Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

I really like both of the two gospel songs stuck here in the middle of a secular album. "I've Got a Feeling in My Body" in particular is definitely a highlight of the second Stax session, and a rare case of Elvis getting a good original song that someone else hadn't done first. Their presence on this record is kind of weird, though. According to Ernst's book, RCA had told sent Elvis a letter prior to the July sessions, outlining their expectation that he produce 24 masters: 10 tracks for a secular album, 10 for a gospel album, and four for two non-album singles. Obviously, Elvis failed to comply with their request, barely managing to complete 12 masters. So now here in December he does a couple of gospel songs, and for some reason RCA decides to put them on a secular album. I wonder why they did that? In the past they had used gospel songs to fill out barrel-scraping records, but since this was the first album drawn from the session there was no need to use gospel to fill it out. I don't mind, it just seems like an odd/interesting choice to make when there was other material available.

 

Why? My gut instinct tells me the fine folks at RCA had no idea they were gospel songs as their titles don’t allude to anything religious.

 

I remember hearing Elvis sing that very line from If That Isn't Love as a teenager and being shocked by how powerful and rangy his voice was on the word "fly." It always surprises me a little bit when some fans feel Elvis lost the best part of his voice by 1970 or 71. Maybe that is true to some people, but I can find more than a few songs from the December Stax session and well beyond those studio recordings, whereby Elvis's vocals are truly "majestic" sounding to my ears. I do agree with those who notice a big difference between Elvis's voice on the July sessions versus the December ones though. The only time that I really dig Elvis's kind of funky, slippery and perhaps slightly impaired voice on the July sessions is on his stellar take of I've Got A Thing About You Baby, where the great rhythm of his vocals seem to be aided by his condition instead of hurt by them.

 

What Elvis lost to my ears is what I would call "the edge", the rocking voice. Something like that happened when he came back from the army and it happened again in 1971. You just have to compare JOHNNY B. in 1969 or LONG TALL SALLY in 1970 with post 1971 versions. It's still Elvis for sure but the edge's gone and so part of the magic.

 

That's a fair enough point and I cannot totally discount it, but I also think it was inevitable to some degree. As Elvis became middle aged, he was just not going to have the same energy or verve of the younger rebellious Elvis, nor was he going to be as emotionally invested in some of his previous rock 'n' roll material as we all have talked about previously. Nevertheless, I still think we get some very fine rock edged material from Elvis in his later years, such as Promised Land, T-R-O-U-B-L-E, For The Heart, and even his last great studio single released while he was alive, Way Down, one of my all time favorites. I know there were a few fans at the time who found Elvis's number one country hit, Way Down, "A little too rock sounding." Good grief! Once again, this shows that you simply cannot please all Elvis fans, all the time.

 

I suspect it wasn't RCA's decision, rather it was Jarvis' decision to round out the LP with these two tracks. RCA had virtually no control over the content of Elvis' 1970's era albums -- and when RCA tried to assert some control by forcing Deary into the role of compiling product, there was pushback by both Elvis and Parker, and Jarvis retained his position. Of course, after the 1973 buyout, Deary did gain some control over back-catalogue product, but with respect to new album deliveries, Jarvis ultimately made all creative decisions with respect to compiling and delivering albums to RCA.

 

If You Talk In Your Sleep strikes me as the better song, and a more successful foray into 70s funk, but I Got A Feelin’ In My Body is good, too. Despite the perception that the Stax sessions were a failure, these two songs manage to blend Elvis into the Stax house sound very well.

 

That makes sense to me. Thinking about it further, it seems likely that Jarvis must have mapped out the two albums drawn from these sessions in advance. He must have looked at the results of the December sessions and thought "I've got eighteen songs here. Combined with the two leftover tracks from July that's enough for exactly two albums. I'm probably not gonna be able to get anything else out of Elvis anytime soon, so I have to make everything count and use every track." That would explain why both Good Times and Promised Land are a mixture of good, bad, and so-so tracks, rather than GT having the best tracks. It would also explain why he stuck the gospel tracks onto GT.

 

I had no idea that there may have been another gospel album in the works. That is unfortunate that he never made another complete gospel album. I can think of a half dozen gospel songs that I believe Elvis would have knocked out of the park. Before, I just assumed that Elvis was recording what he liked in an eclectic way. It doesn't seem odd to me that there's gospel, country, some funk and soul here too! The 1970s was a genre bending era in all music and Elvis by this point was bigger than any genre that anyone could try to pigeonhole him into. He seemed to be all over the place. His concerts were still heavily Vegas/pop style while his studio work took on a country/soulful style. The only real continuity in live and studio work was the over the top "goop" that Elvis always made a place for IMO. I'm not putting down a song like My Boy (I've always liked it) but it was a paint by numbers song and Elvis knew just where to fill in the blanks from previous experience to make it sparkle.

 

She Wears My Ring
Written By :
Boudleaux & Felice Bryant

Recorded :
Stax Studios, Memphis, December 10-16, 1973 : December 16, 1973. take 10

The Bryant's wrote this, a very famous pairing with many writing credits across the years. This is a very nice song and fits right in Elvis' kit bag. Here again we have a very good vocal from Elvis, and the arrangement is spot on for the type of song we're looking at here. This is now a country track, but if recorded in the fifties is would have been the Everly's and it would have been rock and roll.
Another good track that keeps this album moving along nicely.

