Previous Page “My Boy” was a song Elvis had played in a lot of his live sets in Las Vegas. He sang it almost every night he performed in August, when the divorce with Priscilla was still looming. The lyrics are of a parent trying to explain to a child why his mom and dad are divorcing. Naturally, it was on his mind in the summer but by the time Felton brought it in to record in the studio, the last thing Elvis wanted was to be reminded of what he’d just gone through. He told Felton he would have two takes to work with and that was it. When the producer asked for a third take to tweak the ending, Elvis went ballistic and Felton made do with the two takes he had. 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 “Loving Arms” would go on to be one of the more covered country songs of the past forty years, but in 1973 Elvis was one of the first two artists to record it; Dobie Gray was the other, and his version is much more pop, whereas Elvis gave it the customary Felton Jarvis/Nashville-inspired country sound. It’s Elvis’s interpretation that endures. Elvis recorded a complete take and then immediately called for another. After that, Felton nervously repeated his “My Boy” request for a third, and was happy to find Elvis oblige. The third take is the master. 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 “Talk About the Good Times” gives a song about how the world has gone to pot and how “back in my day things were better” a pentecostal revival flair that makes it infectiously toe-tapping. It, along with a somber ballad with a convoluted title, “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues” somehow inspired the next album, to be entitled Good Times. 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 Recording “Your Love’s Been a Long Time Coming” was probably the most focused and energized Elvis was in any recording all year. Something about the lyrics grabbed him and refused to let go. Multiple takes were recorded and even after a master was finished, he continued playing it back over and over, as in a trance. 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 After he was done, though it was early in the morning he called the band back from the parking lot (where they’d been preparing to go home) to record again. He was inspired to try his hand at “There’s a Honky Tonk Angel.” Conway Twitty would make the song famous with his 1974 version but Elvis recorded it first, and though the lyrics are cheesy, he was obviously feeling it, and almost makes the song 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 “Promised Land” is clearly the show-stopper of the set, and is easily the most famous recording today of either Stax session. And yet, at the time, the song was a throw-away. It was something done in between more serious recordings that Felton had enough wherewithal to steer toward a proper master. The lyrics were tricky and Elvis needed early takes to be played much slower than normal, but once he got the hang of it, he delivered a solid master take. It was still a hair too slow (despite Elvis shouting at the beginning of the recording for the band to “get on it!” and pick up the pace), but it was the closest thing to “Burning Love” the man had recorded since “Burning Love.” Despite the energy in the recording, the record was put on the back-burner; it was not included on the next album, and was not released as a single for nearly a year. When it was it peaked at #14 (the best since “Burning Love”). 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 When the session was ended, Elvis returned to Graceland leaving Felton Jarvis with enough material to stretch into two complete albums, fulfilling his client’s contractual obligations. Originally, both Good Times and its follow-up album were to be released in 1974, meaning Elvis would not have to return to the studio for another year, but Presley’s upcoming spring tour provided an opportunity for Felton to delay the inevitable. Which is good, because Elvis had grown increasingly uncooperative about recording new music.
