Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

I think there are probably a few of us that are lucky to still be kicking, i know I'm one. The difference for me was a loving family and friends, if I was rich and famous, I don't know that would have necessarily been the case

 

I am a fan who admits that in his younger days, I had little love for the Beatles as I probably saw them as competion to Elvis, and I was never into bands during my youthful period. I have huge respect for the Beatles historic contributions to popular music now, and I always thought they were fantastic songwriters, particlarly Lennon and McCartney. I appreciate their songs and George Martin's fine productions more than ever, and I think deep down Elvis and the Beatles really did greatly admire each other greatly. Paul McCartney went to Graceland himself not too long ago and paid his sincere respects, and I for one will stick up for the overall talent of the Beatles, whenever I get the chance. This is someone who up until this year only had one Beatles album in their entire collection. I am proud to say that I now own their complete album stereo box set, and I will be enjoying their splendid music for years to come. I do not know of a single band in popular music, including in my beloved country genre, that has made such a lasting contribution to popular music.

I also have to defend our great Elvis experts on this thread, including you Mark, whom have offered some of the most honest and intelligent posts that I have ever read on this entire forum. I have never seen @Spencer R, @czeskleba, @SKATTERBRANE, @Shawn @DirkM, @PacificOceanBlue, @GillyT, @MRamble, @PepiJean, @Revelator, @Dave112, @artfromtex, @JLGB or @NumberEight hold back on criticizing an Elvis song or performance, when they deemed it poor or lackluster in anyway. I cannot think of a single member on this great thread that universally likes everything Elvis recorded or praises all of his concert performances or creative decisions. In fact, I would say that most Elvis enthusiasts are rather selective in the areas of Elvis's career that they love or prefer to listen to extensively.

 

You're very kind Steve. It's interesting to see how the received wisdom @ Elvis' music has shifted in my lifetime from the "he died in the army" orthodoxy of the Boomer generation, to a more nuanced appreciation of his entire career today, warts and all. Great art (and I'm by no means claiming that what Elvis did in the 70s was uniformly "great" - more flashes that popped up in unexpected places) is great because people continue to find new things in it that are fresh/fresh interpretations.

I'm currently reading 'Johnny Be Bad' written by the producer of 'Hail Hail Rock n Roll', about the difficulties @ filming the Chuck Berry documentary. It contains the complete transcript of an discussion, featured in the film, between Chuck, Little Richard and Bo Diddley. Funnily enough, Bo Diddley said about Elvis "He became interesting to me when he came out of the service." Not the usual perspective at that time. Couldn't agree more of course!

 

forgive the tangent, but i'd loved to have seen the off camera interactions of richard's and berry during that "filming". those two were bugging, but i give it to "charles" for the "win".

sorry all, carry on. it's amazing that this thread has all these "experts" who @RSteven rightly identifies. i just found it. do we get hats? i still have my gen u wine "elvis in concert" two tone tour jacket replete with the tcb shoulder patch and "E in concert logo" with the bitchin' "script". i wish i could post pics lol.

 

My guess is that you saw him in April 1976. 1976 was mostly a rough year for Elvis, with a couple of passable shows scattered throughout, ending with a short, inspired tour in late-December. It would not be surprising to find out that there were rumors of Elvis' deterioration running through the halls of RCA during that period. Whether that is what your father was alluding to, who knows, but people in the business knew the wheels were coming off, and certainly people within RCA saw what was happening with Elvis' inability to deliver product per his contractual obligations.

 

i thought 75? but it could have been 76? but sure, early 76 then? as the only reason i went is "free elvis".

yes, you're certainly right about the whispers at the time re elvis. had to be. it is telling that as an afterthought in that remembrance i added, that i remember distinctly being told this by my pop as the reason "i needed to go" with him ( what?! ) . hence why i allowed myself to be "dragged" there. i genuinely did not want to go. so i drugged myself. yet, still i remember.

whenever it was he played long beach, not long before he died. this i saw.

 

So well said. I don’t believe any of us in this thread have not had criticism of some aspect of Elvis’ career up to this point. And while all of it is subjective, it’s been said with a lot of respect for both Elvis and other posters in this thread. For however long this series of threads has been going on it’s been the highlights of my visits to this Forum.

 

My favorite thread ever as well!

 

Yeah, April '76. Elvis did not play Long Beach in '75.

