Ernst Jørgensen responded again on the FECC forum on the discussion on his SUN book / CD project.
Sorry for dropping out on all of you. The flu caught me and I have been enjoying 72 hours of the wrong kind of fever. I have tried to catch up with some of the questions and issues, so at least you have some feed back for now. More to come!
Ekenee: I take your point on the pictures in THE WAY IT WAS. It was done like this because at the time we couldn’t make many of the color pictures bigger. They were so-called ”freeze-frames” – meaning pictures taken out of the DVD that Turner had us use. We didn’t have enough color photography for the project. I must however say that some space is needed to make a book look good – otherwise it would be just a photo album, and MANY of these SUN pictures do not have a technical quality that justifies a large reproduction
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK. There are several people correcting me on this issue, saying they told me it existed. One very reliable source mentioned hearing it on the phone. Sorry, I did not mean to ignore that – I had forgotten. I have at no time been close to hearing this myself, and if nobody knows where it is, it’s impossible to track it down. Anybody with a lead?
Steve M. mentions that KING OF THE JUNGLE knows about footage from Dec 28, 1954. There are other pieces out there that are in private hands and NOT for sale. We can’t force collectors to release their materials.
MEMPHIS FLASH: Outtakes of GOOD ROCKIN TONIGHT. We have a few seconds of one – that’s all. I don’t know where you got the idea of “several outtakes” from?
ELVIS PRESLEY SCRAPBOOK. Acetate rights. An interesting comment about owners. That’s an original way you look at that. MY HAPPINESS has been on several PD releases and so have the others to some extent. I’m wondering where you got that perspective from, since I know of nobody who paid SONY/BMG for the use I’LL NEVER STAND IN YOUR WAY and IT WOULDN’T BE THE SAME. Since you know that MRS paid Ed Leek, I assume you know whether he paid Sony/BMG as well. What is really surprising here is that John Singleton recently told me that I still have to licensee MY HAPPINESS from his company (not Ed Leek), and he would certainly have mentioned if SONY/BMG had abused any deals. Anyway, the Singletons are very reasonable people and have supported this project from the beginning.
KIWIALAN. The book will be printed in 5.000 copies – that’s the ceiling for FTD books except for THE WAY IT WAS. It’s likely to sell about 3.000 copies in the first year. I know of no publishing house that would want to distribute it, or for that matter grant me control of how it would look. Additionally I don’t know of a publishing house that would pay anything like what has been invested in the research and acquisitions related to this project.
HI DAN. I loved those pictures. Fantastic. Can’t wait to show them to the family. Thanks a lot.
On a closing note for today, my topic will be Daryl’s postings.
Daryl, I have had many people criticizing and ridiculing both the company I work for and myself over the years. It can be annoying, but so can bad weather. What is inexcusable in what you bring to the Forum, is that you deliberately spread incorrect information in order to discredit us. Somebody recently send me a collection of some of your postings from the last few months, and the amount of distorted information you present as facts, may legally not be a criminal offense, but morally it is offending. Most people on the board will have no way of checking whether your so-called facts are true or not, and deliberately misleading us all is exactly the opposite of the intention of the this and other fan forums. Since this is not about Roger’s and my employment situation, or “GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!” outtakes let me stay with the issues related to the SUN book:
First of all let me know if you ever did write a book, I would love to have a look at it
Then why am I so preoccupied with Joey’s book, with Stanley’s and the two MRS publications?
I have studied every book that I could find on this subject, so why not these 4. They are all recent, much discussed on this board, and consequently I expected many board members to know them. That’s two reasons. A third one was to learn from them – the positive and the negative. As for the first two I know that they represent years and years of research, and the main thing to learn from them is to take their defined universes (Hayride & Texas) and try to do the same detailed research for the entire period and territory. They both showed me how far you can get if you put your mind to it. As for the two very handsomely packaged MRS releases, you ask me why mine takes so long to put together when MRS could do 2 volumes in such a short time.
“It’s because it takes much longer to research than it does to design “. And don’t go using this against the MRS releases – each release is what it is and if people enjoy then why not let them.
I assure you at Sony/BMG we also spent more time on the 50’es box set than on Elvis At The Movies – but I stand up for both of them.
