Das Mischpult SILVESTRIS – Ein Vollröhren-Mischpult für ... - EMSP

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Abschlußbericht Mixed Signal Baugruppen 2008/9 Mischpult SILVESTRIS (Teil 1) Einführung Did you record everything live in the studio? “We’d sometimes record everything in a couple of takes, but not always. He might have overdubbed his voice towards the end, but when I was playing with Elvis, we always did things live. But he was harder on himself than he ever was with any of us. We recorded in the day and at night, but later on in his life, it started being mostly at night or late afternoon into the night. There was no drinking around the studio, and I never saw any drugs in the studio, not during my time. We might go out after the session around midnight and get stoned, but never during a recording session. I really think that’s a mistake a lot of musicians make. “Mystery Train was the last thing we recorded on Sun, and I’d just gotten a new Gibson and the Echosonic amplifier, which created the slapback that you could do with tape machines. Hound Dog we cut in New York. Gordon Stoker is playing piano on the session, because Shorty Long had to leave to work on some rehearsal for a stage show. The background on Hound Dog sounds like a bunch of guys sitting around, although it’s just three people. “Don't Be Cruel", I turned my E string down to a low D. I played the intro and then I played a chord at the end, but that was all I did on it. Same with All Shook Up – I just played a little rhythm type of thing on that. Jailhouse Rock – shoot – I don’t remember anything specific, but it was just a rip romping song. One thing you realise now is that the songs and the music and the excitement is still there in those records now.” Would you say you were Elvis’ main creative foil? “Well, yeah, I guess you could say that. In the very early days, me and Bill just tried to play what fitted the music and the song rather than just playing a bunch of notes. Of course, I guess it was put on me more than anybody else, because Bill was just playing rhythm. In terms of the sound, we had no reference points, that’s for sure. My reference was just the song really.” Would you say that less is more is your basic philosophy as a guitarist? “Yes. Less is definitely more. I know there are some guitar players that are just barn-burners, but that don’t impress me a bit, other than the fact that my hands won’t move like that. I always listened carefully. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of something else, especially the singer. If Elvis was doing anything, I didn’t want to do anything that would step on his toes, and then when he wanted me to take a guitar break, he’d be the same way. We fed off each other. I guess you could say that there was a kind of musical telepathy between us. The one thing I always appreciated about Elvis was that he never tried to tell anybody what to play.” Was the ’68 TV Special the last time you actually played with Elvis? “Yes, and that was the last time I saw him too. I’ll tell you something I’d like you to put in your magazine - when we did that, DJ Fontana and I went out and had dinner at Elvis’ house in Hollywood. He said he wanted to talk to us, and we were looking at each other like – What did we do? And we went in and he said: ‘When we’ve finished this movie, I want to do a tour of Europe. You guys want to go?’ And I said – hell, yeah, all you’ve got to do is give me a little notice so I can get somebody else in charge of the studio. Of course, Parker put a clamp on that real quick when he heard about it because he couldn’t leave the country.” What do you remember about the ’68 TV Special? Well, we just did two shows in the round – one in the afternoon and one at night. For the actual performance, I think they spliced between the two. The main thing I remember is that I’m the only person on stage who’s got an electric guitar there. Elvis told us to sit down, and so I didn’t put a strap on his guitar, and I didn’t have one on my guitar either, so it was hard to stand up and play. After he did the first couple of songs, the crowd started getting good, he started feeling good, so he stood Seite 1- 62
Abschlußbericht Mixed Signal Baugruppen 2008/9 Mischpult SILVESTRIS (Teil 1) Einführung up. That’s when he turned to me and said: ‘Let me have your guitar.’ He couldn’t hear his guitar, ‘cos it was an acoustic. I gave him my electric and took his acoustic and just kept playing. That show was a lot of fun, but Elvis was very nervous at the beginning. He hadn’t been in front of a crowd for so long…well, since he came out of the army. I’m sure half of America was watching the show that night. I wasn’t nervous, because to me, it was just another crowd. After we did the ’68 Special, as I said, he wanted to go to Europe, and that’s when he hooked up in Las Vegas. I didn’t want to go because they wouldn’t pay us. That’s why I didn’t carry on playing with Elvis. The Vegas thing was only gonna go on for two or three weeks. That’s when they got James Burton and all those other guys playing with him. We didn’t have a falling out, but that was the last time I saw him or spoke to him. Elvis was really just like a younger brother to me from day one. After I stopped seeing him, I really missed him so much.” It must make you feel very sad when you stop to think of what happened to him after you lost touch. “I think about him quite a bit. I guess the main thing I can tell you is that he wasn’t happy towards the end of his life. It was depressing for me. I think Colonel Parker hurt him. Like I was saying, when we had dinner that night, he told us he wanted to go over there and do a European tour. He knew that the fans were over there, ‘cos he’d been to Paris when he was in the army. He’d seen enough when he was over there to know that here was a whole new life for him. That’s the reason he went back on the road, because it was in his system, and he wanted to get out and do something for the people.” How would you like to be remembered? “Oh, I don’t know. I might be an innovator, but I really don’t consider myself to be a fantastic musician. I just did my own thing my own way, and it just happened to be a little different to anybody else.” Scotty Moore als Produzent in den 1970-er Jahren Seite 1- 63
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Das Mischpult SILVESTRIS – Ein Vollröhren-Mischpult für ... - EMSP

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