Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)There were signs of trouble last year when BMG released the "companion" box set to -Elvis: Close Up-, -Elvis: Today, Tomorrow, & Forever-. While not a bad compilation by any means, it really didn't come across as revelatory or overly-necessary. This latest release, however, is a blatant slap in the face to fans of the King.
Disc One is hyped as containing unreleased stereo masters from the 50s. In reality, the tracks are primitive binaural mixes of songs from his first gospel album and the movies "Jailhouse Rock" and "Loving You". In addition, these are not and were never intended to be master recordings. They were backups recorded on a two-track machines. Most egregious is the inclusion of 3 versions of "Young and Beautiful", 2 versions of "I Want to Be Free", 2 versions of "Treat Me Nice", 2 versions of "Loving You", and 2 versions of "Don't Leave Me Now" (none of which were exactly standouts in Elvis' recording career). In all, disc one boasts only 14 actual songs.
Disc Two "treats" the listener to 25 alternate versions of songs from Elvis' first 4 post-army films. While not really bad, there is nothing here that's particularly memorable. One should check out the 2-CD -Command Performances- for better renditions of his 60's movie songs.
Disc Three, the strongest of the four, contains highlights from Elvis' Nashville sessions of 1960-1967. Unfortunately, the best outtakes from this era are available elsewhere (Disc 5 of the stunning -From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential 60s Masters I- box set and the criminally out-of-print -Such a Night: The Essential Elvis, Vol. 6-). Highlights include the bouncy "Make Me Know It" as well as "Marie's the Name" and the pre-comeback "U.S. Male"
Disc 4 consists of a complete 1972 performance from San Antonio, Texas, excerpts of which were included in the film "Elvis on Tour". Unfortunately, this was not a particularly good night for Elvis. He sounds tired, distracted, and not a little bored. Much better examples of Elvis live in '72 can be found on the exciting -An Afternoon at the Garden- and the -Burning Love- compilation. There is one stunning exception, however. Towards the end of the show, Elvis launches into a rough-and-tumble version of "Burnin' Love", which at the time of this concert had yet to be released. Other than that, there's nothing remotely memorable here.
On the plus side, the entire box boasts crystal clear sound and well-written, thorough liner notes. That is not enough, however, to hide the fact that, with this release, BMG has begun a slide into a level of blatant Elvis exploitation not seen since the late '70s. Pass this one up.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Elvis: Close Up
Close up & real personal, 4-CD set-consisting of 89 tracks, all of 'em previously unreleased - zeroes in on severalcritical periods in The King's life & career. The first CDis pure gold, an unbelievable 19 unreleased stereo mastersfrom Elvis' rise to fame in the '50s, including takes of'Jailhouse Rock', 'Loving You', That's When Your Heartaches Begin', 'Treat Me Nice', 'Young & Beautiful', 'Don't LeaveMe Now', 'Baby I Don't Care', 'Blueberry Hill', & more. CDtwo, meanwhile, examines the period when he took Hollywoodby storm, featuring 25 unreleased alternate takes from thefirst four movies of his career, G.I. Blues, Blue Hawaii,Flaming Star & Wild in the Country. CD three takes us tothe famous '60s Nashville sessions at Studio B, withouttakes from virtually every session, beginning with hisfirst post-Army song, 'Make Me Know It', & ending with thelast song recorded with the infamous Nashville A-Team, U.S.
0 comments:
Post a Comment