Notes from the Ironbound: How I Learned to Like 70s Elvis

I've changed my mind about a lot of things in my life, like academia, my favorite baseball team, and 70s Elvis. I didn't really dig Elvis until my mid-20s, and when I did it was either his early Sun stuff or his stellar 1968-1969 "comeback" material. To me Elvis in the 70s constituted one of the biggest missed musical opportunities of all time. 1969's From Elvis in Memphis is just an amazing record, his best in my opinion. But then after that, he went right to Vegas, which in my mind meant cheap, crappy, and middle of the road. In my mind, I thought of 70s Elvis as Elvis at the very end: a bloated, be-jumpsuited self-parody too stoned to remember his song lyrics.

A few years later, out of morbid curiosity I decided to watch the last special he filmed in 1977, documenting this sad version of Elvis on his last tour. It's a rough watch seeing him in such decline, but he was also still capable of blowing the doors off of the arena, as in his rendition of "My Way." This version still moves me, it's a man near the end raging against the dying of the light and refusing to be defeated.

While that spirit isn't always there in Elvis' 70s music, I have come to realize that he retained more of the spirit of his "comeback" than I had given him credit for. I have also come to understand that Elvis was always a singer first, and a rock and roller second. Before recording his rocking sides with Sam Phillips he had wanted to sing smooth ballads. In the early 60s he started to move more towards the singer direction but got side-tracked by years of horrible movie soundtracks. The comeback allowed Elvis to pursue more of what interested him musically. While your mileage may vary on a lot of his 70s stuff, there's no doubting the gusto he puts into it.

I also just appreciate the total, over the top kitschy fantasia of it all. Elvis in the 50s was cool, his 60s movies were lame, but his 70s were delightfully camp. I also appreciate that he was not really an "oldies" act because he performed his old songs in entirely new ways. In fact, in concert he seems bored with his old hits and often deliberately clowns as he sings them. (It's one of the most punk rock things ever, the kind of thing you'd expect from Johnny Rotten.) When he sings a newer song, however, you can watch Elvis really attack it. Promised Land is a fine album and it came out when Elvis was 40. How many rock and rollers of the 60s generation were still putting out good stuff at that age? Not many.

To be honest, a lot of his albums of that era can be spotty, or were thrown together through the Colonel's never-ending carny nature to make a buck by pulling a fast one on the pigeons. I had a hard time entering this era until a friend recommended Walk a Mile in My Shoes, the comp of selected RCA masters from the decade. The compilers do a great job of selecting the material. Even with a lot cut out, there's still five CDs worth of goodies. If you need some nuggets to tantalize you, here it goes:

"See See Rider"

The "Elvis Fanfare" and the loud horns of this song are such a great curtain opener. The rock and roll spirit is definitely here too. I wish this played when I walked into the room.

"Promised Land"