Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

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Brian In Atlanta
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Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

#1309614

Post by Brian In Atlanta »

When listening closely to the 50's RCA tracks, I'm often struck by how much Elvis' guitar slapping adds a VERY distinctive quality to the sound. The slapping also usually has a very sophisticated rhythm (as often does his rhythm guitar *playing*), dynamics, and tambre based on where he strikes it and how. Examples that come immediatly to mind are Wear My Ring Around Your Neck, Treat Me Nice, and of course All Shook up.

Someone recently did a list of Elvis on piano that I thought was great and I intend to make playlist of it. So I was thinking it would be cool to also have one of all the guitar percussion, if people are up for submitting more examples.

Also, a question for anyone who might know, because as far as I know, I surprisingly cannot think of anything I've read addressing this: What was the typical recording setup during those tracks? Presumably in the 50's this was always done while he was singing since they had no overdubbing, which makes the contribution that much more impressive.

Other question it begs: Was he standing or sitting? If he was sitting, did he often sit while recording? Personally I can't breathe properly and loosen up enough if I'm singing sitting down. Also if Elvis shared a mic with the Jordinaire doing harmony vocals on All Shook Up, it seems likely they were standing, so how did he support the guitar? Was it separately mic'ed? Did it sometimes require more takes from Elvis mult-tasking? Was there a particular song quality or studio condition that seemed to inspire him, possibly based on the examples as a whole? I'd be fascinated by information anyone would be kind enough to contribute. And of course photos would be fantastic.


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Mister Moon

Re: Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

#1309639

Post by Mister Moon »

Brian In Atlanta wrote:When listening closely to the 50's RCA tracks, I'm often struck by how much Elvis' guitar slapping adds a VERY distinctive quality to the sound. The slapping also usually has a very sophisticated rhythm (as often does his rhythm guitar *playing*), dynamics, and tambre based on where he strikes it and how. Examples that come immediatly to mind are Wear My Ring Around Your Neck, Treat Me Nice, and of course All Shook up.

Someone recently did a list of Elvis on piano that I thought was great and I intend to make playlist of it. So I was thinking it would be cool to also have one of all the guitar percussion, if people are up for submitting more examples.
Hi Brian,

This interesting subject was covered last year in this thread :

http://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=78615



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Re: Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

#1309644

Post by Brian In Atlanta »

Thanks Mister Moon, I've glanced at the thread and look forward to going over it in detail. I thought it might have been posted about but thought the keywords would be so generic it would produce a gang of hits.


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Re: Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

#1309650

Post by Brian In Atlanta »

Thanks again Mister Moon, that was a very cool thread. One of the links is no longer up I assume I can figure out what song is missing from mention elsewhere, if any.

One thing I'm always fuzzy on is the issue of overdubbing in the 50's. I know it was possible at some point, but I guess I forgot mentions of overdubs being on the 50's sides. I'm definitely surprised to hear Guralnick reference Elvis overdubbing slaps as having started in Sun sessions.

One reason I'm always confused about the beginnings of overdubs is that I thought Buddy Holly doubling his vocals on Words of Love was some kind of experimental innovation, but that wasn't until April of '57. Maybe that was some hype from the Gary Busey movie, which is well known for a gaggle of historic hogwash. The only Buddy bio I've read is Phillip Norman's, my impression is that I perhaps read it there, either that or in liner notes for one of the multi disc collections.

And now that I think of it, I knew Les Paul was stacking tracks in the early 50's, Wikipedia says How High The Moon was '51 (several years earlier than I would have guessed,) and that Les was stacking up to 8 guitar parts, with vari-speed recording, by 1949!

Anyway, interested to know roughly how common overdubs were for Elvis' 50's sessions if anyone would care to chime in. Actually there's probably a thread for that one, but I seem to have trouble finding the right stuff with the search function (as with virtually all search functions for large contained databases.)


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Mister Moon

Re: Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

#1309673

Post by Mister Moon »

Brian In Atlanta wrote:Thanks again Mister Moon, that was a very cool thread. One of the links is no longer up I assume I can figure out what song is missing from mention elsewhere, if any.

One thing I'm always fuzzy on is the issue of overdubbing in the 50's. I know it was possible at some point, but I guess I forgot mentions of overdubs being on the 50's sides. I'm definitely surprised to hear Guralnick reference Elvis overdubbing slaps as having started in Sun sessions.

One reason I'm always confused about the beginnings of overdubs is that I thought Buddy Holly doubling his vocals on Words of Love was some kind of experimental innovation, but that wasn't until April of '57. Maybe that was some hype from the Gary Busey movie, which is well known for a gaggle of historic hogwash. The only Buddy bio I've read is Phillip Norman's, my impression is that I perhaps read it there, either that or in liner notes for one of the multi disc collections.

And now that I think of it, I knew Les Paul was stacking tracks in the early 50's, Wikipedia says How High The Moon was '51 (several years earlier than I would have guessed,) and that Les was stacking up to 8 guitar parts, with vari-speed recording, by 1949!

Anyway, interested to know roughly how common overdubs were for Elvis' 50's sessions if anyone would care to chime in. Actually there's probably a thread for that one, but I seem to have trouble finding the right stuff with the search function (as with virtually all search functions for large contained databases.)
I don't think Elvis overdubbed the guitar-slapping part on "I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine", as the sound can also be heard on the two incomplete takes we have. I guess Guralnick reference to this song in relation to "All Shook Up" was only connected to the guitar-slapping "technique", not the overdubbing.

Other examples of overdubbing on 50s recordings by Elvis are, from memory, "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" (already mentioned in the other thread), "Baby I Don't Care", "Lover Doll", and "Is It So Strange". This last example is not too well known, and was only uncovered a few years back. The Jordanaires had to overdub their vocals to cover a certain spot of the song where Elvis didn't properly reach the higher notes. This happens at 1:56 - 1:57 in the following upload. The original undubbed recording was first released (uncredited as such, and in binaural format) on the "Close Up" box set.

..




r&b

Re: Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

#1309681

Post by r&b »

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You had some major slapping!



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Re: Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

#1309746

Post by Dan_T »

Always sounded like Elvis overdubbed backing vocals on "Danny" .... the "Oh oh yes" parts, especially the last one between the line "I'm writing a letter to someone unknown" it overlaps his vocal. I'm probably wrong though ! :)



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Re: Elvis Presley, guitar percussionist

#1309756

Post by Kylan »

r&b wrote:Have I Told You Lately That I Love You had some major slapping!

i especially like the percussion has on this track.. one of my fav 50's tracks.. it glides along quite nicely.


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