iPod

“Elvis Song Of The Year” for 2011

/ TY / 7 Comments

Burning Love (1972)According to iTunes, out of 2,564 Elvis tracks, the one I played most often this year was: “Burning Love,” his 1972 single.

I listened to 10,023 Elvis songs using iTunes or my iPod in 2011 (including duplicates). That’s an average of 27 Elvis songs a day.

Out of 3,225 non-Elvis tracks, my most played song this year was: “Sweet Dreams” by Beyoncé, from her 2008 album I Am… Sasha Fierce.

Overall, I listened to 19,917 songs using iTunes or my iPod this year. That works out to 55 songs a day. My daily average in the last two years was about 44. The increase is probably due to this year having the capability to play my iPod in the car.

When I first started this blog, I mentioned that the soundtrack of my life was powered by Elvis. I’m happy to say, that hasn’t changed.

ilEvs (Shuffled Elvis)

/ TY / 5 Comments

Over on The Sheila Variations blog, Sheila states, “It’s very weird to listen to [Elvis] on Shuffle. It’s vaguely schizophrenic, the material is often wildly uneven, but there is also a thruline which is his voice and also – I guess I would call it joy. He seems happy to be doing what he’s doing” (“Elvis Shuffle” — The Sheila Variations).

Although Elvis is not always a primary topic there, The Sheila Variations has featured many insightful Elvis posts lately. It’s always great to see Elvis-related posts on non-Elvis blogs. Be sure to check this one out, for both the Elvis and non-Elvis content.

As for me, I happen to do much of my Elvis listening in shuffled mode these days. I didn’t always listen this way, but the iPod Age has no doubt caused this habit to evolve in me.

Except when first experiencing a new album, I don’t often play Elvis in context anymore. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard the material in context so many times before, but I find that shuffling Elvis is a powerful way to get into his entire career without getting stuck on “I only like the 50s” or “I only like the 70s,” etc.

For instance, I just can’t take twenty or thirty of his 1960s movie tunes in a row. If instead sprinkling them among other songs I enjoy, though, I often pick up on a great movie song I may otherwise have missed (“Anyone” comes to mind, though that revelation actually came about during an all-artists shuffle).

Of course, the control freak side of me does not allow this to be completely random. I’ve got a series of smart playlists I use in order to carefully plan this randomness. More about that some other time. In fact, it’s been on my list of future articles for well over a year now! Maybe someday, I’ll actually write it.

Pieces of our lives: A look at modern Elvis fans

/ TY

The Elvis Today Blog (book)
By Thomas Melin
274 pp. Blurb. $9.95

The Elvis Today Blog (2011)

The Elvis Today Blog (2011)

Full Disclosure: I wrote a guest post for the Elvis Today Blog back in 2009, and it appears in this book (p. 224). The last thing I want to do is start reviewing my own material, though, so the following review covers the other 99% of this compilation.

Don’t let the title of this book fool you. The Elvis Today Blog is not a book about an Elvis site. Without a doubt, The Elvis Today Blog is a book about Elvis.

However, it turns out that The Elvis Today Blog is also a book about us – modern Elvis fans.

By relating his personal experiences, author Thomas Melin crafts a unique volume that follows the triumphs and trials of being an Elvis fan in the post-1977 era.

“Sometimes it just hits me how much I love Elvis music and what a great feeling I get from listening to it,” writes Melin in “The Wonder Of Elvis” (p. 56), one of his best entries. “On the highway I put the fourth CD from the Today, Tomorrow & Forever box set in the car stereo and there was ‘See See Rider’ from February 1970 blasting through the speakers. It’s hard to explain what I felt, but I remember thinking ‘Man, I’m gonna listen to Elvis and his music until the very day I die,'” he states.

