Stone Cold Natural Freak: A Personal Look At Elvis Presley

This article originally appeared at my Moon In The Gutter on 01/28/07

It seems like every great artist has at least one album in their catalogue that is universally ignored due to the greatness of the album that proceeded it. How often is The Stones’ "Goat Heads Soup" mentioned in the shadow of "Exile On Main St." or how about the third Oasis platter "Be Here Now" after :"What’s The Story Morning Glory?" All the great ones from The Beatles and The Beach Boys up to The White Stripes and Radiohead have made great works that have suffered simply due to comparison.
January and February of 1969 is a month that occupies a special place in rock history, specifically 6 days in January and 5 days in February. These 11 days would mark the legendary Elvis Presley American Studio sessions in Memphis, Tennessee. Much has been written about these sessions, Elvis Costello would label the performances supernatural and I’m not sure a better word could have been chosen to describe them.
The American sessions are the sound of an artist at not only his absolute peak but reaching past it. Elvis in that studio is Picasso in his Blue Period and Hemingway writing Old Man And The Sea. This is the sound of a man coming out of a self imposed shell and re-discovering magic, a man getting his soul back against all obstacles.
There has never been a voice as pure as Elvis’ during these sessions. Rumor has it that he had a cold early on when in one night he layed down "Long Black Limousine", "This is The Story" and "Wearin That Loved On Look". Listening to these songs you can hear the sound of a man shaking off the shackles of a long imprisonment, the voice that Dylan said would break you out of your own prison. No-one has ever been as good as Elvis in these hours of recording.
To many rock and music historians the only album that came out of these sessions was "From Elvis in Memphis". It’s the album that typically pops up on the great all time albums lists and it is the lp that is remembered. It is often overlooked that there was a second album, a work that has long since almost vanished into obscurity even though it features some of the greatest performances of Elvis Presley’s career.
"Back In Memphis", with it’s dark live photo of Elvis looking like a ghost coming back for war, was originally issued as part of a set called "From Vegas To Memphis". One record recorded live in Vegas while the studio sessions lay nearly hidden in the back sleeve. History has placed these ten tracks as near outtakes to the great "From Elvis In Memphis" sides but a closer inspection not only reveals ten great tracks but one of the most cohesive records Elvis ever delivered.
The opening, Eddie Rabbit penned, track "Inherit The Wind" sets the tone. Like other albums I have focused on in this series, from "Watertown" to "Houston", we are dealing with a man in isolation. Backed by the incredible American studio house band, including the great Reggie Young on guitar, Elvis is in top from here. The backing female vocals give the song a strange feel that is complimented by the string section that producer Chips Moman would add on later. The song’s odd time signatures coupled with Moman’s production gives the song a perfect swaying feel that is punctuated by Elvis’ reminder of what it’s like to indeed Inherit the Wind.
"This is The Story" follows, and this as mentioned dates from that first historic night Elvis stepped into American studios. The tragic tone is set here for the album, and when Elvis sings ‘but the words that I’m reading could apply to myself’ we realise why he didn’t have to be a songwriter, once he sang a song it was his, they were his autobiography.
