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Sunset Rundown

By ElvisNews.com/ Lex, February 20, 2009 | Music

Madison just released the fourth volume in their Standing Room Only Tapes-series. Is it as good as the first 3 volumes?

Design

It is a Madison design. That should be enough, but for the newbies around: Madison is synonym for pure quality. Great cover art, a nice booklet with pleasantly written liner notes, decorated with pictures and memorabilia that are in place with the content of the CD. Madison stands for top quality finished into detail.

 

Content

After two live shows and a mock session it’s time for rehearsals. This silver disc brings us the first half of the rehearsal of March 31, 1972.

Next to a job Proud Mary has a home now too. Immediately the superb sound quality draws the attention. How I wish Elvis did his shows in this setting too, without the bombastic orchestras. It’s not even the complete TCB band yet (and that shows sometimes), but this plain rock band setting perfectly fits Elvis’ voice, but also the musicians catch the attention they deserve. I’m drifting away from the content it seems, but this had to be said.

Having it said, Never Been To Spain underlines it. I love the bombastic versions too, but this could even be better, certainly with the complete TCB Band. You Gave Me A Mountain isn’t among my favourites, but including 2 false starts it stays within 2 minutes, so I can live with it. Another song I normally don’t rank among the better Elvis songs, Until It’s Time For You To Go, surprised me a lot here… it must be one of the best versions Elvis ever did of it. Even in the almost 6 minutes it takes I didn’t fall asleep once.

Polk Salad Annie is a bit short, and the oldies get the rush treatment as usual. Gladly they lead to one of the highlights of the CD. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is a real topper in my book. Then another oldie that for some reason mostly gets a decent treatment: A Big Hunk, even with a full reprise this time. C.C. Rider is next up, followed by three versions of For The Good Times. Funny to hear that in a couple of days Elvis already geared it up a bit.

After those good times it’s funny to see the time slips away without noticing. By the way, a very nice version of the song that I referred to is available on this CD. Less funny is that I just noticed that I ended up with the last song, one of my all time favourites, Burning Love.

Conclusion

Madison did it once again. A great 4th volume in this series, it might even be my favourite so far.

Track listing

Proud Mary 2:49
Never Been To Spain 4:29
You Gave Me A Mountain (2 false starts) 1:40
Until It's Time For You To Go 5:46
Polk Salad Annie 3:09
Love Me 2:39
All Shook Up 2:35
Heartbreak Hotel 1:59
Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel 1:57
Hound Dog 2:18
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 5:42
A Big Hunk O' Love 2:52
A Big Hunk O' Love (reprise) 2:41
C. C. Rider 3:30
For The Good Times 3:44
For The Good Times (2 false starts) 2:28
For The Good Times (reprise) 6:34
Funny How Time Slips Away 5:27
Burning Love 2:46

Ciscoking wrote on February 20, 2009
A summary: Good music in good sound. Worthwhile !!
Greg Nolan wrote on February 20, 2009
No surprise here: Madison, judging from the review, has done it again! No one should be surprised, though. I've made Madison an automatic "must" and I'm sure I'm not alone on that. And always nice to see a positive review by Lex! It's funny but Elvis never does quite put me to "sleep"!
ElvisDayByDay wrote on February 21, 2009
A very enjoyable CD, I gave it several spins this week. But I don't like the cover. It would have been nice if this series had one theme which was used on all volumes of this "Standing Room Only" series.
Ronaldv wrote on February 21, 2009
A good release. Madison is a great import label. I'm sure i will buy this one. But for the last really unreleased stuff from Madison we have to go back to hot august night and the wild weekend in Huntsville cd's from 2008. I hope they have some really unreleased soundboards in the can for 2009, something that surprises even the die hard elvis fans. I don't care where their sources are coming from, as long as they release this interesting material !
HangLoose wrote on February 21, 2009
The sound quality is very good! I have a sound sample,i can send it to anybody who wants it. PM me.
Harvey Alexander wrote on February 26, 2009
I really enjoyed this CD. Great sound quality and excellent packaging. But why do the TCB Band play a few bum chords here and there on material they'd already been playing for nearly three years?
Take 1 wrote on February 28, 2009
downloading sucks...
Jerome-the-third wrote on March 01, 2009
just buy this piece of art, don't download it you fools..
EspenK wrote on March 01, 2009
Why shouldn't I download it? It's stolen material in the first place.
mature_elvis_fan75 wrote on March 01, 2009
Why not support the ones who release these cd's? Thats what everyone says about Ftd,and many would imports offer just as much of not more bang for the buck,not in all cases but many!
EspenK wrote on March 01, 2009
Because of the reason already mentioned. I see absolutely no problem, morally or legally, with stealing from a thief. It's as simple as that. Of course, you can get a "good deal" buying a stolen car too. More "bang for the bucks". Does that make it right? Nope.
mature_elvis_fan75 wrote on March 10, 2009
OK,i can understand were your coming from!
Natha wrote on March 11, 2009
EspenK, I understand your point. However, consider this. Generally we read: "if no one buys FTD, that will mean the demise of FTD." Same may hold for the imports. Moreover, for the same price we get nicely documented CDs. And as I wrote elsewhere, to open the case of such a Cd gives a prelude and that I like.
Orion wrote on March 11, 2009
I just got this today, and as I write this I'm on my third spin through the disc. I cannot get over how much better the sound is on this compared to what FTD released. I strongly reccommend this to anyone who enjoys Elvis' early '72 concert line-up as that's what he's rehearsing here or if you're a fan of James Burton - whose guitar magic is high in the mix. I'd say get this while you can or you'll hear a friend's copy and kick yourself. Thank you Madison for another winner.
eric c wrote on March 15, 2009
great disc.i love this period.Elvis is in great voice and just throws himself into the music.i know it was a tough time for him personally but he just gets lost in the music.awesome stuff!!!
Erika Freiburger wrote on March 18, 2009
I've just received it,very good CD! Excellent work. It's really worth its price. Keep the rehearsals coming!
Greg Nolan wrote on March 23, 2009
If there ever could be annual Elvis import release awards like the Oscars, it would get annoying how often you'd see the Madison staff going up and down the stage, winning award after award. They do make it look easy. There's nothing to complain about here, folks. They do a great job presenting what's left behind and admittedly that's often a different rehashing of similiar material that he was working on during for "On Tour." Any number of their titles stand alone as pure quality. Admittedly, newer fans or those who are not as intense in their fanhood might call it a day with the 4-volume "Golden Records" series and official releases like "MSG" and "Aloha." For the rest of us, there's this killer series.