A major contribution of The Elvis Today Blog is the “Special Moments With FTD” series, Melin’s focus on specific songs released on Sony’s Follow That Dream collectors label for Elvis fans:

  • “Love Me Tender,” Dixieland Rocks (1975) – p. 65
  • “The Sound Of Your Cry,” The Nashville Marathon (1970) – p. 78
  • “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” So High (1967) – p. 92
  • “Mexico,” Out In Hollywood (1963) – p. 107
  • “It’s Easy For You,” The Jungle Room Sessions (1976) – p. 116
  • “Hey Little Girl,” Out In Hollywood (1965) – p. 182
  • “I Just Can’t Help Believin’,” One Night In Vegas (1970) – p. 182
  • “My Boy,” Dixieland Rocks (1975) – p. 183
  • “Young And Beautiful,” Elvis On Tour: The Rehearsals (1972) – p. 238
  • “Suspicious Minds,” Memphis Sessions (1969) – p. 265

Most notable of the above entries are those dealing with “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “It’s Easy For You,” and “Suspicious Minds,” where the author uses powerful descriptions to take you inside the various studios to watch Elvis at work.

Modern Elvis fans aren’t just listening to records and CDs, though. They also enjoy listening to Elvis on their iPods or other portable music devices. “I too like buying and collecting CD’s, reading the liner notes and listening to the tracks on my stereo. But that doesn’t stop me from downloading the music into my iPod and taking it with me whenever I’m traveling somewhere. To me, that’s the real benefit of owning an iPod, that I always have access to the Elvis Presley catalog, wherever I happen to be,” Melin says (“Ku-u-i-pod,” p. 37).

I don’t normally comment on cover design and page layout of books (unless they are awful), but these elements by Staffan Melin, a brother of the author, warrant special mention. The cover is a creative take-off of the 1975 Elvis Today album cover. The interior page layout makes for easy reading, featuring the Deja Vu Serif Condensed font. Kudos to the designer.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the web version of the Elvis Today Blog. In fact, I often find inspiration there, and the Mystery Train Elvis Blog would probably not exist in its present form without the Elvis Today Blog’s influence. It has been a joy rediscovering favorite or forgotten posts as I read them in book format.

Needless to say, I’m hoping that Melin releases additional volumes of his Elvis works. One enhancement suggestion I have for the next volume would be to include an index, to make it easier to find all of the references to certain topics. If that could not be done on a large scale, it seems that at least the Labels feature in use on the web version could be converted into a short index for the book version.

Another way to enhance future volumes would be if Melin included supplemental information that was not part of the original blog posts. Using an example from this book, he mentions meeting drummer DJ Fontana (p. 28), who shared some Elvis stories with him. Maybe one or two of those stories could be noted as bonus content.

Those are just minor suggestions, though. The Elvis Today Blog is not only a great book about Elvis, but an essential examination of contemporary Elvis fandom. Highly recommended.

“Elvis Song Of The Year” for 2010

/ TY / 6 Comments

According to iTunes, out of 1,439 Elvis tracks, the one I played most often this year was: “Any Day Now” on 1969’s From Elvis In Memphis.

I listened to 6,749 Elvis songs using iTunes or my iPod in 2010 (including duplicates). That’s an average of 18 Elvis songs a day. Elvis is by no means the only artist I listen to, though.

Out of 2,694 non-Elvis tracks, my most played song this year was: “Halo” by Beyoncé on 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce.

Overall, I listened to 15,964 songs using iTunes or my iPod this year. That’s 44 songs a day. My daily average last year was 43, so at least I am consistent.

No matter how you cut the numbers, that’s a lot of music. The scary part is, that doesn’t even include my CD spins – which would probably add another 15 songs a day.

* * *

Thank you to all of those who read or supported The Mystery Train Elvis Blog in 2010. I hope to see you next year!

From “Harbor Lights” to “Unchained Melody” in 14 days

/ TY / 2 Comments

A few months ago, I spent three weeks listening in release order to all Elvis albums issued during his lifetime. Though I owned these songs for years, I had never played them in such a sequential manner before. I probably never would have, either, were it not for the convenience of modern technology – using iTunes and my iPod.

