Title: Essential Elvis Volume 5, Rhythm and Country

Label: BMG

Date: July 20-25, 1973 & December 10-16 1973, Stax Studios, Memphis, Tennessee

Sound Quality: * * * * * / * * * * * +

Contents Rating: * * * * * / * * * * * +

Tracks: 1.I Got a Felling in my Body (take 1) 2.Loving Arms (take 2) 3.I've Got A Thing About You Baby (take 14) 4.She Wears My Ring (take 8) 5.You Asked Me To (take 2) 6.There's A Honky Tonk Angel (take 1) 7.Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues (take 8) 8.Find Out What's Happening (take 6) 9.For Ol' Times Sake (take 3) 10.If You Don't Come Back (take 3) 11.Promised Land (take 4) 12.Thinking About You (take 4) 13.Three Corn Patches (take 14) 14.Girl Of Mine (take 9) 15.Your Love's Been A Long Time Coming (take 4) 16.Spanish Eyes (take 2) 17.Talk About The Good Times (take 3) 18.If That Isn't Love (take 1)

Review: A very nice CD, probably the best one from the series. As always, most of the tracks have some chatter before the take itself. Many of the tracks are pretty different from the originals. Let's go to the track by track review.

I Got A Felling In My Body is take 1. Elvis is unsure, he seems to be in a hurry to hit the right notes and say the right words in time. There's no guitar intro which is present on the master take (# 3). Also after the piano solo in the middle of the song Elvis looses himself and after "I Got A... I Got A...I Got A..." he adds "Goddamn!" Still the take is nice. Loving Arms begins with a couple of lines from Softly As I Leave You, with Elvis singing it. The take itself of this beautiful Tom Jones' song is very calm and nice, close to master (take # 3). "It is Elvis a little gospel singer... OK, let's do it, fellows, you see, you all know it and I don't..." Elvis says right before take 14 (!) which is still unsure, but in most of the parts close to master (take 15). Right before take 8 of She Wears My Ring we can hear an "intro" on guitar. The take is pretty nice, but Elvis is late on some parts. This was the last song Elvis recorded at Stax in December of 1973, by the way. You Asked Me Too which is take 2, also has a guitar intro. "Well, wait a minute, fellows, don't go without me. Goddamn. I don't know what we're doing" Elvis says and David Briggs quickly the first few notes of this country song. This take is close to master, it shows how simple all this country songs were for the group. There's A Honky Tonk Angel is take 1, which makes it even more interesting. Right before the song starts, we can hear Elvis singing the first lines, trying to remember the melody. A very good rendition, 8 takes weren't really needed to complete this country ballad. Good Times Charlie's Got The Blues is close to master (master take was the next one). The only difference is probably the fact that the drums' part begins after the first couplet, not right from the start. Also, it is a bit longer. Find Out What's Happening is take 6 and different here is the way the vocal accompaniment groups sing, especially different is the way J.D. Sumner sings the part "Gone, gone, now gone". For Ol' Times Sake is take 3, and it is pretty close to the master, probably the guitar parts differ just a little bit, but anyway, Elvis worked 5 more takes to get the master (take 8).

Right before take 3 of If You Don't Come Back you can hear Elvis fooling around with Surrender. After listening to this fragment, my father, who doesn't like Elvis very much, said: "At least, you can for sure say that he has a good voice". The take has a little difference in the timing of the words. By the way, this was the first song Elvis recorded at the Stax studios on July 20, 1973.

During the recording of the next song (Promised Land which here is take 4), Elvis' cousin Billy Smith was in the control room. Before this take you can hear Elvis fooling around with Columbus Stockade Blues, he sung it to Billy. As Elvis admitted right before Promised Land: "Bill over there smiling, he liked that. I did that when I was three years old". But back to Promised Land, Elvis at full gas, fantastic, though this take is shorter, without the repeating of the last couplet. Thinking About You (take 4) is longer, and pretty close to master, though without the overdubs it sounds better. It always was one of my favorites and nice to hear an alternate take of this song. Three Corn Patches is probably the worst song from these sessions, Elvis doesn't seem inspired at all on this rhythm and blues, and it surely proves that Elvis was in trouble. This take 14 is as bad the master (take 15). One of the most criticized songs from this sessions is Girl Of Mine, which in my opinion, leaving aside the bad sound on the Elvis channel, is a very good song and again one of my favorites. Without the overdubs, this outtake (take 9) sounds pretty different from the master (take 11). Right before take 4 of Your Love's Been A Long Time Coming, you can hear Elvis fooling around with a couple of songs, incl. Find Out What' Happening. This rendition is very nice, there's no drums at all, all the way through the song! It sound very different from the master and is very unusual.

Right before Spanish Eyes you can hear James Burton counting: "Un, dos, tres", but the band doesn't understand, so Elvis suggests to count on English ("James, they don't know what you're talking about"). This rendition (take 2) is pretty close to the master (take 4), but still nice. Before Talk About The Good Times you can hear Elvis singing Farther Along and Wasted Years. Probably they were taken from the recording of Loving Arms, because before Elvis begins singing them you can hear the ending of Loving Arms. The take itself (# 3) is very energetic, Elvis is very inspired throwing a lot of "Woo" - s. The last song from this CD is If That Isn't Love, and being take 1, it is a very good rendition, strange is the fact that Elvis waited till take 4 to get the master. This take is already a great one.

What can I say as a conclusion? Run and get it! The sound is great (again a great mix work by Dennis Ferrante) and the contents is outstanding.

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