Roaring and Ready to Go
Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley (Blast from the Past Tuesday)
I used to spend a lot of time watching archive performances of my favorite artists. Anything from The Who doing “A Quick One” on the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus to David Bowie’s last performance of “Life On Mars”, from Simon & Garfunkel doing “My Little Town” on Saturday Night Live to The Who doing “My Generation” live on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. (I was really into the Kids are Alright documentary back then…. sue me!!) However, any live performer I’ve ever seen can’t hold a candle to the way I feel about Elvis. He was my first favorite, the first musician who really captured my heart — I used to listen to the 1998 Memories double album that recapped the ‘68 comeback special nonstop. I loved the way he played with a crowd, never afraid to laugh or joke around in the middle of a song. There was real power in the way that he could connect with his audience, so much so that it resonated through my headphones alone some forty or fifty years later. It’s hard to choose, but perhaps the greatest Elvis performance I’ve ever watched is him doing “Suspicious Minds” live in Vegas.
I’ve gone back and forth about what Elvis song to write about for Ear Bites. For a while, I was considering doing “An American Trilogy”, but the second I saw this performance I knew I had to feature it. See, while “American Trilogy” has a terrific buildup and some of the best vocals Presley ever mustered up, the pure energy in this clip was is just too amazing to pass up. Along with that, it also does a great job of spotlighting everyone who supported him, all the stellar musicians and singers fitting together to make this the greatest it can be.
Strings, bass, stacked backup harmonies, electric guitar — everyone is roaring and ready to go, keeping up until the very end. But I’d like to take a second to talk about the drums. See, I tend to use the word “driving” to describe a drum beat but this time I really, REALLY mean it. Ronnie Tutt is on fire for the whole duration of the performance, and every time I think he can’t get any better, something is added to one-up the moments before. When you watch Elvis thrash around, there’s no doubt that he’s feeling the drums above all else, their precise yet wild sound taking him over in the parts where he doesn’t sing.
The piece I might love the most about the performance is how they do the fake fade-out. While that’s a key part of the studio recording, I wouldn’t really expect it to work live. But you go from Elvis convulsing all around to going down low into a real impressive lunge, eyes half-lidded and voice fading. Covered in sweat and breathing hard, it’s almost like he might be running out of steam. Then all of sudden here he goes again, ready to close it off with one last round of everything he’s got. This video is the epitome of Elvis — every method of connection, every joke and bit, every little movement and flip of the voice — it’s all calculated and all makes for what might be the best damn live performance the world has ever seen.
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