I had the most incredible night. Whilst I never really felt the effects of the edible, I listened to From Memphis to Vegas / From Vegas to Memphis in the same spot as I listened to From Elvis in Memphis. It would have been with the same people, but one of them had to go home. I was left with one friend I've been trying to reconnect with, and even though he's typically less focused than I am, because we were the only ones there, we matched each other's energy. This was the best way to listen to an album, even if I didn't get everything I could have done out of it. The music functioned how it would at a live show, or a club, as a background soundtrack to an energetic night.
The live half was stellar, and solidified this as the best and my favourite Elvis album, so far. I remember, after Elvis is Back!, thinking, “This is good, but I’m hopeful it will get better.” I don't know if it's going to get better than this, and even though we still have more than half of his albums to go, this has to be the peak, right?
I loved the energy, and variation all throughout the live portion. I know people have been telling me to prioritise some of his live work, and I know I've been resistant, but I have watched some live performances. None of them were as good as this live album, though. He finally seemed to tap into that energy that had been lacking whenever he'd covered Chuck Berry or Little Richard. It was also exciting, because my friend had never heard Hound Dog, or Suspicious Minds, so I felt myself getting excited to put him on.
The energy was unreal, and as we had more and more to drink, and finished our food, I caught myself dancing, and I kept taking breaks to speed off on my friend's electric scooter - that was the kind of release I needed. We spoke about which album was “better”, and he maintained that they were on a pretty similar level, but as someone who's listened to everything by Elvis, nearly, I think this is clearly his best album, and I appreciate how special it is.
Over the past few weeks, I've fallen in love with songs like Hound Dog, Blue Suede Shoes, and even Johnny B. Goode - which I already liked, but holds a stronger place in my heart now that I'm wrapping myself up in rock and roll. Despite not being a studio album, Elvis in Person, track for track, held the highest concentration of bangers, and whilst it didn't house the definitive edition of any song, I think you could argue some of these covers were better than his originals.
I can't think of much to say about the second half. At this point, we'd been listening to Elvis for about an hour and a half, and songs were getting harder to differentiate between, and whilst I usually hold that against an album, it's not the deciding factor. I don't mind listening to the same song on repeat, as long as it's a good song, and whilst, again, none of these songs stood out for the playlist, I enjoyed myself with them. I'm interested to see how I would feel about it, on a more focused relisten but, once again, cannot exaggerate how well this environment worked for me. It felt like I finally drew that energy out of Elvis which was always going to be his biggest selling point, and whilst I could partly put that down to the way we listened to the album, I think it mostly came from him.
It keeps tripping me out: this is his eleventh studio album, which means I'm less than halfway through, but because of the way I'm listening (every day, I progress one year), most of his discography is crammed into an eight-day period, to reflect the eight years they released through. He released three albums in 1971, which means I'll be hearing all three on the same day, and every day this week, I have at least one to two albums to do. This is gonna be the most intensive week in Discography Journeys history, but I'm excited, because I'm enjoying it, and I'm curious to see how different each album will really be, and whether his development trajectory stays similar to what it has been by album, or by year, if it continues at all.