Update on Sweet Inspiration Myrna Smith

/ TY

Elvis Unlimited yesterday posted an update on Myrna Smith, who provided backing vocals for Elvis from 1969 to 1977 as a member of the Sweet Inspirations. “Myrna continues to be very weak, her health is not good, & she sleeps most of the time. She is still getting dialysis three times a week,” reports the site.

For more information, read the full update on Myrna at Elvis Unlimited.

I’ve been listening to Myrna for as long as I’ve been listening to Elvis – basically my whole life. I wish her well.

Some thoughts on “It’s Still Here” and Elvis In Nashville

/ TY

Thomas over at the Elvis Today blog has written a great review of the latest FTD classic album release, 1973’s Elvis (Fool). “Of the three ‘Elvis at the piano’ songs, my favorite has always been ‘It’s Still Here,'” he says.

“It’s Still Here” is definitely my favorite as well, by a long shot over “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen” and “I Will Be True.” I first heard “It’s Still Here” on a 1988 compilation album called Elvis In Nashville. I remember listening to that record over and over, and particularly loving that song because it featured Elvis on piano. It’s one of those sad “Always On My Mind” style songs that I gravitate towards, anyway. Wonderful performance.

I just pulled out Elvis In Nashville from my record collection and decided to give it a spin. I haven’t played it in years. Wow, what a track listing! While it may just have been a compilation of previously released songs, it was my first exposure to many of them.

Side A
I Got A Woman
A Big Hunk O’ Love
Working On The Building
Judy
Anything That’s Part Of You
Night Rider
Where No One Stands Alone

Side B
Just Call Me Lonesome
Guitar Man
Little Cabin Home On The Hill
It’s Your Baby, You Rock It
Early Mornin’ Rain
It’s Still Here
I, John

This album made for a fascinating listening experience, showing how Elvis music from various time periods really blended much better together than some people would have you believe.

I also remember that “Night Rider” always skipped at a certain point of the song, even the first time I played the record. It wasn’t until I obtained ELVIS: From Nashville To Memphis-The Essential 60s Masters I several years later on CD that I was finally able to hear the song without the skip. As much as I love my old records, I can still pull out From Nashville To Memphis on CD and the sound quality is as perfect as the day I bought it. I do miss the pops and crackles of the record sound sometimes, though. Elvis In Nashville has a lot of that. I must’ve really played the heck out of this one back then.

Anyway, be sure to check out Thomas’ review of Elvis (Fool), which also features “It’s Still Here,” over on Elvis Today.

Read Phil Arnold’s foreword to Elvis: The Early Years

/ TY / 2 Comments

ElvisBlog‘s Phil Arnold has released online the full text of his foreword to the latest Alfred Wertheimer photography book, Elvis: The Early Years. The cover of this 120-page hardbound volume from earBOOKS features an iconic 1956 image of Elvis on his Harley.

Phil’s well-written essay for the October 2010 book explores the details behind Wertheimer’s various experiences with Elvis in 1956-1958, illuminating how he was able to gain closer access to the singer than any other photographer.

While other sources have indicated that Wertheimer took nearly 4,000 photographs of Elvis, Phil reveals that this number is exaggerated. “After culling out the unusable shots (too dark, out of focus, etc.), Wertheimer says he has around 2000 commercially viable photos to license for future ventures,” he notes in the foreword. Elvis: The Early Years contains 96 of those images.

The book, available in the United Kingdom, also includes 3 CDs of Elvis music from the same time period.

Read Phil Arnold’s foreword to Elvis: The Early Years over at ElvisBlog.

Rolling Stone misses the point in review of The Complete Elvis Presley Masters

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Rolling Stone magazine stopped being relevant a long time ago, but I do occasionally find their music reviews interesting – when the publication bothers to cover music, that is. Their October 26 online review of Sony’s The Complete Elvis Presley Masters is an interesting study in absurdity. The point of this release, as indicated by the title, is to collect all of Elvis’ masters into one collection. Here’s what reviewer Anthony DeCurtis had to say:

[T]he later tracks in particular could use some cherry-picking: You shouldn’t have to hear his deeply moving gospel recordings and hits like 1969’s ‘Suspicious Minds’ in the context of his long, dispiriting downward spiral.”

Besides the all-too-typical jab at his later years, this is just about the most idiotic statement I’ve ever read in a professional review. DeCurtis would prefer a Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection that is incomplete in order to satisfy his warped image of who Elvis really was? He should stick with compilations like Elv1s 30 #1 Hits, then, and leave the deep catalog diving to people who actually want to study and understand the real Elvis.

