I was hoping, when I read your first sentence, that you were going to say Moody Blue was a big influence on Darkness. Color me disappointed.
Every day gets closer to me having the money to finally be able to order this set (I'm on disability, so I especially have to take box set music purchases very seriously, both in terms of whether I can afford them, and in terms of how much "replay value" each one will have)-- and the more comments that I read here about this one, the more excited I am!! It's so nice to be truly enthusiastic about a new Elvis release. My anticipation over buying and hearing all of this set (and reading the notes too) is something that, even just a year ago, I thought I might never experience again with a new Presley release, and I say that as a lifelong fan. Just a few more days, and this one is mine! I hope that my immediate neighbors are Elvis fans, because they are definitely going to be hearing this set for a good while, hehe! Happily, I actually have extremely musically tolerant neighbors in my building-- I've played everything from punk rock, to classical, to jazz fusion, to death metal, to Bob Dylan, in my apartment, and at least to my knowledge, no one has ever complained!
As a follow-up to my longwinded review and the great quote from David Cantwell in the liner notes above, I want to mention how impressive the so-called Nashville Cats rhythm players were for this session. This was a fairly unique group of musicians for an Elvis session. The core of the group were drawn from the original Muscle Shoals rhythm section, made up of pianist David Briggs, bassist Norbert Putman, and drummer Jerry Carrigan. This fantastic group of players were joined by the legendary James Burton, playing on his very first studio sessions with Elvis, and the very underrated Nashville studio guitarist Chip Young, who had worked with Elvis previously along with David Briggs, during the How Great Thou Art sessions. Elvis author Peter Guralnick noted in his Careless Love biography that Elvis was harder on piano players and drummers than any other musicians, primarily due to the fact he required such physical play out of them. It would seem that quite often Elvis got his energy and music inspiration from their physicality on their respective instruments. When we think of great musicians from the 70's that seemed to be joined at the hip with Elvis, we often think of James Burton or Ronnie Tutt, and I do not dispute that impression one bit, but for me personally, this single group of musicians stood out in a very big way in Nashville in 1970. The Memphis Boys were an extremely hard act to follow as Mr. Guralnick pointed out in his book on Elvis, but this fine group of Nashville players had their own claim to fame, both before Elvis, because of Elvis, and well after Elvis. Another fan on another forum said that he thought Jerry Carrigan was the MVP of the whole group. Funny enough, the very same thing struck me as well, especially as I listened to Elvis as he seemed to bond with the gifted and powerful drummer during the alternate takes section on the third CD of the compilation. As Elvis voices the first piano notes for Just Pretend..."dum dum...," He stops the band to give some instruction to his new drummer, "Jerry, when we get up in that high stuff, drive me on, it makes me sing better!" During the awesome rehearsal for Stranger In The Crowd, surely one of Elvis most underappreciated gems, when Elvis hears Carrigan experimenting with a really unique and machine gun like riff on his drums, he further encourages the drummer, Why don't you go into that bit when we go into the end, that high part, that drum thing that your doing there... I want you to do that drumming thing that you're doing there!" Shortly after that exchange with Carrigan, as they launch into the song, Elvis notices that someone misses a chord progression or something, but then they are off and running again. Elvis and the band are in a great groove, with Elvis doing the occasional joke, as when he starts to sing a bit of Marty Robbins' Carmen in his falsetto range, but he and his Nashville based players never lose focus for more than a few seconds. Another strangely peculiar phenomena that occurred with me while listening to this 4CD compilation of the 70's recordings. I have always found Love Letters to be one of my least favorite and weakest Elvis albums of the 70's, but somehow when you scatter the songs from that very average album across this compilation chronologically in the masters section of the first two CD's, and you remove some of the syrupy overdubs that to me brought down some of the songs on the Love Letters album, the whole quality of the music rises substantially.
This is the kind of comment that lovers of liner notes, such as I, enjoy reading so much! It has long been my contention that the musicians in Presley's touring band, and on his records, received far less recognition, from the popular music world at large, and, especially, from professional music critics, for their great contributions to his work. I also contend that most music fans and critics, sadly, still don't seem to realize what a great musical accomplishment Elvis made in even getting the "TCB Band" together as a working, recording, and touring unit. Elvis had the very best musicians play on his recordings, and for his touring band, he assembled an amazing collection of musicians and vocalists who truly represented, and represented well, the fabric of American popular music. Who, other than Elvis, would have been able to gather together, or would even have thought to gather together, in one touring band, such an incredible cross-section of great musicians and vocalists as James Burton, Jerry Scheff, Ronnie Tutt, Glen Hardin, The Sweet Inspirations, The Imperials, and an orchestra??
