The Sheila Variations

Around the Elvis web in 80 seconds

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Today, I want to point you over to some great posts that I’ve recently found around the web.

The Elvis Shuffle, Revisited. A couple of months ago, I told you about the incredible, thought-provoking Elvis essays that have been cropping up lately at The Sheila Variations blog. Well, those high-quality Elvis posts have continued. For example, here is an excerpt from Elvis Shuffle: Notes Taken By Hand On Flight to Chicago:

“‘Solitaire’ – ‘A loonely man’. Who could imagine that the jiggly boy in 1955 could sing like this? No wonder people still have a hard time taking EP whole. They still feel the need to break him down, piece him apart, make him manageable, palatable. He is neither.”

He Touched Me (FTD, 2011)Elvis was focused during the He Touched Me session. Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick would have us believe that Elvis’ attention was wandering during this session, but the new FTD release seems to tell otherwise. Over on Elvis Today Blog, Thomas Melin has posted a well-written review of the FTD Classic Album version of He Touched Me, Elvis’ 1971 gospel album that earned him his second Grammy.

A daily blog on everything Elvis Presley. Finally, I want to mention Elvis Day By Day, a news blog that has been tracking events in the Elvis world since January 2010. As someone who struggles to get a half dozen decent blog posts up a month, I can tell you that trying to compile a daily news blog is much tougher than it looks. It’s not a challenge I would want to take on, I’ll say that. Elvis Day By Day does a fantastic job of compiling news from various sources, doing a service to Elvis fans by giving us a quick, at a glance view of what is going on each day. Highly recommended.

ilEvs (Shuffled Elvis)

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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.