Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

Once again both Dirk and Shawn nail this one down for me. The Last Farewell did not really ask for a dramatic orchestral arrangement for a change, it pretty much demanded it. The opening bellow of those great French horns announce the opening of a dramatic and ever so slightly bombastic production, but ultimately this is a military tale and if that does not require a little bombast, I do not know what does. My second favorite part is Bergen White's use of staccato strings on the third verse, when Elvis sings, Though death and darkness gather all about me, and my ship be torn apart upon the sea, the strings perfectly capture the menacing danger and probable doom of the mission.

I am a little biased about The Last Farewell as it was probably the last 45 record my father ever bought when Roger Whittaker's hit single came out in 1975. My father, a well known PD for rock 'n' roll boarder blaster The Mighty 690 in the late 50's and early 60's was very moved by this song. My father was also a proud Navy veteran who had volunteered during World War II, so you know the song had special significance for him. Strangely enough, I was so enamored with Roger's original version of The Last Farewell that I was not overly impressed with Elvis's remake, but I did like it. The funny thing is now, I find Roger's almost talk/sing version less thrilling than Elvis's. I just love the emotion in Elvis's voice, the drama of the string and horn charts by Bergen White as well as Jerry Scheff's very interesting bass work that sort of carries the great rhythm section along. Just a splendid record all around to my ears, but I have to admit it took me awhile to get there.

 

Young Elvis could sing Danny Boy prettier but older Elvis could sing it more sincerely.

 

I disagree. The bombast and unnecessary layers of post-production orchestration detract from the emotive qualities of the vocal, and even the melody that is admirably executed in an understated manner by the core band. Before the stripped down versions were issued in the 2000’s, I thought this master was one of the most substandard and schlocky recordings in the catalogue, but after hearing the minimalist session takes, I discovered an appealing quality to the song that is missing from the overblown and bloated master.

 

I heard Elvis' cover first but I like Roger Whittaker's version as well. That's probably why I associate this song with this album. I agree that the orchestral overdub works well here.

 

My thoughts and prayers are with you, my friend. Yes, I use to turn to Elvis's music quite a bit when faced with personal heartache or turmoil. I always liked to play Only The Strong Survive during those sad or trying times. I now wonder how much Elvis was thinking about his friends funeral when he was recording this whole album, but especially on The Last Farewell. I have always found that when one door closes, another better one opens up somehow. Or sometimes the old door opens back up.

 

I'm glad that unadorned version works for you. It is a pretty interesting song, I think. I also have to say that always thought the song sounded a bit murky until Vic Anesini did his first remaster on it. He really made the sound on the whole album come to life for me a little better. It was more like how I remembered the original vinyl record sounding.

 

Ah, that is very well put to describe the difference between those two splendid versions.

 

As much as I liked his work at American Sound, I wished he had done some Graceland sessions earlier. He seemed to drop a lot of the "Elvis" persona in the performances. I would have liked to have heard that in happier times for him.

 

Thank you my friend, I truly appreciate that.

 

If you had told me before I first heard this album that Elvis was going to cover The Last Farewell and Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain and that I would end up preferring the latter, I would have thought you were insane. I'm not a fan of Roger Whittaker and find what I've heard of his recordings to be so cheesy as to require an FDA label. But Elvis' take on the song amounts to an interesting change of pace. I would not want to hear an entire album (0r even two or three songs) of Elvis doing material like this, but the one song is interesting. Elvis sounds like he's actually fully awake which gives it an edge over his zombielike trudge through Blue Eyes Crying. And this is a rare case where I think the song works much better with the overdubs. It's a cheesy song, and it needs some bombast. We can argue all day over Elvis' intentions, but in this case he doubtless was familiar with the Whittaker version and likely expected that his version would be orchestrated in a similar manner.

For the Heart stands out because it's the closest thing to rock and roll on the record, but it's a mediocre song given a perfunctory performance. It saves this record from being the only Elvis album with zero rock and roll on it, but on any other record it would be considered filler.

 

Thanks @RSteven ! Agree about I'LL HOLD YOU IN MY HEART and ANY DAY NOW.
BLUE MOON isn't timeless: it's rather "out of time".

 

I've never liked "The Last Farewell." If it's a story song there isn't much of a story (I'd have loved to see Elvis sink his teeth into a real story song, like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" or "Acadian Driftwood"), and Elvis's vocal is not only feeble and stilted but suffers from affectation, as if he were playing dress-up in a period piece. Apparently Elvis had become obsessed with this song during the summer before the session--on one occasion he made Lisa Marie play it twenty times in a row (surely child abuse). "I just kind of like that song" was his only explanation. Unfortunately the obsession didn't result in an interesting cover.

"For the Heart" is a catchy song and honorable, natural performance. Guralnick writes "The song had more of a snap than anything they had tried to date, and Elvis seemed to respond to it, gaining confidence through numerous rehearsals and multiple takes until the song became the kind of seductively driving rock ’n’ roll that had once been a staple of Elvis Presley music." Agreed!
As Clive James said of Elvis, "His sixth sense--rhythm--lived on even when his other five senses had deserted him."

 

I agree, but I have to admit that Dennis Linde (the songwriter of Burning Love and the Dixie Chicks' Goodbye Earl no less) always seemed to come up with very catchy melodies, and his lyrics weren't too shabby either. I love the nip and tuck play between Glen Hardin's piano and Jerry Scheff's bass, just terrific to my ears. Another great piano solo by Glen on the instrumental break as well. Elvis has some verve to his vocals on this song, even during the final stretches of the song. I truly do not know what's not to love about Elvis's original hit version of For The Heart. I absolutely love that Clive James quote by the way.

