Ernst was able to take the production reins back over for 2nd To None, with much less success. Bendeth was embattled due to his controversial production decisions and methods, but it really was only by a faction of the deep fan-base -- the executives at BMG were likely quite happy with Bendeth's results.
Well, he did a lot, but certainly not everything. Granted, it is a quote designed for marketing and promotional purposes and not necessarily intended to be factual, but clearly there were other pioneers of the rock and roll genre.
I was thinking the exact same thing. I remember hearing about Ernst traveling to strange locations to investigate some obscure, but interesting audio or video claim. I imagine there are a ton of sordid characters who claim they alone have the holy grail of Elvis session tapes or rare video in their possession. I am sure Ernst spent a lot of wasted time trying to track this stuff down and of course he might have missed something along the way, but I give him a lot of credit for what he did find over the years and get released.
That could make for the basis of a fun web series. Like a variation of American Pickers or whatever else in that template.
Oh yeah for sure. It was definitely a bit of hyperbole, but it sure sounded great and fit snuggly into any commercial advertisement at the time. It was also something you could recite or remember easily, which is of course a key component to any successful marketing campaign of any kind.
Not only has he chased down disingenuous and deadend leads, but there are collectors and tape-holders that have a misguided and inflated sense of the value of the tape(s) and demand outrageous sums of money that cannot be paid by record labels, especially in this present era where there are frequently limitations and diminishing returns at retail for artists like Elvis. Sony will never recoup its investment if it pays excessively high prices.
I was just thinking of a slogan that they could have used for Elv1s 30 #1 Hits back in the day in order to be more accurate and less hyperbolic: Before Anyone Did Something, Elvis Did A Whole Lot, But he still couldn't play guitar as good as Chuck Berry or play piano half as well as Jerry Lee or Charlie Rich, But He Was Still Pretty Cool! I admit it is a bit of a mouthful and a tad too long, but it definitely seems more modest and historically accurate.
Or "Not taking Ike Turner, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Big Joe Turner, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, and Buddy Holly into account...before anyone did anything, Elvis did everything."
Here's a short clip from Sebastian's Master and Session site. The mono master is left channel, the stereo master on the right. Listen for the brass flub on the left channel. http://www.elvisrecordings.com/ra/1969_1/susp_45_33.mp3
Yes, not unlike Elvis record collectors who have not realized the peak market was 20 or more years ago. One can hang on to a collectable beyond its expiration date.
Can't get it (I do not own headphones). It is a sour note or a missed note? The strings overwhelm everything to my ears. The right side sounds better, but I cannot discern why the left side doesn't for sure. The horns play two notes, the first lower, the second higher up. On the left the second note does not sound strong to me. But I do not think I could find this if playing the whole song. Yeah my old man hearing is now pretty much distracted by reverb and the production artifacts over the instruments. I hear the RECORDING rather than the music these days. Any recordings that are not sparse, clean and natural sounding sounds like chatter, plates clinking, and silverware dropping on the floor of a diner these days. These Memphis session used to sound pretty good to me, now they sound like tin buckets. The reverb on Elvis Is Back now drives me up the wall. Hearing aids coming soon. But I am in dread that I will only hear the things that bother me even MORE predominately. My critical listening for recording quality days are over I think.
In Australia RCA deleted the whole Elvis catalogue and #1 was the only Elvis CD available for months. A few shops still had those 'definitive Country/Rock' etc with the tinted covers but when they were gone they were gone.
Wow. Is that still the case? I recently bought new the AUS CD 50 Australian Top 10 Hits that was made in 2010.
It was to promote the album. For however long it took they didn't restock any orders for Elvis product unless it was #1.
