Every now and then I go on an Elvis jag, and now is one of those times. My recent obsession is the King's live performances from the 1970s. I used to overlook this part of his career, seeing it as the long sad, sunset of decline before Elvis' death. While he struggled with addiction during this period, he still turned in some amazing performances. After giving up on the movies and doing the 68 Comeback Special, Elvis was able to do more of what he wanted to do in terms of what he sang. In concert he would toss off his old hits, but he would give his new favorites a power and energy surpassing what he brought as a raw country boy shaking his hips back in the 50s.
Priscilla also divorced him.
As far as I am aware, Elvis was not faithful, so I don't want to paint him as a victim here. In any case, he started singing famous songs of heartbreak and made them his own. Kris Kristofferson's "For the Good Times" became a hit in the hands of Ray Price. As good as that version is, Elvis tops it.
It's a song of boundless, shameless need. The singer begs for his lover to stay with him for another night even though he knows that the relationship and the love are over. This is the sound of a man at the end of his emotional rope, unable to move on from the emotional devastation of a breakup. I must admit I have been on both sides of this situation in my life, as the person begging and the person being begged. It's not very dignified, but love makes fools of us all, even the King of Rock and Roll.
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"
Speaking of rock and roll spirit, this Chuck Berry cover really sizzles. Catchy as all hell, too.
"Burning Love"
Yeah it's an obvious choice but it's obvious for a reason. Only Elvis song I've ever karaoked.
"Polk Salad Annie"
There are few songs more delightfully Southern-fried than this one.
"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"
Beautiful version of the haunting Gordon Lightfoot song.
"For the Good Times"
Elvis really puts his stamp on his covers of this era, and this is one of my faves.
Comebacks is the theme of the newest episode of my podcast. I start with one of the ultimate pop comeback songs, Tina Turner's "What's Love Gotta Do With It." The song certainly reflects the hard times Turner was emerging from, and its middle-aged world-weariness intrigued me as a young boy. From there I pull Elvis' double album From Vegas to Memphis/From Vegas to Memphis from my pile of old records. This is from Elvis' great and all too brief "comeback" period. I finish by discussing a new reissue of sessions from Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks, his own "comeback album."
A couple of years ago one of my daughters was sick and I had to stay home from work to take care of her. She was three at the time, and she liked it when I would show her old clips of musical performances. I was exhausted and a little sick myself, so I decided to cue up a video of the complete center stage performances from Elvis’ comeback special. These performances, where he is clad head to toe in black leather, have more than outshined the big productions numbers from his 1968 special. My daughter was enraptured. I also tried to show her Elvis’ Aloha From Hawaii concert film, when he was in his 70s sequined jumpsuit period. My daughter would have none of it, exclaiming “I want rock and roll Elvis!”
She was channeling a feeling that I am sure was common in 1968. The rock and roll Elvis was back, snarling and sassy, ripping it up on songs like “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” The years and years of stupid movies and worse soundtracks were over. This was not the smiling lug in a blow-dried haircut romancing a generic starlet with wholesome woo, but a dangerous, sexy molten hot hunk of burning love. Of course, by 1970 he was in Vegas and the fiery spark of the comeback had faded into the ochre tint of black velvet.
This gives his comeback music an elegiac quality, which is perhaps why I find myself listening to it in November, the month when all around is dying. The fall colors are nature’s most beautiful burst before going dormant, much like the comeback years were Elvis’ greatest music period, but came right before stasis and the end. So with that in mind, here are five songs that are not so much a top five but five reasons why comeback Elvis is the best Elvis. "Don’t Cry Daddy"
“In The Ghetto” is probably Elvis’ most maudlin song, and it is positively cringe-worthy in 2017. Elvis makes the maudlin work better on “Don’t Cry Daddy,” a song sung from the perspective of a man who has lost his wife. (Both songs are written by Mac Davis, which is not a coincidence.) He wakes up in the morning, his son coming to him and giving him strength, telling him not to cry. Elvis was famously close with his own mother Gladys, who died soon after his rise to fame. I don’t think there’s another song where that lingering pain comes out stronger. The hiccups in his voice would be corny coming from someone else, but Elvis makes me believe this song. "Suspicious Minds"
OK, this one is kinda obvious, but it’s obvious for a reason. Elvis really sank his teeth into this song about a collapsing relation, perhaps because it mirrored his own disintegrating marriage. It still sounds great. I mean, what kind of love song starts with “We’re caught in a trap”? It is a thoroughly adult song, a million miles away from the “That’s Alright Mama” abandon of the Sun years or the aw shucks romance of the movie years. One of the things I like best about his comeback music is that it is indeed so mature in its themes. As I get older it just gets better for that reason.
"Trouble-Guitar Man"
This is the song that started his comeback special. "If you're looking for trouble/You've come to the right place." BAM! Elvis snarls into the camera, blowing away the insipid image he had built in his movies in a matter of seconds. And sure, the jazzy, splashy arrangement of "Guitar Man" and the accompanying production number are very Hollywood, but Elvis is giving the song a rough layer of grunt and sweat. It has the vitality of his youthful music, but also the toughness of experience, a sense of the quiet confidence of an older man. I love it.
This comes from Back In Memphis, the lesser successor to From Elvis in Memphis, which is by far my favorite Elvis album. Nevertheless, it's really good. There's a real groove here and a toughness in his voice and an obvious connection to his own life. He had left Hollywood behind, but obviously felt ambivalent about his hometown of Memphis. It is one of the few times that Elvis really seemed to let his inner life come out in his music. You can hear it in other comeback era songs.
"One Night With You"
The best part of the comeback special are the songs Elvis plays with his old bandmates, sitting on chairs. It's loose and fun and raw and he is having a hell of of a time, especially on this number. I will never ever forgive Colonel Tom Parker for hiding the lamp of his talent under the bushel basket of godawful movies and their insipid soundtracks.
