Previous Page Only two songs were attempted the next day, and they would be the dual-title songs of his next LP. “Raised on Rock” is a great title for a rock and roll song and for a rock and roll album, and it was written for Elvis by Mark James, who previously provided Elvis with “Suspicious Minds.” James was born in 1940, just five years after Elvis, but those five years were the difference between being in the era of those who shaped Rock music and in the era of those who first used it to rebel against their parents. James’ lyrics talk about being “raised” on Rock, and listening to songs like “Johnny B. Goode” (1958) and “Love is Strange” (1956) and Hound Dog that his “idols made.” Considering “Hound Dog” was originally a low-key blues song until Elvis turned it into a manic rock and roll number, it couldn’t be considered a “rock” record until Elvis recorded it. So you have a song where Elvis is singing about being a child influenced by the music he and his peers recorded as twenty-somethings. It’s…weird. The groove is great, the song is probably the best-produced master of the whole July 1973 session, and Elvis sings it well, but the lyrics are too anachronistic to work. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content “For Ol’ Times Sake” is easily one of the best ballads Elvis recorded after 1962. It has simple, beautiful lyrics, an effectively sparse rhythm arrangement and the best vocal performance Elvis gave at Stax. The song would release alongside Raised on Rock as a single soon after recording, but it failed to continue the momentum that the 1972 singles had. After “Burning Love” hit #2, “Separate Ways” reached #20, and “Steamroller Blues” from the Aloha concert surprised many with a #17 showing, “Raised on Rock/For Ol’ Times Sake” disappointingly failed even to reach the top-40. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Only one song each was recorded in the final two days and they featured an actual “Stax man” playing in the studio. Al Jackson (the great drummer of Booker T the MG’s) lent his considerable talents to two songs which absolutely wasted his ability. First was the country song “Girl Of Mine” and then was a ballad “Sweet Angeline.” Neither song required any more of the drummer than basic high-hat timekeeping. In fact, Jackson wasn’t even invited because of his history with the studio; the regular drummer had to leave and a replacement was needed. Jackson was treated as little more than a substitute. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content With ten songs recorded (including “Sweet Angeline” which needed more work), there was still more to be done. Three more songs were scheduled, including “The Wonders You Perform,” “Color My Rainbow” and “Good, Bad, But Beautiful” and the possibility of returning to “It’s Different Now” was always on the table. Ten songs would be enough for RCA to release as a full-album, but two of the songs had already been held back for a single release. More was needed but Elvis wasn’t feeling it. The fact that he had a studio now, for the first time in a long time, closely concerned about the performer fulfilling his contracted obligations meant little to him. If he didn’t want to record, he simply didn’t record. When Elvis entered the studio to record “O Girl of Mine” he was told that the handheld mic he’d been using all week had been either stolen or misplaced. A replacement was provided but sound engineer Al Pachuki complained that it was of inferior quality. While recording “Sweet Angeline” Elvis complained about the sound in his headphones, and Pachuki blurted out “it’s not just the headphones, it’s you that sounds weird.” He simply meant the microphone was not up to snuff, but Elvis took it as a personal shot and stormed out. Felton Jarvis oversaw the band completing the songs, in the hopes that Elvis would return and knock out the vocals. He never returned, though. Jarvis still needed more songs to finish the album, and he had already used up the entirety of Elvis’s back catalog in his powerplay to push Joan Deary’s FOOL album aside. After almost two months of getting nothing accomplished, Jarvis finally arranged for RCA’s mobile recording truck to make the journey to Elvis’s Palm Springs house where he, along with a trio of backers (James Burton on guitar, Thomas Hensley on bass and long-time lackey Charlie Hodge on rhythm guitar) could record the final tracks for the record. Jarvis presented Elvis with the backing tracks he left the band to finish when he stormed out of Stax in July, but other than putting the final polish on Sweet Angeline, Elvis ignored the previous material. Instead, he sat down at the piano and played “I Miss You” (written by Donnie Sumner of the Gospel group Voice) and “Are You Sincere” (an old Andy Williams song that reached #3 back in 1958). In truth, they were songs Elvis would have messed around with on the piano regardless if he was at home or in the studio, and regardless of whether or not RCA was taping him. It just so happened that they were taping him, and that was good enough to finish the album. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content A week after the songs were finished, RCA had the record on shelves. The album’s cover featured a picture of Elvis taken from a recent Las Vegas engagement. The suit appears to feature a red cape but actually, it was orange; for some reason, RCA tinted the picture so that the cape would appear red, which had the added consequence of making Elvis’s white jumpsuit look pink. Strangely, the same picture appears on both sides of the cover; the only difference is the title above Elvis’s head: on one side it says “Raised on Rock” and on the other “For Ol Time’s Sake.” The fact that it featured a generic Las Vegas picture, a sparse ten-tracks, and a recently released single for its title, many record-buyers assumed it was another “Burning Love” or “Separate Ways” throwaway album. As a result, it only reached #50 on the album charts, just as the ELVIS (“Fool”) album had done earlier in the year.