All of the great coverage around the web about Sony’s The Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection inspired me to undertake a similar journey in recent weeks. Using the Elvis Presley master recordings list as a guide, I created a new playlist to listen to all of the songs in recording order this time. While I was at it, I also tagged each song with a number so that I can easily sort them by recording order in the future.

It took me only two weeks to listen to over 700 Elvis songs, and it was an even better listening experience this way. As expected, the hardest years for me to sludge through were 1964 and 1965 (from about “Poison Ivy League” on down to “Queenie Wahine’s Papaya”). Even then, there were the occasional highlights like “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me” or “This Is My Heaven” – but most songs from this time represent the worst of the movie tunes.

Outside of that long rough spot, though, playing the songs in a coherent fashion like this made it even more obvious how solid most of his other recordings were over the years. It really made me appreciate the “sound” of individual sessions, something that is not always evident when listening to many of his albums. As a fan, it was an emotional experience as well, even more so than listening to them as albums.

When the Graceland sessions came to a close with “He’ll Have To Go,” I realized there were only three Elvis recordings left before he did just that. As he sang “If You Love Me,” and “Little Darlin’,” I knew the inevitable was coming. It was going by so fast, I wanted it to slow down, I wanted it not to happen this time.

He launched into his breathtaking version of “Unchained Melody” and when it was over . . . silence.

I sat and listened to that silence for awhile . . . and thought about what it represented.

“The silence of a falling star”

/ TY

Any of you that have made your way to The Mystery Train Elvis Blog via my old sci fi blog know that school (night classes) always takes up a lot of my time during this part of the year. On top of that, I’ve had a couple of challenging projects going on at work as well.

Though I may not be posting here as often as I’d like at the moment, Elvis is never far from my thoughts. I’m usually able to listen to my iPod a bit at work, especially when I’m handling a writing-related assignment. It helps to block out the distractions of whatever else is going on around me and allow me to focus.

Just for fun, I made up a couple of standard playlists to use at work yesterday.

Elvis 1972: The Unreachable Star

  • Burning Love [Burning Love And Hits From His Movies, Volume 2]
  • For The Good Times[Walk A Mile In My Shoes]
  • Always On My Mind [Separate Ways]
  • Fool [Elvis (Fool)]
  • Where Do I Go From Here [Elvis (Fool)]
  • Separate Ways [Separate Ways]
  • Also Sprach Zarathustra/Opening Riff/That’s All Right (Live) [An Afternoon In The Garden]
  • Proud Mary (Live) [Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden]
  • Never Been To Spain (Live) [Walk A Mile In My Shoes]
  • You Gave Me A Mountain (Live) [Walk A Mile In My Shoes]
  • Polk Salad Annie (Live) [Close Up]
  • A Big Hunk O’ Love (Live) [Walk A Mile In My Shoes]
  • The Impossible Dream (Live) [He Walks Beside Me]
  • Burning Love (Live) [Close Up]
  • Until It’s Time For You To Go (Live) [An Afternoon In The Garden]
  • Suspicious Minds (Live) [An Afternoon In The Garden]
  • It’s Impossible (Live) [Elvis (Fool)]
  • I Can’t Stop Loving You (Live) [Welcome To My World]
  • An American Trilogy (Live) [This Is Elvis]
  • Can’t Help Falling In Love/Closing Riff (Live) [Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden]
  • Elvis Talks About His Father (“Make up your mind…”) [Eye Of The Hurricane]
  • Johnny B. Goode (Rehearsal) [Elvis On Tour: The Rehearsals]
  • The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Rehearsal) [Elvis On Tour: The Rehearsals]
  • Young And Beautiful (Rehearsal) [Elvis On Tour: The Rehearsals]
  • Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (Rehearsal) [Elvis On Tour: The Rehearsals]
  • Funny How Time Slips Aways (Rehearsal) [Elvis On Tour: The Rehearsals]
  • Always On My Mind (Rehearsal)[This Is Elvis]