Especially for you I made a count of how many photos were acquired for the SUN book in 2007 – meaning these wouldn’t have been in the book if it came out last year – the number is 73. We also found out what Elvis did on about 20 more dates during the period – maybe not overwhelming to you, but that is what research is about. I do the SUN book in my spare time – not during my employment hours SONY/BMG/FTD, and although Roger and I have the most wonderful jobs we can imagine, we certainly don’t work just 40-hour weeks.
Thanks for all your writings – I will try and bring some more answers in the next few days.
...
Quick note on Tiger Man and SUN notes
1) Sam Phillips kept NO notes on Elvis' recordings - I knew Sam quite well, and we have discussed these issues several times. Sam never mentioned any unreleased titles. When I asked him about titles he always said he couldn't remember.
2) The Marion Keisker notes mentioned in some E-mails were FAKE from A-Z.
3) The Steve Sholes notes do not mention TIGER MAN. The very little room left for speculation is a tape described as containing ""THat's All Right" and two other selections." This could suggest two unknown Elvis recordings, and one could of course be "Tiger Man". However Steve Sholes had a large knowledge of R&B, and I assume that he would have recognized "Tiger MAn". It could also be that Sam (as so often) had used an old tape to record "THat'S All RIght" on, and the "two other selections" were by some other artist. The tape was destroyed in 1959
4) The last angle I can come up with is to speculate as to why Elvis did include it in the 68 Special. It seems all other songs were from his own past, but that's obviously not proof of anything.
The notes from Steve Sholes do not give any recordings dates, and several pf the session dates we have all know for some many years, seems to be wrong.
Ernst
You can read the complete discussion on the FECC Forum in the "For Ernst Jørgensen -> SUN Book Ideas!" tread in the All Elvis section.
Ernst Jørgensen's SUN Project Updates II
January 04, 2008 | Book Source:For Elvis CD Collectors ForumcircleG wrote on
January 05, 2008
facinating Ernst. I envy your job(s). so many questions, so much fun finding answers.
Viva wrote on
January 05, 2008
I tend to be on the critical side of BMG/Sony or whatever it is they call themselves these days, but I have to say that the fact that Ernst takes the time and the trouble to reply in an honest, clear and forthright way to the often pathetic and occasionally offensive comments regarding the FTD releases speaks volumes. Like I said, the regular releases are, in the main, awful but the FTD releases are beyond criticism. The overall cost of producing these fine releases can't be too much less than the limited revenue they generate and hats off to all concerned for producing them. I know BMG use FTD to offset the damage done by bootlegs, but credit where credit's due. Can't wait for the new Sun project, and thanks to Ernst for the update.
TBG wrote on
January 05, 2008
I have nothing but the biggest respect for Ernst and the job he's been doing to keep the Elvis legacy alive these past few years. I dont understand why everybody have to critizise all the time. It's ok to ask questions about releases and make comments, but some are negative to every single release. Let's remember that Elvis has been dead for 30 years, there's a limit to how much unreleased material there is out there. It's fun to speculate, but that's all it is.. But I don't know why collectors who have unreleased stuff don't want to share it with other fans.. There are some strange people out there man...
lray wrote on
January 05, 2008
As a fan who grew up on Elvis movies and waited with anticapation for the next record release. As a fan who witnessed Elvis on stage in 1969 and several times more during the 70's. As a fan who finds the FTD CD's a real dream come true for people like me who never expected anything much beyond what we got in the late 70's. As an Elvis fan like me to an Elvis fan like you, I can say that I am really pleased to have you on our side and doing all the great things for Elvis music that you are doing.
marty wrote on
January 05, 2008
I have been an Elvis fan since 1977 (I was then only ten years old) and I strongly believe that having a man like Ernst involved with Elvis's releases is huge and RARE privilage for all us fans. Comparing what we got in the 80's with today's output is proof enough. Fans ofcourse are never satisfied and want more, better and cheaper releases. Often we want to have something that doesn't even exist! The truth is that FTD releases are usualy superb, with improved sound quality and many unreleased performances. What more could we ask? There is always room for improvement but we should all admit that we are lucky to get so many wonderful new releases every year. Many thanks to Ernst and co. Keep up the good work.