What does it sound like?:
This is Elvis’s last recording, down in his home studio, a lounge at Graceland with bar, pool room and a water fountain. The decoration of the room is worth spending some time inspecting for its remarkable lack of taste.Curiously there is no one photo of Elvis in any of the artwork despite there being a thank you to Priscilla Presley in the liner notes.
It was easier to record here as Elvis couldn’t be arsed going to studios especially he was still touring a lot, contrary to the Howard Hughes type hermit impression of him in this period (1976).
A lot of this stuff has been put out before some with sweetening up overdubs and a fair bit of criticism regarding the sound. So the stuff has been remastered at Sam Phillips studio and it sounds fantastic and by all accounts much improved from previous versions.
They’re all there, RonnieTutt, Burton, Briggs, Jerry Scheff, Glenn Hardin some backing singers and the /king in full and fine voice. On some of the extra tracks Bill sanford and the wonderfully named Norbert Putnam replace Burton and Scheff due to scheduling issues.
Wonderful version of She Thinks I Still Care , possibly my favourite country song.I was less enamoured with the faster version included as an alternate. Willie Nelson’s Blue Eyes Crying is good but not as good as Willie’s understated , talking to you version. There are stops and starts and some horsing around. Some tracks are the first take , overs take 5, 9, 11 etc.Interestingly you still get the big booming voice, not some stripped down, unplugged version of Elvis.There’s some schlock in Solitaire and while you could also include Danny Boy too , the version with just Elvis and David Briggs on piano works rather well.
What does it all *mean*?
All in all this is a great sounding record, a fantastic band that just know the man and can intuitively go where he wants to go. He may have been fat and drug addled but he was by no means finished and his death in the early forties was a great loss.With the extra dialogue and horsing around you certainly feel like you were there, especially with the quality of the sound, and I wish I was.
Goes well with…
A whisky and a comfy chair.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
Elvis.
Note to admin – the Google advanced search said this image could be shared.
This article from Esquire may be of interest.
http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a47425/elvis-in-the-jungle-room/
Sounds great. I love late era Elvis. I went to Gracelands – the Jungle Room is actually really cool. I’d love a den like that to play guitar in with James Burton!
A Twangle room?
Throw in duetting with Susanna Hoffs on a paraphrased Jethro Tull hit, and you’d have Bangle In The Twangle.
Sounds perfect to me.
Could we get Jerry Jeff Walker involved, playing ‘Mr Bo…
Blue Eyes is about 70 years old. I’d thought it was a Willie song until I heard Hank doing it on an Unreleased box set.
Knew Willie didn’t write it. Didn’t know it was that old
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain written in 1947 by Fred Rose and first recorded by Roy Acuff.
Together they formed the great songwriting/publishing duo of Acuff/Rose which was the biggest name in country music for decades.
They also owned the Hickory record label which released, wait for it, the early Donovan releases in N. America.
I thought Donovan invented that song. You’re sure about these Acuff/Rose upstarts, JC?
Hmm, it’s even possible Donovan invented country music, Colin.
Not only the music but the countries, Johnny. When Columbus ‘discovered’ America he landed on the beach only to find that Donovan and ‘Gipsy Dave’ were already there, performing at a makeshift free festival to an audience of wholly baffled Caribs.
That’s quite feasible. After all, as you can see from the dust jacket blub on Donovan’s autobiography The Hurdy Gurdy Man Don did it all and he did it his way.
http://i.imgur.com/MtqxFUz.jpg
Great stuff, Junior. I saw this advertised on Amazon and wondered what it was. Sounds interesting.
Regarding the lack of taste, was it Elvis being nostalgic for the Tiki / Exotica look that would have been big in the 50s? I reckon that any middle-aged man with a lot of money and no wife will eventually create a room in his house where he can be 14 years old again.
Is this a place where we can have a “What if Elvis had lived?” discussion? Have we had this before?
