I got this one recently and it's an enjoyable listen due to the quality of the songs and performances, but I was a little disappointed as the alternate takes aren't that much different to the masters. This is not based on a close a-b listen, but it was my general impression, although I did note some differences in Little Sister, Surrender and Suspicion. But then, maybe I'm not familiar enough with the material to notice them?
This is sort of how I feel about EE6. It's a good listen, but not as good as it looks on paper. I also don't understand why they used the master of the title track. The Jungle Room Sessions has always felt a bit too "talky" for me. I made my own copy that omits as much talking/silence as I could, and it makes for a much better listen (I've done the same with other Elvis CDs, like Way Down In The Jungle Room and the various Comeback Special shows). It's over six minutes shorter, which perhaps doesn't sound like a lot, but it tightens things up considerably. Anyway, I know that some fans consider this to be the best FTD (or close to it), but I could live without it (I say this as someone who's a huge fan of both From Elvis Presley Boulevard and Moody Blue). The sound/take selection on The Jungle Room Sessions just isn't as good as Way Down In The Jungle Room, imo. There are much better single-disc FTD comps out there, and the Classic Album reissues of the two Jungle Room sessions albums are much more enjoyable for me, especially when you look at the wonderful "alternate album" sections.
I should try that with 'Having Fun With Elvis On Stage', perhaps it would make for a much better listen... Kidding aside, I think I prefer disc 2 of 'Way Down In The Jungle Room' over 'The Jungle Room Sessions' too, I like how it's mixed but I'm also glad I got the FTD classic albums of 'From Elvis Presley Boulevard...' and 'Moody Blue' for the more vintage type mix outtakes...
I understand the preference to Way Down over The Jungle Room Sessions, but my gripe over the former is the extreme amount of reverb they added. Elvis sounds like he's singing in a tunnel, and it takes away a bit of the listening pleasure.
Sorry busy morning, pulled away mid thought... Reverb It seems like the popularity of the Sun reverb dogged Elvis's material over the years and folls issuing his material felt some kind of bizarre obsessive need to put it where it doesn't belong ..
I can understand adding a little bit of reverb to the dry soundboard recordings to give it that "live" feel, but adding it unnaturally to dry studio outtakes is tampering with history, IMHO
Reverb is like MSG (the food additive, not the concert venue). It seems that reverb is used as a lazy cover up to mask either performance and/or mastering flaws. Who in this universe decided to inflict such a pestilence on the ears of humanity?
An interesting release at the time and the last entry in the Essential Elvis series. I don't think there is anything unique here and the material has been released in better sound quality elsewhere.
Essential Elvis vol 6 I like a lot! I like the upcoming release from FTD 'Fame and Fortune' even more though. You really can't gro wrong with a compilation of outtakes from these sessions. In a Private Moment, I played once and never again, not worth the price tag for these ears. I still prefer The Jungle Room sessions over Way Down in the Jungle Room. That reverb isn't too intrusive but it doesn't sound natural. I always get a kick from Elvis "Shoot the dogs and the phones!"
A great cd and it should have been released on the main label, imo. The cd contains the ending of America The Beautiful as a hidden track. Only the beginning and the ending exist, the rest was erased. The instrumental Fire Down Below is only available on this cd.
Are you referring to the outtakes or masters? Because clearly there was excessive reverb added originally in 1976 to some of the masters, so it would be present on Way Down.
Such a Night is less essential now that we are spoiled for choice by all of the FTD releases, but, at the time it came out, it spent a ton of time in my CD player. I loved the Essential Elvis series. One of the best ideas RCA ever had. The Jungle Room FTD is where FTD really began to take off. At the time, it was perhaps kind of daring to give the Jungle Room sessions this sort of treatment.
