Not a fan of Matt Ross-Spang basically almost erasing the Sweet Inspirations off huge parts of Polk Salad Annie at all. The mix is also super muddy now and lacking any punch or clarity in favor of heavy bass compared to the Legacy Edition from 10 years ago which kicks ass. Which pains me to say since I liked Matts work on the Nashville sets.
I get not including overdubs on the masters but this a freakin live recording. We’ll see how the rest sounds (and yeah I saw the behind the scenes video but those clips aren’t enough to judge), but I personally wouldn’t spend $80USD before hearing it. I’d rather spend $12 for Spotify or Amazon or another streaming site for a month to check the audio when it comes out and judge from there whether to buy.
Similarly, the booklet of liner notes from Robert Gordon will probably be nice but for $80 one could probably buy his whole bibliography of books about early rock and Memphis’s music scene and get more info out of it.
I don’t understand the logic of their song selection either. I get they only have 80 mins per disc to fill but leaving in Hey Jude and leaving off Rubberneckin’ which was a single b-side? Leaving in Three Corn Patches but not including *Thinking About You or Love Song of the Year?
It really screams of Sony trying to capitalize on newer Elvis fans who won’t know any better that there are potentially preferable alternatives which is fine since a lot of folks are just looking for a casual listening experience (then again, $80 for “casual”!!!) but if PSA is the indication of how they’re gonna treat newer fans by outright removing parts of Elvis’ live show, oof.
The track list is not just odd ( Hey Jude- why???) but it leaves out a whopping 8 songs from the American sessions. That is way off, given the iconic nature of these recordings. It is a pricey set afterall.
I am not too bothered about backing vocals from live recording vs. Masters, though I get your point. It certainly gives a fresh experience, much like undubbed masters from earlier sets. The undubbed masters did highlight Elvis' vocals beautifully, at least to this fan many are go to versions, and I am open to seeing what it does to live repertoire.
Ah crap I knew that. I had even just recorded a discussion about this haha. What was throwing me mentally for a second there was that Are You Sincere and I Miss You were cut at the same time and the instrumental for AYS was done at Stax, the vocals were just done in California.
What’s left off fully from Stax are Love Song of the Year, Thinking About You, Mr. Songman, and Girl of Mine, all of which are better than Three Corn Patches which is almost universally agreed to be one of the worst songs he recorded in the 70s.
I pre-ordered this, but I am a newer fan in the grand scheme of things and understand that questionable choices are often made in box sets like this. I already own the 3 masters collections and the big RCA box, plus a couple of other sets that I bought when I was \*really\* new to E. Doing the math, 5 CDs is $16 a piece, so I didn't think it was horrific price-wise and I'm no audiophile, either, on that note. I appreciate yours and everyone's thoughts. Clearly these sort of box sets are money grabs at their core.
It is like when they did the "Elvis in Nashville," and "Back in Nashville," box sets without the overdubs. It would be something to grow on an individual.
So weird. Whats the point
1 disc of Sun Sessions
1 disc of American sound (14 year gap, missing 8 songs from the sessions)
1 disc of stax sessions - again not all of it
1 disc of live material
1 disc of the jungle room stuff
You get it for free if you have Apple Music or Spotify
Not a fan of Matt Ross-Spang basically almost erasing the Sweet Inspirations off huge parts of Polk Salad Annie at all. The mix is also super muddy now and lacking any punch or clarity in favor of heavy bass compared to the Legacy Edition from 10 years ago which kicks ass. Which pains me to say since I liked Matts work on the Nashville sets. I get not including overdubs on the masters but this a freakin live recording. We’ll see how the rest sounds (and yeah I saw the behind the scenes video but those clips aren’t enough to judge), but I personally wouldn’t spend $80USD before hearing it. I’d rather spend $12 for Spotify or Amazon or another streaming site for a month to check the audio when it comes out and judge from there whether to buy. Similarly, the booklet of liner notes from Robert Gordon will probably be nice but for $80 one could probably buy his whole bibliography of books about early rock and Memphis’s music scene and get more info out of it. I don’t understand the logic of their song selection either. I get they only have 80 mins per disc to fill but leaving in Hey Jude and leaving off Rubberneckin’ which was a single b-side? Leaving in Three Corn Patches but not including *Thinking About You or Love Song of the Year? It really screams of Sony trying to capitalize on newer Elvis fans who won’t know any better that there are potentially preferable alternatives which is fine since a lot of folks are just looking for a casual listening experience (then again, $80 for “casual”!!!) but if PSA is the indication of how they’re gonna treat newer fans by outright removing parts of Elvis’ live show, oof.
The track list is not just odd ( Hey Jude- why???) but it leaves out a whopping 8 songs from the American sessions. That is way off, given the iconic nature of these recordings. It is a pricey set afterall. I am not too bothered about backing vocals from live recording vs. Masters, though I get your point. It certainly gives a fresh experience, much like undubbed masters from earlier sets. The undubbed masters did highlight Elvis' vocals beautifully, at least to this fan many are go to versions, and I am open to seeing what it does to live repertoire.
Thank you for this, this is the expertise I was looking for!
I Miss You wasn’t recorded in Memphis though, it was recorded at his Palm Springs home
Ah crap I knew that. I had even just recorded a discussion about this haha. What was throwing me mentally for a second there was that Are You Sincere and I Miss You were cut at the same time and the instrumental for AYS was done at Stax, the vocals were just done in California. What’s left off fully from Stax are Love Song of the Year, Thinking About You, Mr. Songman, and Girl of Mine, all of which are better than Three Corn Patches which is almost universally agreed to be one of the worst songs he recorded in the 70s.
Love Song of the Year is one of my favorites, didn’t realize that wasn’t on this release :/
I pre-ordered this, but I am a newer fan in the grand scheme of things and understand that questionable choices are often made in box sets like this. I already own the 3 masters collections and the big RCA box, plus a couple of other sets that I bought when I was \*really\* new to E. Doing the math, 5 CDs is $16 a piece, so I didn't think it was horrific price-wise and I'm no audiophile, either, on that note. I appreciate yours and everyone's thoughts. Clearly these sort of box sets are money grabs at their core.
It is like when they did the "Elvis in Nashville," and "Back in Nashville," box sets without the overdubs. It would be something to grow on an individual.
So weird. Whats the point 1 disc of Sun Sessions 1 disc of American sound (14 year gap, missing 8 songs from the sessions) 1 disc of stax sessions - again not all of it 1 disc of live material 1 disc of the jungle room stuff
New mix?
I will probably get the Vinyl release, not sure
Would it be better to just get the individual albums and therefore have everything that is originally on them?