Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Pretty self-explanatory
Neil.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Neil. »

I love Go Away, too - who said it has no hooks? The chorus is pure pop! Ypsilanti, agreed, it's the Euro version of Detectives. The imagery swirls with playful fun. Love the rhyme 'thrillin' with 'villain'. The vibe is very Sixties nightclub, girls with straight hair, straight fringe, dancing like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction or The Frug in Sweet Charity.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by the_platypus »

bambooneedle wrote:Go Away has no melody or hooks and is mundane overall.
Nah. It's a pretty sweet tune. Smokey, propulsive, catchy. To say it has "no hooks" is outright silly.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by bronxapostle »

i fookin' LOVE "GO AWAY"...Elvis' "LOUIE,LOUIE" it should DEFINITELY be revived on REVOLVER '12!
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by bambooneedle »

Well since Go Away has such overwhelming support I'll give it another chance. Maybe I've been lazy but I haven't given many EC songs the old bamboo needle on a shellac of Chopin intense telescope test recently. I confess that I didn't even bother to listen to it again before I posted that it was pretty crap but was going by memory. In fact I probably haven't listened to it in a whole year.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by toofargone »

Go Away is on my good list too.

I tend to agree with most of the postings of least favourite. It is a bit scary to see them all listed together and nearly gets me thinkin what do I see in this guy....?
For some reason The Monkey really grates on me. I kinda like Monkey To Man, but 6 minute live versions of The Monkey are just 360 secs of discomfort.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Neil. »

Maybe I've been lazy but I haven't given many EC songs the old bamboo needle on a shellac of Chopin intense telescope test recently.
Chortle!

I think the mix of Go Away makes the words hard to hear, and they're the main thrill of the verses - a love letter to European Sixties cinema.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Ypsilanti »

Neil. wrote:... The imagery swirls with playful fun. Love the rhyme 'thrillin' with 'villain'. The vibe is very Sixties nightclub, girls with straight hair, straight fringe, dancing like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction or The Frug in Sweet Charity.
Awesome, Neil!!!

References to movies/film/cinema appear quite frequently in EC songs, of course...in addition to songs like this one which are about the experience of watching a movie. Elvis must be quite an avid fan. Has he written anything about movies? Does anybody know?
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Ypsilanti »

Yanyna wrote:songs like Go Away, Tokyo Storm Warning, etc. are perfect for my morning's travelling by metro... :)
Also very good at the gym...
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by bambooneedle »

Ypsilanti wrote: References to movies/film/cinema appear quite frequently in EC songs, of course...in addition to songs like this one which are about the experience of watching a movie. Elvis must be quite an avid fan. Has he written anything about movies? Does anybody know?
Don't know but 'Dissolve' from WIWC is like a little piece of cinema as well. Little scenes divided by dissolves.

Sometimes an EC song really requires a lot of the listener for it to make sense. You have to invest quite a lot of imagination into it to reap some kind of reward. Sometimes I'm left suspiciously wondering if it might just be mostly as a result of that imagination superimposed on it than of any intrinsic value supplied by the artist... I ask, "did EC do enough to meet me halfway?". "He may have put in a lot of effort, to create the something that it is, but is it really very good?"
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Boy With A Problem »

I heard Go Away on the satellite radio on Sunday! (Little Steven's Underground Garage).

Some of the covers on Kojak Variety leave me cold - all of those songs are far superior by the original artists - whereas on Almost Blue (with the exception of Why Don't You Love Me) - Elvis and the Attractions bring something super fresh and urgent to the arrangements.

And speaking of covers - my all time least favorite has to be Walking on Thin Ice.

I would agree with an earlier post on Playboy to a Man as a contender for least favorite original.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by History History »

Once upon a time I never really liked Hand In Hand - a song with a nasty streak running through it.

I too, love Go Away.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Neil. »

Don't know but 'Dissolve' from WIWC is like a little piece of cinema as well. Little scenes divided by dissolves.
Haven't listened to this song for ages, but I do remember how thrilling - genuinely like one of the conceits of the metaphysical poets - is the line about the ice caps melting while at the same time, somewhere else in the world, the level rises in a glass of gin and tonic. Says so much in a startling and thrillingly apt image - you can take what you want from it, like all great poetry and songwriting.
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watercamp
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by watercamp »

anybody else mention Sunday's Best?
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by when i was cruel »

Watercamp I think there's a pattern here, Sunday's Best sucks hard and so does Gloomy Sunday.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by the_platypus »

when i was cruel wrote:Watercamp I think there's a pattern here, Sunday's Best sucks hard and so does Gloomy Sunday.
"Gloomy Sunday" is only one of the most beautiful and acclaimed jazz standards of all time...

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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Kevin Davis »

when i was cruel wrote:so does Gloomy Sunday.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Yanyna »

Gloomy Sunday and Love for Sale are like delicious candy among his works

edit: I listened to Gloomy Sunday once again...it's so beautiful...so sad...so soulful...my happy morning is ruined and gloomy now...love this song! :)
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Neil.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Neil. »

WIWC, whaaaaat? Gloomy Sunday is one of Elvis's greatest vocals!
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Ypsilanti
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Ypsilanti »

watercamp wrote:anybody else mention Sunday's Best?
Sunday's Best? :shock: :shock: I'll mention that it's one of my very most beloved EC songs. C'mon...how can anyone dislike this one? It's funny, charming...one of EC's great, unusual "ice rink"-sounding songs--like nothing else I know of in the world of Pop Music. It's about reading the newspaper, is it not? Absolutely happy to hear this one any time. Pure pleasure. Don't look now under the bed...
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Has no-one mentioned the usual object of vilification, Broken, thus far? For me that's an all-time low.

And I agree with Walter Matthau that most of Kojak Variety could have stayed in a vault.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Kevin Davis »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:And I agree with Walter Matthau that most of Kojak Variety could have stayed in a vault.
I'd have been fine with that, so long as the vault in question was located in my house and I was given a key to access it at will. I mean, it's minor, but there's a lot of fun stuff on there--though I think the Dylan cover is rotten.

Still, if it had never come out in the first place, how could it have ever been reissued with that great bonus disc?
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Dr. Luther
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Dr. Luther »

Kevin Davis wrote:...though I think the Dylan cover is rotten...
:shock:
Love it.
Particularly the keyboards.

Kevin Davis wrote:...Still, if it had never come out in the first place, how could it have ever been reissued with that great bonus disc?...
:idea:
Can't argue with that.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

There's a flatness to the thing as a whole. On paper should have been great. Would be interesting to hear it if he recorded it now with the Imposters.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by Dr. Luther »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:There's a flatness to the thing as a whole.
Yeah. I can see that.
It certainly isn't what it could have been.
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Re: Your LEAST favorite Elvis song and why

Post by cwr »

I like Kojak Variety, and always think it should be viewed in the context of its creation-- Warners gave EC the budget to record a b-side in the wake of Veronica's success, and instead of just doing a song or two, he flew to a cheap studio in Barbados and recorded a whole album.

KV is a hell of a bonus. And the reissue is doubly great.

I wish he would follow it up with the long-promised second volume and more with The Imposters and Marc Ribot. There's almost no reason why he couldn't/shouldn't do a new KV volume every year. It would be super fun, he'd get to play tons of songs he loves... It would be amazing.
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