The Smiley Smile Message Board

This may have already been covered on this board... but RCA has an authorized fan division of their label for Elvis rarity releases called Follow That Dream.  They present rare recording sessions and expanded albums (the new Elvis at Stax sessions (1973), which resulted in 3 albums... Raised on Rock, Good Times and Promised Land... has, I believe, 4 or 5 discs of material, alternate takers, rehearsals, etc.  The legendary FTD Jungle Room Sessions collection contains the sessions for Elvis' last two studio albums, in February and October 1976, including an unreleased rocker that Elvis never managed to find time to cut a lead vocal for).   They also feature earlier sessions, recently documenting the Elvis Is Back 1960 Nashville project.

Additionally, they've released a ton of rare live shows from 1969-1977... all board recordings (with one exception - a legendary 12/31/76 live show that is an excellent audience recording of probably his best late period show).

These live shows contain complete concerts, plus bonus tracks or rare songs performed at other venues during tours.  As an example, a show from Fall of 1974 (10/31), contains bonus tracks from other venues during that same two week tour.   

In the last few weeks, I've listened to 6 board recordings of live shows from 1976 alone... documenting that entire year.  And that's just scratching the surface.   They're usually limited editions, available via the Elvis official website.  A single disc costs around $25.  A double (I just listed two double CD discs of shows from Chicago(2), Birmingham and Dallas from October and December of 1976) costs around $29.  Great packaging and faultless audio quality. 

It seems to me that the Beach Boys / BRI org could be doing the same thing with vault material.  FTD has been doing this successfully with the Elvis vault for 14 years!

Here's the website:

http://www.elvis.com/ftdreleases/

I hope for the day that The Beach Boys put together something like this.

Would love it if this could be done for the BBs. One of the main sticking points though has to be the fact that Elvis is dead and not around to veto such releases.

That's a very good point, though the estate is heavily involved and approves all releases.  The concerts are "warts and all..." One of Elvis' last hits in 1977 was "Moody Blue," a disco country track (which I always thought lifted the melody line of Heroes & Villains).  In an FTD-release concert from Charlotte, NC (February 20, 1977), he starts to attempt the song as the band plays but can't remember whether it begins with verse or chorus.  He's got a lyric sheet on stage with him and apologizes for not remembering the lyrics, but notes that he recorded it one night a year earlier and hasn't heard it since.  I think the fact that it became a hit surprised everyone.  At one point someone in the audience shouts "Tear it up!"  Elvis asks, "you mean Moody Blue?"

Then, as the audience cheers, he tears up the lyric sheet and yells, 'To hell with Moody Blue!"  More cheers.

Obviously, this sort of thing really make it all very organic... but I suppose it would be difficult to get something like this past the collective members of B.R.I.  It took forever to get an approved, albeit severely truncated official release of Knebworth 1980.

Still, I can't help but think this sort of website good generate a solid revenue stream for the Beach Boys' coffers. Not everyone is going to buy three or four live Beach Boys shows from 1974 or 1982, but enough, I think, to make it worthwhile for limited runs.  The Elvis packages are simple... no major restoration... just get it transferred and get it out there, false starts, sloppy endings and all.  A great one from Elvis from 1974 at the LA Forum features a sloppy beginning to Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away.  Elvis stops the band and admonishes them, warning, "let's try to appear like we know what we're doing... Led Zeppelin is in the audience." And, indeed they were.

I think there's something to be said for just making absolutely everything there is available to the hardcore fans. If there's some demand for it and it's not terrible, why shouldn't you? It's better to release it yourself than to have bootleggers do it for you.

My girlfriend is a huge Pearl Jam fan, and the cool thing about that band is that they release "official bootlegs" of every single concert they play. So she has every Pearl Jam concert she ever went to on CD. How cool is that? More bands should be like that.

"Elvis at Stax" was a Sony Legacy release not on FTD. But all three albums were released as double-discs on FTD representing the original albums plus sessions.

FTD is a goldmine all in all, although sometimes the audio work (remastering etc.) is not as good as it should be. But as a Presley fan you're used to that   :-[