An Elvis In Concert Jacket of my own

Last weekend I went to the cellar to fetch a box with Christmas decorations. As I was about to leave my eye was caught by a bag in a corner. All of a sudden I remembered one of the things I had stored in it.

Opening the bag, I rummaged through it a bit until I found what I was looking for - my red Elvis in Concert jacket. Needless to say, I brought it with me along with the Christmas stuff.

After some detective work, I found out that I bought the jacket throught the Swedish fan club in 1984. (I located the ad for it in one of the first magazines I received when becoming a member.) My brother also ordered one, and man were we proud of them.

The only problem was that it wasn't particulary cool to dig Elvis back then, at least not in my school. It took courage to just wear a badge with Elvis, and the idea of wearing a screaming red jacket with a big Elvis In Concert patch on it... well I was to much of a coward to pull that one off.

My brother, a couple of years younger, had more guts. He wore his red jacket to school with pride. I only had mine on a couple of times at home, and then hang it in the closet. There it stayed until college when a friend of mine borrowed it for a party where he pretended to be a boduguard for Elvis. Guess who dressed up as the King?

Then the jacket went into storage until I remembered it last weekend. Unfortunately it can't be an original Elvis In Concert jacket as it has no white-striped collar and cuffs, although the patches look like the right thing. But I'm happy I found it.

New Haven '76 - good sound, bad show

Poor Elvis! That thought runs trough my mind while listening to "And I Love You So" from FTD's latest "escape" New Haven '76, recorded live on July 30, 1976. Not only does it sound off-key, but there is no mistaking the tiredness in Elvis' voice.

That Elvis is exhausted and out of breath is painfully evident during the next song as well. Usually "America" was one of the highlights during his concerts in 1976, but this time it's another story altogether. Elvis voice is weak and fragile.

In fact, pretty much the whole show is a sad affair. "You Gave Me A Mountain" has Elvis fighting for breath and "Help Me" sounds inspired, to say the least. During "Teddy Bear," a song he should be able to do in his sleep, Elvis' timing is off and "Hound Dog" is another throwaway version.

The sound on New Haven '76 is very good, but unfortunately that isn't something that works in Elvis' favor. Instead, it only helps to emphasize just how tired and exhausted he sounds.

This is easily one of the worst concert performances from 1976 that I've ever heard, right up there along with the show from August 1, released on the bootleg The Bicentennial Elvis Experience 15 years ago.

If you want a second opinion concerning New Haven '76 please check out:

• Cold In the Summer, review by Oven Egeland, Elvis In Norway
• New Haven' 76, review by Geoffrey Mc Donnell, Elvis Australia

Elvis In The 90's

November 1989 saw the dawn of a new era in the history of the RCA Presley tape legacy, for from Friday, 17th November 1989 and Monday the 20th onwards, the "Essential Elvis" team of Ernst Jorgensen, Roger Semon, Erik Rasmussen and Ger Rijff, "got down to business" and started on the massive and long term project of hunting down the "lost Elvis tapes" in the "box filling" system of RCA's New York tape vaults...

So began an article in the December 1990/January 1991 issue of the British fan club magazine, that I stumbled across while reading some back numbers a couple of days ago. Those of you familiar with my blog know this is something I like to do.

The article, in which the author David G Hall described the results of the initial searches of both the New York and Indianapolis storage vaults, was interesting in a couple of ways. For one thing, it made me realize that it's exactly 20 years this month since Ernst Jorgensen and his team started dedicating their time to locating elusive reels with Elvis music.

For another, it hit me (once again) how exciting it was to be an Elvis fan back then. When the article was printed, the 3 CD box set Collectors Gold was scheduled for release, and for me that's when it really started getting interesting. Certainly, the three first volumes in the Essential Elvis series had already been released, but Collectors Gold was the first package solely dedicated to unreleased outtakes.

It was also the start of what I suppose one could call "the box sets era." Elvis himself was again taken seriously by both the public and the critics with the release of The King Of Rock 'N' Roll: The Complete 50's Masters box set in 1992, that was followed by its two companions featuring essential masters from the 60's (1993) and 70's (1995).

Then in 1997, between the two Essential Elvis volumes 4 and 5 (featuring much of the outtakes described in the fan club article), came the Platinum: A Life In Music box set. 1999 saw the launch of the Follow That Dream collectors label, but that didn't stop the regular label from releasing a string of more box sets packed with unreleased material: That's The Way It Is - Special Edition (2000), Live In Las Vegas (2001), Today, Tomorrow And Forever (2002) and finally, Close Up (2003).

Yet that wasn't all that happened during those years. Under the slogan, "Elvis In The 90's," Elvis' back catalog was also taken care of. Practically all of the original albums were made available on CD, many of them with bonus songs. Now it's another story, altogether. The regular label has reverted to the 80's again, producing mainly compilations with the occasional exception, like the From Elvis In Memphis legacy edition released this year.

So nowadays it's entirely up to FTD to produce albums that put Elvis' music in the right context. That's ok for the fans, I guess, but what it means for the public's view of Elvis is another matter altogether.

A final thought: In 2000, RCA/BMG released Such A Night - Essential Elvis Vol. 6 while almost simultaneously FTD put out The Jungle Room Sessions. I've always believed that the latter was planned as The Jungle Room Sessions - Essential Elvis Vol. 7 and then re-scheduled for FTD release as the collectors label took off.

This post was inspired not only by the article in the British fan club magazine, titled "There's A Brand New Day On the Horizon," but also by a comment fellow Elvis fan Tygrrius posted on my blog in June this year.

"You by God watch me!"

In my latest post, I mentioned the last concert Elvis did in his hometown, on July 5, 1976. This show was recently re-released by an import label under the name of The Final Homecoming and is a lot more exciting than the one from Forth Worth recorded two days earlier and re-issued by FTD on Rockin' Across Texas.