Ah that makes sense. "Hey if you want to buy Elvis on CD, you can have any title you want as long as it is "Elv1s"
November 2002 Dinner at Eight - FTD - 74321 97712 2 December 13 1975, Dinner Show Label: Follow That Dream Records – 74321 97712-2, RCA – 74321 97712-2, BMG – 74321 97712-2 Format: CD, Compilation Country: Europe Released: 2002 Genre: Rock, Blues, Pop Style: Rock & Roll, Pop Rock 1 See See RiderArranged By – Elvis PresleyWritten-By – Traditional 3:10 2a I Got A WomanWritten-By – Charles* 9:47 2b AmenWritten-By – J. Hairston* 3 Love MeWritten-By – Leiber/ Stoller* 2:21 4 Help Me Make It Through The NightWritten-By – Kris Kristofferson 3:06 5 Trying To Get To YouWritten-By – Singleton*, McCoy* 2:33 6 And I Love You SoWritten-By – McLean* 3:34 7 All Shook UpWritten-By – Presley*, Blackwell* 1:13 8a (Let Me Be Your) Teddy BearWritten-By – Lowe*, Mann* 4:32 8b Don't Be CruelWritten-By – Presley*, Blackwell* 9 Wooden HeartWritten-By – Weisman*, Wise*, Twomey* 2:03 10 You Gave Me A MountainWritten-By – Marty Robbins 3:13 11 Polk Salad AnnieWritten-By – White* 4:41 12 Introductions 8:40 13 How Great Thou ArtWritten-By – Hine* 3:11 14 Softly As I Leave YouWritten-By – DeVita*, Shaper* 2:53 15 AmericaArranged By – Presley*Written-By – Traditional 2:24 16a Mystery TrainWritten-By – Parker*, Philips* 2:43 16b Tiger ManWritten-By – Louis*, Burns* 17 Blue ChristmasWritten-By – Hayes*, Johnson* 3:03 18 Can't Help Falling In LoveWritten-By – Weiss*, Peretti*, Creatore* 2:04 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This starts off slightly unusually. The music starts and then Elvis says something, and then we launch back into CC Rider. The sound seems to be pretty good. JD does one of his super fart dive bombs, and Elvis has a bit of a joke about it. It seems to be a pretty decent set of songs..... I think for me, now we have the 69 live box, a lot of these later sets seem some what negligible.
December 2002 Elvis At The International - FTD - 74321 97713 2 August 23 1969, Midnight Show Label: Follow That Dream Records – 74321977132, BMG – 74321977132, RCA – 74321977132 Format: CD, Album Country: Europe Released: 2002 Genre: Rock, Pop Style: Pop Rock, Rock & Roll 1 Blue Suede Shoes Written-By – Carl Perkins2:38 2 I Got A Woman Written-By – Ray Charles2:56 3 All Shook Up Written-By – Presley*, Blackwell*1:40 4 Welcome2:39 5 Love Me Tender Written-By – Presley*, Matson*2:31 6a Jailhouse Rock Written-By – Leiber/Stoller*3:14 6b Don't Be Cruel Written-By – Presley*, Blackwell* 7 Heartbreak Hotel Written-By – Presley*, Axton*, Durden*5:12 8 Hound Dog Written-By – Leiber/Stoller*1:18 9 Memories Written-By – Strange*, Davis*4:08 10a Mystery Train Written-By – Parker*, Philips*3:31 10b Tiger Man Written-By – Louis*, Burns* 11 Monologue 8:54 12 Baby What You Want Me To Do Written-By – J. Reed*2:22 13 Runaway Written-By – Shannon*, Crook*2:22 14 Reconsider Baby Written-By – Lowell Fulson3:57 15 Are You Lonesome Tonight? Written-By – Handman*, Turk*2:57 16a Yesterday Written-By – Lennon/McCartney*6:48 16b Hey Jude Written-By – Lennon McCartney* 17 Introductions 2:52 18 In The Ghetto Written-By – Scott "Mac" Davis*2:54 19 Suspicious Minds Written-By – Mark James (4)8:13 20 What'd I Say Written-By – Ray Charles 5:51 21 Can't Help Falling In Love Written-By – Weiss*, Peretti*, Creatore*2:07 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From what I have read, this is the highest quality sound version of this particular show. I haven't got this particular disc, and unfortunately this full show isn't on youtube, as many others are. We will be going through the complete 69 set when we get around to it, but tomorrow I will post a few of these tracks, that are scattered separately through youtube. As we have discussed on here a few times, Elvis's live shows were essentially at their peak from 69 through to about 72, but it is hard to look passed the raw enthusiasm of the 69 shows.... sadly that enthusiasm, due to circumstances disappeared, for the most part over the later years. All reports are that this is a must have FTD
