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Post by B.E. on Jun 18, 2022 17:35:39 GMT
Perhaps the sort of ballad that Elvis could deliver 100x over, but I found this pretty, tender, understated tune to be the highlight of the 1973 album Elvis. Apparently, it features him on piano.
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Post by lonelysummer on Jun 18, 2022 19:31:08 GMT
Perhaps the sort of ballad that Elvis could deliver 100x over, but I found this pretty, tender, understated tune to be the highlight of the 1973 album Elvis. Apparently, it features him on piano. It was recorded at the end of a session, when the musicians had left, but Elvis still had some music in him. Very nice. That album was a grab bag released just a few months after Aloha From Hawaii.
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Post by B.E. on Jun 18, 2022 20:05:15 GMT
That album was a grab bag released just a few months after Aloha From Hawaii. You could probably say that about many (most?) of his albums. But...then you'd be dismissing most of his catalogue! (And you wouldn't be judging the music itself, moreso the presentation of it.) It is a little frustrating, though, that Elvis and his management clearing didn't approach albums in the way fans like us would have liked. There are exceptions but, really, he'd hold sessions where he produced a lot of material (say 30 songs) and that would be mined for the next 3+ albums. They seemed to have a formula in the 70s, too: Exactly 10 songs per album. Picture of Elvis in a white suit on the cover. New recordings, mixed with leftovers, often mixed with a few live recordings, too. And the album titles were mostly unimaginative (but, again, this isn't being approached like an album, so much as a collection of recordings) and often the titles could be confusing. In this case, it was simply "Elvis" again... great! And how many album titles include the word "Memphis" - which is which? Is it studio or live? or both? (I count at least 5, by the way.) And there's just so many albums: studio, live, compilation. Then there's the budget albums. And EPs and singles, and there's even a spoken album. It's daunting. Just so much product to sift through. All that said, it's not a big deal really...and I'm no expert when it comes to Elvis. Anyway, my goal, as I mentioned in the shoutbox, is to finally give a proper listen to his 70s catalog. I own a few of those albums, but most of them I'd never even heard 'til a few days ago. I think I'll end up with a few concise playlists to listen to moving forward, but I probably won't be adding all of these albums to my (physical) collection and attempting to listen to them in their entirety.
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Post by lonelysummer on Jun 20, 2022 5:37:28 GMT
That album was a grab bag released just a few months after Aloha From Hawaii. You could probably say that about many (most?) of his albums. But...then you'd be dismissing most of his catalogue! (And you wouldn't be judging the music itself, moreso the presentation of it.) It is a little frustrating, though, that Elvis and his management clearing didn't approach albums in the way fans like us would have liked. There are exceptions but, really, he'd hold sessions where he produced a lot of material (say 30 songs) and that would be mined for the next 3+ albums. They seemed to have a formula in the 70s, too: Exactly 10 songs per album. Picture of Elvis in a white suit on the cover. New recordings, mixed with leftovers, often mixed with a few live recordings, too. And the album titles were mostly unimaginative (but, again, this isn't being approached like an album, so much as a collection of recordings) and often the titles could be confusing. In this case, it was simply "Elvis" again... great! And how many album titles include the word "Memphis" - which is which? Is it studio or live? or both? (I count at least 5, by the way.) And there's just so many albums: studio, live, compilation. Then there's the budget albums. And EPs and singles, and there's even a spoken album. It's daunting. Just so much product to sift through. All that said, it's not a big deal really...and I'm no expert when it comes to Elvis. Anyway, my goal, as I mentioned in the shoutbox, is to finally give a proper listen to his 70s catalog. I own a few of those albums, but most of them I'd never even heard 'til a few days ago. I think I'll end up with a few concise playlists to listen to moving forward, but I probably won't be adding all of these albums to my (physical) collection and attempting to listen to them in their entirety. There are a few of the 70's releases that feel like proper albums - Elvis Country; Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas; He Touched Me; Today; and From Elvis Presley Boulevard Memphis Tennessee. But yes, much of the rest comes in grab bag format - Love Letters from Elvis; Elvis Now; and the one you mentioned, with the highly original title of Elvis. So yeah, you learn to sift through the dross for the gems. And there are more of those than some folks will admit.
