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ELVIS

trekkiedane

Admiral
Admiral
Some of you may know me as a 'loungie' or even a 'Misc.ie'.

But there's a lot more to me than the usual TBBS-search might show.

For instance: I
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Elvis!

Which is why I now try this:

What is your favourite Elvis song?

Here's mine:

That's All Right Mama


What's yours?
 
Well, my avatar here is showing that I'm a fan (I have 11.6 GB of Elvis music cataloged on my computer--so far--I have some more cataloging to do).

Really, he's my favorite artist of all time. I visited Memphis back in 2005 (Graceland, Beale Street and Sun Studios). I've been a fan all my life, though I became a die-hard back in 2003. I'm known as Elvis' Babe at the FECC, TCB-World and other Elvis fan communities.

I heavily recommend The '68 Comeback Special (1968), That's The Way It Is (1970), Elvis On Tour (1972), Aloha From Hawaii (1973) and Elvis In Concert (1977) for the ultimate live experiences.

Here are some recommended songs (and to help expand you out of the 'compilation' type songs):

An American Trilogy
Unchained Melody
Danny Boy
Amazing Grace
Suspicious Minds
Where No Man Stands Alone
I Really Don't Want To Know
I Was The One
I'll Be There
He'll Have To Go
It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'
Reach Out To Jesus
Just Pretend
Polk Salad Annie
Can't Help Falling In Love
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
Help Me Make It Through The Night
Don't
Young And Beautiful
Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
My Babe
Love Me
Love Me, Love The Life I Lead
America The Beautiful
My Way
(Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I
(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me
Always On My Mind
Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Long Black Limousine
Tryin' To Get To You
Swing Down, Sweet Chariot
Clean Up Your Own Backyard
Walk A Mile In My Shoes
Where Did They Go, Lord
Without Love (There Is Nothing)
You'll Think Of Me
Where Could I Go But To The Lord?
Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall
She Thinks I Still Care
The Fool
My Boy
Love Me Tender
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Run On
Bosom Of Abraham
I, John
Old Shep
Peace In The Valley
Stand By Me
It's Midnight
It's Easy For You
It Hurts Me
Indescribably Blue
If You Love Me (Let Me Know)
How Great Thou Art
 
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Some of my favourites include:
- In The Ghetto
- An American Trilogy
- If I Can Dream
- Don't Cry Daddy
- Can't Help Falling in Love
- You Were Always on my Mind
 
trekkiedane -- Let me guess... I scared you?

Really, though. I recommend you try a few of those songs if you haven't heard them. And that's just the tip of the iceberg (he recorded about 750 separate songs or song fragments).

The American Sound Studio Sessions ('69) and the Jungle Room Sessions ('76) are particularly interesting listens. His live stuff is phenomenal.

The least-known material is often his best, by the way.

I do notice that you're largely only familiar with his '50s material (of which I'm a really big fan of Don't, Young And Beautiful, (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I, Peace In The Valley and stuff of that ilk--I'm ballad girl).

Great choices, BigFoot. Especially An American Trilogy, Can't Help Falling In Love and Always On My Mind from that list. His Trilogy at Aloha on 1/14/73 is certainly in the running for his greatest performance of all time. Between that and the desperate goodbye that was his Unchained Melody from Rapid City on 6/21/77. His 1976 Jungle Room recording of Danny Boy is another heartstring-puller.

"So, hush, little baby, don't you cry. You know your daddy's bound to die. But all my trials, Lord, soon'll be over." <--I always get a little choked up at that part.
 
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A handful of the graphics I've made over the years (I repeat: I've been a fan my whole life and a die-hard since I was 16 years old):

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5325/elvisfinish.gif
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http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1576/elvissc.gif
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5102/elvissc2.gif
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/555/elvismic.gif
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2907/eotpanties.gif
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7762/elvispiano.gif
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3035/elviskiss.gif
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9588/elvislmt.gif
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/8025/eplovinfeelin.gif
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/576/elvisstripes.gif
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1606/elvisaudience.gif
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3190/epgiblues.gif
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/8974/eparmy.gif
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3622/elvisreadyteddy.gif
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3491/elvisanv.gif
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/3772/elvislights.gif
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9192/elvisshake7.gif
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1773/elvisswing.gif
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8751/elvisp.gif

