Elvis Presley Records Guitar Man
I have several hundred of favorite Elvis tunes but one of my all time favorite songs recorded by Elvis is Guitar Man, a tune written and originally recorded in 1967 by Jerry Reed. For Jerry, this song began his singing career and put him on the Country Music Billboard for the first time. Elvis heard this tune on the radio and liked it so much he decided that Guitar Man would be included in his next recording session.
So on September 10th, 1967 in the RCA’s Studio B in Nashville with guitarists Scotty Moore, Chip Young and Harold Bradley present, Elvis attempted to record Guitar Man. However no matter what they did or how hard they tried, the musicians couldn’t get the sound that Elvis was looking for. Of course that sound was Jerry Reed.
So Elvis told somebody to get Jerry on the phone and maybe he could tell them how to achieve that “Jerry Reed” sound. Well Jerry was on a fishing trip somewhere out in the middle of nowhere but somehow somebody did manage to locate him and get him on the phone. Who actually accomplished this depends on whose account you’re reading but remember, nobody ever said no to Elvis and what Elvis wanted, Elvis got. Reportedly, Reed responded to the request to tell someone how he got that sound, he’d just “c’mon out there” and do it himself.
Felton Jarvis, the producer at this session, said that Reed arrived looking “like a sure-enough Alabama wild man.” Apparently from the fishing boat to the Nashville studio, Reed hadn’t stopped to shave, change his clothes or clean up in anyway. When Elvis saw him walk into the studio he said “Lord, have mercy, what is that!” But no matter, they all soon got to work to get Guitar Man in the can.
At first, Jerry struggled a lot with getting it right complaining that he hadn’t played his guitar all weekend. Shaking his fingers and making several attempts, he finally took his guitar out into the parking lot, telling Elvis to just hold on a second, he’d catch up. And catch up he did.
Finally Jerry, back in the studio, played the intro and says “You could see Elvis’ eyes light up – he knew we had it.” It’s reported that from there on in, Jerry took over the session. Coaching the musicians, egging them on, and encouraging them. There was no question that Elvis was engaged in the session finally as there was no horsing around, no self-deprecation or wisecracking. He is totally focused on the music. Around the 5th take, Elvis begins to play around with the song, introducing a hint of the Ray Charles tune “What I’d Say” on the outro.
For Jerry Reed, the session was a joy. “It was just a jamming session…I got pumped, and then Elvis got pumped, and the more he got pumped up, the more I did.” Jerry claims he was on cloud nine and that “once Elvis got the spirit, things really started to happen… one of those rare moments in your life you never forget.”
You can hear Jerry on Big Boss Man and US Male, both of which are also on my favourite song list. There was something magnetic about Elvis and Jerry Reed together in the studio. When you listen to as much of Elvis as I do, you get a sense after awhile of how or what he’s feeling while recording a song. He can be either completing disengaged and bored or he can be inspired and totally focused. With Jerry Reed in the studio, Elvis was always the latter. Elvis loved Guitar Man so much he chose to open his 1968 Comeback Special with it. Click on video link to the right to hear a really great Elvis Presley song.
Sources: Careless Love by Peter Guralnick, Elvis Presley: The Complete Recording Sessions by Ernst Jorgensen
Tags: Elvis in 1967, Elvis Presley, Guitar Man, Jerry Reed, Studio B in Nashville