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Post by jk on Jun 21, 2022 21:33:47 GMT
Assuming anyone can join in here, this is one of my favourite Sun recordings by the Big E. "Baby Let's Play House" features a heart-warming chuckle from the King almost at the end:
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Post by B.E. on Jun 22, 2022 3:01:27 GMT
Assuming anyone can join in here Of course! I look forward to you and others chiming in.
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Post by jk on Jun 22, 2022 8:00:28 GMT
Well, there are plenty of contenders for the quintessential rock and roll anthem. "Heartbreak Hotel" may have been the Elvis song that marked the onset of the "generation gap" but the earlier "Good Rockin' Tonight" is the one for me: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Rocking_Tonight
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 22, 2022 20:49:56 GMT
Here's something Elvisish: Kacey Musgraves has a version of "Can't Help Falling in Love" for the new biopic. It's a reverb-drenched, understated piano-and-voice rendition.
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Post by jk on Jun 28, 2022 8:23:39 GMT
And then, of course, there were the Elvis soundalike records, whether or not by design. This is the first one I heard at the time, Ral Donner's 1961 US #4, "You Don't Know What You've Got (Until You Lose it)": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ral_Donner
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jun 28, 2022 23:35:22 GMT
My favorite Elvis Presley period is 1969-1973. I especially like his live performances during that era. Elvis assembled a great band, and when he wasn't being silly or a parody of himself, he could rock & roll as good as ever. James Burton (lead guitar), John Wilkinson (rhythm guitar), Glen Hardin (piano), Jerry Scheff (bass), and Ronnie Tutt (drums) were tremendous musicians and could really get Elvis going! Like below:
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jun 29, 2022 2:10:25 GMT
Elvis and Frank Sinatra are my top two artists that I hate I never had or never will get the chance to see. With the new movie out (that I've yet to see, maybe this weekend), I've been watching some live Elvis stuff and news related items. It's hard to fathom just how big of a deal he was, not unlike the Beatles. It seems as though he doesn't always get the respect he deserves though, whether it be because of his lack of songwriting skills or just being a relic of the 50s and that culture. It makes me wonder how he might be viewed differently if he had lived to present day. He was still producing minor hits at the time of his death, so it's not unreasonable to think he'd have another major hit or two left in him. Or maybe he'd return to making a movie or two in the 80s. At 87, it's likely he'd be retired from touring by now, or who knows, maybe he'd sit in a chair the whole show while singing his hits.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 29, 2022 11:41:24 GMT
It's hard to fathom just how big of a deal he was, not unlike the Beatles. It seems as though he doesn't always get the respect he deserves though, whether it be because of his lack of songwriting skills or just being a relic of the 50s and that culture. As someone who also came only after them both, it is interesting to look back at how they were remembered over time. It seems to me that the pre-Dylan, pre-Beatles artists are overwhelmingly dismissed and almost disrespected, and that only after Dylan (and the maturing Beatles) were artists "saying anything," only then performing rock and roll that was an "art form." It's really the vocal self-aggrandizing propaganda of a generation: "We're the ones who really started doing things that mattered. What came before was cute, silly, inconsequential, disposable."
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jun 29, 2022 12:14:25 GMT
And then, of course, there were the Elvis soundalike records, whether or not by design. How about this one, jk - "Suspicion" by Terry Stafford from 1964. Elvis actually recorded the song in 1962. I think I like Terry's version better.
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Post by jk on Jun 29, 2022 13:20:41 GMT
And then, of course, there were the Elvis soundalike records, whether or not by design. How about this one, jk - "Suspicion" by Terry Stafford from 1964. Elvis actually recorded the song in 1962. I think I like Terry's version better. Ha, that was to be my third choice of Elvis soundalike. Great minds etc. I do agree!!!! So this was my second choice, Troy Shondell's big moment, recorded during an era when no one gave two hoots that the studio piano hadn't been tuned in ages: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Shondell
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Post by jk on Jul 2, 2022 16:21:06 GMT
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