Downtown Long Beach

The show is not bad..really..for those who don`t have any of the 3 previous editions ....;-)

It's spooky: Every month at least 100 Euros are missing from my purse without getting something new. A few pictures from a forum mixed to a booklet and a good sounding advertising and ... watch it ... another 20 bucks gone. I have a wall full of bootlegs in my room, collected within the last 35 years. A few month more and I have a complete mirror of re-releases on the other wall. And an annual amount of 1000 Euros less. Do these re-releases mean that there are absolutely no more useable shows? Even in the audience section? Is the barrel THAT empty?

Don't forget about the release on welcome home elvis.Then we have it on five releases.You can't go wrong with this show.

I think another problem is that the new labels which put out AR`s just found out that re-releasing old AR`s is much more easy than finding new ones and mastering them for release although there are still many more...with re-releasing old AR`s you have zero efforts to make..

It's such a shame, this label had a good insight a while ago, an unknowm 73 tour show...I heard a sound sample from this cd, but in my ears: my old boot is sounding just the same...fortunately quite good, so I saved another 20 euros. Very sad all this, Ernst give us fans a big surprise soon! Ftd has a lot of unreleased soundboards to release.

I had read more than once that Elvis' sound engineer Bruce Jackson was possession of some of the more sought after soundboard. Shows that include the 76 New Years Eve, the July 1975 shows, the awful 1976 Houston show and even Elvis' last stand in Indy. Has anyone ever verified that this is the case and if so with his passing wouldn't it be a high priority for BMG to get their hands on those tapes?

Santaclaus, well made point and i bet a lot of fan's can relate to this, but i guess that has alway's been the way the 'import' market goes about it's business,no set routine and material can alway's be re-booted with some of today's technology to give us so called re-vamped better sound etc.Again for those who need this and for those unsure as i alway's say do your homework and make your own choice and don't be swayed by good or bad comments about this or any other 'import' release.

I was hoping for a upgrade of the Nov 14 show, in better sound than we have. This will be the 5th time this show gets released. Overkill... The sound on the originals is excellent for an AR and Elvis gives a fine show. Looks like the 16 page booklet is the only thing that will seperate this from the other 4 versions. But I hope I'm wrong and there is a improvement in the sound. Let's just wait.

It's starting to get very "thin" even with audience recordings. Way too much re-issues of old ones. And when we do get new shows, the sound quality seems to be getting worse. As for soundboards, it's all up to FTD from now on. Unless, some private colllectors start selling up. And it is time Ernst starts to see what Bruce Jackson had in his possession. FTD simply can't continue giving us concerts from '76 (and to a lesser extent August '74). We've had heaps!!!

I do hope so too Rob v an upgrade of the 14 th of november 1972 show.Because the old titel is not good eighter way.

Santa Claus, I wholeheartedly agree with your comments. I had to laugh because I think many of us are in your situation, or something similar. You know, I once read that the Colonel handed over something like 800 soundboards to RCA back in the 80's. Who knows if that's true? It could be far less, and some may be badly damaged or otherwise not in good enough condition to market. So, the barrel may indeed be THAT empty. I feel the same way about the studio recordings. Look at FTD's new Guitar Man. Other than some of the rehearsal tracks, there's nothing new. And frankly, listening to multiple takes of the same song bores me stiff. The in-studio banter was interesting on The Jungle Room Sessions, but not anything I want to listen to for the love of music just because it's newly released. Many fans do like that, and I'm glad for them. Hopefully, we'll see some of the On Tour concert recordings released officially. Only one thus far has. My guess is that they'll hold back until it becomes clear that the reissues are no longer selling.

Is this a soundboard recording???

The figure quoted when Colonel Parker handed his soundboard tapes over to RCA in the eighties was around the three hundred mark.

Tony C , yes around 280.

The number of soundboard tapes handed over to RCA may sound high, but we have already had around thirty of them officially released by FTD and an even higher number bootlegged. Also, a number of these tapes could well be of poor audio quality or have tape damage, plus the majority date from what many would describe as the wrong side of Aloha. People also complain that each new soundboard release is much like what we have had before. If something from 1974 is released, they say "Please, no more from 1974". If it's 1976, they say "Please, no more from 1976" and so on. We have to be realistic and remember that they can only release what they have. With regard to tapes being held by outside sources such as sound engineers and their families, I am absolutely certain that such tapes do exist. The problem is one of money, everybody thinks that anything to do with Elvis is worth millions, but obviously it is not. Also, some people prefer not to share their recordings with the rest of the world, something I cannot understand. Ernst stated in 2008 that the acetate containing "Little Mama" is still not available to them and that it is not a question of money, the owners simply will not negotiate. Obviously no situation lasts forever and morbid as it is, the current owners will not be here forever. Those that inherit such recordings may decide to take the money and make a deal.

