Go to main content

In The Shadow Of A Legend

April 18, 2001 | Music
Design This release also is a digi-pack with a picture disk. Both the cover and disk contain an image from Keith Alverson on which we see Elvis on stage in 1977, holding and studying the well-known 1937 family-photo of a two-year old Elvis with his parents. On the background you see some other images of Elvis with his parents. The way it's done looks a bit an amateur did it. On the back and inside we see images of Elvis and Vernon. And although the images are very appropriate, it doesn't catch the eye.  Content On the Alt.Elvis.King newsgroup Richard Palmer got to the essence of this release with: "It's nicely packaged, well thought out, and if you sit down and play it all the way through it makes for a good listening experience. The sound is not perfect - but that is a reflection of the material being used - and the two main draws, if you can call them that, are interviews with Vernon (one, raw tapes taken from the On Tour film sessions, and the other a telephone interview done a few hours after Elvis died), and yet another version of the MSG press conference, taken from a new tape supplied by a reporter. It doesn't add much, but it's nice to have I guess." We'd like to add that it nice to hear Elvis mother and father talk about their son, his life and achievements. And his it's impossible not to be moved a little while listening to this ultra-rare telephone conversation of Vernon talking on the telephone on August 16, 1977 - only hours after the body of his son Elvis was discovered. He talks about his son's health condition at the time of his death, the last time they talked together, Elvis' girlfriend Ginger, and the discovery of Elvis' body and the attempts to revive him. This conversations has never been released before in any form.  Conclusion To conclude with another quote from Richard's review:  "If you are looking for unreleased Elvis material, you won't find it, but nobody claimed you would. If you want a nicely put together, somewhat different, album (certainly as entertaining as any other of its kind), then you won't regret buying it. Just don't expect to be playing it on a daily basis".