Percy Mayfield’s startling "Stranger In My Own Hometown" follows. This is the most rocking track on the album and the most haunting. This is the sound of a man confronting a city that had witnessed the assignation of Martin Luther King less than a year earlier. Elvis’ sorrow at this event has been recounted by both Celeste Yarnall and Jerry Schilling, perhaps more than "If I Can Dream" this is his reaction to it. It’s an explosive, surging performance that stands with his greatest work. The song’s ferocious climax features one of the strangest horn arrangements ever put on vinyl and Elvis screaming off mike ‘Blow your brains out.’ He would revisit this song later in his career and re-invent the idea of a blues man in a frightening laid back chronicle of alienation and despair. Anyone who doesn’t understand the genius of Elvis Presley should listen to this song.
"Just a Little Bit Of Green" and Elvis’ lovely reading of Neil Diamond’s great "And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind" are sublime examples of sixties pop at his best. More importantly the album never loses it’s chronicling of a man who has denied love. Every track leads up to the album’s final upcoming declaration making this, even more than I’m 10,000 Years Old, the great Elvis concept album.
Bobby Russell’s dark and brooding Do You Know I Am with it’s near whispered vocal and far-away tambourine is the calm at the center of the storm. The regret and longing are starting to kick in and it’s the perfect opener for a side that’s yearning for forgiveness.
Ned Miller’s "From A Jack To A King" was one of Elvis’ fathers Vernons favorites. The most playful and country sounding song on the album still fits in perfectly with the idea of lost love and Elvis delivers a slyly comical rendition that provide a brief respite from the darkness that would follow.
"The Fair’s Moving On" would provide the album with some of it’s most haunting imagery, with it’s portraits of a packing and vanishing carnival and love affair. Bobby Wood’s piano playing is particularly impressive as is Moman’s kaleidoscope production that surrounds Presley’s soulful vocal.
"Back in Memphis" concludes with two of Elvis’ most impressive and greatest performances. Mort Shuman’s "You’ll Think Of Me" opens with Reggie Young on Sitar instead of guitar and it’s that instrument that takes the lead throughout the song, providing an exotic counterpoint to the perhaps the most soulful vocal performance Elvis ever gave. The song was used as the b-side to the legendary "Suspicious Minds" and had remained all but hidden in the years since it’s release. It is perhaps the great lost jewel in Elvis’ crown, listening to it now it’s hard to imagine a singer more in tune with all that a song can symbolically give. No-one, not even Sinatra at his most impassioned, has melded together with a song like this one. This song is Elvis Presley.
The album closes with Danny Small’s "Without Love", and we find our narrator (and I would say Elvis himself) realizing that ‘without love, I am nothing at all’. With Bobby Wood again on piano, we find Elvis at his rawest. Paul Westerberg would later write, ‘Remember me, I used to wear my heart on my sleeve’, and he could have easily been describing Elvis singing this song. Recorded on the final night of the January sessions, and shortly before "Suspicious Minds", it gives the album an uncommonly powerful conclusion. We are still with the same person from "Inherit The Wind" but we have witnessed him changing and ultimately growing. Of all of the concept albums that have gained fame, perhaps only The Pretty Things "S.F. Sorrow" came to such a resonate and deceptively simple conclusion.