December 2002 Elv1s 30 #1 hits - DVD Audio - 07863 65053 2 Label: RCA – 07863 65053-9, BMG Bertelsmann – 07863 65053-9 Format: DVD, DVD-Audio, Compilation, Remastered, Multichannel, 5.1 Country: US Released: 2002 Genre: Rock, Blues Style: Rock & Roll, Southern Rock, Country Rock 01 A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Edit Remix)Remix – JXL* 02 Way Down 03 Burning Love 04 The Wonder Of You 05 Suspicious Minds 06 In The Ghetto 07 Crying In The Chapel 08 (You're The) Devil In Disguise 09 Return To Sender 10 She's Not You 11 Good Luck Charm 12 Can't Help Falling In Love 13 (Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame 14 Surrender 15 Wooden Heart 16 Are You Lonesome Tonight? 17 It's Now Or Never 18 Stuck On You 19 A Big Hunk O' Love 20 (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I 21 One Night 22 Hard Headed Woman 23 Don't 24 Jailhouse Rock 25 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear 26 All Shook Up 27 Too Much 28 Love Me Tender 29 Hound Dog 30 Don't Be Cruel 31 Heartbreak Hotel Bonus Tracks: 32 Burning Love (A:B Test) 33 Return To Sender (A:B Test) 34 (You're The) Devil In Disguise (A:B Test) 35 In The Ghetto (Outtake) 36 Suspicious Minds (Outtake) 37 Crying In The Chapel (Outtake) ------------------------------------------------------ This Dvd Audio is a disc that has the tracks mixed for 5.1 sound reproduction. Several of the tracks are really very good in 5.1, and the mix is immersive and very worth having a listen to. Some are coming from sources that really don't have too much to offer fro the 5.1 listener. I really enjoy this disc, because until someone releases the Quad albums, it is all we have. At the end there are some bits and pieces .... I really don't know what the A-B test is supposed to prove, it really doesn't interest me. For anyone that missed it, here is a more in depth look at the Dvd-audio on the surround thread
Quite an interesting show and not bad for the time. I think this is a reel-to-reel recording. It's pretty cool to have a version of Help Me Make It Through The Night and I do enjoy hearing Elvis sing And I Love You So with the full orchestra. I think this is the show where someone in the audience has an LP of Elvis' Sun recordings that he wasn't aware had been released and grabs his attention. There's also a charmingly ramshackle version of Wooden Heart and there's a nice bit of dialogue towards the end of the show where Elvis explains the maitre d's are trying to get him off the stage. On the downside, you get the divebombs, bellowed vocals and Elvis performs Softly As I Leave You and America back-to-back. Not an essential live FTD but an ok concert for the era.
It's been so long since I played it My test for the '69 shows used to be play Runaway and if you can hear the piano that'd do for me.
Dinner At Eight is a pretty enjoyable CD. The sound is better than most non-multitrack live recordings, and the one-off fragment of Wooden Heart is a lovely, frustrating what-could-have-been performance. Great title, too...shame about the cover art.
Accurate summation of Dinner At Eight. The big selling point at the time was the recording being sourced from a reel-to-reel tape, and the sound quality is indeed good for a non-multitrack recording, but it is still a 1975-era show which has its share of deficiencies. That said, I prefer these December concerts over the often overrated summer shows.
