1) Guitar Man; 2) Clambake; 3) Who Needs Money?; 4) A House That Has Everything; 5) Confidence; 6) Hey, Hey, Hey; 7) You Donʼt Know Me; 8) The Girl I Never Loved; 9) How Can You Lose What You Never Had; 10) Big Boss Man; 11) Singing Tree; 12) Just Call Me Lonesome; 13) Hi-Heel Sneakers.
General verdict: Much of this «clambake» is inedible as usual, but fortunately for us, Elvisʼ movie songwriters are getting really tired and lazy, leaving a few nice empty spots for good people to come and fill ʼem up.
Everything written about Double Trouble applies equally well to Clambake, the soundtrack to a movie that could just as well be a
culinary show, because, honestly, who cared at the time? As an album, Clambake is a roughly proportioned mix
of horrible novelty numbers; derivative but listenable pop-rock fodder; and a few classics whose presence is
randomized but not totally accidental, because every once in a while the man
would stick his head out of his shell and take a bite of juicy stuff — before
being beaten back under cover with another batch of Bennett and Tepper
compositions.
The obvious classic here is the very first
track (which wasnʼt even in the movie, and so much the better for it) — Elvisʼ
cover of Jerry Reedʼs freshly released ʽGuitar Manʼ, with Jerry Reed in person
manning that acoustic guitar because, allegedly, nobody around Elvis could
properly replicate Reedʼs finger-picking style. You could say that here was
another little gem of a country-rock song stolen by Elvis from a lesser known
artist, but truth is, the song was perfect for Elvis: Reedʼs voice is that of a
charismatic country trickster, while Elvis is a raging force of nature, and the
feeling of triumph over all the obstacles that life throws in your way is felt
much more bluntly on the Elvis version. (It also boasts cleaner and subtler
production, but this is to be expected — all of Elvisʼ Sixties records were
polished to perfection, so if you are rather after a bit of lo-fi rawness,
stick to the original instead). In any case, the good news is that Elvis and
Reed really clicked on that session, and the result is another track that can
proudly stand up to any randomly chosen Elvis classic from his golden years.
Other above-average material, also recorded to
pad out the scanty soundtrack, includes Jimmy (not Jerry) Reedʼs ʽBig Boss Manʼ, with Jerry (not Jimmy) Reed also manning the guitar and Charlie McCoy blowing
the harmonica all through the song, as if trying to gain supremacy over the
lead vocal (sometimes he actually succeeds); and a couple of decent country
ballads, such as ʽSinging Treeʼ and ʽYou Donʼt Know Meʼ, which Elvis sings with
total conviction.
Unfortunately and predictably, the soundtrack
material is quite rotten in comparison — the worst offenders being Randy
Starrʼs vaudeville ditty ʽWho Needs Money?ʼ (a very stupid duet with Elvisʼ
co-star in the movie) and, of course,
ʽConfidenceʼ, in many respects a spiritual successor to ʽOld MacDonaldʼ and another
fully deserving entry on the famous compilation Elvisʼ Greatest Shit. As a Sesame Street number, it would have been
perfectly adequate; as something through which every loyal grown-up admirer of
the King had to be put, itʼs humiliating torture. One only has to wonder if the
man was forced to wear breeches and suspenders in the studio for extra
authenticity. And caned on the butt after each bad take.
Even Joy Byers is not fully up to task this
time; her ʽHey, Hey, Heyʼ, seemingly a rip-off of some old Motown dance number
that I do not quite recognize, is way too old-fashioned for 1967 — this kind of
style had gone out at least a year or two ago, together with the likes of Shindig. This leaves the title track as
the most «modern» number, with the obligatory distorted electric guitar lick
and the glitzy-swaggy Tom Jones attitude — but, of course, you canʼt do all
that much with a song whose chorus goes "mammaʼs little baby loves
clambake, clambake, mammaʼs little baby loves clambake too". Heck, it
doesnʼt even work as a gross sexual innuendo, unless you somehow find a way to
work «sausagefest» in there too.
Still, on the whole it is once again amusing
and intriguing to witness the ongoing battle of the «soundtrack agenda» with
«re-emerging artistic inclinations» — here is yet another record where Elvis is
sort of left to his own devices whenever there is empty space to be filled on
the chunk of vinyl, and one could argue that, paradoxically, it was precisely
this filler problem that ultimately aided Elvis in resuscitating and prolonging
his artistic life by a few years.
"mammaʼs little baby loves clambake, clambake, mammaʼs little baby loves clambake too" looks like a quote, or, if you're not feeling, generous, a rip-off of line from a black folk song, "Shortnin' Bread" (covered by everyone, from The Andrews Sisters, to The Beach Boys, and my recent favourite band, The Tractors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlJS3z1RQnE)
ReplyDeleteI also must say I listened to Elvis version of "Old McDonald", and I actually like it - it's fun, at least in the context of a movie clip from YouTube. I can easily see myself enjoying this moment in a cinema. As a part of an "album"... Well, the problem with soundtracks is that they often don't stand too well on their own, especially when you never even saw the movie.
Regarding the beach boys, Brian Wilson was inexplicably obsessed with the song shortnin bread from the 70s onward, and he was writing songs secretly incorporating the shortning bread riff into the 80s. It's pretty strange. Here's a complete video of all the times Brian covered it or wrote a song incorporating the shortening bread riff: https://youtu.be/bRB4zL6Myko
Deleteactually I misremembered, Brian kept using the riff into the 2000's and even Mike Love used it in two of his solo songs. genuinely bizarre stuff
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