Back In Memphis is out of print in the United States. You can find the songs on "Suspicious Minds: The Memphis Anthology" or "The Sixties Masters" box set. Without a doubt the best way to hear the songs is the 24 bit Japanese remaster that comes in a beautiful cardboard lp sleeve reproduction. The sound quality on this release is mindblowing and gives us some of the most spacious and warm sound on any Elvis release.

Elvis Presley would continue his hot streak and record an equally impressive number of sides a year later in Nashville. These sessions, known now as The Nashville Marathon, would produce two masterpieces, "That’s The Way It Is" and "I’m About Ten Thousand Years Old". Studio work would be sporadic after that and the last few sessions would find him producing some of his best and worst work, but they all came from his heart. Elvis said in 1969 that he would never record anything he didn’t believe in again, and he never did.

This article originally appeared at my Moon In The Gutter Blog on 04/30/07

One of the most scorching 45s of the sixties is Elvis Presley’s 1961 double sided masterpiece, (MARIE’S THE NAME OF) HIS LATEST FAME backed by LITTLE SISTER. It is hard to imagine a better single release than these Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman compositions that Elvis recorded in late June of 61 at Nashville’s famed Studio B.
With Steve Sholes in the producer’s chair and a studio full of musicians including legendary guitar players Hank Garland, Scotty Moore and Neal Mathews, the recording of HIS LATEST FLAME was described by Elvis historian Ernst Jorgenssen as "like a party." The song through several takes started out life as an almost Bo Diddley tribute but quickly merged into something altogether more progressive and astonishingly fresh sounding. Jorgensen points out in his great book A LIFE IN MUSIC that the musician’s kept switching roles searching for the songs right sound while the 26 year old Elvis nailed each vocal take like he was possessed by it. After working through the night the song was finally completed and the results were sublime. HIS LATEST FLAME is one of the most masterful recordings of Elvis Presleys’ career, from his honey dripped vocals to the astonishing tempo changes featuring Floyd Cramer’s brilliant brief piano bursts.
HIS LATEST FLAME would hit the number one spot in the Fall of 61 and is one of the great moments on 2002’s smash ELVIS 30 #1 HITS where that album’s remastering brought out some incredibly sweet previously buried subtle moments. The Smiths would cover the song in the mid 80s to great effect and it remains one of the seminal Elvis A sides in a period often ignored.
Possibly even better was the singles B side, the ferocious LITTLE SISTER with the twin guitar attack of Scotty Moore on acoustic rhythm and Hank Garland’s stunning electric lead. Garland’s screaming electric opening on a borrowed Fender Jazz Master signals this as one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded and a middle finger to anyone who says Elvis didn’t rock after the army.
The great Doc Pomus would remember that, "Elvis cut the tempo in half and slowed it down" which brought out the inherent menace of the recording even more. Recorded in just four takes with Elvis leading off the third one with one simple word, "BURN", the track sounds several years before its time and has been re-recorded countless times through the years.

LITTLE SISTER was also a hit but didn’t chart as high as HIS LATEST FLAME. It’s arguable which cut is better as they both could have been A sides. Elvis certainly revisited LITTLE SISTER more and would perform all the way up to that fateful year of 1977. A highlight to his concert film THAT’S THE WAY IT IS was him rehearsing the track and combining it with The Beatles GET BACK, as song which owed much to Elvis and LITTLE SISTER. The clip I am posting from Youtube is an unreleased moment from THAT’S THE WAY IT IS featuring Elvis performing the song along with GET BACK.
With the 45 becoming more and more a distant memory it is great to remember a record that featured not one but two of the great moments in sixties rock. These are two masterpieces from one of the most underrated periods in The King’s career.

This Article Originally Appeared at my Moon In THe Gutter on 05/05/2007

The music of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was one of the first things that struck me about Wes Craven’s brutal shocker when I first saw it in my teens. The film for all of its darkness and intensity featured a score that at times matched its nihilism and other times played against it. The most memorable piece of music was the haunting THE ROAD LEADS TO NOWHERE, a song which played a big part of Eli Roth’s CABIN FEVER decades later.
The music to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was composed by none other than David Hess, the intense and imposing psychopath Krug in the film. Pretty early on I noticed in certain articles about David Hess often mentioned that he had been David Hill in the early sixties and had written a number of famous songs including the great DADDY ROLLING STONE and most intriguingly I GOT STUNG recorded by none other than Elvis Presley.
It was hard to me for a long time to picture the star of Craven’s film as well as similar roles in HITCH-HIKE and THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK as the writer of such sublimely well crafted songs. It seemed like two totally different worlds and David Hess was so good in these films that it was hard for me to come to terms with seeing him in another light.