Of course, idiotic statements are unfortunately not confined to Rolling Stone. I’ve also read fan reviews in more than one place lately that criticize the top-notch Viva Elvis: The Album release for having an overblown Vegas sound. That release is the soundtrack to a Las Vegas show – what exactly did they expect? Elvis unplugged?

Listen to Elvis again for the first time in Viva Elvis-The Album

/ TY

Viva Elvis: The Album is the Elvis surprise of the year for me. Since I have no interest in the Cirque du Soleil show that inspired it, I was pretty much ignoring this release until a preview trailer appeared before the theatrical showing of Elvis On Tour. That preview perfectly sets up this album – in fact, it is essentially the opening track. Next, I heard the modernized version of “Suspicious Minds” and I was hooked. (The accompanying music video released yesterday on elvis.com, however, is atrocious.)

From the sound clips on Amazon and other sites, I was pretty sure this album would be about one-third great, one-third okay, and one-third awful. I missed the mark on that assessment, by a mile. The entire album is a creative show of force that left me in absolute shock. The out-of-context song clips do not even begin to do this artistic album justice. Not even the “Suspicious Minds” single is an adequate representation, for this album is an experience.

Unlike other remix-type albums, I recommend listening to Viva Elvis in one sitting from beginning to end – rather than in the segmented form that iPod convenience so often brings us. Though the Elvis vocals are mostly from studio masters, this often feels like a live show – that is, if Elvis was alive in 2010 and gave a multimedia extravaganza concert reflecting on his career.

The backing on these tracks may have changed from the familiar versions, but the heart of this music remains the same. The originals will always maintain their rightful prominence over fancy remixes, but Viva Elvis: The Album offers a chance to listen to Elvis for the first time – all over again. It is so great that I wish I could shout about it from mountaintops – but I’m really not much of a climber. Instead, I’ll just have to use my little blog.

Viva Elvis The Album, 2010

Viva Elvis The Album, 2010

Hear the once and future Elvis on Viva Elvis: The Album – now available

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Viva Elvis: The Album arrives in stores today. The release features twelve main tracks, with remixes designed to make Elvis sound as if he were recording today.

1. Opening: Also Sprach Zarathustra (instrumental)
2. Blue Suede Shoes
3. That’s All Right
4. Heartbreak Hotel
5. Love Me Tender
6. King Creole
7. Bossa Nova Baby
8. Burning Love
9. Memories (instrumental)
10. Can’t Help Falling In Love
11. You’ll Never Walk Alone (instrumental)
12. Suspicious Minds

Some versions of this album include one of several bonus tracks, with Elvis singing a “duet” with a present-day performer.

Memories of yesterday, dreams of today

/ TY

The Huffington Post today published in-depth interviews with Ernst Jorgensen on The Complete Elvis Presley Masters and Erich van Tourneau on Viva Elvis: The Album. The first run of the 30-disc Complete Elvis Presley Masters is sold out, with more to be available next year. The single disc Viva Elvis: The Album hits stores tomorrow. While both projects feature Elvis, one release focuses on preserving the past in a historically accurate fashion, while the other uses modern techniques to speculate on what might have been if Elvis recorded in 2010.

Van Tourneau oversaw Viva Elvis: The Album and mixed five of the release’s twelve main tracks. “[M]y mandate was to first, really contemporize the Elvis catalog and bring him into ’10. The idea was to recreate the music as if Elvis were recording the song in ’10, so I’ve created new beats, new chord changes, or new instrumental changes for each and every song,” he says. The interview also reveals that a second volume of Viva Elvis recordings may be in the works.

Ernst Jorgensen has been the man behind Elvis Presley music releases for the last two decades. Somewhere between working on a dozen FTD Elvis collectors label releases a year, not to mention Elvis projects for the main Sony label, he managed to find time to oversee the restoration work that went into The Complete Elvis Presley Masters. “It’s like everything you hope would one day happen when you do what I do–when you compile records and you write books–to be able to put all your favorite artist’s master recordings in one box set, and be given the privilege to do a two-hundred forty page book with text and illustrations describing the entire career. It doesn’t get better than that,” says Jorgensen. It does not get much better than the work Jorgensen has done for Elvis’ musical legacy, either.

Read the full interviews at the Huffington Post.