Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

Yet, after recording If I Can Dream, he stated he would never record another song he didn’t believe in (obviously caught up in the moment). Assuming he was still committed to that philosophy just six months later in Memphis, one can make the presumption that the songs recorded at American Sound also made a personal connection, yet because he wasn’t in a state despair or dealing with the same internal turmoil, the From Elvis In Memphis album isn’t considered a personal statement the way FEPB often is by a faction of fans, yet the material at both sessions described loneliness, heartbreak, lost love, despair, etc. The reality is Elvis was often attracted to that subject matter.

 

The deepest song in the Elvis Presley catalogue.

 

At least in this thread, I don’t think anyone is suggesting FEPB was a personal statement by Elvis, rather his voice is wearing what we perceive are his inner demons on his sleeve. On FEIM he’s a singer interpreting songs, on FEPB it seems like he’s singing from personal experience.

 

Totally.
On From Elvis in Memphis I hear a man desperate to prove he still has it, and delivering by the truckload.
On From EPB, I hear a broken man, squeezing the last drops out of his heart to share with the crowd. I wouldn't suggest that was planned, i think it just was.
For me he delivered the goods almost in spite of himself

 

Well, some observers would like it to be that way as a way to add depth and meaning to the recordings, but there is nothing that proves that theory. It is more circumstantial and wishful thinking than anything else. There is nothing personal about The Last Farewell, nor was Elvis lonely or heartbroken in the traditional sense, surrounded by friends and a series of girlfriends on a daily basis. Who is to say he wasn’t simply interpreting songs during Jungle Room sessions like he did seven years earlier at American Sound?

 

That is certainly possible, but sometimes the line that sums it up for me was actually sung by Alice Cooper, whenever I think of Elvis - "I may be lonely, but I'm never alone"

 

That’s just it, no one can ‘prove’ a song wasn’t personal, but there’s also no way to ‘prove’ it was. I can’t fault anyone for their interpretations, and I hope no one faults me for mine.

 

That is fine, but fans should be cautious with their assertion that FEPB was something more than another collection of songs. There are certainly some interesting theories that Elvis’ emotional state is deep in the song selection and vocal performances, but there is nothing to really substantiate it.

 

We don't really even know who selected most of the songs, do we? We know Elvis liked The Last Farewell, and it stands to reason it was his idea to do Hurt and Danny Boy. And we know Felton pitched For the Heart and that Love Coming Down and Never Again were likely also presented to him, since there weren't released versions of either for him to have been familiar with. So we have three songs Elvis (probably) chose, three he did not, and four where we don't know. Obviously for the album to be some sort of personal statement, we'd need evidence that he himself selected those remaining four songs.

 

"Moody Blue" was recorded at those first Feb 1976 Graceland sessions. Don't know if it was a coincidence that it was withheld from release until late 1976, But it would have surely not fit the slow and mostly sad FEPB album. The album for me reflected Elvis's state of mind. And Elvis himself signed the back of the album (with a note), including the song list. BTW, the original fan message with Elvis's signature, was sold at auction.

 

According to Jorgensen, "Elvis had recorded Larry Gatlin’s 'Help Me' at Stax in 1973, and had been interested in the writer-singer’s second record 'Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall,' since the period the previous fall he’d spent considering a half-studio, half-Vegas album." So that's another downbeat song Elvis selected.
"Pledging My Love" was a suggestion from Chip Young.
I suspect "Solitaire," "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," and "She Thinks I Still Care" were all songs Elvis had wanted to cover.
As for the songs presented by Felton, presumably Elvis made the final decision on whether to cut them or not--we don't know about demos or suggestions that might have been rejected. I don't think the sessions were a conscious "personal statement"--they just feel into alignment to the sort of material and mood Elvis was gravitating toward. I've just been skimming through Gurlanick's coverage of this period, and it wasn't a pleasant time.

