Elvis Presley - The Albums and Singles Thread pt3 The Seventies

Is that the cover of Live at Madison Square garden?
By the way, did you guys reviewed this one?

 

My apologies I was unaware of it not having been previously released.
It is certainly a great track

 

That’s true. I know he was just a kid when he made those early acetate recordings, but it’s hard to believe that that kid somehow transformed himself into one of the greatest ballad singers of all time. In those early ballads, there is very little hint of what is to come.

 

Legend has it that the "Harbor Lights" tape was found in Steve Sholes's desk after he retired. Sholes passed away in 1968 at the age of 57. Has it been established when he retired from RCA?

 

The same is true of the earliest Beatles recordings. It's amazing how fast Elvis and The Beatles progressed once they found their sound.

 

It is unsettling how they treated Elvis' masters. Wasn't the stereo recordings of Elvis 1950s sessions rescued from the trash by Bones Howe? There's also lots of missing stereo and mono mixes. I would have thought that a big outfit like RCA would have had better protocols for the handling and storage of its tapes.

 

Yes indeed, singing ballads was not Elvis's strength in the very early days, but I still find his voice to be quite haunting and evocative on Harbor Lights, nonetheless. I could have sure done without his whistling though. It is interesting too that Elvis's ability to sing ballads was greatly enhanced when he gained range in his lower vocal register during the next few years, something legendary songwriter Doc Pomus noticed at the time, but very few other musicians or music critics talk about. Many fans and critics alike often talk about his beautiful tenor voice in the very early days, but what really made Elvis's voice spectacular and capable of handling such a wide variety of material was his ever expanding vocal range, especially in his lower register.

 

Dayton "Bones" Howe held on to tossed out binaural tapes from 1957 Radio Recorders sessions, as well as session tapes from the 1968 Singer special.

 

I think it’s interesting and telling that the young Elvis preferred ballads over rockers, and that Sam Phillips had to coax him into doing uptempo material such as That’s All Right instead of taking another pass at Harbor Lights, but, again, I have to agree with @czeskleba that’s amazing that Sam Phillips saw anything in the kid who recorded those early halting ballads.

 

I would argue that despite a few isolated cases over 60 years, RCA and Sony have done a lot better job of taking care of their master recordings than Universal Music has done taking care of their major artist's recordings.

 

I suspect the lore about the tape being "found after he retired" is incorrect, and the tape was actually found in his desk after he died. As you noted, he was only 57 at the time of his death and it's unlikely he would retire that young. This article notes that he was promoted to RCA's Vice President in charge of Pop Artists and Repertory in 1967, so his career was still going strong. It seems unlikely he'd retire just a few months after receiving such a promotion.

 

I don't think he retired. He became vice president of RCA in 1963.

 

That may be true in general, but this article about how RCA treated Elvis' Sun tapes will make you cry. At least two unreleased songs and piles of outtakes, intentionally destroyed.

 

He was always attracted to being a balladeer of sorts. One could argue his primary musical passion as a young man was for gospel and ballads. That said, he did have a love of country and western, and an appreciation for rhythm and blues.

 

We had covered the songs, so we just had a quick look at the album.
These guys won't let me miss any alternate takes/recordings. They know their stuff

 

They made a 30ips dub of *some* the master takes with EQ, compression, and reverb. Isn't that good enough?

 

And who needs a Sun take of "I Got a Woman"? We've got the RCA take, that should be good enough...

 

....RCA employee: Are you sure that you want these Elvis tapes thrown out? They might be valuable to you one day.
....RCA executive : Nah! We paid $30k for them and they only take a little space in our storage facility but who would possibly be interested in these? Disco is where the industry is headed! Besides, we can always call that Vince Everett guy at ABC/Paramount to record it for us if we need it.

 

"And why do we need a bunch of old tapes? We can always get Elvis to record new stuff. He loves to record. And he's only 22 [at the time the tapes were trashed]. He'll be around recording for us for another 40 years or so!"

 

Definitely one of his most eclectic, Diverse and non-commercial single released during his life.

 

Sarcasm becomes you.

 

And will the mystery of the missing Follow That Dream stereo masters ever be solved?

The 57 Binaural tapes are fantastic. I especially like the Jailhouse Rock material. I wish the King Creole binaural tapes had survived. But at least we have the direct mono feed tapes that sound better than the binaural mix down to mono masters.

 

Harbor Lights
Written By :
Jimmy Kennedy & Hugh Williams

Recorded :
Sun Studio, Memphis, July 5-7, 1954: July 5, 1954. take 3

Forgive me not putting this down here yesterday, I am so familiar with this that it had never occurred to me that this may be its first issue.
Like almost everything from the Sun Sessions the is fantastic, and I can only imagine how this was received by Elvis fans in 1976. It sounds like it was recorded a hundred years prior. Although the Sun Sessions aren't necessarily my favourite Elvis period, it is undeniably a magic period in time, and a beautiful collection of songs sung by a young man wanting to express himself ... and he certainly succeeded.

 

Such A Night
Written By :
Lincoln Chase

Recorded :
RCA's Studio B, Nashville, April 3-4, 1960 : April 4, 1960. take 2,3,4

One of my favourites from Elvis Is Back, and it is cool hearing the set up. As we have noted, at this point in his career, among the best voices to ever grace an album.



and just because we can, here is the take 5 master

Such a Night

 

That should cover the tracks we have not previously covered, and in light of looking a little more closely it really seems to make this a fairly important album at the time. Now we have most of these recordings/versions available in various forms, but as it is easy to forget, at the time this was all new and in some instances unheard music.