fine yall, just don't let anyone tell you Elvis wasn't on some epic shit;
first, a song about one bad ass chick—
(n.b., "polk sallet" ≠ "pork sallet (or, salad)" ≠ "polk sallet," the latter of which, viz., unprepared Phytolacalla am. spp., should be known to the interest of the Bluelight perusing public, as toxic, although not as far as I can tell psychoactive; although, allegedly people have died after having tried to consume "polk salad" after Elvis or the earlier singers/recorders of this sogn, i.e. the plant which is deadly without proper preparation, and needs only boiling, or whatever, to render it "polk sallet," fit "for human consumption" in Appalachia although consonant with perhaps only the nutritional needs of the Lumpenproletariat that is invoked here.)
also; an acoustically lesser but still great and perhaps in some ways better performance, especially recommended for persons coming for a more jam-centric and/or rockist perspective than I; is, coming in the beginning of the heart of his post-honorary-FNB, post-secobarb-and-biphent, Vegas Elvis years, although before terminal paranoiac fat-Elvis set in.
heh, thanks for that. i wondered what polk salad was. assumed it was pretty much what you said - some wild growing weed that poor folks in the south would eat in hard times.
didn't know it was potentially toxic - that's interesting, and adds a dimension to my interpretation of the lyrics. like she's the real-deal, not some wannabe poseur badass chick
fucking great lyrics.
love the little asides at the end of the choruses, like "wretched, dispiteful, straight-razor totin' woman. lord have mercy."
i never really listened to the Elvis version before - but i always loved
the original version by Tony Joe White.
the version linked to there is a little different to the one i'm familiar with - it's the same take, but has no brass section. i wonder if the horns were overdubbed on at a later date or part of the original recording that got cut in that mix?
either way - my absolute favourite part of the original tony joe white version is the last couple of bars of the song, where suddenly he jumps on the crybaby pedal and the guitar gets all freaky and wild.
i'm usually not too much of a fan of wah-wah/crybaby pedals (except when hendrix and ron asheton used them) - but that final little climax in the song is l
but credit where credit's due - i dig that version. it's a wild recording. the band have some killer r'n'b chops without it being that sort of cheesy virtuoso playing that puts me off these sort of acts in this era.
i just watched t
his version as well (from Live in Las Vegas 1970 ) - and i gotta say, Elvis does a fantastic Lux Interior-esque mic-swallow at about 1:52 min (just after delivering the line i quoted above about the straight-razor totin' woman).
he looks absolutely wired out of his skull (but strangely calm, eh

but again, it's not bad at all.
except...if you look at 2:44min in to that video, and elvis pull a little lyric cheat-sheet from his pocket! i can relate, because i'm terrible at remembering lyrics onstage if it's a cover (but not if i've written it, strangely enough). haha, naughty naughty elvis.
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To totally change the pace, i go through phases of listening to to this song several times in a row, because the first - sometimes the second - listen just isn't enough.
it happened today.
pretty fucking long way from elvis, but when it comes to music, i think the more eclectic the better.
this band, the magnetic fields, are one of my favourite bands, and i'm really looking forward to hearing the new record when it comes out.
this is from their first record though, released in 1991