Elvis Presley FTD CD reissues (part 6)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by hodgo, Feb 15, 2015.

  1. When In Rome

    When In Rome It's far from being all over...

    Location:
    UK
    The hybrid 1975 show was remastered for inclusion on the Elvis Today Legacy Edition. Not sure if a double dip counts tho'...
     
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  2. Pants Party

    Pants Party MOSTLY PEACEFUL

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Actually most of Disc 4 on the Live In Las Vegas box was from 74/75. There was also an entire Texas '72 gig on the 2003 Close Up box. Of course, there's the "alternate" Aloha and MSG shows too, if you want to count them.

    Outside of the As Recorded Live On Stage in Memphis set -- which was an actual album -- Sony hasn't made much of an attempt to represent later-era live Elvis. There are certainly multi-tracks available to do it right -- the On Tour shows, some scraps from the '77 shows. You could even pad it out with soundboards or even some MSG and Aloha material.

    I think it's a great opportunity. Live 70s Elvis is extremely iconic. "Thank you very much." It would be easy to put together a dynamite set of his best stuff. '72 alone -- yeesh!
     
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  3. Trashman

    Trashman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    In general, I think live Elvis from the 1970s was covered pretty well back in the day. RCA put out live albums for shows/tours/engagements in 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1977. They only missed three of those years out of nine total. And arguably, they didn't miss much with not releasing shows from 1975 and 1976, since the set-list stagnation and concert bloat had set in by that point. The 1977 live album probably only came about because of the TV special (and Elvis' passing). Surely nobody from RCA saw Elvis in 1977 and said "This is dynamite... we gotta record this and get this out!" My understanding is that they only ran multi-tracks at concerts hoping (or praying) for some material to fill out an album with.

    I think Sony has done a good job overall representing the live era. The box sets for August 1969 and August 1970 are truly wonderful. We've gotten expanded sets for Madison Square Garden, Aloha, and Memphis too. Plus they've allowed much less commercially viable material from the later touring years to be released through the FTD label. So I think we're spoiled by a wealth of material. Like others, I hope that we get a box set of the 72 On Tour shows in 2022 for their 50th anniversary. That would truly be fantastic... and might be the last real treasure still in the archives. At this point, I've had my fill of post-Aloha shows and really don't need any more for the time being.
     
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  4. Matthew

    Matthew Senior Member

    If we're talking soundboards, which I believe is the context of discussion, the main label has issued very small amounts of content; the 75 hybrid on Elvis Aron Presley in 1980 (reconstructed from the master cassettes on the Elvis Today Legacy Edition), the Vegas compilation on disc 4 of the Live In Las Vegas box-set, and the two singles from 1977 and 1978 of Softly As I Leave You and America The Beautiful. I think that's it, right?

    There's also the Richmond 1974 show on the Live On Stage In Memphis Legacy Edition, but there's questions over what that recording actually is; a really good, balanced soundboard, or a supposed mix down of a since lost multitrack recording. It's a weird recording, at least the surviving tape, which has an odd just off center reverb.
     
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  5. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    The whole 1977 "Elvis In Concert" event was intended to be a TV special and live album all along, before Elvis died. It was the big 1977 project. The multitracks for it were recorded weirdly, with the intention all along of overdubbing the band and singers later in the studio. The released 2LP "Elvis In Concert" therefore does have the singers and band overdubbed, the overdubs done in Felton's studio after Elvis died - recorded quickly all day on August 29, 1977. (Imagine that, imagine that day there.)
     
  6. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    There has been a lot of discussion over the years about the recording of EIC, with Joan Deary asserting that Jarvis inexplicably did not record the orchestra during the concerts. In hindsight, it is not surprising that Jarvis intended to bolster the music from the concerts with post-production overdubs because he was fully aware of how the Elvis Presley show had deteriorated, but having recorded the orchestra many times before, it does seem odd he chose to not fully capture all of the instrumentation, if that is indeed what happened.
     
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  7. Pelvis Ressley

    Pelvis Ressley Down in the Jungle Room

    Location:
    Capac, Michigan
    At one time, I thought it was perhaps that Jarvis was still using the 4-track system that he used on the March/April/May 1977 shows. Keith Flynn posted a photo showing Omaha and Rapid City recorded on 2" 24-track.
     
  8. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Okay, I am a bit confused now as I do not see any orchestral overdubbing session credits on Keith Flynn's site. Maybe I am not looking in the right place. Those horns on Hurt, You Gave Me A Mountain, and My Way have a very live sound to my ears, but these things can be misleading. I do not hear any real strings at all on any of the recordings, just a bit of a synthesizer or keyboard trying to mimic real strings. Do you hear it differently?
     
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  9. Pelvis Ressley

    Pelvis Ressley Down in the Jungle Room

    Location:
    Capac, Michigan
    All the way at the bottom. Soundmaster Studios, August 29, 1977.

    Recording Sessions 1970s
     
  10. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
  11. Matthew

    Matthew Senior Member

    I'm not sure that's what that tape box is, but rather a transfer of the two concerts to 24-track for overdubbing.
     
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  12. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    The CBS videos prove that the singers and band were certainly acceptable and a minimal amount of studio sweetening could have been done for record release.