 

I've Got A Thing About You Baby
Written By :
Tony Joe White

Recorded :
Stax Studios, Memphis, July 20-25, 1973: July 22, 1973. take 15

This is a nice easy going groove, and a very come as you are type of style about it. It works as a bit of a builder and comes across as something a bit fresh and new. Nice instrumental interplay. Elvis vocal is good.

 

Favorite Elvis' recording since BURNING LOVE.
Tony Joe's original is pretty good too:

 

By sheer coincidence, TJW's version of I Got A Thing About You Baby just came up on shuffle this morning, and I was reminded how beautiful and soulful it is. Elvis' version doesn't come close, imo. The RPO version is an interesting experiment, but like many of the Guitar Man tracks, the end result is pretty hard to listen to.

Conversely, She Wears My Ring is one of my favourite Stax tracks. Once again, both the final master and the undubbed versions have their own virtues. I remember listening to take 8 several times in a row when I first picked up a copy of Essential Elvis Vol. 5.

 

I’ve Got A Thing About You Baby is simply a brilliant song, whether in Tony Joe White’s original version or Elvis’s cover. The Stax musicians and Elvis came up with a fantastic delicate full band arrangement and light groove for their take on the tune. One of the highlights of the Stax sessions, and of Elvis’s entire career, in my book.

 

We are opposites today, my friend. I feel Elvis' version of I Got A Thing About You Baby has a lot more going for it than Tony Joe White's (and I'm a fan of TJW). Elvis' version just has a better groove. I think TJW's original is let down by a lackluster backing track (especially the female vocal), whereas it's the strength of Elvis' version.

Side note - I never really paid much attention to this song until I saw it in This Is Elvis.

And I think She Wears My Ring is - while OK - one of the weaker LP songs. Elvis' vocal is OK, but I don't hear that level of emotion I'm used to. And that acoustic guitar is too obtrusive/busy with those fills every bar. Don't get me going on the overuse of backing vocals

 

Never understood the high praise for this recording. It is a quality song and the arrangement is appealing, but Elvis is the weak link here, far from his best.

 

Agreed. The band and background vocalists turn in a snappy, gospel-inspired performance. Instead of being inspired and on the beat, Elvis phones it in with a tired, drowsy lead vocal.

 

I agree. Tony Joe goes to a Folky/Country sound while Elvis - still in the Country fields - adds some Soul (great back singing) and Pop to the sauce. I also discovered the song while watching "This is Elvis". It played during the 60's phase (with some home movies IIRC) so I thought it was from a soundtrack album and spent an awful lot of time - ages - looking for the recording until I finally found it thanks to an Elvis scholar.

 

Like a couple of board colleagues, I feel "I've Got a Thing About You Baby" is a fine song let down by a weak performance by Elvis. Not surprising, since the vocal is from the previous Stax session, where Elvis barely rose above somnolence.

"She Wears My Ring" is certainly better, with its agreeable countrypolitan arrangement. Elvis sounds more engaged, but his vocal pales next to Roy Orbison's:

 

Count me in with both of these fine gentlemen, although I personally think Elvis's version of I've Got A Thing About You Baby blows Tony Joe White's original out of the water and I love that guy, even have his box set. I like Tony's original version of Polk Salad Annie a lot, this one not nearly as much. I also think Shawn has it absolutely right here about the "light groove" and the "delicate full band arrangement. I would argue that this song is as well put together as almost anything Elvis did at the American Sound recordings in Memphis in 1969. There is a whole lot going on here as you have this all-star band creating a phenomenal cushion for Elvis's honey layered vocals that seem to float above it like a butterfly. Elvis's vocal is so "in the pocket" as the musicians like to say, in a way that I cannot even fully describe. One of my all time favorite records by Elvis, even though he never uses his great vocal range or power on the song.

I agree with every single point that Shawn makes about this song. Elvis's vocal is okay sounding, but I just do not think I really like this song to be quite honest. The whole song is a bit of a bore melodically to my ears, and the line, "That's why I sing, because she wears my ring," makes me cringe a little every time I hear it.

 

Roy's version is so good that it almost makes me like the song.

 

Yeah, I have to agree with this. I've Got A Thing is a great song, and a really fine arrangement, but Elvis' vocal is weak, sounding tired and even a bit strained on the chorus. His lack of energy doesn't hurt this particular song as much as it does something like Raised on Rock, but it certainly keeps the song from reaching its potential.

I wasn't aware until just now that She Wears My Ring is another one of those old Italian songs with new English lyrics added to turn it into a pop song. I think it's a pretty good song and Elvis does a really nice vocal. The original version (by Jimmy Bell) had a strong doo wop feel, and Ray Price's 1968 version took it into EZ Listening. Elvis' arrangement is somewhere in the middle of those two. I think I like Price's version the best:

 

Here is the edited and remixed version from the This Is Elvis documentary.

 

I always thought that extra bit of orchestration (those 'zings' at 49 seconds, 54 seconds, etc.) at was an overdub, but Keith Flynn's site doesn't mention this as one of the overdubbed tracks for This Is Elvis. Was this part on the original multitracks?

 

I like that slightly bombastic arrangement by Ray Ellis on Ray Price's version. I also really dig that big band drummer on his version as well. He almost sounds like Sinatra's great drummer, Irv Cottler or maybe even Hal Blaine.