Having Fun With Elvis on Stage

January 25, 2019 8:31 PM

In 1974, Elvis released what has been called one of the worst albums of all time: Having Fun With Elvis on Stage. The album was thought up by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who had recently started his own label to squeeze a little extra money out of Elvis's career. Parker, however, was unable to release any of Elvis's music through the label due to his existing RCA contract. The result is thirty-plus minutes of awkward, disjointed, contextless banter lifted from various stage performances. Mental Floss sat through the entire recording in an attempt to ascertain just how much fun there is to be had (short answer: not much). Ernie Smith of Tedium looks back at the Elvis album alongside some of the best--and worst--on-stage banteristas of all time.
posted by duffell (22 comments total)

I saw the HBO documentary on Elvis. My big takeaway was that it was a real shame Elvis ever met the Colonel.
posted by xammerboy at 8:42 PM on January 25, 2019 [6 favorites]

45 Minutes of Paul Stanley Stage Banter
posted by stevil at 9:31 PM on January 25, 2019 [5 favorites]

I have at least a dozen bootleg Elvis concerts on a hard drive. (They go with my TB of Dead concerts.) Elvis was quite the entertainer. Witty, much less witty banter, was not his thing. If you could hear him shaking his hips and see is lip curl snarl on an album, that would sell.

Now Bob Weir, he is funny/odd/strange/smart. At any moment, pick any two. The Dead rarely talked between songs other than to either say that Phil broke a string and we're going to spend some time to fix it, that is what we are going to do or to exhort the crowd to take a step back and another step back and another step back as the people up front were getting crushed. Bob would always close a set with somthing like, "We are going to take about a short break and you can too." and at the end of the show a high pitched, "Thank you." But every once in a while when there was some sort of technical delay, Bob would tell a joke. Here is his yellow dog story. Here it is orally with Bob.

Here is Bob just recently telling Mickey Hart that he has blow all over his face.
posted by AugustWest at 9:53 PM on January 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

No consideration of this topic would be complete without Lou Reed’s Take No Prisoners.
posted by mykescipark at 10:50 PM on January 25, 2019 [3 favorites]

As far as I know, there is at least one more Robert Pollard/Guided By Voices release that is just Bob's stage banter, and they are both at least as awkward, disjointed, and contextless. They are also perfect.
posted by Dokterrock at 11:39 PM on January 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

I hope someone comes up with this because BGV are the best.
posted by sjswitzer at 12:02 AM on January 26, 2019

Edit window closed but I meant GBV.
posted by sjswitzer at 12:19 AM on January 26, 2019

A writer, who's name eludes me, once described Elvis's story as the most perfect decline in the history of American show business.

A horrible fate for the 19 year old who recorded this at Sun Studios in 1954.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 1:09 AM on January 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

Thanks to Apple Music, I just went through Elvis’s entire catalogue. While his 70s stuff might not be to everyone’s taste, unmoored from the dreck he recorded for his movies, which comprise the bulk of his 60s output, Elvis enjoys quite a Renaissance. The quality of both the material and the arrangements skyrockets, as do his performances — he was reeling from his divorce and there’s real heartbreak in a lot of his song choices and presentation.

Also, his gospel albums are consistently lovely. I don’t know what it means that I, an atheist Jewish man from Minnesota, like to listen to a poor southern boy sing about Jesus, but it’s Elvis as his most humble, serving the material as a genuine expression of faith (these albums were never meant for the charts), and there is something very moving about them.

But, yeah, his Sun Sessions are unworldly. They’re like a brief transmission from Venus. There never was anything like them and never would be again.
posted by maxsparber at 4:41 AM on January 26, 2019 [13 favorites]

Just to riff on maxsparber's comment for a second - The machinations of Colonel Parker and Elvis' precipitous decline and caricature-worthy final years notwithstanding, there were good reasons why Elvis was so popular.

He had looks and charisma as a young man, sure, but he also could really sing. He had what at the time he first became famous was a novel concept (a white man singing black music). And when allowed to make his own choices, he had good instincts for musicians and material.

For many people, especially younger people who weren't born until after he died, he's been reduced to a sad joke. But if you can get past that, there's a lot of good stuff in his catalog.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 5:53 AM on January 26, 2019 [10 favorites]

For many people, especially younger people who weren't born until after he died, he's been reduced to a sad joke. But if you can get past that, there's a lot of good stuff in his catalog.