Elvis 1973: Part I – The Midnight Train

  • Also Sprach Zarathustra/Opening Riff/See See Rider (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • Burning Love (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • You Gave Me A Mountain (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • Steamroller Blues (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • Love Me (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • Johnny B. Goode (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • It’s Over (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • What Now My Love (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • Fever (Live)[The Alternate Aloha]
  • Welcome To My World (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • Suspicious Minds (Live)[The Alternate Aloha]
  • I’ll Remember You (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • An American Trilogy (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • A Big Hunk O’ Love (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • Can’t Help Falling In Love/Closing Riff (Live) [Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite]
  • Blue Hawaii (Remake) [A Legendary Performer, Volume 2]
  • Hawaiian Wedding Song (Remake) [Mahalo From Elvis]
  • No More (Remake) [Mahalo From Elvis]
  • Early Morning Rain (Remake) [Mahalo From Elvis]
  • Baby, What You Want Me To Do (Informal) [Elvis By The Presleys]
  • Just A Little Bit [Raised On Rock]
  • For Ol’ Times Sake [Raised On Rock]
  • Sweet Angeline [Raised On Rock]
  • If You Don’t Come Back [Raised On Rock]
  • I Miss You [Raised On Rock]
  • Are You Sincere [Raised On Rock]
  • It’s Different Now (Rehearsal) [Walk A Mile In My Shoes]
  • I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Informal) [Elvis By The Presleys]

I made it through the 1972 playlist, which was fantastic – a real testament to the power of Elvis during that year. For 1973, I only made it as far as “See See Rider” before it was time to go. Aloha sounded like so much fun, though, that I decided to watch the 2004 edition when I got home last night.

One of the things I love about Aloha, as well as a number of other Elvis events, actually, is watching his eyes. Particularly evident on the 2004 cut, you can see a “We’re all in on the same joke/Isn’t it crazy that this is going on?” expression of bemusement. Even in this concert, where he is sometimes criticized as being too serious, Elvis never really takes himself too seriously.

After a quick run-through of the obligatory “Hound Dog,” he says, “I was just a baby when I did that song. I was about 12-years-old, had sideburns. I’m lying like a rug, too.” Too bad this line was cut from the 1973 album and subsequent NBC broadcast.

The ability to laugh at himself was one of Elvis’ most endearing qualities, and that’s no lie.

“Anyone could lose his heart like me”

/ TY / 2 Comments

Don’t you love when an Elvis song that you previously paid little attention to comes out and smacks you across the forehead? You suddenly realize that it’s a great song. That’s what happened to me just now with 1963’s “Anyone” from the Kissin’ Cousins soundtrack.

I had iTunes on shuffle, using a smart playlist. It was “There Goes My Baby” by the Drifters, then “I Just Call You Mine” by Martina McBride, “Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé, Elvis foolin’ around on “The Cattle Call,” and then, BOOM, “Anyone.”

Why have I never noticed this beautiful song before? I had it rated as a measly two stars. I’ve bumped it up to four.

* * *

My pal Thomas over at the Elvis Today blog seems a little down in his latest post about the forthcoming Follow That Dream Records releases. Up next will be a book and CD combo for 1958’s King Creole.

Unfortunately, the CD contains only previously released material, and misses being comprehensive by leaving out a couple tracks that were available on Hits Like Never Before. After that, there will be a vinyl release capturing highlights from the Classic Albums series version of Good Times.

Cheer up, Thomas. What’s the best thing about FTD? Variety. 1950s releases are few and far between on FTD, and perhaps the King Creole book (and potential sound upgrades) will be good enough to make this underdog a special release.

In the US, I have a slight advantage because I’ll be able to read some of the reviews from around the world before our pre-order period is over.

The other releases we’re waiting for, such as Promised Land, will come eventually. As you said, Elvis On Tour is on the way. We can’t have everything at once now, can we? We don’t want to be spoiled.