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5630/elvisjaycees.gif
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1309/elvishula2.gif
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3578/elvisak3.gif
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1269/elvisallc.gif
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7563/elvisontour.gif
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/2163/elvisglasses.gif

Me at Graceland/Sun Studios in 2005:

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/9471/graceland024wl0.jpg
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1366/graceland021fy4.jpg
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/8606/graceland023rp4.jpg
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/954/graceland065fj8.jpg
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/2796/graceland068kr8.jpg
 
I love a lot of Elvis songs, in particular "His Latest Flame", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", "Suspicious Minds", "In the Ghetto".... he had a lot of great material. I also remember coming across a Bob Dylan cover which I thought was fantastic. Could someone help identify the song please?

Elvis gets a lot of dismissal from some people these days - he's just perceived as a manufactured rip-off of the other big rock'n'roll stars of the 50s. but the fact is, Elvis released his first records BEFORE Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly; Little Richard did have records out before him, but they weren't rock'n'roll records. I think Elvis will always be unique, not a mere product of a greedy music industry as he's often portrayed now.
 
I love all Elvis' songs but my favourite has to be Heartbreak Hotel. I like the later years when he got more reflective as well.

What's everyone's favourite movies? Mine's Jailhouse Rock. "That ain't tactics honey, it's just the beast in me".

I went to Graceland a couple of months ago as well OH MY GOD how awesome is it. Just the rooms full of records and awards...I was in awe the whole time.

Elvis is my all time complete utter idol.
 
trekkiedane -- Let me guess... I scared you?
Nah, you just didn't really leave a lot of room for others to post something you hadn't already posted :rommie:

Really, though. I recommend you try a few of those songs if you haven't heard them. And that's just the tip of the iceberg (he recorded about 750 separate songs or song fragments).
Well, he's been in my life longer than even I have as mum is a great fan -heck, dad even looked like The King back when they met!

The American Sound Studio Sessions ('69) and the Jungle Room Sessions ('76) are particularly interesting listens. His live stuff is phenomenal.

The least-known material is often his best, by the way.
I do have a lot of weird recordings lying around and would agree with you on the phenomenal and the often best things

I do notice that you're largely only familiar with his '50s material (of which I'm a really big fan of Don't, Young And Beautiful, (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I, Peace In The Valley and stuff of that ilk--I'm ballad girl).
No, it's like this: Young Elvis was a genius but old Elvis was 'merely' a fantastic performer! (imho of course) -But I do remember watching the live from Hawaii concert -live- back in the day and loving it!
"So, hush, little baby, don't you cry. You know your daddy's bound to die. But all my trials, Lord, soon'll be over." <--I always get a little choked up at that part.
Heh, me to!

Elvis is my all time complete utter idol.
I knew you'd come in here at some point!
 
I'm a big Elvis fan, not just his music but his movies as well.

My three favourite songs have to be:
- Suspicious Minds
- Can't Help Falling in Love With You
- Return to Sender
 
Elvis is my all time complete utter idol.
I knew you'd come in here at some point!

Haha well it takes something special to bring me out of lurk mode nowadays!

But yeah sometimes I forget just how good Elvis is. I know that's hard to believe but I've listened to the music so many times I don't really pay attention. But when I do I'm like....damn he was good. Just the way he moves and speaks and...damn I'm straight but y'know, I would.

It's a shame that a lot of people don't realise how great Elvis was, partly because he's music has been around for so long so it's ingrained in our culture now. But generally I think people are only familiar with the caricature of Elvis rather than the man. They get hooked up on the karate and the impersonators, they can't grasp the hysteria he caused or the essence of his being.
 
Elvis gets a lot of dismissal from some people these days - he's just perceived as a manufactured rip-off of the other big rock'n'roll stars of the 50s. but the fact is, Elvis released his first records BEFORE Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly; Little Richard did have records out before him, but they weren't rock'n'roll records. I think Elvis will always be unique, not a mere product of a greedy music industry as he's often portrayed now.

I don't think anyone who knows what they are talking about would say that Elvis was a rip off of Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly. What people might say is that Elvis was ripping off earlier R&B performers, and indeed a lot of his early singles were covers of songs by people like Big Boy Crudup, Roy Brown, Kokomo Arnold and others. Holly and Berry were influenced by the same artists, of course, but started recording original material almost immediately and were brilliant.