 

there it is. i wish i was eighteen again. thanks.

 

Led Zeppelin’s live career pretty closely paralleled Elvis’ 70s career: as good as anything ever in music out of the gate in 1969/1970, followed by a long, slow decline over the rest of the decade, with Robert Plant losing his upper register, Jimmy Page sinking into addiction and wearing increasingly gaudy onstage jumpsuits, just like Elvis, and John Bonham ultimately dying as pointless and stupid a death as Elvis. Yet most Led Zeppelin fans don’t dwell on the trainwreck tours of 1977 and 1980, but remember Zep in their early to mid-70s glory. I’d suggest that’s largely because Plant didn’t get fat the way Elvis did, so the golden god frontman didn’t physically decline, even though Page and Bonham were shells of themselves by the end. What happened to Elvis is sad and tragic to me, but so is what happened to Keith Richards, but just as I’m able to enjoy Exile On Main Street despite knowing that, in 1971, Keith was already on the drug that would bring him to his knees in a few years, I can enjoy Elvis’s great work from 1969-74 without obsessing over the sad end from 1975-77. What’s the endgame if Elvis kept going, anyway? A spot on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack? A synth-backed record in 1983? A late-career roots comeback like Johnny Cash’s Rick Rubin albums? We’ll never know, but I can enjoy the good things that did happen without obsessing over 1977.

 

Your posts on Elvis really turn much of the conventional wisdom on Elvis upside down, and I think the members of this great forum are a lot better off for it. Elvis Presley had over 700 master recordings in his lifetime, and if anybody wants to find or dwell on the worst of those recordings, they are more than free to have at it. I will choose to concentrate most of my time listening to and commenting on the vast majority of those recordings that I find have great merit or touch me in some unique way. Someone on this great forum once said that it is a lot easier to talk a member of this forum into liking some song or album that they previously did not like than convincing someone to dislike some kind of music that they already liked a lot. I will choose to spend most of my efforts towards the former goal.

 

Over a lifetime, I’ve moved from “he died in the army” to appreciating first Elvis’s 60s work, and then his 70s work. Just because I’ve grown to love his 70s work doesn’t mean anyone should forget the magic of 1956 and 1957 that was once the consensus peak of his career. To me, he achieved the very rare feat of having three separate career peaks: 1956-57, 1960-62, and 1968-1970.

 

Good morning friends.
My name is Sebastiano and I write from Italy.
May you help me to unveil the reading key for the following catalogue numbers of RCA Victor (letter by letter):

- PRS-279 (1968 - LP - “Flaming Star” - Singer)

- CAS-2304 (1969 - LP - “Flaming Star” Camden)

- VPSX-6089 (1973 - LP - “Aloha From Hawaii” RCA)

- DTF0-2006 (1973 - EP - “Aloha from Hawaii” RCA)

- DL2-5001 (1975 - LP - “Double Dynamite” Pickwick - I guess “2” stands for two record set)

- AFL1-2428 (1977 - LP - “Moody Blue” RCA - I just need the "F": I guess “A” stand for code price / “L” for stereo / “1” for one piece album)

- ACL-7007 (1977 - LP - “Frankie & Johnny” Pickwick)

These are all Elvis' releases.

Sebastiano Cecere

 

I'm afraid that's outside my wheelhouse mate, but someone probably knows

 

Walk A Mile In My Shoes
Written By :
Joe South

Recorded :
Live Recording, International Hotel, Las Vegas, February 15-19, 1970 : February 19, 1970

This is a great track and is certainly a contender for the best song on the album. This is a Joe South song and I'm afraid I am only familiar with "Games People Play".
We start with a really nice piece of guitar, and then a solid beat comes in. We seem to just have the main standard band here, and they have the song completely under control, with a nice groove. The Inspirations are fantastic here, the arrangement of their backing vocals is perfect, certainly not overbearing or over sung. Towards the end of the song the horns come in, but again it is just perfect arrangement. Nothing overblown, or overdone, just a nice touch of colour that adds to the feel of the song.
The only down side of the song, is the strange edited ending. The guitar is faded down and some audience noise is dropped in and faded up. A strange choice. Aside from that, this song is perfect.

