1) Thatʼs All Right; 2) Lawdy, Miss Clawdy; 3) Mystery Train; 4) Playing For Keeps; 5) Poor Boy; 6) My Baby Left Me; 7) I Was The One; 8) Shake, Rattle And Roll; 9) Iʼm Left, Youʼre Right, Sheʼs Gone; 10) Youʼre A Heartbreaker.
General verdict: Messy leftovers, but totally sweet — a hodge-podge of Sun and RCA-era material.
It is rather funny that it took Elvis Presleyʼs
induction in the US army to familiarize many of his fans with some of his best
material from the early days at Sun Records. As part of RCAʼs strategy to keep
the manʼs legacy fresh in the public eye before the eagerly awaited triumphant
return of the national hero, two LPs of «leftovers» were released in 1959,
featuring very, very heavily
randomized selections of previously issued singles, occasional album tracks,
and an even more occasional previously unreleased track or two. Neither of the
two has its proper place in todayʼs world of careful chronological
compilations, but it is worth mentioning them anyway, if only to remember what
a weird world it was back in 1959.
Plus, this is as good a place as any to begin
turning our attention back to those neglected Sun classics — ʽThatʼs All Right
Mamaʼ is the song that pretty much
invented rockabilly, after all, but it is nothing compared to ʽMystery Trainʼ
and what they did to the Junior Parker original. That original, by the way, is
a classic slow-jump-blues tune in its own right, with a particularly sweet and
sorrowful vocal delivery; and so is — if we really want to pay all our dues —
his proto-rockabilly sound of ʽLove My Babyʼ, which was essentially chosen as
the basis for Elvisʼ arrangement of ʽMystery Trainʼ. The difference is that
Elvisʼ ʽMystery Trainʼ has less soul, but it actually has mystery, as represented by that strange, strange, strange echoing
sound that Scotty Moore and Bill Black get from their instruments: an oddly
reverberating rocking effect where
each new chord relentlessly pushes you around, and each new «hiccup» from the
yet-to-be-crowned King awakens something brutally rebellious inside you. It is
the kind of sound that would be picked up and amplified by Gene Vincent, but
while Gene would certainly make his own advances in terms of loudness,
wildness, and sheer maniacal energy, I would not presume to say that the pure class of ʽMystery Trainʼ — its subtle
combination of restraint with hidden menace — has ever been outdone by any guys
in leather jackets.
At the same time, sitting next to ʽMamaʼ and
ʽMystery Trainʼ we have RCAʼs own ʽMy Baby Left Meʼ and ʽShake, Rattle &
Rollʼ — for those who want to hear a more «modern» Elvis, louder, angrier, and
with an actual drum sound (very
important for both of those songs). There is no more mystery in ʽShakeʼ, though
— just relentless maniacal rockʼnʼroll, crowned by a Scotty Moore guitar solo
that sounds like a rapid shoot-out in the streets between two equally talented
and equally bulletproof gunslingers. Which one do you prefer, esteemed teenager
of 1959? Looks like you will have to become a true LP fan to make that choice.
Or, more accurately, become an even truer LP fan if you simply refuse to
choose.
Having said that, this point in Elvisʼ
discography is also as good a time as any to remind the reader about some of
the songs that Elvis specifically pre-recorded in 1958 before his army stint in
Germany to serve as true all-national reminders that the King was merely taking
a break. Right before For LP Fans Only,
in late 1958, we had ʽOne Nightʼ (a «cleaner» re-recording of ʽOne Night Of
Sinʼ) with ʽI Got Stungʼ as its twin A-side — a totally hardcore two-minute
stunner from Schroeder which is as close to noise-rock as it could be at the
time, at least in terms of production which combines a breakneck pace, a set of
bumbling back vocals that fuse together with the bassline, a minimalistic
head-drilling piano riff whose power would not be beat until John Caleʼs
one-note piano part on the Stoogesʼ ʽI Wanna Be Your Dogʼ, and a lead vocal
part that is barely comprehensible — rapid, mumbly, slurry, delirious, and
dangerous. One quick listen to this thing, and any fan worrying about Elvisʼ
post-army future could rest easy... deluded, yes, but comfortably happy in said
delusion.
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