Elvis Presley
My Kind of Blues 
(Petticoat Records)
Best of the '68 Comeback Special 
(Sony)

Of comic actors, Chevy Chase told an interviewer: "We're all doing Jerry" Lewis.

No less apt an observation is that all rock'n'rollers are doing Elvis, Whether the manifestations be physical or attitudinal, actuality is inarguable.

From his blue collar Memphis origin, Elvis ascended to worldwide renown. Alex Harvey remarked that, in the deepest jungle, one would be more likely to find a photo of Elvis than of the president.

Presley was of the people because he was born of our plebian sphere. Record-buying regular folks intuited that; when the former truck driver made it big, we did, too.

Throughout decades, his incomparable voice remained a grand vessel of common humanity. It was gloriously stentorian, and merits the reverence still paid it, today.

And whatever the raiment, audacious essence had its say.

The blues-centered disc collects 1950s-1970s tracks, including alternate versions. They're austere, as befits the material, and Elvis doesn't so much interpret songs as imbue them with wrenching immediacy.

By the moment of the '68 Comeback Special, his pop-culture preeminence was endangered by evolving generational tastes and the British Invasion. Classics by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, among others, were reinvented with abbreviated arrangements and prominent brass that presaged the Vegas Era.

Perhaps that modernization was calculated as an appeal to younger audiences. Veteran loyalists were served by the Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana appearances; their participation underscored Elvis's early standing. 

Spinning these discs, one appreciates a grand talent who raised out of blues their anguish, loosed from rock'n'roll a storm yet a-howl, and wrought a legend for the eons.

Recommended (My Kind of  Blues): "Stranger In My Own Hometown," "Like a Baby" (spliced take), "It Feels So Right" (take 2)  "Give Me the Right" (take 2), "Good-Time Charlie's Got the Blues" (take 6), "Down In the Alley" (take 1), "Reconsider, Baby" (live 1977).

Recommended (Best of '68 Comeback Special): "Trouble / Guitar Man," "All Shook Up," "Jailhouse Rock," "One Night," "Love Me," "Blue Suede Shoes," "Burning Love," "Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do?," "Don't Be Cruel."

Videos: "Stranger In My Hometown"
             "Down In the Alley"
             "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues"
             "Trouble" / "Guitar Man"
             "All Shook Up"
             "Love Me"



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