ER - the cool side of music and pop culture: Takin' Care Of Business: 7 Great Elvis Funk Records

Elvis_mugshot_2 Ain't nothing nobody can say about Elvis Presley that ain't already been done said a million times over, and yet I don't suppose a single hour goes by on this planet when somebody somewhere doesn't sit down at their PC and add their own hunk of burnin' words to the Everest-high funeral pyre of El Prez-inspired verbiage. He's there for ya, cradle to grave, whether you want Elvis the atomic powered rock 'n' roll hillbilly cat, the black leather untouchable '68 comeback kid or rhinestone jump-suit & aviator shades 70s God Of Vegas, he's got somethin' for ya, and was never too tired, even when he really was too tired, to give it up for his fans. Look at this picture. This picture was taken of Elvis following his meeting with Richard Nixon. Tricky Dicky had granted Elvis' wish to be a card carrying FBI narc, therefore allowing him to carry guns and drugs with total impunity. This was the photo on said card. He looks like a bad-ass. Over the cut are my Top 7 Elvis Presley Funk Records. That's right. He did rock 'n' roll, RnB, blues, lounge, some folk, and even a fair amount of real-deal fonk. Add your own fave King Funk tracks in the comments if there are some I've forgotten...

.1. If You Don't Come Back (Raised On Rock, 1973): The Psychedelic Soul Stylings Of Elvis Presley...whuh? That's right: wah-wah guitar, funky drummin', female gospel backing singers and El Prez groaning the same phrase over and over like he's stoned out of his mind on a dozen different types of medication...which he almost certainly is. Basically it sounds like a late 60s Norman Whitfield Motown production. But with drugged Elvis Presley singing on it. Elvis' Mind Has Left The Building.

.2. Clean Up Your Own Back Yard (undubbed) (7", 1969): Elvis does sizzling country-funk. An excellent low-slung groove, some sleazy slide-geetar and Elvis bitching about how he wishes alla these 'backporch preachers' and 'drugstore cowboys' would just stay the hell off The King's back, making it easily the hippest lyric he ever delivered, especially the 'You tend to your business, I'll tend to mine' refrain, which brings to mind Elvis's TCB: Takin' Care Of Business motto. Close in feel & spirit to Tony Joe White's swamp/country material, this would have fitted perfectly on those excellent 'Country Got Soul' comps they put out a coupla years back, and is precisely the sorta laid-back tangy Memphis Soul Stew Elvis coulda made his own had he been given the chance.

.3. Change Of Habit (Lets Be Friends / Change Of Habit OST 1970): It's a film about Nuns! Nuns wear smocks called 'habits'! Habit is another word for habitual behaviour! So it's like, Change of "Habit", yeah?! I've never caught the movie, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it ain't exactly Black Narcissus in Nun Movie terms (Idea for future post: Top 10 Nun Movies). Inexcusable punnery aside, this Song From The Movie Of The Same Name opens with a huge, totally unexpected fuzz-bass riff, which is then joined by full-fat funky drums, and then...becomes a slightly better than average late-period Elvis track. But while it lasts the break is killer, hands down the straight-up funkiest moment on any Elvis cut, and will be familiar to fans of DJ Format who looped it on 'Here Comes The Fuzz'.

.4. Stranger In My Home Town (From Vega To Memphis, 1969): Another great open drum / bass break up front, before El wades around like a funky water buffalo in a tar pit of harmonica, organ, strings, sitar and brass. Ain't much of a song, but the production is so brilliantly OTT it barely matters, and Elvis seems to be pretty into it by the end. Sounds like it it musta been a fun session to be at.

.5. I Got A Feelin In My Body (Good Times, 1973): Easily the straightest, slickest 'funk' record Elvis ever recorded, infact play somebody the opening couple of bars and there's no way they would guess this is an Elvis track. The fender rhodes, slick wah-wah guitar, bongos and bubbling bass are pure 70s mainstream soul a la Stevie Wonder or The Jackson Five, and quite unlike anything else The King laid down. With gospel backing singers joining him on a hip Jesus-Freak lyric, this is a track definately worth hearing.

.6. A Little Less Conversation (Live A Little, Love A Little OST, 1968): The JXL remix was a stinker, an example of lowest-common denominator big-beatery whose attempt to make 'update' Elvis for a generation of clubbers was entirely unnecessary due to the fact that the original 1968 'A Little Less Conversation' is pretty much a perfect pop/funk floorfiller already. Rehabilitated into the Elvis canon by David Holmes on his excellent Oceans 11 OST, this is a real gem, and it's only a shame that Elvis didn't get the chance to do more up-tempo, late 60's styled RnB like this.

.7. Rubberneckin' (from Easy Come, Easy Go, 1972): More up-tempo pop/RnB in the late 60's style, wherein The Memphis Flash lays out his 'philosophy', which is to 'Stop, look and listen.' This sounds oddly like the Green Cross Code Man's philosophy, but that's not important right now. Paul Oakenfold remixed this a coupla years back, and inevitably it was utter pish, but the original - cut from the same cloth as 'A Little Less Conversation' - is a stompin' floorfiller which rattles along excitedly with great gospel backing vocals and OTT brass. PAUL FUZZ