Which song did Elvis botch the worst?

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:08 pm

Okay, I don't think this one has been asked before. . .

Which song has Elvis written that he has done the worst job of recording? This can be a great song that you feel was ruined by the arrangement or production.

An obvious example for me is Playboy to a Man on MLAR. Not a bad song but so badly sung as to be almost indescipherable. Also, there are a number of really good songs on Goodbye Cruel World that were undermined by unsuitable arrangement and production so maybe we should count that album out.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:38 pm

"I Wanna Be Loved" on Goodbye Cruel World must be a contender. I saw him do this live last year and it was a revelation, stripped of all the 1980s sappiness of the GCW version. That whole album is poorly produced. Sure, there are a few poor tunes, but, in addition to "I Wanna Be Loved," I think that "Home Truth," "Love Field" and "Inch By Inch" were let down by the slick, soulless production.

Watching_Detectives · Post by **Watching_Detectives** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:45 pm

Almost anything on GCW...

cbartal · Post by **cbartal** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:07 pm

ALIBI...

I saw him do an electric guitar only version of this song to kick off a show he did at the Park West in Chicago a few years ago. Pip was nice enough to get this to me on CD.

Anyway, the version he did that night in the dark harkened back to the the Blood and Chocolate era. Vicious, nasty, dirty, succinct...

Unfortunately, by the time the song made it to WIWC it was 4 minutes too long, with a musical backing track which is probably as unimaginative as anything Elvis has ever put on record. On top of that, he added some really cliched verses about soldiers and what not that was lame beyond belief.

Boy, did he completely fucking ruin that song.

cbartal · Post by **cbartal** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:09 pm

And by the way, to a lesser extent, I saw him do a much better, nastier version of Poor Napolean in 86 on the Spinning Songbook Tour than he put on record.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 7:22 pm

Elvis told a bunch of fans he met backstage a few weeks before the release of GCW that it was an awful album and that the songs were better live, which was obvious to all quick enough. Another song that he has done better live is Tramp The Dirt Down. The version on the Feile 91 boot is savage. Maybe it was the Irish audience, but the studio version pales in comparison.

Post by **BlueChair** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 7:24 pm

Which begs the question.. if Elvis knew GCW sucked leading up to its release, then why wouldn't he have gone back into the studio and redone it?

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 7:27 pm

Bizarre response to Alibi. I saw him do it with SN recently, and have boots of it with the Imposters, and it's as excellent in these formats as on WIWC. A bit more venom on the record may have been good, but it's still very powerful. Can't see where you're getting that from.

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 10:17 pm

I believe the reason EC didn't rework GCW was because it would have bankrupted him.

I heard great pre-WIWC versions of Alibi and I fall on the side of "the version on WIWC sucks"

DrJ

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 11:34 pm

I'm hopeful that the bonus disc for GCW will redeem that record. I think the songs must be really good, under all those layers of crap.

The only song that I can think of that definitely answers the original question, though, is Everyday I Write The Book. I hated that song for a long time, until I heard the live version on the PTC Ryko reissue. And then I realized that all I hated was the production. But the song is now one of my favorites. So much so that the version I used to hate I only dislike now. I can't help but hear the great song under all those layers of crap.

I just wanted to see how many paragraphs I could end with "all those layers of crap."

Mr. Misery · Post by **Mr. Misery** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 12:06 am

DrJ wrote:I believe the reason EC didn't rework GCW was because it would have bankrupted him.

That's exactly right. He was under contract to deliver the album by a certain date, had already started a solo tour, and was undergoing a costly divorce so there was no time to go back and rerecord Goodbye Cruel World. This must have been painful as the songs are good and he is a perfectionist. Still I have sneaky feelings of affection for that album just as it is.

Jackson Doofster · Post by **Jackson Doofster** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 2:39 am

It's interesting...........my kid brother, who was actually a kid when GCW was released, still loves GCW. He has listened to other Elvis a little, but still goes on about the 'great songs' on GCW..................................................mind you, he loves Stereophonics, Coldplay and Muse...

