We all know that today is the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death, with many people paying tribute to him. One sobering aspect of this is that the final years of Elvis's life were wrought with drugs... and well, more drugs. It was sad that Elvis's handlers allowed him to descend into a life this painful and terrible, but then when you realize that there are several current celebrity ladies out there (who do not need to be named) who have experienced problems in the past year or two with drugs and scandal and other calamities... it's clear that the handlers for, say, Britney, Paris, or Lindsay are not doing a lot to help curb their wild ways and a lot of people fear that they could end up turning out like Elvis's last days... it's sad, but anyway, onto happier things, which is putting up several Elvis songs in order to remember him properly instead of as a celebrity who met a horrific end. I just noticed a moment ago that there are many other bloggers who are doing the same thing. I haven't had a chance to really look at the tunes they put up, so maybe this will end up being a 3 part thing instead of a 2 part thing. I'll figure it out by tomorrow, I know that.
The first song is one that most people know (don't worry, the other two are obscure). It's Suspicious Minds, a song that is still common on the oldies stations (at least, when you can find an oldies station on your dial; in Orlando the only oldies station is on an AM station. The nearest FM one is a little north of Tampa so I usually can only hear it when I'm traveling towards Tampa or a wrestling show that is north of the area). It's a really good song about relationships and love and all that, and is sung in the one of a kind Elvis style, as it's a tune made for him. As it says in the liner notes to the great album "Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits", "A marked departure from much of Elvis's previous work, this time by virtue of its emotional complexity, musical maturity, and fresh take on blue-eyed soul... Elvis delivers a performance that is both passionate and self-contained."
http://www.zshare.net/audio/317107028add70/
The second and third songs are live tunes that I found on the file-sharing services. This tune, which is a cover of one of the greatest rock songs of all time, Johnny B. Goode, is from, I believe, his 1973 "Aloha From Hawaii" concert special. The musicians he had for this performance just ripped through the tune at a breakneck pace and Elvis kept right up and delivered a blistering performance. Of course it's not as good as Chuck Berry's original, but hey the original is an all-time classic so that's not really fair.
Elvis-Johnny B. Goode (live) (2.83 MB, 192Kbits/second)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/3171334249845e/
The third song, which I'm mainly putting up because it happens to be on the same CD as the Johnny B. Goode song, is Elvis covering yet another song that became another American musical chestnut. This song is known as Proud Mary, and is of course the most famous song from Creedence Clearwater Revival. Oddly enough, I've never really cared for the Ike & Tina version of the song, even though I know a lot of people do. It's nothing against them... I mean, their "Nutbush City Limits" is a song I'll have to upload sooner or later, as it's awesome. Anyway, the file says the song is a bootleg from January 26, 1972, which as far as I know is true. It's a song that isn't especially notable, but is still what you'd expect an Elvis version of the tune to be, and nothing's wrong with that, I say. An official version of the song can be found on his 1972 concert at Madison Square Garden.
Elvis-Proud Mary (live) (3.84 MB, 192Kbits/second)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/3171458f8c55fa/
I'll be back on Friday afternoon with some unfortunate songs from his legendary career.
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