Slower, funky "Hound Dog"

[nashville cat]

I really like the slow, funky, version of "Hound Dog" Elvis was performing circa 1972, on albums like Madison Square Garden and the Vegas Boxset. I'd imagine Elvis was tiring of performing the tune, and put a new twist on it.

It's more of the standard, faster version, but I also think the version on Elvis In Concert is incredible.

Anyone else like these unique "Hound Dogs"!?

[ForeverTheKing]

I like it very much, a different version of the song.
I like the original too but maybe Elvis knew to be in a different period...not in the fifties anymore so maybe he wanted to try to sing "rock n' roll" songs in a new way or just to create an effect of "wait" before starting the faster part!!;)

[Albert]

I remembered the very first time I heard that song. As a kid, the only Elvis songs I knew where from the records that my father had. Although he had a lot of Elvis LP's, he had few of the 1970s albums.

So the first time I heard the bluesy, slow version of Hound Dog was on a Camden LP with a Madison Square Garden concert on it. I loved it rightaway :D

[Sonny]

Yep, it is really cool and different from the "standard" fast version.

I always believed that in a way Elvis went back to the fifties with this slow start. Remember the b/w footage where he started the song really slow after he ended it?

That performance made them film him from the waist up only in those years.

In 1972 he seemed to imitate that slow style by starting the song with it!


Sonny

[nashville cat]

Yep, it is really cool and different from the "standard" fast version.

I always believed that in a way Elvis went back to the fifties with this slow start. Remember the b/w footage where he started the song really slow after he ended it?

That performance made them film him from the waist up only in those years.

In 1972 he seemed to imitate that slow style by starting the song with it!


Sonny

That's a very interesting way of looking at it. I never thought about it that way. I must also mention J.B's guitar playing was great on this as well. And Tutt's drums - but I am a TCB band fan!

[KPM]

The Wah-Wah pedal was being used alot in the late 60s to mid 70s and JB used it alot and I think it was a way of updating for a few bars-then reverting to what everyone had come to expect from Hound Dog which always drew huge screams. He was having fun keeping it light and putting on a good show.

[Unchained Melody]

I really like the slow verions of Hound Dog also. Didn't Elvis start doing this somewhere in 1971