Elvis at the International Hotel Las Vegas 1969 Box Set

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by emjel, Apr 9, 2019.

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  1. Matthew

    Matthew Senior Member

    The slapback echo is a curiosity, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.

    I have been in smaller live venues where you hear a natural slap-back in the room once certain frequencies leave the PA and bounce of the walls, so it's not beyond reason.

    Heck, there's even natural slap-back built into the tapes for the Afternoon Madison Square Garden show from 1972.
     
  2. I333I

    I333I Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ventura
    I was going to skip this set, but after streaming it on Apple Music and being swept up in Elvis week, I’m having second thoughts. I guess I should do my part to keep these releases going.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2019
  3. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    It's a great set. The book is great too.
     
  4. minkahed

    minkahed Forum Resident

    Holy Free Holy ... what a difference !!!
     
  5. monkboughtlunch

    monkboughtlunch Senior Member

    Location:
    Texas
    Did anyone order from Amazon USA and end up with the release arriving in a cheap thin unreinforced Amazon paper mailer? And was your box set smashed as a result — with creases on the outer cardboard sleeve of the box set?
     
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  6. Jayson Wall

    Jayson Wall Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Yup
     
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  7. monkboughtlunch

    monkboughtlunch Senior Member

    Location:
    Texas
    It feels like the suits at Amazon decided it's cheaper for them on aggregate to mail things with the cheapest, flimsiest most unprotected shipping packaging to save themselves money, assuming most of their customers won’t hassle with trying to get a replacement for the smashed item. Seems like Amazon is going downhill fast...
     
  8. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc

    Location:
    England
    :righton:I haven't got it but I noticed on the hype sticker the book seems to be words from people who matter or were relevant, and were actually there. Which is a welcome change.

    The Beatles team could learn from that change. The White Album deluxe's book essays were for me a mind-numbing slog of analysis and pondering. Plenty of good and not so good books or online material to choose from if that's your thing. It doesn't IMO belong in a definitive or comprehensive music set.
     
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  9. That's the exact strategy. Save a few bucks on packaging the items because enough customers won't complain when their items arrive with damage. It's calculated to the penny. It does occasionally blow up in Amazon's face because they don't seem to treat expensive items with any more regard than $10 items.
     
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  10. Matthew

    Matthew Senior Member

    It's basically a condensed version of Ken Sharp's "Vegas '69" book from a few years ago:

    ELVIS: Vegas '69
     
  11. artfromtex

    artfromtex Honky Tonkin' Metal-Head

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Mine came in a cardboard box with lots of air pillows. Arrived in perfect condition. Sorry about your set. I would definitely ask for an exchange.
     
  12. Sebastian

    Sebastian Senior Member

    Unfortunately, I wasn't taking notes when I made these observations, but by re-listening to some of the Anesini mixes yesterday, I came up with the following examples:

    Piano and electric piano - Reconsider Baby on disc 1 of In Person (FTD)
    Strings and horns - Can't Help Falling In Love on Hot August Night, Memories on Live in Vegas, In The Ghetto on In Person (FTD) (disc 2)

    I am not sure about the audience being recorded onto a separate track. The applause after Can't Help Falling In Love on Hot August Night gave me that impression. I might be wrong. Vic probably just turned up the instrumental tracks onto which the audience reaction was recorded.

    I'll try to come up with an example for the background vocals.
     
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  13. monkboughtlunch

    monkboughtlunch Senior Member

    Location:
    Texas
    1. Piano and electric piano - Reconsider Baby: Mic'd acoustic piano is left channel. In the center of the stereo image is Presley's Gretsch Country Gentlemen. Faintly, one can hear the electric keyboard in the center. Keep in mind that some of Presley's guitar playing sounds a bit like a keyboard trill. I think the faint keyboard in the center is mic leakage. Conclusion: Pachuki did not mic the electric keyboard properly for at least parts of the Aug. 23. 1969 midnight show. If Pachuki did track the electric piano, maybe he submixed very low in relation to another instrument, keeping it low in the mix.

    2. Yes. Strings and horns on different tracks of the 8 track 1-inch tape.

    3. I skimmed through the Anesini mixes and couldn't find any in which the Sweets and Imperials were positioned differently in the stereo image of the mixes. I assume they were recorded on the same track.

    4. Question: what track was Presley's Gretsch recorded on? On his own vocal track? On the bass guitar track?
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2019
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  14. monkboughtlunch

    monkboughtlunch Senior Member

    Location:
    Texas
    It might be interesting if someone puts together a sound clip blending the different Reconsider Baby mixes from the Aug 23 MS.

