Elvis Presley - Guitar Man - From First Take to the Master

Throughout his career there is little doubt that Elvis was accompanied in the recording studio by some of the best session musicians of the time. One of the finest but by no means a regular was Jerry Reed, who was sought out by Elvis’ producer Felton Jarvis to play lead guitar on his own composition “Guitar Man” with Elvis. This session took place at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville on 10 September 1967. According to Reed : "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis. ‘Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut "Guitar Man" all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.’ I finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because the guys you're using in the studio are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways.’” He further recalled that during the session: "I hit that intro, and [Elvis's] face lit up and here we went” Reed then continued during the session to play on “Big Boss Man” and then returned on 15 and 16 January 1968 to play on four further tracks. Throughout the takes you can hear Reed taking charge as he tries to replicate his guitar intro and accompaniment from his original recording. After twelve takes a master was achieved but then a decision was taken for Reed to add a guitar overdub before the master was finally completed. This final take was itself edited by thirty nine seconds before release. The song would be included in Elvis’ 1968 TV special and director Steve Binder used it as a means of linking scenes. This was done by using the song as a semi-autobiographical travelogue often in short segments and an additional final verse added. In 1980, the song was among forty chosen to be re-recorded with new backing in an idea conceived by Felton Jarvis. These sessions known as “The Guitar Man Sessions” due to this being the first song to be reworked, took place at Young ‘Un Studios in Nashville throughout the year. In hindsight, this project has been viewed as ill-conceived with Elvis’ music held in such regard as to hold up on it’s own as it was originally recorded. Indeed, it is the undubbed masters which have helped to elevate Elvis’ recorded music further in the past few years with their more contemporary sound. This 1980 re-recorded version of the song is included at the end of the video for reasons of completeness. As with all of these videos, to get the most out of the audio, I highly recommend you use ear /headphones and turn the volume up as much as you dare!