Words & Music:
Red West
If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles. a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
Lord I'm one, Lord I'm two, Lord I'm three, Lord I'm four,
Lord I'm five hundred miles away from home
Away from home, away from home, away from home, away from home,
Lord I'm five hundred miles away from home
Not a shirt on my back, not a penny to my name
Lord I can't get back home this ole way
This ole way, this ole way, this ole way, this ole way
Lord I can't get back home this ole way
Recordingdate: 1966, first released on: In A Private Moment (album)
Musicians
Musicians who contributed to the first recording of 500 Miles:
(guitar)
(guitar)
(piano)
(piano)
(vocals)
(vocals)
Availability
Find available albums with 500 Miles.
when I was actually 500 miles away from home I played it often, I did have a shirt on my back but no pants..
This is just a private moment, luckily for us recorded so we can share those joyous moments Elvis had with his friends. So no serious attempt, just fooling around joyously.
Elvis obviously enjoyed folk music, so here we have another missed opportunity for his career. Imagine instead of a Kissin Cousins LP, we could have had a folk album in 1964 with him recording songs by Dylan & others. Another golden chance missed because of those damn stupid soundtrack albums that he actuallly hated doing. Imagine this concept. Elvis recording songs he actually enjoyed singing! Darin, Everlys, Dion they all did concept albums in the 60's. Such a mis-managed recording career.
I like this song a lot. A pity he didn't recorded it properly. Songs like this one would have brighten up 1966 as musicyear for him.
I like this .Gene Vincent also recorded a great version of this song.
I am not a big fan of folk music so this particular song doesn't do anything for me.
No, Ive never been a folk music fan. May be because of the way the folkies served up their music in the UK around the time that this recording was made. I mean the Fair Isle Sweater and gum boots brigade with their jolly red faces and and a knowing twitch of the head. Anyhow back to the song, Elvis enjoying himself. Why not!
This is such a beautiful folk song and I wish that Elvis had recorded a proper studio version of this song instead. A proper studio version by Elvis would have been far superior than his home recording. Elvis should have recorded an all folk album during the early or mid 1960's. This is yet another missed opportunity during Elvis' mis-managed recording career. My favorite version of this beautiful folk song is by The Journeymen from 1961.
Yes our boy enjoying himself and giving us a positive indication of what might have been with a full committed effort in a studio. I think we as fans take his recording career far more seriously than he ever did as all we have are his recordings and films while these were just a part of a human life with all its real trials and temptations.
A classic! I give it the same amount of stars that are in the heavens.
This might be the only one of Elvis' "home recordings" that really is a favorite of mine. "Folk" is such an odd designation, to me, in music; this is simply a beautiful song with beautiful lyrics. I'm guessing Elvis never did a legitimate studio recording of it because he felt it was a song that needed to be harmonized to--not sung solo. It would have been amazing if someone back at RCA would have shown some creativity regarding Elvis and double tracked him doing two separate vocals, in effect, harmonizing with himself. Glen Campbell has a nice instrumental track of this song too, but also sadly never did the vocals.
Beautiful song, no wonder it was sung by so many artists. I don't give a vote for this home recording. It is what it is. It's not horrible for this kind of recording - but far from something i would listen to a second time in my life. It was never intended to be heard by us. Should have stayed in the archive, shouldn't be mentioned here.