"His more countryfied stuff"

Pretty self-explanatory
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Neil.
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"His more countryfied stuff"

Post by Neil. »

In another thread, A Rope Leash said "I am repulsed by some of his more countryfied stuff."

I don't get this - I think a lot of Elvis's country stuff is absolutely amazing. As I've said before, I think his version of Sweet Dreams is one of the best things he's ever recorded. His way of injecting drama and heartbreak into a vocal suits the country idiom perfectly - the sob in his voice is perfect.

I don't think Almost Blue works as an album (odd production apart from the wonderful ballads), but I think the following tracks from throughout Elvis's career would make a fantastic country album

Sweet Dreams
The People's Limousine
Shoes Without Heels
The Big Light
Stranger in the House
Psycho (Live)
There's A Story In Your Voice
How Much I Lied
Hidden Shame
Sleepless Nights (studio version)
Our Little Angel
He's Got You (Live)
My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You
Good Year For The Roses
The Crooked Line

I think Hidden Shame has a staggeringly good lyric, by the way - "Now there's a different kind of prison - and it don't even have to look much like a cell - it's already on your mind, boy, we can see it in your eyes - so here's the bars and walls as well" How does he do it?!
cwr
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Re: "His more countryfied stuff"

Post by cwr »

I have to admit that Almost Blue worked almost exactly as EC might have hoped-- as a "gateway" to actually appreciating a style of music I'd previously not had much time for. When I first heard it, I was taken aback and honestly thought "What IS this? Why did he make a record that sounds so corny??"

But I liked a couple of songs on it right away, and grew to enjoy the whole thing. By the time it was getting reissued by Rykodisc with bonus tracks, I was completely sold on it. It later got the full mega-reissue from Rhino-- one of the absolute BEST Costello reissues ever, and well worth tracking down by those who don't own it. (You can still get it for about 20 bucks, but it's secondhand and out-of-print now, so that's not a bad price for two discs and some excellent liner notes.)

Of course, I think his better "country covers" record is the album's worth of demos he cut for George Jones (found on disc two of the Rhino Kojak Variety reissue), where he's performing non-country songs in the style of GJ. He was essentially trying to pitch the idea to Jones that would later work so well for Johnny Cash on his American Recordings albums. Too bad Jones didn't take him up on it, he could've had some real success with it. But EC sounds great on these tracks, it makes me wish he'd do a bunch more songs in this style.

I actually think that, at this point in his career, EC is better suited to singing in this style than he is at doing angry rock music with the sneer in his voice. I hope he does more of it.
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Jack of All Parades
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Re: "His more countryfied stuff"

Post by Jack of All Parades »

I too enjoy the "country" stuff-have always been attracted to true country-probably because of a deep love and respect of the old English, Scottish and Irish ballads which help to provide the backbone of this music-I have always liked the emotional honesty found in real country songs-the little slice of life vignettes- that EC has a fondness is not surprising to me given his love of words-the enjoyment I receive when I listen to him perform some of this music is probably attributable to his vibratto -that gives it the ache and throb for me- the line sighted from "Hidden Shame" works for me because of the unstated psycholgical prison already created in the character's mind-no physical bars or walls will contain him any more effectively than the ones already created within his conscience-the Rhino reissue of "Almost Blue" never leaves my playlist and I concur regarding the liner notes-could not help notice that the list fails to offer any material out of the current SP&S outside of "Crooked Line"[a marginal song for me]-I equate "Hidden Shame" with an earlier effort with the song-for me, I would leave out 'The People's Limousine', 'Crooked Line', and 'The Big Light' and substitute 'Indoor Fireworks', 'Heart Shaped Bruise', 'Motel Matches', 'Nothing Clings Like Ivy' and his covers of 'I'm Your Toy', 'Too Far Gone', 'Brand New Heartache', 'The Dark End of the Street' and 'Withered and Died' for my perfect EC country album
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Ypsilanti
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Re: "His more countryfied stuff"

Post by Ypsilanti »

Neil--love your list, although I am very sorry to say I have never heard Almost Blue in full, so I don't know all those tracks. I especially long to hear "Psycho"...is that even on a recording, or is it just something everyone knows from live shows?
I would like to add a few more (make it a double album--Why not? There's plenty of material.)...

Heart-shaped Bruise (what a great idea for a Country song: a heart-shaped bruise!)
You Win Again
Needle Time (either version)
In Another Room (...he's kissing you so hard, the glass in his hand is shattered into shards!!!!!!!!)
Innocent When You Dream
April 5th
Friend of the Devil
Motel Matches (my most favorite of all his songs)
Red Cotton
I think Hidden Shame has a staggeringly good lyric, by the way
Absolutely! I love the way he suggests that the murder was maybe or maybe not prompted by some kind of homosexual advances. The first time I heard Hidden Shame--Wow! Blown away! It really jumps out at you--an authentic-sounding 1970's Trucker song right in the middle of the ATUB bonus disk!
So I keep this fancy to myself
I keep my lipstick twisted tight
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A rope leash
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Never been quoted in a thread title before!

Post by A rope leash »

O, without a doubt Elvis makes some pretty C&W...it isn't so much that I dislike Elvis' excursions into the form, it's the form itself that I dislike.