Actually, the Memphis show is one of Elvis' greatest from the bicentennial year. Listening to it, I'm reminded of the concerts from the December tour, like the one from Dallas on December 28, found on the bootleg A Hot Winter Night In Dallas.

On July 4, on the actual National Day, Elvis held one of his best shows of the tour in Tulsa. "It was a helluva show," one critic wrote. Apparently, Elvis was determined to give his hometown fans more of the same the next day.

Not only is the show Memphis a great one, it's also long, lasting approximately 90 minutes. During that time Elvis sings "Softly As I Leave You" for the second and last time on tour, as well as over 20 other songs, including such rare gems as "One Night," "Blue Christmas," "How Great Thou Art" and Fairytale."

I also have to mention the introduction to "That's All Right," which is awesome: "The first record that I did here in Memphis was, you know, "That's All Right Mama." I heard a couple of people say, you can't do that anymore, well you by God watch me!"

It's obvious that Elvis is in a good mood, enjoying his work. He sounds focused, not slurring through the songs, and his humor is present as well. A fine version of "Help Me" is jokingly introduced as being from a two year old album called "Elvis In The Gutter" and after Ronnie Tutt's incredible work out during the drum solo he exclaims, "That was fair."

The Final Homecoming was originally released as Goodbye Memphis by the Fort Baxter label in 1997. It's a shame that FTD didn't re-release it first, going for the show from New Haven instead, recorded almost a month later, and not anywhere nearly as exciting.

Mid-South Magic

About a week ago, it struck me that FTD should release an album or a box with concerts that Elvis did in Memphis. And then, maybe a day later, I found out that an import label had been thinking along the same lines, planning to release Bringing It All Back Home, featuring two concerts recorded in Elvis' hometown, one from March 16, 1974 and the other from June 10, 1975.

But FTD has a chance to do it better. My thinking goes like this: Release all the soundboards available from Memphis, not only the two mentioned above but also the last one Elvis did in his hometown, on July 5, 1976. And why not include the professionally recorded show Elvis held on March 20, known as Elvis As Recorded Live In Stage In Memphis, as a bonus?

This way, FTD would cover all the tours when Elvis played the Mid-South Coliseum. (He made three more appearances in Memphis during the tour in March, 1974, but these have not yet surfaced on soundboard, and only one as an audience recording.)

If I were Ernst I would present the whole thing as an "audiovisual documentary" like Live In L.A., only this time done right. With that I mean that the accompanying book would be an informative one, packed with great photos (in focus, thank you!) and with well written liner notes covering the stories behind the pictures and the shows. Original reviews from the press at the time should also be included.

I think this would be an exciting package. Not only was the atmosphere in the audience always incredible when Elvis held a concert in the Mid-South Coliseum, but the shows themselves were great. Mid-South Magic.

PS: Sometimes I'm afraid I spend more time thinking about the headline of a post than the post itself. This time alternative titles were The Memphis Homecomings and A Memphis Trilogy (the last one only working if the March 20 show isn't included).

Talk About The Good Times

Some upcoming Follow That Dream releases I long for more than I do for others. The re-issue of the 1974 Good Times album is one of them. This edition comes as a double disc set in the FTD Classic Album Series, and in addition to the masters, it will contain many outtakes from the Stax Sessions of 1973.

Some of these outtakes have already been released, the majority of them on one of my favourite Elvis albums, the excellent Rhythm And Country, in 1998. So what "new" outtakes can we expect on "Good Times?" A quick look in my well-thumbed Elvis Sessions III by Joseph A. Tunzi gave the following answer:

• "Take Good Care Of Her" (rehearsal + take 1 + take 2 + take 5)
• "Loving Arms" (take 1 + rehearsal)
• "I Got A Feeling In My Body" (take 2)
• "If That Isn't Love" (composite of take 5 & 7 + splice of take 5 & 7)
• "She Wears My Ring" (takes 1-7)
• "I've Got A Thing About You Baby" (take 1 + takes 6, 8, 10, 11)
• "My Boy" (take 1 + take 2)
• "Spanish Eyes" (take 1 + take 3)
• "Talk About The Good Times" (takes 1, 2)
• "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues" (take 7 + takes 1, 4, 6)

As well as this, undubbed masters of all the songs are included, with the exception of "I've Got A Thing About You Baby" which features a rough mix of master instead. The undubbed master of "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues" is also mentioned to be unedited.

Something to look forward to, isn't it, even if some of the takes are probably incomplete. To me the biggest excitement is that we finally get some outtakes of "My Boy" as well as more outtakes of "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues," "I've Got A Thing About You Baby" and "Talk About The Good Times." And hearing Elvis rehearse "Loving Arms" will be interesting, too!

The only question mark I have is that that take 6 (false start) of "I Got A Feeling In My Body" seems to be missing. I also wonder if the undubbed master of "My Boy" will have the ending looped like the released version. Whatever the answer, I can't wait for Good Times to arrive!

Elvis Today now on Facebook

About six months ago I signed up Elvis Today on Twitter, and started micro-blogging. The idea was to send out short messages when I didn't have the time to write on my "real" blog, or when I thought a couple of words said it all.

Recently, I decided to let Elvis Today become part of another social networking website, the immensely popular Facebook. I've registered what on Facebook is called a fan-page, where I write what's on my mind and share links, photos, videos and so on.

By becoming a fan of Elvis Today on Facebook you will be able to see what I've written or the things I've shared, on your personal Facebook page. It's also possible for you in return to comment on not only my updates, but also on what other fans have written about them.

So far I think Facebook offers more possibilities than Twitter, as a complement to my blog Elvis Today. Why don't you sign up and tell me what you think.