ELVIS

[mark goddard]

I was lucky enough for christmas to get the 3 FTD book's !!!....Flashback is beautifully done with a great cd of outtakes from the 50's. haven't opened the rockin across texas yet ...can't wait to dig into that one . The that's the way it was book is also nice, but a little short and it seem's they had to work with some under exposed negative's. but overall very nice and the cd of outtakes is very nice.

[I. Spaceman]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You must have been a good boy this year!!!!!
Those are three of my favorite books!

[Joel5001]

I got the '68 Comeback Special Special Edition DVDs. 

[I. Spaceman]

DAMN!!!!!!! Santa likes you! Dig in and let us know your thoughts.

[Joel5001]

DAMN!!!!!!! Santa likes you! Dig in and let us know your thoughts.

So far I've only watched the original Special, and the first sit-down show.  After watching E perform "If I Can Dream", I can understand why he never performed it in concert.  I think it would have taken too much out of him to sing that song night after night.

By the way, I also got the "Last Train to Memphis" by Guralnick.  I must have been a good boy this year.

[I. Spaceman]

Last Train too? My lord, son, you got some good times a-comin'!
The Springsteen DVDs I got were my favorite gift from Santa this year!

[Joel5001]

Last Train too? My lord, son, you got some good times a-comin'!
The Springsteen DVDs I got were my favorite gift from Santa this year!

 

[HighOnLife]

I got my wife the Elvis '68 CS for Christmas. She loves Presley. 

[I. Spaceman]

Great. Tell her to post here, then!

[Chance]

   I got a rock.

(Plenty of Elvis on my list, none of which made it under the tree. GRRRR.)

[I. Spaceman]

  I got a rock.

(Plenty of Elvis on my list, none of which made it under the tree. GRRRR.)

What Elvis did you want?

[HighOnLife]

Great. Tell her to post here, then!

I don't think she's ever posted on a message board in her life, Ian, although we did meet online. haha.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

When will "On Tour" come to DVD? When, Lord, when? I want all the outtakes. All of 'em. I want to see tons of "He Touched Me" rehearsal footage.

[Jason]

When will "On Tour" come to DVD? When, Lord, when? I want all the outtakes. All of 'em. I want to see tons of "He Touched Me" rehearsal footage.

Try emailing Ernst Jorgensen. He's the major domo in charge.

[I. Spaceman]

There's no footage of He Touched Me, unfortuately. That was the year before EOT.
There is a gigantic grassroots campaign to get EOT out in a deluxe edition.
Hours of outtakes from the film have recently leaked, though.

Jorgenson has nuttin' to do with it. MGM owns it, and they are the ones to email.

[Peter Tomatz]

I got a couple Elvis related items for X-mas this year. I got the Life In Music book and On Tour - The Rehearsals. I haven't absorbed the CD yet, but the book has been a great help in putting my Elvis onto my portable audio player by session date. Although, I still have to use it in tandem with the elvisrecordings.com site.

That wasn't enough so I got myself the Kevan Budd remasters of the first three albums. I also picked up the Elvis '56 CD. I'm not exactly sure why.

Also, anyone know the best CD source for the master of A Big Hunk O'Love?

[I. Spaceman]

Wait'll you check out my complete studio recordings MP3 set I'm distributing next month. EVERYTHING available, from all official and bootleg sources.
The original late-80's CD issue of E's Golden Records Vol. 2 is a fine source for the Hunk master.

[Peter Tomatz]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that complete studio recordings MP3 set you're working on. That's gonna be great. I've never even heard the single version of I'm Yours.

I forgot to mention that Kid Galahad was on TCM on Saturday morning. I hadn't seen it yet. I thought it was pretty good. So far the only Elvis movie I haven't cared for too much was G.I. Blues.

Also, to add to my pathetic loser credibility, I rented the 68 Comeback DVD earlier this month from Netflix and was unable to make very far into it. The fake stereo really bugged me. I tried hitting the mono button on my preamp, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the sound and why anyone would bother getting the right tapes and then doing that to them. In 2004, even. Even, even. Sheesh.

[Chance]

Peter, did a copy of "The American Sound Sessions" ever make it to you? You were the last guy in line for that, and the last I checked, it was down to you and the guy before you still waiting.

Hey, I did get an Elvis item for Christmas, Amazon had a late delivery. As we speak, I'm listening to the expanded "That's The Way It Is." Are the original album tracks remixed, or is it just advances in digital mastering that make this sound so deep and clear? To use a tired cliche, "it sounds just like they're in the room with you." They made some good choices too, in the songs they've added to the lineup, it keeps the feel and flow of the record pretty nicely. Still working through discs 2 and 3. Listened to part of the concert yesterday, the highlights of which are phenomenal, but it sounds to me like he's already begining to approach some of his fifties oldies as novelty songs rather than something deserving the power he gave them in 68 special. I guess the idea was that he'd be cheating his fans by not including them, but you can tell the oldies didn't represent what he was about anymore, and he wasn't out to do much with them. Too bad he couldn't have taken a shot at doing a show with all new material, as Neil Young did with "Rust Never Sleeps" and the Beatles attempted to do with the original "Get Back" concept.

What is it with CD booklet designers? I always read the liner notes, I want to know what's being said about the music. Why can't they leave a nice clear spot upon which to place their text? I'm tired getting excited about a new purchase, and then having to squint into a magnifying glass to decipher the words through rainbows, waterfalls, fires, flowers, crowd shots, stage shots, dressing room shots, tour bus shots, and whatever else they throw at you. Lots of beautiful looking booklets, but you can't read 'em.

[I. Spaceman]

The TTWII material on Disc 1 is original mixes.
Yeah, the oldies are always the worst part of an E show. The closest he came to playing a show of all-new material was the opening night of the TTWII engagement on August 10. Only two oldies, the rest all stunning performances of new stuff. Not even a Hound Dog! This was released as One Night In Vegas on the FTD labe.

[Jason]

I was listening to Promised Land the other day (the album), and that is a really really fine album. Great material on there. I especially dig Thinking About You.

[I. Spaceman]

Do you have Good Times? That's even better!

[Jason]

I don't have the actual CD, but I burned it using the tracks I was able to acquire from various sources.

[I. Spaceman]

Cool!
Very underrated, those Stax sessions.

[Jason]

Cool!
Very underrated, those Stax sessions.

I love the Stax sessions. For my money, the last truly great material Elvis had to work with, from then on, it was spotty. I do dig the 1975 sessions, just for Green, Green Grass Of Home, the rare cover that bests the original.