Released last year was the mammoth book WRITING FOR THE KING. The book is an important one in that it is entirely centered on the amazing songwriters who contributed songs not just for Elvis but a number of popular music’s greatest song stylists of the twentieth century. The format of the book is simple. Each chapter is dedicated to a songwriter, or songwriting team. Many are interviewed and for those that have passed. solid biographies are given. They all talk specifically and honestly about the songs that Elvis recorded and also about their lives, careers, disappointments and highpoints. It is a really unique book that gives voice to many who haven’t been heard from before. The book also includes an entire cd of original demos by the songwriters that Elvis would have heard, as well as an unreleased live recording collection by Elvis himself. The demos cd is great because we can clearly hear these songs in their early stages, some fully formed and others almost just sketches. Also interesting to hear is how much Elvis would change and mutate them to his own voice and style. It is especially fascinating to listen to some of the demos attempting to sound like Elvis, it’s a window into a fascinating world that most of us as music listeners aren’t usually able to hear.
David Hess is one of the songwriters featured and his chapter is one of the best. He recalls his time as a singer in New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene in the late fifties and getting hired early on by Shalimar music where he met the great Otis Blackwell. He talks of recording Blackwell’s ALL SHOOK UP as David Hill before Elvis and finally landing a job at the influential Hill and Range company.
It was with fellow songwriter Aaron Schroeder that Hess wrote his most famous song, the delightfully catchy I GOT STUNG. Hess admits that for a long time he thought his demo was superior to Elvis’ version but admits that, “Elvis’ version has really stood up, I love it.”
Hess goes on to talk honestly about Colonel Parker’s business dealings and other trappings of the songwriting world. He mentions how much he admired Elvis’ ability to phrase his singing, “from internal strife” and talks about the excitement of Paul McCartney’s ‘back to his roots’ recording of I GOT STUNG.
Hess concludes with talking about some later movie songs he wrote for Elvis as well as some other non-Elvis tracks. He says, “I just love Elvis. I love what he did…we stopped at Graceland and I cried seeing what had happened to this incredibly talented genius. What makes Elvis great is his honesty. The only way he could sing was honestly.”
Included in the Hess chapter is a great photo of Hess performing in New York in the fifties and a studio shot from the sixties. No mention is made of his later career as this book is just about their lives as songwriters and it is great to see attention given to this side of the talented Hess.
WRITING FOR THE KING is huge 400 page coffee table book that is essential reading for Elvis fans as well as people interested in the craft of songwriting. It contains interviews with many people you might not have heard of as well as many you have but guaranteed you will recognize most of these songs.
Below are two links. One is information on ordering this book and cd collection. The price might seem steep but it is more than worth it. The other link is David Hess’ fine official site. Here you can read up on the man, his films and music. Several cds are available including THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT soundtrack as well as a demos and live collection. Hess continues to be a major force in front of the camera and is rumored to have recently been cast in Deodato’s long awaited CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST sequel.
Hess’ most memorable films including LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, HITCH-HIKE, HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK and SWAMP THING are all currently on dvd from various companies. The special editions of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and HITCH-HIKE are highly recommended.

http://www.shopelvis.com/nshop/product.php?navgroup=0&view=detail&productid=EP-130-7060&dept=keyword+search&category=&page=&groupName=

www.davidhess.com

This article originally appeared at my Moon In The Gutter Blog on 07/02/07

Sometime during the filming of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, actress Teri Garr was listening to director Steven Spielberg talking about his favorite films. At one point he mentioned a certain VIVA LAS VEGAS as being at the top of list at which point Garr piped in to a disbelieving Spielberg, "Hey, I’m in that film."
Garr is indeed in VIVA LAS VEGAS, and can be seen dancing during two very memorable scenes. Spielberg was echoing back in 1977 what many film fans have known for a long time, that George Sidney’s VIVA LAS VEGAS is among the brightest and best Hollywood musicals of the sixties and I would argue, ever.
I grew up with this film and couldn’t even venture a guess as to how many times I have seen it but, as much as I have always loved the film, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago, when I saw it on a big screen, that I realized just how truly great it is.
The revelation that took me from, I love this film mainly for seeing Elvis and Ann-Margret together, to my God this is a brilliant and wonderfully realized piece of cinema came during Ann-Margret’s audaciously shot MY RIVAL number. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, it is hard to describe just how perfect the MY RIVAL sequence is. Sidney’s daring and perfectly choreographed one shot take of a frustrated Ann-Margret preparing a meal and singing is really astonishing. Since seeing this on a big screen I have wondered how many times they had to shoot this to get everything right, as it is hard to imagine a more perfectly realized and well performed one shot sequence.

