Get Down And Get With It
Reviewed By : Hans de Ruijter
Reviewed By : Hans de Ruijter
Get Down And Get With It was recorded at MGM Studios, Stage 1, Culver City on 16th July 1970. If you think of the first half of That's The Way It Is, with all the rehearsing and fooling around, then you'll have the flavour of this CD. It starts with a fantastic foot-tapping Stagger Lee which comes in for a little creative word-changing by Elvis, next comes Got My Mojo Working which starts with a whimper and ends with a bang.
I've Lost You comes next, and an excellent version too, with plenty of passion and two endings which end in laughter and a rather "un-pc" remark by Elvis. Elvis sounds in a really good mood and sings Stranger In The Crowd next. The following track (a definite favourite on this CD) is The Next Step Is Love, which has a false start, lyric changes, laughter and silly voices...and even with all the fooling around at the start, it's a great version (but I can't get enough of Elvis fooling around, so maybe it's just me).
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is next with a couple of false starts, more silly voices and more laughter - (if you like Elvis laughing you have to get this CD!) Elvis sounds a little frustrated at one point and says "My God!....hold it a minute, I'm in the wrong place again - hold it....hello mike" Then we you get a more serious, though short version of the song. After that you hear Elvis say "Look at that mike Joe, isn't that a funny looking mike?" (wish I knew why it was funny!) and Sweet Caroline follows, again with lyric-changes and silly noises. Elvis seems even more determined than usual to disrupt the rehearsal make people laugh :)
A great Yesterday comes next, maybe the best version I've heard. Maybe Elvis doesn't like it so much because he makes snoring sounds at the end. A very short version of Hey Jude comes next and even that short version gets the Presley lyric changing treatment. The next track is a gutsy but short I Can't Stop Loving You and a little of It's Your Baby, You Rock It follows. Next comes the version of Crying Time that we're all familiar with from TTWII and after that you hear Ghost Riders In The Sky which Elvis sings to, but I don't think his mike is on...this ends pretty abruptly as if he'd got bored with it.
In the next track, Runaway, Elvis doesn't sing at all, but it's still good. It's Now Or Never follows it and either Elvis' mike isn't plugged in or not working because you really only hear him sing part of the chorus, and very faintly. Peter Gunn is next and Love Me follows it - both (I think) used on TTWII. Love Me ends with Elvis falling backwards off his stool amid lots of laughter "Were we in tempo?" he asks.
One Night is next, with more microphone problems, and it fades out midway through the song. Alla Al Rancho Grande follows it and halfway through, Elvis gets his mike back (this is the song I want to ask a question about, so someone remind me please if I forget to do it?) The next track is the slightly slower That's All Right that was used in TTWII, and a giggly but great version of Twenty Days And Twenty Nights comes after it. Patch It Up follows, and Elvis sounds like he's really enjoying it, and for the first time it sounds like he's actually rehearsing for a show, not just jamming with his friends :) Patch It Up ends suddenly, as if Elvis feels he's got it right and doesn't need to do any more of it. A little of Cotton Fields comes next, which kind of drifts into Sylvia and ends in laughter.
Stranger In The Crowd comes next (for the second time), with a couple of false starts - "Start it again, I was taking a little nap" - and again come some typically Elvis lyric changes (he was SO good at that!). Next comes that lovely version of How The Web Was Woven shown in TTWII where Elvis accompanies himself on piano (and ends with him falling off his stool). To end this fantastic CD we get the most beautiful I Will Take You Home Again Kathleen. Elvis doesn't sing at all, just plays it on the piano. You'll recognise this too from That's The Way It Is...this is the scene where Elvis is at the piano with John Wilkinson watching him, but before I heard this CD I didn't realise which song he was playing, they used so little of it in TTWII (BIG shame, I'd have loved to see his face while he was playing so beautifully).
So that's it. If you like songs played in their entirety, with no fooling around, extra lyrics, laughing or silly voices, you'll hate this CD; but if like me you love to hear Elvis laugh and have a good time, you have to get it :)
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