    • Collector’s Gold BMG 1991
    • At the Intenational FTD 2002
    • In Person FTD 2008
    • Live 1969 Sony 2019
     
  15. RoyalPineapple

    RoyalPineapple It ain't me in the photo, babe.

    Location:
    England
    As well as the electric keyboard, the acoustic piano is also intermittently missing (or otherwise extremely quiet) on some shows too.

    Compare the versions of All Shook Up on In Person FTD disc 1 with disc 2, for example.

    Or Blue Suede Shoes, where the piano is essentially inaudible in the mix on the 22nd or 24th dinner shows (In Person disc 2 and Live In Las Vegas) but loud and clear on the 23rd (RSD sampler, Live 1969).

    The 24th dinner show performance of Runaway is missing the piano, both on Live In Las Vegas and Live 1969. For the 22nd, it's barely audible on In Person disc 2 and Live 1969. It's back at the forefront for the same night's midnight show.

    Some of the Suspicious Minds on the new set also have the acoustic piano on the first part of the song (switches to keyboards part way through) cranked up in the mix. It's either not there or recorded very quietly on the earlier shows.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2019
  16. monkboughtlunch

    monkboughtlunch Senior Member

    Location:
    Texas
    My initial impression hasn’t changed. The drums on the 26th MS seem too low— like faint, tinny simulacra. Kind of ruins this particular show. Drums sound much better on the All Shook Up FTD mix of the same show.
     
  17. RoyalPineapple

    RoyalPineapple It ain't me in the photo, babe.

    Location:
    England
    Likewise. Overall I think it sounds a bit incongruous. It sounds odd and fake on the spoken sections, particularly as the level rises and falls, sometimes multiple times during the same monologue.

    But it blends in better on (most of) the musical sections, and contributes to the live ambience that Ross-Spang has conjured up.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2019
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  18. RoyalPineapple

    RoyalPineapple It ain't me in the photo, babe.

    Location:
    England
    What I do love about the new mixes is the cohesion the sound has, and the resulting sense of the urgency that the performances are conveyed with.

    It sounds like a band performing as one, rather than a collection of individual instruments disconnected from each other, which can be a trapping of the wide-stereo In Person-style mixes.
     
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  19. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    I wish there were no audience microphones.
     
  20. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    YES PLEASE take out the applause!! Or at least do not try to capture the applause.
     
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  21. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Since there were overdubs, it is not live. With a few exceptions, most of Elvis' studio recordings were live until 1969 with the Memphis sessions when overdubbing became the norm for his recordings. The core band and Elvis was still recorded live in the studio however.
     
  22. Dreaddazzman

    Dreaddazzman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland
    Mine was delivered yesterday from the UK. Giant box with a bunch of paper for packing - thankfully the box made the trip unscathed.
     
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  23. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    Mine came in a padded envelope, as per usual whenever I order CDs from Amazon. But mine did not get damaged THIS TIME anyway.
     
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  24. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    The monologue being the same every night makes sense. But the jokes about wooly burgers, funky angels, the lead up to I Got A Woman, the stupid ass story before Hound Dog (the "message song" angle is okay) and such jokes every damned night, shows no real improv or spontaneity on Elvis' part. This kind of "banter" should be off the cuff and not seared into a routine.

    When I first heard In Person back in 1969 I thought this was all off the cuff and funny. But now knowing it was a regular routine, it is very, very annoying. Heck I think of clever things to say every day. And my jokes are typically a surprise to me. I remember someone saying to me "Why do you laugh at your own jokes?" My reply was "Because they are the first time I have heard them too."

    Now telling the same joke every night is fine too. But to have this particular "stream of consciousness" style end up being a routine is just annoying. And passing off "funky angels" and "wooly burgers" and "they are coming to get me for sure" "gata aid" "Is that him? I thought he was bigger than that" etc, as a routine is ANNOYING. And I don't mean it is annoying because I hear it on every concert. What I mean is such banter is supposed to be off the cuff and not part of the "program".
     
  25. Pelvis Ressley

    Pelvis Ressley Down in the Jungle Room

    Location:
    Capac, Michigan
    "Well....well well well well well....."

    "Colonel Sanders....Parker"

    "Wawa"

    "He's a squirrel, man."

    "Hmm. Sumbich."

    "It's a very tender love song."
     
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