TCBCast 312: "Speedway": The Soundtrack Album Review

It's not everyday that new Elvis audio from the 1950s surfaces, but this past week that very thing did happen, as European label Memphis Recording Service released newly discovered audio from Elvis's November 22, 1956, concert in Toledo, Ohio, recorded originally by local radio DJ Ron Ross. Subsequently, the original mono audio was also uploaded to YouTube by another fan who had sourced the audio himself as well. Gurdip and Justin break down the content itself, and contrast the YouTube upload and the MRS audio, the latter of which is a flawed restoration that clearly prioritizes general listening experience over historical accuracy. Some will appreciate it, others may take issue. But aside from the minor quibbles there - what new insights does the audio tell us? That's what we aim to find out. The fan upload of the audio is available here, presumably worldwide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm6HJKJCGmo Memphis Recording Service's restoration is available in numerous other regions around the world also on YouTube, though it is region-locked, American listeners will have to import the audio, but others including Canada, Australia and European countries as well as elsewhere should be able to hear the tracks at this link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kgzE2ikYXBylwLjyysg2NfIq5h4lg4vvU Alan Hanson's write-up on the Toledo concert is highly recommended, since we didn't have a chance to do our own deep-dive during the short time between the announcement/release and us recording this mini-sode, and as usual, Alan's work is impeccably researched, written and insightful: http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-toledo-56.html

This week Justin and Olivia are exploring the recordings (both final masters and alternate dubs that were considered) where Elvis sang with himself, starting from "I'm Yours" in the early 60s, working their way up through the very dense 1969 recordings, and well into the 1970s. There's both more than you'd think, and not enough! They ponder what sort of creative choices were made to lead Elvis to lay down these special vocals. It's a very unique angle (and frequently exquisite listening) from which to examine Elvis' music! For Song of the Week, Olivia digs into the absolutely massive treasure trove of outtakes from the multiple different versions Elvis recorded of the title track from 1957's "Loving You" plus a few minor later live versions and covers, while Justin puts on my detective hat to try to solve some mysteries about the obscure home recording "Apron Strings," made while Elvis was in the Army. Special thanks to David "Ghosty" Wills of the "We Say Yeah" podcast for some additional info on Cliff Richard's recordings of "Apron Strings"! If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Gurdip and Justin put their heads together for an interesting and provocative thought experiment: what Elvis songs would they pick if they had to remove 5 songs from each decade of his career? Would they just pick our least favorites - or consider the historical, social and cultural ramifications of each decision? Plus, are some periods of Elvis' career easier to prune than others?  And then in the second part of the episode, Justin's joined by Olivia as they look at streaming data from a popular digital music platform to examine what the least listened-to Elvis songs (of ones originally released during his lifetime) are in modern times - the ones that at least one contingent of Elvis fans themselves seem to have inadvertently given away that they'd prefer not going out of their way to listen to. For Song of the Week, Justin knocks out "This is Living" from the soundtrack of Elvis's 1962 boxing-musical-drama Kid Galahad, while Olivia similarly picks an early 60s movie song, the sweetly-sung lullaby "Big Boots" from 1960's G.I. Blues.  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Gurdip returns this week for a lively discussion about the soundtrack to Elvis' 1968 film "Speedway," which co-starred Nancy Sinatra, who features on two tracks, making her one of the few artists to ever appear on an album with Elvis during his lifetime. The guys dig a bit into the recording sessions (which, minus Sinatra's contributions, were primarily done at MGM's soundstage instead of at RCA Studio B as usual) and how this move affected the production quality of the album, the poor choice of promotional single material, unfortunate timing of the film & soundtrack's release, and ponder how Elvis' final soundtrack LP for a fictional film managed to, like the first movie album from 11 years earlier, end up with nearly half the songs featured not even appearing in the film itself.  The guys also catch up on a bunch of listener emails, and then for Song of the Week, Gurdip selects Elvis' unique 1957 interpretation of the spiritual "I Believe," while Justin goes much lighter, picking "Poor Boy," recorded for and featured in his first feature, Love Me Tender. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Justin is joined on this episode by longtime guest and inquisitive mind Olivia Murphy-Rogers, who Gurdip, Ryan, Bec & Justin are pleased to announce is joining the TCBCast crew!! Justin and Olivia explore the concept of the "fool" in Elvis' music - song titles, lyrics, and at critical moments in his life from his childhood in Tupelo to his final television special. Justin continues the theme with his Song of the Week, Elvis' 1971 version of "Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)" and they look at the history of both the song (which dates back to the 1940s) but also the phrase itself. Olivia's Song of the Week, by contrast, is the final "studio" recording Elvis laid down in the Jungle Room in 1976, a cover of Jim Reeves' crossover hit "He'll Have to Go." If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.  (Note from Justin: We're already aware we somehow missed "Love Me, Love the Life I Lead"! Sorry!")