That's not to take anything away from Elvis, though. He was an amazing singer and performer and synthesized his R&B and country inspirations into something original. I like almost all the pre-army recordings, and am a big fan of Scotty Moore. The '60s stuff, not so much. I like "Suspicious Minds" quite a bit, though, and "Guitar Man," because of Jerry Reed, but most of that highly-produced stuff with all the strings does nothing for me. About the only good thing I can say about Elvis in the '70s is he always had a great, tight band. "Burning Love" is kind of fun, though.

--Justin
 
Actually, Buddy Holly was inspired to become a rock'n'roll artist instead of a country artist (which is what he originally was) because of seeing Elvis Presley at the gig in Lubbock, Texas in 1955 (there's video of this). In fact, Gene Vincent got his career by winning a radio contest to find the next Elvis (notice the vocal similarity on Be-Bop-A-Lula). A lot of people were inspired by and got into music because of Elvis.

And his inspirations were hardly just Crudup and the like (that's the biggest misunderstanding of his early years). The first artist he wanted to be like when he came to Sun Studios was Dean Martin, of all people. One of his early desires was to join a gospel quartet. Ballads and gospel were foremost in his heart. But that's not what Sam Phillips wanted (he was a blues guy). Eventually, after months of recording ballads, Elvis broke out with That's All Right on a break and gave Sam what he was looking for. You'll notice that when Elvis was given free reign to record what he wanted, ballads take up the majority of his recordings. At home in private, it was gospel that he sang and played on the piano the entire night.

Elvis made his first recording in August of 1953, by the way (My Happiness / That's When Your Heartaches Begin)--a $4 acetate recording.

Though his blending of blues, country and gospel wouldn't come until July 5, 1954, of course (That's All Right / Blue Moon Of Kentucky). That's All Right was called too country to be blues and Blue Moon Of Kentucky was called too bluesy to be bluegrass. That was the BIRTH of rock'n'roll.

The most popular preconception is that rock'n'roll is just jump blues, when it equally borrows from country, gospel, bluegrass, pop, opera, boogie-woogie, Dixieland jazz, folk, etc... as much as the rural blues. The mixture of styles is what makes it rock'n'roll. Of course, rockabilly is possibly the most pure form of this original concoction (and Elvis did invent the rockabilly stage of it), but it expanded so far that all sorts of musical subgroups were included under "rock'n'roll", even if they weren't like the original Sun Records stuff.

My next favorite artists after Elvis Presley are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (I'm a huge Mozart nut, too), Jerry Lee Lewis, The Righteous Brothers, The Platters, etc...

But yeah, the '70s ballad-singing, introspective Elvis is my favorite. That's when he was the genius of emotion.
 
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I don't think anyone who knows what they are talking about would say that Elvis was a rip off of Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly. What people might say is that Elvis was ripping off earlier R&B performers, and indeed a lot of his early singles were covers of songs by people like Big Boy Crudup, Roy Brown, Kokomo Arnold and others. Holly and Berry were influenced by the same artists, of course, but started recording original material almost immediately and were brilliant.
Agreed, although I have come across the former claim from quite a few people - I think there's a tendency from some to devalue and dismiss any recording artist who doesn't write all of their own material. Elvis and the other rock'n'rollers were all hugely influenced by pre-existing music, of course, but were all in their own way brilliant.

Though his blending of blues, country and gospel wouldn't come until July 5, 1954, of course (That's All Right / Blue Moon Of Kentucky). That's All Right was called too country to be blues and Blue Moon Of Kentucky was called too bluesy to be bluegrass. That was the BIRTH of rock'n'roll.

The most popular preconception is that rock'n'roll is just jump blues, when it equally borrows from country, gospel, bluegrass, pop, opera, boogie-woogie, Dixieland jazz, folk, etc... as much as the rural blues. The mixture of styles is what makes it rock'n'roll. Of course, rockabilly is possibly the most pure form of this original concoction (and Elvis did invent the rockabilly stage of it), but it expanded so far that all sorts of musical subgroups were included under "rock'n'roll", even if they weren't like the original Sun Records stuff.
The variety of influences is what made rock so revolutionary - and explains why the genre in general had so much variety afterwards.