 

Partial state of mind. There is no material that suggests Elvis ready to take down drug rings as a vigilante, nor is there anything professing his devotion to law enforcement. Elvis was depressed, but his state of mind went well beyond lost love and loneliness, themes he had covered off and on dice the 1950’s.

 

I agree with that. It's easy for us to paint a particular picture with our foresight of what was to unfold in the following twelve months but had nothing like that occurred I think we would just chalk this down as another Elvis album without the perceived melancholy. I could be wrong but I don't think anyone was more surprised with his untimely departure than the man himself...

 

Not the sort of material that easily lends itself to songs, rather than movies, since Elvis copied his scheme from Death Wish. And such personal fantasies tend to be the mark of depressed, insecure, and/or chemically unbalanced minds to begin with.

Themes that hit harder in middle age, when more lost loves and regrets and disillusionment have piled up. During this period Elvis was losing Linda Thompson and failing to satisfactorily replace her, growing alienated from long-time friends, suffering from failing health, and feuding with family members. It was in every respect a worse period than any time in his life aside from his mother's death, even if it wasn't 100% depressing.

Considering that Elvis had several near-death experiences beforehand, including one where he thought he was definitely a goner (the details are in the Memphis Mafia book), I highly doubt he was surprised when the final blow came.

 

Well, if we assume Elvis took an active role in selecting the songs for EP Blvd, it stands to reason he also took an active role in selecting tracks for the second Graceland session and the aborted Creative Workshop session. And as I noted, most of those songs are upbeat lyrically and uptempo musically. If we're going to conclude he selected downbeat songs because he was in a bad place in life, can we conclude that he chose upbeat songs for the follow-up because he was feeling much better and thought things were looking up?

Ultimately, I don't think we should read too much into the song selection other than that Elvis chose songs he liked.

 

Or songs that he currently could identify with in a very personal way.

 

Yeah it is deserves to be about 6 foot "deep".

 

I'm not sure how safe it is to assume that. He did a lot of songs about heartbreak and disappointment in February 1976, but he'd always liked those type of songs. And as I noted, in October 1976 and January 1977 he was (apparently) choosing upbeat songs, despite no dramatic changes in his personal situation that might suggest he was suddenly identifying with optimistic songs in a personal way. Personal connection with a song was often a factor in whether he chose to do it, but I don't think that was any more the case in 1976 than it had been at any other time.

 

I think had Elvis sounded like and had the energy and health and Moman of FEIM days for the EPB LP, I, among a few others would not deride it nearly as much. It isn't necessarily the songs that are the weakest link here.

 

Agreed. He also chose plenty of songs containing themes of heartbreak and disappointment throughout his career, it wasn’t exclusive to the winter of 1976.

 

It isn’t as if it was his state of mind that largely negatively impacted his vocal delivery; it was 15+ years of drug abuse. His abuse was not solely due to depression — Elvis was abusing pharmaceuticals off and on throughout the 1960’s, as well as the 1970’s. It caught up with him and his body finally broke down, which was evident from the vocal deterioration highlighted during the Jungle Room recordings.

 

Well of course Elvis was going to mix it up a little over the years, but the fact remains that FEPB reveals Elvis current state of mind about as closely as any album ever could of material that he could not write himself. I understand that FEPB is not everybody's cup of tea, but to dismiss it in haste, despite its rare glimpse into Elvis's emotional state of mind at the time, seems a little myopic to me.

 

Sure, and in the second Graceland session we got "It’s Easy For You," "Way Down," (the only really up-beat song), "Pledging My Love," (an unplanned suggestion) and "He’ll Have To Go." And then Elvis blew off recording an up-tempo song “There’s A Fire Down Below.” Just as he blew off the Creative Workshop session, which shows what his level of commitment to recording up-tempo material was, even if he might have initially agreed to the session.

And the ratio of sad songs versus happy ones also shifted over the course of his career.

 

Could you imagine what Have A Happy would have sounded like had Elvis revisited it during the Graceland sessions?