This is Part II of a two part series about The Golden Gate Quartet (GGQ) and Elvis Presley, with particular focus on that African American quartet's influence on Elvis Presley's renditions of the African American Gospel song "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" ("Swing Down Sweet Chariot, Lord And Let Me Ride").
Part II provides information about Elvis Presley, and his meeting with GGQ in Europe in 1960s. Part II also features two YouTube examples of Elvis's rendition of "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" (1960, 1968/1969), and includes selected quotes from those examples' discussion threads. One of those comments provides Elvis Presley's adapted lyrics to this song.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/04/swing-down-sweet-chariot-by-golden-gate.html for Part I of this series. That post provides information about The Golden Gate Quartet, including information about Elvis Presley's impromptu meeting with that group in Europe in 1960. Part I also features two YouTube examples of the GGQ's rendition of "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" (1946, 1967), and includes selected quotes from those examples' discussion threads.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, religious, and aesthetic reasons.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Elvis Presley for his musical legacy. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/09/five-examples-of-swing-down-sweet.html for information about and early lyrics for songs that became "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" as well as lyrics for that song that were sung by the Golden Gate Quartet and other Gospel quartets . Here's a brief excerpt of that post:
""Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Swing Down Sweet Chariot Lord And Let Me Ride" aren't the same song. However, it's very likely that "Swing Down Sweet Chariot" was inspired by the traditional "Swing Low" Spiritual.
..."Swing Down Chariot And Let Me Ride" is referred to as a hymn, a camp meeting song, a Spiritual, and/or an early Gospel song. This song might be an African American Spiritual - since its likely that only a small number of Spirituals that were sung in the 19th century were collected. However, the way this song was first recorded in the 1940s probably wasn't the way it was sung in the 19th century.
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INFORMATION ABOUT ELVIS PRESLEY
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
"Elvis Aaron Presley[a] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll", or simply, "the King".
Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and when he was 13 years old, he and his family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee...
Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century. Commercially successful in many genres, including pop, blues and gospel, he is the best-selling solo artist in the history of recorded music,[5][6][7][8] with estimated record sales of around 600 million units worldwide...
Influences
Presley's earliest musical influence came from gospel. His mother recalled that from the age of two, at the Assembly of God church in Tupelo attended by the family, "he would slide down off my lap, run into the aisle and scramble up to the platform. There he would stand looking at the choir and trying to sing with them."[318] In Memphis, Presley frequently attended all-night gospel singings at the Ellis Auditorium, where groups such as the Statesmen Quartet led the music in a style that, Guralnick suggests, sowed the seeds of Presley's future stage act:
The Statesmen were an electric combination ... featuring some of the most thrillingly emotive singing and daringly unconventional showmanship in the entertainment world ... dressed in suits that might have come out of the window of Lansky's. ... Bass singer Jim Wetherington, known universally as the Big Chief, maintained a steady bottom, ceaselessly jiggling first his left leg, then his right, with the material of the pants leg ballooning out and shimmering. "He went about as far as you could go in gospel music," said Jake Hess. "The women would jump up, just like they do for the pop shows." Preachers frequently objected to the lewd movements ... but audiences reacted with screams and swoons.[319]
As a teenager, Presley's musical interests were wide-ranging, and he was deeply informed about African American musical idioms as well as white ones (see "Teenage life in Memphis"). Though he never had any formal training, he was blessed with a remarkable memory, and his musical knowledge was already considerable by the time he made his first professional recordings in 1954 at the age of 19. When Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met him two years later, they were astonished at his encyclopedic understanding of the blues.[320]"...
-snip-
Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Statesmen_Quartet for information the [White American] Southern Gospel Quartet, the Statesmen.
Also, click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jordanaires for information about the [White American] vocal group, the Jordanaires. That group started as a Southern Gospel quartet but later sang backup for Elvis Presley from 1956 to 1972 and also for other singers. Here's one excerpt from that page:
"The quartet became well known in the southern gospel realm, and what made them stand out from other quartets of that time was how they would bring spirituals (such as "Dry Bones") to a predominantly white audience. While continuing to turn out gospel albums of their own, the group become better known for the signature background harmonies they have provided on dozens of secular records.[3]"
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FEATURED EXAMPLES
Example #1: Elvis Presley - Swing Down Sweet Chariot [1960]
anna8elvis, Uploaded on Oct 12, 2007
50's candids! [candid photographs]
-snip-
"candids" = candid photographs of Elvis Presley
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread:
estelle715, 2008
"Elvis was raised in an Assembly of GOD CHURCH and that's where he 1st learned to sing,and he never forgot his roots. I saw him in concert in 1972! Just an amazing God-given voice.Thanks!"
