Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt2 The Sixties

You know, I think you are absolutely correct about the conflation of Fool album and the Brookside TV offer double LP also called Elvis. It slipped my mind and thanks for bringing it up.

 

I figured you knew that fact already and had just forgotten it. I have to tell you it is a real delight to have someone like you who that bought these albums in real time, when they were first released. I did not become a full fledged Elvis fan until the 1970's, so I became a obsessed with Elvis's music a little later than you did. Your first hand knowledge on these original releases is indispensable, my friend.

 

Well it is a double edged sword, that also means I am old and forget/confuse a few things once in awhile.

 

Welcome to my club. I hate the fact that I have to write a list before going to the store. I remember even a few years ago, when I did not have to write anything down on paper.

 

Hindsight really is 20/20 as they say. A lot of critics really did miss the significance of both the 68 Special and the true greatness of the American Sound recording sessions in Memphis. One man that did get it right was biographer Jerry Hopkins in his first Elvis biography. He spoke of both events in glowing terms and he was closer to the action when it actually occurred. Here is what Hopkins said about the Memphis sessions:

"It was, flatly and unequivocally, Elvis's most productive recording session ever. It also made it abundantly clear that the days of the "Fort Lauderdale Chamber Of Commerce" and "No Room To Rhumba In A Sports Car" movie sound-track songs were over."

Elvis's long and storied recording career has definitely been both the victim and the benefactor of some revisionist history by critics. There is no doubt that some of his later 60 recordings had been under appreciated at the time of their release, while his Sun records period was sometimes put on a Mount Rushmore status that made everything the followed seem inconsequential to some music scholars. I think that a lot of his 70's records were under valued by critics as well during their initial release, but more recently they have garnered a fair amount of sincere praise and respect. I look forward to the 70's period to see how our Elvis fandom view that album period on a case by case basis.

 

The Memphis Record was the first version of most of these songs that I heard. When I finally heard the original mixes, it was like a revelation, they are so much better. It's interesting to have mix variants, but none of them surpass the original mixes. And at least one of them (Stranger in My Own Home Town) is downright awful, with Elvis's voice buried in the mix and reverbed to the point it sounds like he's singing from the bottom of a well. Guess we're getting ahead of ourselves here, though.

 

It's all good, i have wanted to skip ahead to it, for few albums now lol

 

Yes, since about Kissin Cousins.

 

Not quite, but the closer I get the more I just want to launch into it lol

 

Of course, by productive he partly means the amount of material recorded. When was Hopkins? 1971 ish?

I think it's fair to say that much of Elvis's output in under-rated - and some of it is over-rated too. But sadly the music has always been the part of Elvis that has attracted least attention!

 

What did you think of the mix of Stranger on the Reconsider Baby LP or CD? What I do NOT like about the original mixes is the drums are far left and the bass is far right (sometimes flipped). I am all for wide stereo, in fact I prefer it, but man, the bass and drums (at least kick drum) has to be centered. Leave the "wide" for horns, background vocals, incidentals, and so on. The bass, drums and lead vocals should always be centered. That is what The Memphis Record accomplished. The two on that LP/CD I preferred was Kentucky Rain and Any Day Now. Now don't confuse my mix preferences to sound quality preferences. Two matters entirely.

 

I normally am on the same page as you... I generally hate drums to be mixed anywhere but center. But for some reason I don't mind it so much on the Elvis American mixes. And I really do not like the almost-mono sound of the Memphis Record remixes. The Reconsider Baby mix is better than the Memphis Record in terms of Elvis' vocal placement and lack of reverb, but it's not ideal either. It's got some weird things going on with the horns (they appear and disappear at odd intervals) plus it's edited down. Probably my favorite way to listen to the song now is the undubbed, unedited master on the FTD.

My favorite mix of Kentucky Rain is the Gold Records Volume 5 remix. It corrects the problems with the original stereo mix (editing it down and burying the backup singers) yet it has decent stereo separation, unlike the virtually-mono Memphis Record. It does have the drums off to the side, though.

 

Yes, the original Gold 5 Kentucky Rain is most like the mono single in editing and balance (other than it is in stereo of course), but the expanded reissue of Gold 5 has the "official" stereo mix, which, even though it is dubbed official I think the one on the original Gold V5 is more historically accurate.