I managed to track down the Dylan cover myself - the song is "Tomorrow is a Long Time": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eTiOC5ixnk
 
I love a lot of Elvis songs, in particular "His Latest Flame", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", "Suspicious Minds", "In the Ghetto".... he had a lot of great material. I also remember coming across a Bob Dylan cover which I thought was fantastic. Could someone help identify the song please?

Maybe you're thinking of "Early Morning Rain", a Gordon Lightfoot song that Dylan and Presley both covered? Incidentally, Lightfoot also did the original version of "(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me", which is also on Youtube if anyone is interested.

As for Elvis, I've got to admit, I've never been a huge fan. He's a fantastic singer, I can't argue with that, but his overall style has never really appealed to me as much as some people.
 
Elvis did 4 Bob Dylan covers (not a fan of Dylan, personally). They were: Blowin' In The Wind, Tomorrow Is A Long Time, I Shall Be Released and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. Dylan's favorite cover version of any of his songs by any artist is Tomorrow Is A Long Time.

1972 just might have been the year with his greatest live set list, IMO. Though 1969-1974 were his peak physical years, IMO (as much as I like '50s Elvis--and I do--'50s Elvis was cute, adorable and huggable whereas the later one was manly, sexy and gorgeous). Though 1976 is definitely a favorite year of mine. I have a great deal of empathy for Elvis' decline and where he was in his last years. His music was raw, honest and emotional in this period. He was himself on stage, warts and all.

One of the things I love about him is that his voice conveys his genuine self. His best '50s work was his yearning, his greatest early '60s work was his romance, his greatest late '60s work was his raw, visceral power and his greatest '70s work was all that pain, reaching desperation and emotional openness. In the '70s, he was revealed to be a fallible, broken and flawed man with a huge soul--and a voice that could emote all of that. To me, that is true genius.

And I'll admit it. That deep, rich, full, raw and sultry '70s baritone makes me weak in the knees.

"Like a king, I may live in a palace so tall with great riches to call my own, but I don't know a thing in this whole wide world that's worse than being alone."

Those touchingly ironic lyrics are always a treat.

And of course, there's those little brief side-comments of his that say so much. He allowed the fans to see him at both his greatest and most weak. I love hearing the rare material that reveals Elvis at his most human.

"Play around, you'll lose your wife. Already done that. Play too long, you'll lose your life. Almost did that." (Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues, Desert Storm)
"I get carried away very easily. Emotional son of a bitch." (It's Easy For You, take 1)
"...Are You Lonesome Tonight? I am and I was... Excuse me." (Elvis In Concert)

And of course, his sense of humor was always precious. Look no further than the '69 version of Are You Lonesome Tonight? where he literally could not stop laughing (he was mocking the song as early as '61--by the late '70s, it was often played with as a gay joke with Charlie Hodge). He came on stage in all sorts of costumes (funny hats, gigantic joke glasses, etc...)... One time he was even rolled out on stage in a bed! Of course, there's also the August '70 Vegas engagements (caught on tape) of Elvis taking a walk through the audience. In '69, he was actually doing cartwheels on stage. Security told him he had to stop. The audience walk-throughs didn't make security happy either.

If anything can be said about Elvis was how adamantly appreciative and humble he was towards his fans (who "put the shirt on [his] back"). He would defend his fans trying to get past security to the stage to get the scarves. There are actually quite a few times where fans would actually make it on stage in order to give him a hug! And of course, Love Me Tender was the song where he spent half the song kissing all the ladies, young and old alike. Whenever he was at home either in Memphis or Palm Springs, he would go down to the gates almost every day to talk with his fans. Some fans were so regular, they became friends and were invited to hang out at his homes, go to the roller rink, the movie theater, Liberty Land amusement park, invited to concerts, etc...

And of course, his charity work was just phenomenal. He went out of his way to give many anonymous donations. He didn't do it for the publicity. One of his earliest performances was for paraplegics. He had a huge heart. He was also responsible for the largest donation to build the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial (his '61 benefit concert). Aloha was a benefit for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund. There was the Cynthia Milk Fund July 4, 1956 concert at Russwood Park. He picked out 50 charities every Christmas. He also did March of Dimes (there's a beautiful and famous photo with a little girl with polio giving Elvis a kiss on his cheek).

I have a lot of respect for the man.
 
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