*(1969) RCA ''Stranger In My Own Home Town'' (Take 1 Unedited Undubbed Master) Elvis Presley

''Stranger In My Own Home Town'' (XPA5-1266) Recorded Monday February 17, 1969 (8:00 PM - 11:00 PM)
The Memphis sessions yielded huge hits like ''In The Ghetto'' and ''Suspicious Minds'', as well as lesser known songs like the barn-burning “Stranger in My Own Hometown,” which starts off with a deep soul groove, and doesn’t let up for a second as Elvis sings:

I’m like a stranger
Like a stranger in my own home town
I’m like a stranger
Like a stranger in my own home town

My so-called friends stopped being friendly
Oh, but you can’t keep a good man down
No, can’t get him down

With a guitar that sounds like somebody tuned a dobro to sound like a sitar, perfectly-executed horn lines, strings swooping in and out and a harmonica blaring in the wind, “Stranger in My Own Hometown” sounds like Elvis was trying to take every musical development of the 1960s - or at least folk-rock, pyschedelica and soul - and create a whole new thing all over again.

If Percy Mayfield had done no more than compose “Please Send Me Someone To Love,” he would merit a decent footnote in the history of popular music. A classically proportioned 32-bar blues-ballad with a deceptively simple melody and a lyric that subtly links an individual's yearning for affection with the troubled state of the world, Mayfield's song has been a favorite of saloon-bar singers for the past half-century.

Singer-songwriter Percy Mayfield was known as "Poet Laureate of the Blues," and his widely recorded compositions, have become standards in American popular music. Born in Minden, Louisiana, Mayfield wrote poems as a boy and set them to music, but because his mother didn't approve of blues, he sang only in church. He left home at 15 and hoboed around the country on freight trains before settling in Los Angeles in 1942. Several years later, in 1947, he took his blues song "Two Years Of Torture" to Supreme Records with the hope that Jimmy Witherspoon would record it, but he ended up cutting it himself. The hits began to flow, including his signature 1950 number 1 for Specialty Records, "Please Send Me Someone To Love''.

Then, in 1952, Mayfield was involved in a horrible car accident, leaving his face disfigured. He struggled through the 1950s, releasing unsuccessful singles for Chess, Cash, Imperial, and 7 Arts before leaving Los Angeles for his Louisiana home. During this time Mayfield wrote one of Ray Charles signature songs, "Hit The Road Jack''. This led him to be signed by Brother Ray for his Tangerine label as an in house songwriter, and artist. . He wrote custom material for his legendary label boss; "Hide Nor Hair'', "The Danger Zone'', "My Baby Don't Dig Me" considered some of his finest. Aside from his songs for Ray Charles, Mayfield did have some success on his own. He also cut two albums of his own for Charles's Tangerine label. Among the gems are "River's Invitation" (1963), whose Gerald Wilson arrangement helped Mayfield back onto the Rhythm & Blues charts.

"Stranger In My Own Home Town" (1964) was subsequently recorded by both Elvis Presley and Mose Allison. The harrowing "My Bottle Is My Companion" (1968) chronicles the artist's bouts with alcoholism in the period following his accident. "Ha Ha In The Daytime" (1968) was his last Tangerine side.

Among the many other artists who've recorded Mayfield songs are Johnny Adams, Brook Benton, B.B. King, Junior Parker, Houston Person, Esther Phillips, Elvis Presley, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and Nancy Wilson.

Mayfield married three times. The identity of his first wife is unknown. His second wife was Willie Mae Atlas Mayfield. His third wife was Tina Mayfield. He began working with Tina, also a blues musician, when she moved to Los Angeles in 1972; they became married in 1984. Percy Mayfield died of a heart attack while at home in Los Angeles on August 11, 1984, one day before his 64th birthday. At his funeral, Little Richard performed "Thank You, Jesus" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".

Source and more information see: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* - Digitally Remastered

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