 

Let It Be Me
Written By :
Gilbert Bécaud, Manny Curtis & Pierre Delanoé

Recorded :
Live Recording, International Hotel, Las Vegas, February 15-19, 1970 : February 17, 1970

The Everly Brothers are another favourite from the fifties and sixties, also their 1984(?) album was very good, and the reunion concert is a cherished dvd. To do an Everly Brothers song is to me, is quite a brave thing to do, because their harmonies were a signature that was difficult to forge.
Here Elvis does a very commendable version of one of the most beautiful, or many, songs that they wrote and performed. The version is reverent, but also has Elvis stamp all over it.
This is a band and full orchestra arrangement, and it is great. Again the arrangement is perfect for the song. Elvis version isn't over sung, or over cooked, it is right on the money and everybody does exactly what they need to do to sell the song.
A beautiful way to end the album.

 

WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES

Another highlight from the "On Stage" album: Elvis takes to another level this great Pop Rock track by adding a subtle layer of Gospel feeling. Great vocals from both our man and the Sweet Inspirations. The only minus is the editing work at the end: WAMIMS was originally pared with IN THE GHETTO and removing the second part of the Medley was no easy task it seems. In 1995, for the 70's Essential boxset, Ernst improved the whole thing by adding the MEN WITH BROKEN HEARTS short recitation just before launching into WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES. And you know what? It was a magnificent idea.

 

To me unless you're someone that hates live albums, this is an essential album in the Elvis catalog. I think the whole idea of doing contemporary versions of somewhat recent hits, was a good idea and they are carried off with aplomb. Elvis is engaged and enjoying this immensely, and for me that even lifts the songs that I am not overly sold on up. Everybody will have their own opinion on what the better songs are, and we will all have our own reasons for that, but essentially that just goes to show how good the album is. If we all agreed that these three songs "..." were the best, that would show that it is probably a bit of a dud.
I'm still coming to terms with what my favourite Elvis album are for the seventies, but this album would certainly be in contention.

 

My own TOP 3 Elvis' 70s albums would be:

3- He touched me (1972)
2- On Stage, february 1970 (1970)
1- Elvis Country (I'm 10.000 years old, 1971)

 

Great post! I'm a fan of both Elvis and The Beatles since childhood. The Beatles excited my love of music and creativity and Elvis had a much deeper resonance with me on a personal level. Seemed that there was always that perfect Elvis song to go with most situations that were happening while I was growing up.
Elvis' and The Beatles' lives and careers have been dissected, ridiculed, exalted, and mythicized by so many including myself. The truth is that really they end up damned no matter what do or did. The Beatles disbanded at the top of their game. Are they praised for this? Not usually. They left us wanting more and we don't like that.
Elvis steadily declined in the 1970's and until the very end he was making recordings. Is he praised for this? Not usually. Although the last TV special was not his greatest work, it even contained some gems that showed he still had the magic left. It's still shrugged off as total garbage for the most part. Suppose Elvis had said farewell forever right after the Aloha concert and decided to sit back and live on investments (talk about leaving on a high note). Would most people take a different view? I doubt it because they would have wanted more just like with The Beatles. There would still be rumors of a return concerts just like there are legends of him living in a trailer park in Texas.

 

Walk A Mile In My Shoes is probably my least-favourite song from On Stage. Not that I dislike it; it's just that it doesn't have quite the same impact or enjoyability factor as the other nine tracks do for me. Re: Joe South, for years I only knew him as the bass player on Blonde On Blonde, so I was surprised to find out that he was a fine songwriter in his own right. He also wrote Rose Garden and Don't It Make You Want To Go Home, both of which I think would have suited Elvis, especially in 1971 or 1972.

Let It Be Me is a masterclass performance by Elvis and the band. It takes everything good about The Wonder Of You and makes it all even better. More than that, it takes a song that always seemed dull and schmaltzy to me and turns it into something genuinely emotional and heartfelt. The ending is particularly magnificent and makes for a fantastic send-off to the album.

 

I didn't know Joe South wrote those songs or played on Blonde on Blonde lol
Cheers for the info

 

I also liked the recitation of Men With Broken Hearts. We all know Elvis was not known as a great orator but have you ever caught how eloquently he speaks when talking about or quoting song lyrics?

 

That's when your heartaches begin, I love you because, Are you lonesome tonight?, Polk salad annie, Are you sincere...
The man was pretty good at reciting.