 

Yes, first published in 1971 and it really is a great read. The chapter on Las Vegas is fantastic and the whole book is an entertaining read. He captures the 68 Special in all its splendor. A fair amount of stuff that Peter Guralnick wrote in his two-volume biography, Hopkins had already revealed in his book. Now, the negative part is that Jerry was more or less snowed by or infatuated with Tom Parker to some degree, but then again, that was the prevailing wisdom at the time. I can tell you from having a family that was intimately involved in both radio and television in the 1950s and 1960's, Parker was revered as a sort of genius manager, so I am sure Hopkins did all he could to stay in Parker's good graces. I think he also thought Parker was a real character of sorts, which comes through in his book as well.

I have only read small parts of the book recently, so I am sure I might have a different perspective now, but the parts I re-read recently were very well done. He was telling this story when Elvis and all the main characters were still alive, so he was a lot closer to the events, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing, but I would say overall it served him well. I did not really care for his second volume on Elvis's last stage, but then again that is a hard story to cover without getting bogged down in the negative stuff.

 

I agree. I have never understood that either as his music and beautiful singing voice is what has always come first to me. The charisma and personality as an entertainer was just the icing on the cake for me.

 

That is the only thing that irritates me about the album box set version. Why the heck did they bury the back-up singers? I think the first album version I had of Kentucky Rain was the Pure Gold version. I think that had the backing singers high in the mix too IIRC?

 

The Pure Gold LP had Kentucky Rain in fake stereo. Thankfully the CD didn't.

I would have to check, but I think the Pure Gold CD version is exactly the same as the 10 song CD edition of Gold V5.

 

Nope all three are different on CDs Pure Gold, Gold V5 and Memphis Record. I prefer the edit on Gold V5, but I like the sound and mix on Memphis Record best. The Pure Gold version sounds harsher than either the other two. Well, then there is the version of WWGAH V1 CD. I have to listen to that one next.

The WWGAH CD version is exactly the same as Memphis Record...so sweet.

 

That mix (with the backing singers buried) is the original 1969 stereo mix, even though it was not released until the 90s. Why did they do it? Who knows, but there are notable mix differences between mono and stereo versions of several of the American tracks.

Do you have the record or the CD version of Pure Gold? The CD version has the mono mix, but I'm not sure (and am curious) what is on the record version.

Edit: I see Skatter answered this... fake stereo on the record.

 

The stereo releases of Kentucky Rain are pretty odd. The original stereo mix was prepared in 1969 but not released. They used fake stereo on Pure Gold in 1975. Then they prepared a stereo remix for Gold Records 5 in 1984, and prepared a different stereo remix for The Memphis Record in 1987. They used the 1987 remix on the CD of Worldwide Gold Award Hits and the mono mix on the 1992 CD of Pure Gold. Finally in 1993 the original 1969 stereo mix appeared for the first time on the Essential 60s Masters box set.

To tell them apart:
Mono Mix: 3:24, backing vocals prominent
1969 stereo mix: 3:16, backing vocals buried
1984 stereo mix: 3:24, backing vocals prominent
1987 stereo mix: 3:15, backing vocals prominent

My favorite is the 1984 remix, which has wide stereo and replicates the length and backing vocal placement of the mono mix.

 

Jason, is the only place that you can find this version you prefer on CD the Gold Volume 5 one or is there any other compilation with that mix on it on CD?

 

Be aware that the expanded edition of Gold V5 has the same mix as the 60s box does. I think only the original LP and the original CD with 10 songs on Gold V5 has that particular mix, at least in the US.

 

Thanks, I was just re-reading the thread and trying to figure out which one to order on Amazon. You are a mind reader.

 

Yep, Skatter is correct. The original 1984 10-song Gold V5 (record and CD) is the only place to get that mix of Kentucky Rain. It has unique remixes of most of the other songs too (all except Suspicious Minds and In the Ghetto) but I've never taken the time to compare them to the originals to see if I like any of them better. As noted, the 1997 16-song reissue of the album replaces all the remixes with original mixes.

 

I was perfectly happy with my Elvis CD collection and then you guys have to go and make me want to buy more "alternate mixes". Y'all are a very bad influence!