The undubbed "Make The World Go Away" needs to be nominated for some type of Grammy. What a stellar performance.
Must bring up yer man Jerry (Drummer),his fills etc are so spot on,one of the best drummers ive heard down the years. Just wish he was still on the go to hear this great set!. Jerry Carrigan, Drummer for Elvis Presley, George Jones, Dies at 75
If I'm remembering correctly, the boots were sourced from acetates sold at a Guernsey's auction in 1991. There were three lots of two 12" acetates each, two lots of which went to one peron and I got the other The other two were the source of the boots, mine have stayed with me and not booted. That said, there was some crossover between the (total of) six discs. I need to compare mine to the material on this new set to see if they've finally gotten around to releasing all of it officially.
It was an amazing auction - there were tons of Elvis acetates from all eras, guessing many were sources of bootlegs.
RIP, Mr. Carrigan. You played with some of the very best! There is some great, illuminating information in this article, especially for this Alabama native! I had no idea that the Muscle Shoals musicians had been the opening act for The Beatles in Washington, D.C (just outside of where I've lived for almost twenty years)! I just recently learned, too, that many of the same musicians played on some of the famous Stax recordings, such as "Respect Yourself," by the Staples Singers. Some of the not-so-open-minded "good 'ol boys" in the small town where I was born and raised, who terribly bullied me in high school, and who made no secret of their racism (to say the least), would probably be quite surprised to learn that some of the best back-up musicians in the state of Alabama, who happened to be Caucasian, played on so many great soul and funk records by some of the very best vocal groups in the entire music business, who were Black. If only I had grown up in Muscle Shoals or close to it, and not in that incredibly oppressive little town filled with wanna-be Bull Conners-- but at least I'm not there anymore (friends who still live there tell me that it's still largely the same)! I'm thankful, every day of my life, to have escaped from that place (with my life, and I'm only half-kidding about that-- it was rough!).
It's really something, isn't it ? These replies and posts on this thread are spectacular. I'm glad that this Elvis release is finally hitting the right nerve with fans and Collector's alike.
Here goes... I haven't bought the physical media on CD or vinyl, but I've been listening, via Spotify. This seems to be a pattern for me more and more, as it's so convenient to have it there when I want it. I've been listening to this set all day and it's really been a stunning experience. I haven't been this interested and into an Elvis release in a really long time, and I will seek out the box eventually on Vinyl and CD. I had some fun making my playlist and re-arranging some of the songs to match up That's The Way It Is and Elvis Country. Doing the A-B comparisons is gr8. I grew up listening to these tracks in their original mixes, (like so many others), why not remix the "originals" ? LOL
Oh... for me, personally, those oohs and ahs, (Sylviiiaaa) are hardly intrusive. To be quite honest, I didn't even remember the track all that well, Goes to show how many times I played it the last few years or so...
"Sylvia" has always been one of my favorite deep cuts. It should have been on the Love Letters album in place of "Only Believe". "Only Believe" could have found a home on Camden's You'll Never Walk Alone.
Agreed that packaging is criminal. Where do I get a 'fat boy' jewel box - (and will RCA pay for it!!!!???)???
Yep, I struggled to get the discs out and I'm now waiting for some CD inner-sleeves to arrive: I think if the CDs are in plastic or rice-paper sleeves they should be able to go back in the existing packaging without any (further) damage.
I lucked out. My replacement set only had two CD's with a faint scuff, no glue, and two CD's were pristine as they should be. The packaging was crush and crease free as well. Receiving a new product in new condition. What a concept!!
How simple would it be for Sony/RCA to place the music in a 4-disc fat boy jewel case, include a booklet, and house it all in a slipcase? Sony did it for years when it reissued a number of classic box sets: Jeff Beck - Beckology; Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series 1-3; Bob Dylan - Biograph; Janis Joplin - Janis; Journey - Time; Bruce Springsteen - Live 1975/1985; Aerosmith - Pandora's Box; etc. And such packaging has been used countless times by other labels as well. This era of cardboard slipcases is terrible.
One of my absolute favourites from the sessions. I really do love the overdubs on this one, but appreciate they might be a tad on the lush side for many. The way Elvis phrases the part "Now, I'm sorry if I hurt you. Let me make it up to you day by day"....sensational. I've been on a real Nashville 1970 pig-out since the summer, so this release has been a joy, although I'm with @RSteven in that I enjoy a lot of the overdubs from these sessions as well. With FEIN we have the best of both worlds.