Man, this. I always thought Elvis was a cliché and of course when we went to Memphis we had to do the touristy thing and see Graceland. Maybe it was my interest in materi culture, maybe it was the vibe from the other tourists, but it was a transformative experience. I adore his music and feel so badly that so many people used him.
posted by Calzephyr at 6:42 AM on January 26, 2019 [4 favorites]

I've loved this album for years. I think I paid like $3 for it. A selection of some of my favorites, from memory:

"Hot damn, I said put that boy on TV"

"Ladies and gentleman, I'm the NBC peacock"

"You want the scarf and the kiss?"

"You can tell when a boy's from Memphis by the way he says Mremphrish"

"What are these little red things on my pants?"

"Well... Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, welllllllllllll"
posted by SystematicAbuse at 7:24 AM on January 26, 2019 [7 favorites]

Three banter ideas come to mind:

Billy Connolly began as a musician whose onstage banter was so successful, he eventually made comedy the focus of the show.

The best live concert film ever (Stop Making Sense) has exactly one bit of stage banter: after a powerful, high-energy "Life During Wartime," David Byrne addresses the audience: "Thank you. Does anybody have any questions?"

My personal fave: I played in a garage band in my early twenties. In one small club with kind of a crappy lighting set-up, our lead guitarist once muttered into the mic, "We're not bowing, we're looking for our set lists."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:27 AM on January 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

Very timely post for me; last night I saw Arlo Guthrie, who is known for talking a good bit on stage. This was his tour for the 50th anniversary of the Alice's Restaurant movie. Comparing last night's show to the concert in 2015 for the 50th anniversary of the song (streaming on Netflix), it was interesting to see how much of the banter stayed almost exactly the same, interspersed with some possibly improvised stuff. Particularly interesting was the very beginning of both concerts; they started with a claymation version of The Motorcycle Song that is even sillier than the original. Guthrie commented on how the film has been lost for 40 years and they didn't know what to do with it so here it is. The 40 years was the same in 2015 and 2019. But when he sang Alice's Restaurant, he updated the timeline from 50 years ago to 54 years ago. So it is interesting to see how a seasoned entertainer uses his banter as stagecraft. Also, his daughter Sarah Lee Guthrie did a few songs as part of the show, and also talked a good bit. She came across as a bit more spontaneous; she's also worth seeing if you get a chance.
posted by TedW at 8:56 AM on January 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Having Fun Onstage With Fugazi
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:36 AM on January 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

If we're going to talk about stage banter I think we have to include Tom Waits.

I've never seen him in person, sadly, but here are a couple of examples:

Dog Treat

Pregnant
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 11:04 AM on January 26, 2019

"Colonel" "Tom Parker", aka Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, is one of the few seemingly high-profile cases of an undocumented immigrant showing up on our fair shores and doin' crimes. You think he'd be cited more often in our current political climate.

On a lighter note, I visited his native Breda 10 years ago. Nobody'd heard of Tom Parker there. True story.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 1:01 PM on January 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

Sinatra At The Sands is how you do onstage banter.
posted by Hartster at 2:40 PM on January 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm always amazed and saddened by how young Elvis was. He died at 42 and was only in his early 30s when he did his "Comeback Special".
posted by octothorpe at 4:12 PM on January 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

"Colonel" "Tom Parker", aka Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, is one of the few seemingly high-profile cases of an undocumented immigrant showing up on our fair shores and doin' crimes. You think he'd be cited more often in our current political climate.

Especially since he's undeniable proof of the damage that undocumented immigrants can do to American institutions (e.g. Elvis).
posted by gtrwolf at 8:25 PM on January 26, 2019

Back in the 20th century, some people I knew, inspired by 'Having Fun with Elvis..' compiled a stoner mix tape of all the stage comments & exhortations from various rock live double/triple albums, mixed with bits of odd spoken word recordings. Featured Paul Stanley, Lou Reed, Issac Hayes, etc. It was hilarious. Long lost now.

One artist who was quite memorable for fascinating odd poetry & musings between songs was the late Gord Downie.

I'd agree that Elvis Presley's later recordings are quite good.

Colonel Tom Parker was notorious for openly demanding bribes & kickbacks from composers offering songs for Elvis to record. Dolly Parton wanted to offer to Elvis the song 'I Will Always Love You', but backed away from dealing with the Colonel. (This song was later a MegaHit for Whitney Houston).

David Bowie said that he composed 'Golden Years' for Elvis, but he was gone before he could offer it to him. I can easily hear Elvis croon that melody in my head.
posted by ovvl at 3:51 PM on January 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

You may get older than Elvis, but no way will you outlive him.
posted by whuppy at 9:07 AM on January 28, 2019 [2 favorites]