What do we reckon then? I’m thinking the following:
Ill-advised Disco-tinged album in 1979 or 1980: 40% chance
Series of forgettable, thin-sounding 80s albums: 80% chance
Mid-80s Hollywood biopic: 50% chance
Charismatic appearance on late 80s Tonight Show where he makes fun of his 70s outfits: 70% chance
Rehabilitation in the 90s via Rick Rubin produced album: 80% chance
Assuming he ditched the King of Lard persona, and assuming the Colonel didn’t fuck everything up:
Black and White Night-style fanfest with the Boss, Elvis C, Sting, Elton John, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne etc: 100%
He didn’t pay much attention to succeeding generations of musicians, apart from the odd brush with the Beatles. He could have recorded Nick Lowe songs, collaborated with Paul Simon or the Pet Shop Boys. He could have all sorts of fun. Knowing him, though, he’d probably have spent his time blasting small furry animals to kingdom come with Ted Nugent.
I forgot about the Colonel! This changes everything, I’m thinking now he would’ve spent a good chunk of the 80s in TV unless he got away from him.
Dallas: Elvis has a recurring role playing Carl , the rebellious son of the Oil founder. Carl is a nightclub singer and we hear him sing a number of different songs throughout the season. A soundtrack album is Elvis’s biggest hit since Aloha from Hawaii.
Tupelo: Elvis plays Jessie Tupelo, a rebellious Sheriff in Tennessee. In the pilot episode, Elvis helps a group of young kids from the wrong side of the tracks who are fighting to save their gym being sold to property developers who want to knock it down and build condos.
That should be Carl Huntly, the rebellious son of the Huntly Oil founder, obviously.
Elvis also lands the lead role in Knight Rider as the lone crimefighter who battles the forces of evil with the help of an indestructible and artificially intelligent supercar. Stunt doubles are used extensively as Elvis has difficulty getting behind the wheel, running, and remembering his lines, leading to unintended hilarity and a cult following. David Hasselhof takes over in Series 2.
I think Elvis’ cred would have been utterly shot and he’d be a half-forgotten figure playing cruise ships with Vince Hill and Jack Jones to women of a certain age and winter seasons in Branson, Missouri.
And then Peter Kay would revive one of his songs in a camp, affectionate style as a charity thing and Richard Hawley and Jarvis Cocker would produce a stripped-down album that the cruise ship women wouldsn’t understand but which got him back on the cover of Mojo. He would, in fact, rediscover his Mojo – and vice versa.
oooooh that first scenario sounds so possible and horrid.
Cept he’d never need the money.
Even in his relative decline, Elvis could have sold out a month at Wembley Stadium.
He could have sold out anywhere outside the US, if the Colonel didn’t have that carrot up his arse about his own origins.
Pretty big carrot – the Col. was actually an illegal alien, and there was a good chance he wouldn’t have got a passport or been allowed back in.
Well his (ex) wife was in Dallas! I think his career would have followed that of his non songwriting Welsh counterpart, Sir Thomas of Jones …
Was thinking about that.
Good chance he’d go the Al Green route and go gospel.
Don’t think he would ever change from the full booming voice.
Thank god he died when he did. It was bad enough then.
Nick cave and the Pres bond a la Johnny Cash. Nick did In The Ghetto and Elvis was born in Tupelo the title of an incendiary song on the first Bad seeds album.
The title of the album, The First Born is Dead also refers to Jessie, Elvis’s twin brother who died in childbirth.
didn’t know that- thanks
Elvis’s demise will be 40 years next August. Brace yourself for the media furore on it’s way. In the meantime, if he had survived, there would have been a genuinely decent Rick Rubin “return to form”, some god-awful rap duets, worse disco and 80s knock-offs, and I also think he’d he supporting the Donald. The worst of it would have been Steve “opportunist” Tyler discovering what an Elvis fan he was.
plus an album of duets curated by Declan McManus
The two essential elements required for The King’s rebirth would be a successful stint in rehab to get him clean and sober, immediately followed by sacking ‘Colonel’ Parker, the scumbag who ruined his career and destroyed Presley’s desire to better himself creatively.
As the greatest interpreter of popular songs in the 20th Century and the most mythic figure in pop and rock history, he’d be swamped by top line songwriters and other major artists desperate to work with him. Rick Rubin a certainty.
Aside from the obvious power ballads, he’d have mixed it up with contemporary and classic pop, soul, country and gospel.
Anyone taken a punt on any of those Follow That Dream label reissues?
I just been on the Now Dig This website and they seem to have done about 100 of them.
Mail order only, very low key, 2-cd packages at £22.99 each.
More info here.
Some of those live soundboards look nice
https://www.bear-family.com/elvis/follow-that-dream-label/