    An alternate view has Deary ordering the shows to be recorded with the full intention of later extensive overdubs, but that she was shocked, just shocked* , at how badly the singers and orchestra were then recorded live by Felton.
    (There was no love lost between Felton and Deary and all such differing stories should be taken with salt and for amusement purposes only.)
    I have heard pieces claimed to be the preoverdubbed versions but that could have been faked.

    * For posterity, this is a reference to similar words used in a famous scene in the movie Casablanca.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2021
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  13. PacificOceanBlue

    PacificOceanBlue Senior Member

    Location:
    The Southwest
    Yeah, I have a difficult time believing that Jarvis failed to record the orchestra entirely during the concerts. Regardless, no matter how much sweetening was done to the music, there was no way to save the majority of the lead vocals, aside from a couple of salvageable performances (e.g. My Way, I Really Don't Want To Know, etc.). A terrible television special and soundtrack album all around.
     
  14. Pelvis Ressley

    Pelvis Ressley Down in the Jungle Room

    Location:
    Capac, Michigan
    Yeah, that makes sense. Taking a quick refresher listen to some of the EIC album tracks, I don't think this was recorded 24-track. The basic tracks for the Omaha songs are mostly mono or narrow stereo (more separation on the Rapid City songs), with the band, vocal, and canned applause overdubs in stereo.
     
  15. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Maybe I am a little show today, Lol, but all I see is overdubbing credits to the rhythm band members, i.e; piano, drums, bass, guitar and background vocalists, etc. I still do not see any musician credits for horn players or an arranger credit for orchestra. I am trying to figure out if they did mic the orchestra properly during Elvis In Concert or did they have to add those horn embellishments later.
     
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  16. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Yeah.
    Felton did reasonably recording with only 4 tracks earlier in the year. I believe whatever he did with these, he did deliberately, for his own reasons.
     
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  17. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I agree and I do not see any session notes for overdubs on Hurt, My Way, You Gave Me A Mountain or How Great Thou Art, all of which feature some horn flourishes. In fact, I believe the only overdubbing that I can spot that is on the first LP sides of Elvis In Concert is for a single song; Are You Lonesome Tonight?
     
  18. Flaming Torch

    Flaming Torch Forum Resident

    Re summer 1970 that produced all the Nashville studio stuff, the TTWII film and concerts and rehearsals. I have all the FTD and official stuff plus a plethora of boots going back through the years to the vinyl era. Is there a good book out there on this period that kind of collates all the sessions/shows etc.? Ernst's book is great but of course from 1997 (I think) Keith Flynn's site is great as well and I have his big discography book.
     
  19. Pelvis Ressley

    Pelvis Ressley Down in the Jungle Room

    Location:
    Capac, Michigan
    I did some more listening to EIC on headphones last night. It sounds to me like the basic concert was all either recorded or mixed to mono, with overdubs added in stereo: guitar, voices, some horns, and canned applause. In spots, the live orchestra can be heard buried in the mono mix.

    Just a far-fetched theory, but was Jarvis not rolling multi-track at these two shows, and CBS-supplied mono audio was used for the album? Even "Love Me" from the Omaha show, first issued on the second disc of This Is Elvis FTD, is mono with overdubs. All of the undubbed "releases" have been in mono.
     
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  20. Flaming Torch

    Flaming Torch Forum Resident

    Unfortunately I never found the Bruce Jackson FTD book/cd package for sale when it was released. Goes for money although some folk are selling it without the cds. This really has been an FTD ready made collectable - very odd as I suspect their overall sales are plummeting. Most of the books seem to sell out so it will be interesting how the forthcoming Love Me Tender thing does.
    I kind of like the 76 shows so a shame to not have the 2 with the book. Having said that I probably have not played one since the last 76 soundboard release.
     
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  21. Phil D

    Phil D Forum Resident

    It was originally sold without CDs. FTD offered to market unsold stock of the books by adding 3 CDs thereby making it more saleable. This however did not go down well with people who had originally bought the book and were now faced with buying it again to obtain the discs. One major dealer refused to stock it which severely affected availability.
     
  22. minkahed

    minkahed Forum Resident

    Can you please elaborate on what you think how the multitracks were recorded "weirdly" ???

    I know it definitely wasn't RCA's finest hour, but it would certainly be interesting if we got a fresh remix and remastered FTD of all known recordings, but Ernst is not interested.
     
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  23. bobgeorge

    bobgeorge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
    Ernst is interested. The one(s) who are against a re-release (remastered) of EIC, is Elvis’ daughter Lisa Marie. Somehow, she and EPE are affraid it will cause a negative effect. I guess they never heard of YouTube. Just type “Elvis CBS 1977”. The myth around “Elvis in Concert”, is dated and exhausting. Get over it. And then to think Houston 1976 was planned for release by FTD. But that took another turn.
     
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  24. Matthew

    Matthew Senior Member

  25. bobgeorge

    bobgeorge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
    Yes, myth. When it becomes to EIC, all alarm bells ring. Because there is footage attached to EIC, it seems that it is taboo to release anything from EIC. Audio or visual. EPE & co. should realize were talking over 40+ audio material aimed at a very small group of collectors. Hope this helps, matthew.
     

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