Justin and Bec pull out all the stops for a thorough exploration of the remaining Nashville studio sessions from 1970: June 6, 7 & 8 as well as the brief September 22, 1970, session where Elvis laid down four more tracks to polish off "Elvis Country" and prepare a single. As they begin to sense the material's strength (and Elvis' interest) waning, they ponder whether the "marathon" approach may have done more harm than good in the long run. There are still numerous highs, like much of the material that landed on the country record, but there's also... "Life." This episode's main topic is extra jam-packed so there's no Song of the Week this week, just a buttload of fun and thoughtful discussion about the huge pile of music Elvis & the band laid down that year, and how it was released throughout the rest of 1970, 1971 and even sprinkled a bit into 1972.  Want to hear a wonderfully curated collection of Elvis' 1970 session material? We highly recommend Sony's "From Elvis in Nashville" 4-disc box set from 2020, as of this posting still available physically, digitally and on streaming, and most of the final masters can be heard on the streaming versions of the albums "That's The Way It Is," "Elvis Country," and "Love Letters from Elvis" with a handful more on "Elvis Now."  If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Gurdip's on vacation and between day jobs and personal emergencies, timing isn't lining up just yet Part 2 of the Nashville sessions, so Bec and Justin got together for a quick spur of the moment episode and managed to rope in John Michael Heath of EAP Society for a loose Elvis discussion among the three. The team discusses John & his father's Elvis artifacts in their collection, favorite Elvis movies, the 1969 American Sound Sessions and the 1970 Nashville Marathon both come up, as well as John's recent acquisition of Memphis photographer William Speer's non-Elvis collection of decades worth of photos. For Song of the Week, John revisits a 1969 track previously featured as SotW (early in our run by Gurdip's nephew Roman) to give his heartfelt interpretation of Elvis' reading of Johnny Christopher's "Mama Liked The Roses." Justin's Song of the Week similarly focuses on a surprising, unexpected alternate interpretation of the December 1973 Stax recording "Your Love's Been A Long Time Coming" direct from the mouth of its writer, Rory Bourke, as well as a mini-SOTW side discussion on a January 1974 Las Vegas one-liner Elvis sang of the Rory Bourke co-write, Charlie Rich's "The Most Beautiful Girl." If you'd like to hear more from John and Jamie Kelley, please visit youtube.com/EAPSociety or EAPSociety.com for details on their upcoming "Spring Festival" event in Iowa. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Justin and Bec explore Elvis' "marathon" sessions from June 1970, starting with laying the groundwork for the return to Nashville's RCA Studio B, pondering why Elvis may not have chosen to return to Chips Moman's American Sound in Memphis. Instead Elvis is joined this time by a new band led by his live guitarist James Burton but otherwise comprised largely of country-soul players who had worked alongside producer Felton Jarvis in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, including Chip Young, Jerry Carrigan, David Briggs, Norbert Putnam and Charlie McCoy, and rather than a meticulous planned session with Chips' guiding vision... they tear through dozens of songs across four nights, with a follow-up session later that September. Part 1 focuses on the establishing information and the first two nights, June 4-5 and June 5-6, 1970.  For Song of the Week, Bec highlights "I Met Her Today," the understated Don Robertson ballad that was cut in 1961's Pot Luck sessions but held until the hodgepodge Elvis For Everyone album four years later. Meanwhile, Justin goes way back to the Sun era, selecting the middle child single "Milkcow Blues Boogie" - couched between Good Rockin' Tonight and Baby Let's Play House, yet containing that same genius melding of blues (it was written and originated by Kokomo Arnold) and country (also highly popularized by western swing artists like Bob and Johnnie Lee Wills) in a new rockabilly style as anything else he did at Sun. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

You're about to be taken on a journey...  Justin is joined by Rabia of Suddenly: A Frank Sinatra Podcast to tackle Australia's near-exclusive 1983 compilation "Elvis Blue" (also released in Japan & South Africa) which compiles all 19 songs Elvis released during his lifetime with the word "blue" in the title.  This strange collection of songs that, when initially described, sounds like a novelty cash-in, ends up becoming a compelling, thoughtful alternate exploration of the span of Elvis' entire artistic journey, from Sun Records to the last song he ever sang. Justin & Rabia examine the lyrics of these songs and spend time reflecting on the themes of loss, loneliness, sadness, love-gone-wrong and - surprisingly - a sort of disaffected, comedic flippancy in there, too.  For Song of the Week, the theme is carried forward, with Justin picking two Red West-penned 1966 home recordings "I've Been Blue" and "It's No Fun Being Lonely," one of which explicitly would fit the main topic's subject, and another that fits tonally. Rabia selects "I Need Somebody to Lean On," the understated, jazzy ballad from "Viva Las Vegas" and tries to root out some potential inspirations Pomus/Shuman may have had for it, and together Justin & Rabia ponder the potential influence of Ol' Blue Eyes himself on Elvis' crooning. Rabia's show "Suddenly: A Frank Sinatra Podcast" is available on all major podcast platforms where you can find TCBCast, with more info at suddenlypod.gay. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy. 

Ryan returns this week to look back on his time and findings exploring the world of Elvis bootlegs, from soundboards and audience recordings to studio material and fan-made spliced takes. Justin takes the opportunity to loosely discuss some of the history of Elvis bootlegs and try to contextualize where Elvis bootlegs have fit within the larger rock bootleg scene, and the guys ponder whether there is even a future for Elvis bootlegs to offer anything new or interesting now that A) the official collector's label, Follow That Dream, has done a lot of the work both clearing out the vaults and clawing back material originally found on bootlegs and releasing it in the best possible quality and B) not many people buy CDs at all anymore to begin with, with YouTube and digital trading in online circles are the predominant way of obtaining material nowadays. For Song of the Week, Ryan selects the bopping 1957 hit "I Beg Of You" and celebrates its cowriter, Rose Marie McCoy, while Justin picks the 1969 track "True Love Travels on a Gravel Road", effectively an album cut that Elvis still felt strongly enough about to consider bringing into his live setlist a couple times in the 70s.