment for some of them in interviews, why I'm not sure. I guess he didn't realize what classics they really were. In a way Elvis' career went "backwards" in a sense in that he started by singing adult type numbers like "Mystery Train" "That's All Right"etc and then fell into the teen idol stuff of "TeddyBear" and "Wear My Ring". No wonder he always seemed to give better treatment to "Trying to Get To You"then "Teddy Bear" in the later years. Heck, even in the early 60's live shows when he was still young, I don't think he did "TB". But RnR was an all teen thing in the 50's unlike today where you'll see teens to grannies at the same show.
I'm rambling now, but my wish for Elvis had he lived would've been to drop the sex symbol image, can the jumpsuits, no kissing and scarf throwing, quit the sad attempts at hip shaking, he could still do the karate and punches and stuff for effect. Drop all the teen type songs and stick to the sun stuff and the harder stuff like JR and even All Shook Up, and mix in any ballads he wanted. It would've taken some time but eventually I think his image would've changed. Nobody cared if Johnny Cash was fat.

 

This album has the distinction of going OOP after the initial run. Its collector's value rose back in the day. It also was one of the very few LPs that was not brought back into print after Elvis' death. It came out on CD in 1994. As far as I know, other than being included in various box sets (from Japan, Netherlands and UK and now The Album Collection in the US) 1994 was the only time it was issued as an individual CD in the US. (Someone correct me if I am wrong about the CD). Consequently the 1994 US CD was once very coveted too.

 

Fool was supposed to be the hit side, but Steamroller became the song DJs played and the public heard.

 

Now we are getting well into LPs that are similar to the soundtrack LPs for me. I like about 1/2 of the songs give or take.