Disc of the day
Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
Features Disc of the day
Elvis Presley
Elvis Country
(RCA, 1971)
The King re-discovers his roots on this essential Elvis-In-The-'70s disc.
Discussion at MOJO HQ recently turned to the vast, labyrinthine world of Elvis releases. It's been 33 years since Mr Hips left the building for the very last time and yet his songs are still re-ordered, re-packaged and re-issued several times a year (here's the first of 2010). So, how do you buy Elvis Presley? Greatest Hits/Best Ofs... are all very well, but, as a MOJO reader, you know there's nothing better than going straight to the source. Not only is Elvis Country his most consistent album of the 1970s, it's also a record that taps into every facet of a man who, after 15 years of superstardom, was still desperate to find satisfying material to record.
Read any account of Elvis in the studio, and you'll be presented with a man who just loved to sing the southern spirituals that coloured his childhood. From his early days at Sun, the songs he sang with his mother and father equipped him with the feel and the atmosphere he needed to tackle the session ahead. On this album, Willie Nelson's Funny How Time Slips Away, Ray Price's Make The World Go Away and Stonewall Jackson's I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water are driven by vocals that come straight from that lagoon of spiritual solace that, by the turn of the '60s, Elvis was finding it harder to tap into. He'd already re-captured an impassioned authority on 1969's From Elvis In Memphis, but Elvis Country is a better record because we hear a soul torn between the glory and the darkness: on one side, the lean, 'aw-shucks' rock'n'roll rebel; on the other, the pale, lethargic schlub of the Las Vegas lounges. What's amazing is Elvis seems aware of this. In fact, he thrives on it. His majestic take on Ernest Tubb's Tomorrow Never Comes - a slow-burning march that he would later re-work for live favourite An American Trilogy - is the best of the bunch. Looking down the barrel of a gun, he is at his most free and soulful. As are the Muscle Shoals players who help define the record's late night jam spirit, not least soon-to-be regular Elvis guitar man James Burton, whose licks chime perfectly with that Tupelo twang (check out the heavy, one-take storm of Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On for proof).
How do you buy Elvis Presley? We'll be answering that conundrum in a future issue of the magazine, but for now, look for the album with a picture of Elvis as a kid on the cover. He's the one with the curled lip.
Ross Bennett
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 21/01/2010
Further Listening
Elvis Presley – From Elvis In Memphis (RCA, 1969)
Merle Haggard – I’m A Lonesome Fugitive (Capitol, 1967)
Charlie Rich – Behind Close Doors (Epic, 1973)
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Cant argue with that!
Posted by don at 11:17 PM GMT 27/01/2010 Report Abuse
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