George Sidney was rumored to have been in love with Ann-Margret and I guess my only reaction is to ask, how could he have not been? She is so electric, lovely and awesomely talented in this film, as well as his BYE BYE BIRDIE from the year before, that I fall in love with her every time I see her in it. What really makes VIVA LAS VEGAS though is the scorching combination of Ann with Elvis.
The chemistry between Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley on and off the screen has been written about many times. I will just add that this was one of the most perfect and joyous pairings in Hollywood history and Sidney’s film provides the perfect vehicle for them. Over 40 years after this film was shot, the electricity these two generate is still mind-blowing.
So why am I bringing up this film now? I suppose because it is finally getting ready to get a little bit of its due. Out in August is a special edition of the film, remastered with a documentary and commentary from author Steve Pond. I don’t think this will prove the definitive edition of the film but it is a step in the right direction. Streeting in August, as well, are long needed special editions of JAILHOUSE ROCK, THAT’S THE WAY IT IS and the startling THIS IS ELVIS. Also noteworthy are the dvd premieres of some of the remaining unreleased Elvis Presley films including three very underrated gems, GIRL HAPPY, TICKLE ME and LIVE A LITTLE LOVE A LITTLE. The Golden Globe winning, ELVIS ON TOUR, is mysteriously not among the upcoming avalanche of reissues and dvd debuts.
VIVA LAS VEGAS is a fun and very light film that is unfortunately often not taken very seriously. Give it another look, it is a seriously good and exceedingly well made film that deserves to be held in higher esteem. Steven Spielberg has never been one of my favorites, but back in 1977 when he let it slip that VIVA LAS VEGAS was one of his favorite films, he knew of what he spoke.

This Article originally appeared at my Moon In The Gutter on 07/04/07

Legendary saxophonist Boots Randolph passed away yesterday at the age of 80. Boots was born just down the road a bit from me in Paducah, Kentucky and is probably best known for his monster hit, YAKETY SAX. I was supposed to see Boots live again in just a month or so at the big 30th Anniversary Elvis In Concert in Memphis. The couple of times I did get to see him live were always very exciting as he remained an incredible player even well into his seventies.
My favorite Boots Randolph moment comes on RECONSIDER BABY, the final track on the stunning ELVIS IS BACK album. Driven by Elvis’ own rhythm guitar playing and ferocious vocal, Boots delivered one of the great X-Rated sounding Sax solos in rock history. 46 years after it was recorded, RECONSIDER BABY still sounds as fresh and amazing as the day that it was first hit the streets. Elvis and Boots would continue recording throughout the sixties and Randolph featured on several of Elvis’ most underrated recordings from the period, including fantastic cuts like KING OF THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD and IT’S A LONG LONELY HIGHWAY.
Boots also played with many of the most legendary music figures of the sixties and seventies and recorded many fine solo albums. He was a musical force and a true original…my best to his family and friends.

This article originally appeared on my Moon In The Gutter Blog on 06/26/07.