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 3:58 am

'Georige and her rival' could sound a lot better without the jingly backing

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 5:02 am

I think the whole of The Juliet Letters is spoiled by the Brodsky Quartet. It's not rowdy enough

In all seriousness though, I prefer the albums that are pared down. I'm not a lover of lavish production such as on Spike, MLAR or GCW although a lot of the songs are excellent.

But as this thread is about songs as opposed to albums, in my view the worst example is Room With No Number. But if we're not allowed to use GCW songs as suggested by migdd I would say The Only Flame in Town. No, sorry, Worthless Thing. Damn, are you sure we can't use GCW songs?

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:37 am

Sounds as if, whith the exception of the GCW tracks and a few others, we don't have a lot to talk about here, which says a lot for Elvis' arrangement and production choices. I definitely agree with the points made about Everyday I Write the Book - that song is pure air without the more down & dirty arrangement. However, I like the bouncy, poppy arrangement of Georgie and Her Rival but wonder in what other form it could be presented. Elvis has also stated before that he didn't care for the song's arrangement.

Any others?

oily slick · Post by **oily slick** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 10:38 am

i'm not certain what "botched" means. are we talking broken or the all of north? rattling the speakers at the end of what's her name today? the sound quality on some of the ryko stuff stinks, i think. i wish beyond belief went on longer like the alt take on rhino, but it sure isn't botched. neither is alibi. content-wise it is not a career highlight and he did do a spittin nasty version in concert, but i still love it.

girl out of time · Post by **girl out of time** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 12:14 pm

wothless thing......
the only flame in town.....
heathen town....
the world and his wife.......

the acoustic performances on these ones are much better than the studio recordings.....

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 4:48 pm

Almost Ideal Eyes - this song had lots of potential. LOTS of it, I tell ya.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:24 pm

Miqdd....(why are you called that by the way?)

I think Georgie would sound a lot better if the tempo was slower (1 beat per second would be best) and there was no electronic sound...maybe just piano and acoustic guitar? His voice in a North style as well...that'd sound cool I think.

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:05 pm

What Georgie is missing is the 6/8 acoustic guitar treatment. It's recorded in 4/4 on MLAR. And it's slick and poppy. It should be played 6/8 with acoustic 12 string as the main instrument. If you heard the bonus disc live version of Other Side of Summer, that's the kind of feel I'm talking about.

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:29 pm

That interpretation of Georgie would be interesting to hear. Anybody know if he has ever performed this tune live and in what format?

By the way, MIGDD stands for my daughter's initials with my wife's and son's first initial's added to the end. It was our first e-mail address when we bought our first home computor and has stuck with us throughout the years. Wouldn't mind changing to a more Elvis-friendly user-ID but we're not supposed to change our ID's on this board, I believe.

LessThanZero · Post by **LessThanZero** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:42 pm

Noise, you are a musical genius!

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 8:22 am

I was listening to ATUB last night...and it has that annoying bit at the start of 'Why cant a man..' when it has a seconf of cheering from the end of 'Complicated shadows'...thats botched, but not by EC.

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 9:06 am

Speaking of Why Can't a Man. . .that one may have been a bit "botched". The recording and performance seems a bit dry for a song that could have used a bit more soulfull approach. I think this one could have used a slightly more "live in the studio" feel. ATUB is one of my favorite EC albums and it has some really great songs; however a few of the tracks suffer from slight over-production. I believe on the liner notes, Elvis alludes to this as the Attractions' inability to click on some of the performances, causing the producers to do their thing and "fix" them.

Still, this is the last EC album that stayed in my CD player exclusively for months after its' release. I've enjoyed all of the other albums since then, but not to the same degree. NORTH comes the closest though as well as some tracks on WIWC.

Copenhagen Fan · Post by **Copenhagen Fan** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 4:18 am

GCW is one of my favorites.....Inch By Inch, Home Truth, Peace in Our Time, The Great Unknown, and Worthless Thing are all cool..........