A buddy of mine's young son has wrecked three pickup trucks, and is currently in the hospital with broken bones from his last roll-over into the ditch. He would have drowned in less than a meter of water if his girlfriend hadn't held his head up until the paramedics arrived. This child's behavior is clearly attributable to his obsession with male country-western performers, who always sing about what a badass they were in "hi-skoowl", and how they rolled their first pick-up truck when they was sixteen. I've said it here many times...country-western music promotes an appallingly ignorant and moronic lifestyle, and wraps it in a patriotic flag. We despise it.

Of course, rock and roll isn't much better, but rock and roll does not have the political seal of approval that country-western has. I'm sorry, you can't be proud of what you are if you were born that way. I can see being a stupid hick, but I can't see feeling proud about it and remaining so deliberately, just because your daddy did.

That said, (again)...Elvis usually takes the elevated road with his country-tinged stuff. He's very good at it, and he always has been, but has he ever had a hit on country-western radio? Of course not. It's too smart for American country-western airwaves. Don't get me wrong...I'm not repulsed by all of his countryfied stuff...but he gets a little too twangy on parts of The Delivery Man, and I've been known to turn off A Town Called Big Nothing before it even gets started.

I don't know...it seems to me that when Elvis does country he's just being lazy. Hell, I can write country-western lyrics with half my brain tied behind my back. They always turn out sarcastic, but there you go.

When Almost Blue came out, I recall thinking that Elvis was just being a smart-ass. It was like, hey, look...I'm the first New-Wave / Punk / Country crossover! When he took it on tour in the USA, he kind of made a drunken ass out of himself, didn't he? Part and parcel of the medium.

Heh, I remember playing the album when my mom was around. She said Sweet Dreams was a great song, but THAT GUY HAS NO BUSINESS SINGING IT!
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Re: Never been quoted in a thread title before!

Post by sabreman »

A rope leash wrote: Heh, I remember playing the album when my mom was around. She said Sweet Dreams was a great song, but THAT GUY HAS NO BUSINESS SINGING IT!
Is your mom related to Billy Sherill? 8)
Neil.
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Re: "His more countryfied stuff"

Post by Neil. »

Ah, see what you mean, Rope Leash - yeah, all that sentimental stuff about being a tearaway etc is bloody dreadful. I think Elvis is a cut above that stuff, as you suggest.

Ypsilanti, you're so right - Motel Matches should absolutely be on any Elvis country compilation - can't believe I left it out! Red Cotton, too, should be on there. Not sure if In Another Room qualifies as a country song, though - surely that's a rock ballad?

BTW, Psycho is available on the 2004 Almost Blue reissue - though Almost Blue itself isn't the best Elvis album in the world, the bonus disc is really good!

It's out of print, as it were, but you can track it down second hand. You can probably get it cheaper somewhere else than this, but here's a first attempt http://www.amazon.com/Almost-Blue-Elvis ... 871&sr=1-8
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Ypsilanti
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Re: "His more countryfied stuff"

Post by Ypsilanti »

Neil,
Yeah, you're right about In Another Room...still pretty badass, though.
Motel Matches...that's the one song I would keep if I had to give up all the others. I'd take it beyond the grave if I could. The lyrics are so precise & efficient! He tells a vivid, novel length story with just a few words. I've been on this quest to learn all EC's songs, but hundreds of songs later, Motel Matches is still at the very top of the pile, for me.

This is my conviction...that I am an innocent man
Unbeatable, obviously, but then there's also...

The light outside changes from red to blue
The color of the sky changes as the sun goes down. And the color of the neon sign outside the Motel changes, flashing from red to blue.

I struck lucky with motel matches
Which you use to light your Lucky Strike.

Giving you away, like motel matches
Sure, her adultery is given away when the matches spill out of her purse. But it was just sex, not love, so the narrator gives her away without a thought--as easily as they give away those free matches at every motel.

The Film Noir vibe is great (often, I feel, Elvis brings a very cinematic approach to songwriting, but that's another discussion, I guess) , plus the whole Sam Cooke murder thing is woven through it.
It's an incredible piece of songwriting.
So I keep this fancy to myself
I keep my lipstick twisted tight
Neil.
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Re: "His more countryfied stuff"

Post by Neil. »

Yes, Motel Matches is the Elvis song that makes me want to cry more than any other. Especially that line 'you say I'm unkind - but I'm being as nice as I can', and the sob in the voice as he sings it. And the whole arrangement is heartbreaking. The melancholy piano melody, and the organ touches really get me.

I wake with the siren in an emergency
Though your mind is full of love, in your eyes there is a vacancy


Two good puns there!

But you know what I'll do
When the light outside changes from red to blue


I see this line differently to you, Ypsilanti - the red light is the red light of a brothel, but the narrator will flee when the police arrive to bust the place (in the UK up till the 1990s, police sirens were accompanied by rotating blue lights.) Or 'changes from red to blue' could refer to what will happen when the 'blues' kick in (as in the country song Brown to Blue).

Just thought - King of Confidence should be on my Elvis best country songs best-of CD!
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Ypsilanti
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Re: "His more countryfied stuff"

Post by Ypsilanti »

Neil--very interesting! I guess that's a good thing Elvis does--leaves enough space inside a song for people to bring their own interpretation & experience to it. He keeps insisting he's not a genius, but when it comes to controlling the power of language--to using and manipulating words--he's clearly operating on a level way above most people. Plus he gets it all to rhyme.

The song that always makes me cry is Country Darkness. Maybe that could go on your list, too...
So I keep this fancy to myself
I keep my lipstick twisted tight
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