 

For The Heart is something of lightweight ditty with some drive. I suspect it is revered by a faction of Elvis fans because he actually delivers a convincing, fun vocal — and the fact that it is a non-mundane, somewhat catchy recording from an era of obscene MOR doesn’t hurt. But I have never thought it was much of a song, and certainly not one of the more interesting masters from the Jungle Room.

 

Here's the original 1975 version of For the Heart by Theresa Brewer. Elvis did not stray far from this arrangement, which is not surprising considering that it was produced by none other than Felton Jarvis. Several of the American guys (Reggie Young, Tommy Cogbill, Bobby Emmons, Bobby Wood) appeared on the album from which this is taken, but I don't know which of them appear on this particular song:

 

Interesting take, but I have to say that the TCB band and Elvis's slippery voice wins hands down in my opinion. To me this demonstrates the fact that Elvis was the "actual" producer on most of his records, despite some of the overdubbing that was done later without his direct involvement.

 

Recorded at Chip Young's Young 'Un Sound Studio, the same studio where the Graceland recordings were overdubbed.

 

Thank you. I've never listened to Elvis' version of this before, probably because the original has such a strong association for me.

My Scottish dad spent his 18th year (the last year of WW2) in the merchant navy, dodging U-boats in the North Atlantic. He ended up in New Zealand when he came here in the 50s and met my mum. Their separations were months at a time before he settled here permanently. He used to play Roger Whittaker's version for my mum and say "This was written for us!" He played it at my mum's funeral - the first time I really listened to the lyrics and thought - he was right. Now that they're both gone, I have a listen every now and then, to keep them close.

Danny Boy is superb. Another vote for the Platinum version.

 

What a beautiful story, Gilly. Wow, sometimes we forgot just how personal these songs can be to people and just how powerful music can be in our memories. Elvis hit home runs with Danny Boy and The Last Farewell in my opinion.

 

Love and prayers mate

 

Bitter They Are Harder They Fall
Written By :
Larry Gatlin

Recorded :
Jungle Room, Graceland, Memphis, February 2-9, 1976 : February 2, 1976. take 7

This occupies the territory of country ballad. This is a tear jerker, and I actually like it. I think the arrangement is good, although on this one, I think it could have done with a little less in the overdub section. I think the vocal here works. I like the chord progression, and melodic structure, and I think Elvis' delivery of the song works, so from my perspective there is little to dislike here at all.

 

Solitaire
Written By :
Neil Sedaka & Phil Cody

Recorded :
Jungle Room, Graceland, Memphis, February 2-9, 1976 : February 3, 1976. take 11

So this song was initially part of Neil Sedaka's comeback album, that he actually recorded with the guys from 10cc at their Strawberry Studios. I must admit to never hearing Neil's version (to the best of my knowledge), nor have I heard the Carpenters version.
Although this may seem a little OTT for some, and again even though this is such an unlikely song for me to like, I always enjoy this song when I have heard it. I have probably played this album 5 or 6 times in the last 12-15 months, and that would have been the first time I had heard any of these songs. For whatever reason, this album and this song haven't disappointed me once during that time.
I guess there is a genuineness in the vocal that sells it to me, because it really isn't the type of song that I would normally pay much heed to.

 

Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall is a gem. I don't think it's a coincidence that The Jungle Room Sessions and disc 2 of Way Down In The Jungle Room both open with a version of BTAHTF. It makes for a great introduction to the sessions, with just the right amounts of pathos and bombast.

I think I first heard Solitaire on the Always On My Mind comp. Slight digression: man, that album is a downer. FEBP is almost sunny compared to it. The lousy sound makes it sound even darker...don't know why.

Anyway, I absolutely love Elvis' reading of Solitaire. The lyrics are unbearably cheesy and forced ("And keeping to himself begins to deal/And still the king of hearts is well concealed"...what?!), but the music/arrangement is wonderful, with one of those big choruses that Elvis did so well, and (stop me if you've heard this before) Elvis somehow makes the lyric sound convincing and meaningful.

 

Elvis was one of the very first major recording artists to recognize the immense songwriting talent of Larry Gatlin, who was sort of a prodigy of Kris Kristofferson's. Elvis had already recorded Gatlin's splendid Help Me in 1973, and in 1975 Larry had his breakthrough country hit, Broken Lady, which earned the songwriter a Grammy for Best Country Song in 1976. Johnny Mathis claimed Gatlin as his very favorite contemporary singer at the time, so Larry was truly a rising star at the time when Elvis cut his fantastic song, Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall.

It really is a beautiful performance by Elvis, with some gentle strings and piano giving way to Elvis's first rich, baritone notes that sets up the mood of the song, I told her to leave me alone, and that's what she's done, just what's she's done. I just love the way Dirk describes it, "It makes for a great introduction to the sessions, with just the right amounts of pathos and bombast."

I spent last night playing the various versions of Solitaire that I was familiar with to see why I was always drawn to Elvis's version so much more than anyone else. Karen Carpenter's version is almost flawless, with her near perfect vocal pitch on the verse, but perhaps the vocal is just "too perfect" for my ears. Karen's musically talented brother Richard said she never really liked the song and he had to talk her into recording it to begin with, and perhaps that is the missing ingredient in her vocal that Elvis seems to have in his vocal; naked passion.

To me personally, the arrangement is sheer perfection, with Glen Hardin's gorgeous piano fills following Elvis in the main chorus just magnificently, and Ronnie Tutt's drumming is about as dramatic as one could get on such a mellow ballad. How about Jerry Scheff's ending bass notes on the guitar in tandem with Glen's low notes on the piano? Whew, to me this is just spellbinding music, and once again, arranger Bergen White brings out all the haunting nature of the song with his delicate use of strings and horns.