Thirty years ago tonight at Indianapolis’s Market Square Arena an exhausted, disillusioned and sick Elvis Presley stepped onto a stage for the final time. He would be backed by his James Burton led TCB band, a band often described as one of the greatest live bands ever assembled, and he would perform 21 songs from all parts of his remarkable 23 year career. The reviews of the Indianapolis show were among the best of that emotionally and physically devastating 1977 Summer tour but the reality is that it is like many of the shows from that year, a combination of a tired artist walking through some songs while investing others with explosively spiritual readings that would show the last things to leave Elvis Presley were his voice and heart.
Much has been written about Elvis in that final fateful year of his life. It has always baffled me as to how people can take such glee in cruelly making fun of someone who was in such an obvious state of emotional and physical turmoil, but that is exactly what the last thirty years have brought. Whether it be the ill conceived CBS television special that was aired to pay off Colonel Parker’s gambling debts, or the factually and spiritually corrupt Albert Goldman assignation job of a book in 1981 to people who have no conception of how important culturally and devastatingly talented this man was; 1977 and the years since have taken much away from the legacy of Elvis Presley.
The thing that strikes me most about that fateful final year is just how, even at his most vulnerable and damaged, great Elvis Presley remained. For all of the rushed through and lifeless performances that he gave that year, each show would also feature some of the most powerhouse vocals of his career. I’m not an apologist for Elvis in 1977. The man was sick and needed to be in a hospital and not on the stage but there are moments, like when he is singing HURT, HOW GREAT THOU ART, BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER and especially a exorcising UNCHAINED MELODY, that the most powerful aspects of Elvis come out. Also noteworthy is that this was clearly a man who was remembering something special from his past and the spirited performances of TRYING TO GET TO YOU, LITTLE SISTER and an acoustic driven THAT’S ALL RIGHT all point to the fact that Elvis seemed to be finding solace in much of the rock music of his youth. A planned rock and roll studio album was being discussed for late 1977 and with people like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and David Bowie clamoring to write and produce for him, the late seventies could have been a most glorious time of renewal for Presley.
But it wasn’t meant to be and as tragic as the final year of Elvis Presely’s life was, it is hard to imagine things any other way now. The site of Elvis Presley’s final show was a sports arena built for the Indiana Pacers in 1974. Elvis had played there before but in that final show it has been reported that the 18,000 people that saw him thirty years ago tonight was the most the arena could hold.
The show was pretty typical for 1977 with the aforementioned THAT’S ALL RIGHT being the opening song after the 2001 theme played. The beguiling and always powerful CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE closed the set which included readings of songs ranging from YOU GAVE ME A MOUNTAIN to LITTLE SISTER to a surprising, for 77, I CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU. The final words Elvis Presley spoke on stage were, "Until we meet again, may God bless you…adios."
The Elvis Presley of 1977 was the same Elvis Presley who had stunned people in his legendary 1968 comeback special, just like he was the same man who had made millions of people happy in his 31 feature films, and the same person who had inspired every major rock artist of the sixties and seventies with his work in the fifties…and finally the Elvis Presley of 1977 was the same little boy who grew up in poverty stricken Mississippi dreaming he could reach something else. The career of Elvis Presley can be split up into parts but it should never be forgotten that this was the same man all the way through and there was still a lot of that young dreamer left in him even at the end. Elvis in 1977 is often described as ‘old Elvis’ which is a mistake because Elvis Presley never had the chance to grow old, he was just 42 when he died.

Like many landmarks Americans take a weird satisfaction in destroying, Market Square Arena was imploded a few years ago to a crowd of hundreds; a crowd that erupted in a mixture of boos and cheers when the destruction happened. It has always reminded me of a line Lou Reed wrote in 1989, "Americans don’t care too much for beauty, they’ll shit in a river and dump battery acid in a stream..then complain that they can’t swim." There is a strong element in our country that takes a certain sick satisfaction in tearing down our landmarks and idols. Certainly for the last thirty years they have tried to do it to Elvis Presley and yet somehow he remains; like some sort of indestructible reminder that you can’t kill a dream that millions of people have ended up sharing.

Elvis Presley was often described, throughout his life, as someone who wanted nothing more than to make the people around him happy, and up to those last moments when he walked off that Indianapolis stage he was still doing just that. His ultimate sacrifice for making people happy was finally his own life, which perhaps says as much about the world we live in as anything else ever could. Ironically, even thirty years after he sang those final notes, Elvis Presley continues to make millions upon millions of people happy…whether you are a fan or not, that is a fact that should be celebrated.

Hello,

My name is Jeremy Richey and I am a student, writer and a major Elvis Presley fan.  I have set up this blog to document the upcoming Elvis Week 07 and to also post reviews of Elvis’ music and films.  I have a main film and music blog that I update daily and it is located at:

mooninthegutter.blogspot.com

I invite everyone to visit there and will supply a link for it in the links section.  I also have a more specialized blog dedicated to the career of Nastassja Kinski located at:

nostalgiakinky.blogspot.com

I hope everyone enjoys my report on the upcoming Elvis Week, my memories of past weeks and my reviews of Elvis related films and music.

Thank you.