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Phil Silverman, 2009
"Wonderful rendition. Vocally not as strong as the '68 version. Interesting live version from '61 out there someplace."
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195477, 2009
"Go to teh Tofu Hut website and type in The Golden gate quartet there is a nice artical about their meetings with Elvis in Paris 60."
-snip-
Thanks to that comment, an excerpt of that article is included in Part I of this series.
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Phil Silverman, 2013
in reply to Aere Perenius
"wrong? why? You can bet RCA paid the rights. Elvis loved African-American artists and sought to include them in his recordings. Elvis loved blues and Gospel and and millions of listeners got to actually hear lesser-known classics. Some white teenager from Indiana was exposed to maginificent music. Usually Presley's version was very unique."
-snip-
The comment from Aere Perenius appear to have been deleted. However, from the response it's likely that that commenter wrote that Elvis Presley was wrong to sing Spirituals and that the recording company didn't pay for the rights [to the Golden Gate Quartet?} for that song's use.
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Example #2: Elvis Presley - "Swing Down, Sweet Chariot" (1968/69) [HD]
TimothySideburns, Published on Sep 28, 2012
This scene is special in a way since it presents Elvis on stage accompanied by real musicians. Only very few of his movie performances featured real musicians. In fact the last one to do so was "Viva Las Vegas" five years earlier. And you'd has to go seven more years more back in time to see him perform with Scotty Moore, Bill Black, DJ Fontana and The Jordanaires in 1957's "Loving You" and "Jailhouse Rock" respectively. In "Trouble With Girls" it's The Mellomen who act as "The Bible Singers", a part of the travelling Chautaqua troupe managed by Elvis-character Walter Hale. Elvis actually recorded a few times with the Mellomen during the 1960ies.
Movie: The Trouble With Girls [1969]
-snip-
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread:
mysteriousyoungman, 2012
"The bass singer to the far right is the wonderful Thurl Ravenscroft. Thurl's voice is heard throughout Disneyland, Disney World, Disney's animated films, singing with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, and let us not forget.............he was the voice for Tony the Tiger until his passing. Thurl was "Grrrrrrrrrrreat!""
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LeCommedieDellArte, 2013
"Swing Down, Sweet Chariot"
(Arranged and adapted by Elvis Presley)
Why don't you swing down sweet chariot
Stop and let me ride
Swing down chariot
Stop and let me ride
Rock me lord, rock me lord
Calm and easy
Well I’ve got a home on the other side
Why don't you swing down sweet chariot
Stop and let me ride
Swing down chariot
Stop and let me ride
Rock me lord, rock me lord
Calm and easy
Well I’ve got a home on the other side
Well, well, well, well, well, well
Ezekial went down in the middle of a field
He saw an angel workin' on a chariot wheel
Wasn't so particular 'bout the chariot wheel
Just wanted to see how a chariot feel
Why don't you swing down sweet chariot
Stop and let me ride
Swing down chariot
Stop and let me ride
Rock me lord, rock me lord
Calm and easy
Well I’ve got a home on the other side
Well, well, well Ezekial went down and he got on board
Chariot went a bumpin' on down the road
Zeke wasn't so particular 'bout the bumpin' of the road
Just wanted to lay down his heavy load
Why don't you swing down sweet chariot
Stop and let me ride
Swing down chariot
Stop and let me ride
Rock me lord, rock me lord
Calm and easy
Well I’ve got a home on the other side
Well I got a father in the promised land
Ain't no more stoppin' till I shake his hand
Rock me lord, rock me lord
Calm and easy
I've got a home on the other side
Why don't you swing down sweet chariot
Stop and let me ride
Swing down chariot
Stop and let me ride
Rock me lord, rock me lord
Calm and easy
Well I’ve got a home on the other side
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Shad Rack, 2014
"Here is a link to what I believe is the earliest recording of this arrangement, by the Golden Gate Quartet, in the early 1940s.
http://youtu.be/qpnCJcyfGBE
Elvis always acknowledged the Golden Gates as a big influence in his life; in fact, his vocal delivery is uncannily similar to the Gates lead singer Willie Johnson.
This version was Elvis' second recorded version and the only one that was videotaped for film. The Mellomen are the quartet, with Thurl singing bass. Elvis' 1960 recording used the Jordanaires, with JD on bass. Both of Elvis' versions are almost exact copies of the Gates' version, minus the slow intro. They are all in the key of F major.
For a different take, check out the Fairfield Fours' live version on YouTube; personally, I prefer their recorded version from their 1992 album Standing in the Safety Zone, which I couldn't locate on YouTube.
-snip-
That link is to another example of the Golden Gates Quartet's 1946 rendition of this song that I've featured in Part I of this series.
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This completes Part II of this series.
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