This was the big one, the release a number of deep fans had hoped for over the years, and perhaps still the most popular FTD ever released. There were rumors that its blueprint was under consideration for an Essential Elvis release at one point, but I am not sure if it was ever verified (it does seem odd that Ernst did not think either the Jungle Room sessions or American Sound were viable Essential Elvis candidates). The Jungle Room session masters were maligned in varying degrees over the years, on some level because of the excessive post-production on some of the material, so this was a way to finally present the material in a more organic state, and for some fans it was a revelation and for others it was what they had always envisioned. Like most of the other original 5-inch titles, it has stood the test of time as an enjoyable collection, but in general I tend to reach for Way Down In The Jungle Room if I feel like listening to a disc of outtakes from the Jungle Room.
If im not mistaken The Jungle Room Sessions is still in print by FTD, gotta be their most purchased release.
It is another example that defeated the original notion that FTD titles were all going to be limited runs. Clearly at some point Ernst decided some titles needed additional production runs, and this one was an obvious choice. I suspect The Jungle Room Sessions will probably not receive additional runs moving forward because of the Way Down collection, but many dealers still have stock, so it remains "in print."
It's a smart move, I'd imagine shoppers at Graceland would be inclined to purchase a single disc release like Jungle Room Sessions or Memphis Sessions or Fame and Fortune. 'Way down' would be a better choice this day and age though for those sessions.
And of course unsuspecting consumers in the Graceland gift shop might also walk out the door with a 1976 soundboard, only to be shocked when they give it a spin.
There's only two complete takes of Such a Night, takes 1 and 5. The rest are false starts. My guess is that they really wanted to include the studio chatter where Elvis tells Buddy Harmon to lay off the drums at the start of the song until he gives him the signal to come in. It's a really cool example of Elvis actively producing his own session. That chatter came after take 3 broke down. After that, take 4 is a long false start and take 5 (the master) is the only complete take that has Harmon doing what Elvis instructed. It wouldn't have made sense to stick take 1 in there. So we get take 3, the slate for take 4, and then the complete take 5, same as on Legendary Performer V2.
I think the American sessions were bypassed for Essential Elvis at this point because they'd just put a bunch of American outtakes on the Suspicious Minds collection, so they probably thought it was too soon for another mass market collection of that stuff. And it doesn't surprise me the Jungle Room stuff was not considered Essential-worthy, since at that point its reputation was still pretty bad. It was only subsequently that the reputation of those sessions improved, to some degree due to the FTD.
Ernst brought up American Sound and whether it would be part of the Essential Series in an interview with Paul Dowling circa 1998 and he said there were no plans because there wasn't enough material, which was a very odd response because clearly there were hours of tapes. In another interview he mentioned the outtakes were not conducive to an interesting project, again, an odd assertion. That said, your point is well taken; once the Suspicious Minds collection was released, it would not have made sense to issue another disc of outtakes the next year. There was an Essential Elvis Vol. 7 scheduled, but later cancelled by Michael Omansky (as well as the series) -- I suppose it could have consisted of American Sound recordings because in Ernst's interview with Dowling, he asserted the sessions for Fool, Raised On Rock, Love Letters and Today were not valid options for retail (how times have changed...), but there were other sessions from the 1960's that may have been more likely candidates.
Huh. I obviously was not aware of that. That is a pretty weird/inaccurate thing for him to say. He must have been aware of what was available by that point since they were compiling Suspicious Minds around the same time. Strange.
I forgot if I have made this point here: The title "Essential Elvis" - for all volumes - is purely wrong, since the material was generally early rejected takes and outtakes. The material could more accurately be called "Apocryphal Elvis". Or other things..
Essential to fans of his music. Not essential to casual fans who only care about Hound Dog, Can't Help Falling In Love and Suspicious Minds.
I apologize for going off topic, but this post reminded me of something. While I don't mind reverb if tastefully done, a song I recently heard, to me. is an example of vastly overdone reverb. Jan and Arnie's Jennie Lee. The lead vocal is so buried in the mix, on top of the layers of reverb you can barely hear it.