Tony C, I agree with your take on the soundboard situation. By the time you factor in the Elvis "hoarders," concert similarity, and the quality of the tapes that exist, it's fairly clear to me that the days of FTD and bootleg CD's are drawing to a close. And of course, digital music is preferred now by many (not me). That will certainly end the plush packages with booklets and concert photos that have finally become standard CD issue material. Oh well, just another end of an era. I wonder how many whiners today will whine even more about the "good old days" when CD's where as common as apples in an orchard. I'm still glad to be able to by durable CD's and I'll do so until they're no longer produced.

Hi Tony, I'd like to know your opinion about this : according to the Tunzi-book Sessions III, RCA should be in possession of +/- 740 (!) recordings of live performances, reel to reel and cassettes, ALL "soundboards". What do you think about the crediblity of this statement ? I'd appreciate your point of view . And Lefty : the situation concerning CDs in Europe is completely different from what's going on in the USA. Here we still have the opportunity, the chance and the luck to choose between hundreds of new releases in every sort of music . There is also a complete vinyl-revival going on here. In 2010 not less than 45 million ( yes, 45.000.000 ) vinyl discs were produced, and a lot of people are buying turntables again, after getting rid off the one they had before and now regret it. Weird but true !Best regards tro both of you. Always El.

Hi, Benny. Much as I like the three Tunzi "Sessions" books, I think they did indulge in too much speculation with regard to what actually exists. At the start of the soundboard section in the third volume it states that these recordings are mostly contained in the BMG archives. Mostly is just too vague, which do and which don't. If he had access to the archive records he would be able to list them properly without using the word mostly. The much sought out Indianapolis soundboard is listed, which we know has never surfaced. It also lists many tapes of the shows performed on the tours of 1970 and 1971. My feeling is that if these were in the BMG/Sony archives, they would not have had to rely on the already bootlegged Boston show from 1971 for their FTD release. Part of the problem is the secrecy surrounding what does actually exist, if Ernst we more open, we would not have all of this speculation. I can understand Ernst's reluctance to speak too much to the fans, everything he ever said in the past was torn to pieces by certain elements of the Elvis fandom. The result is that we are now only told what we need to know, such as a press release to announce any new FTD CDs.

Who would ever need 3 Tunzi sessions books?

Hoi Tony, thanks for your answer! Well, I think you could be right about the amount of soundboards . So it seems we depend on the stuff Ernst is able and willing to release. Let's hope there is still something interesting in the can. Steve V : I can understand most of us don't have the need to purchase the 3 Tunzi sessions books ( and a 4th is in the make ) but I do, as I'm very interested in the recording sessions-info,not only because it is a part of my Elvis-addiction, but also because I was many times in different recording-studio's myself as a singer.So when the 4th book will be available I'll buy it for sure. The previous 3 books all gave me upgraded info. Best regards to both of you. Always El.

I don't think anybody would need all three editions of the Joe Tunzi "Sessions" book, they are essentially revised editions of each earlier one. I would imagine that most people who bought all three over the years filed the earlier one away each time a new one was published. However critical I was earlier about the speculative nature of some of the information in the third edition, I will certainly be buying the fourth when it arrives. It's all a matter of taste, some people don't care what was recorded where and when, they just like the music. Others, myself included, want all of the details. A good example is tape legends. For those that know not what they are, these are the handwritten notes on the original tape boxes. Put like that, they sound really boring, but I can never get enough of seeing them. I was one of those people that in the seventies was writing down the matrix numbers printed on the labels of singles to try to work out which track fitted where.

Tony, I couldn't agree more ! It's plain to see we're on the same track . Always El.

But how much can the details change from book to book? There aren't any new recordings for 34 years. And who's to say that the next book will be correct when there may be another one around corner? Plus we have had other great books on this subject like Ernst's A Life In Music. I know people like new product and the man is gone a long time, but I feel this just makes Tunzi richer for really not a great reason. To each his own, but I'd rather see a new & updated price guide on all the Elvis products (non bootleg) up to the present because I know that's an ever changing landscape. (plus I deal a lot!) I don't really care who played on Ito Eats.

The books change greatly with each edition because of the vast amount of material released each year by FTD, which unfortunately makes each book somewhat out of date as soon as one is published Having said that, I still welcome each new edition regardless of how much Joe Tunzi may or may not make out of it. As I said earlier, it is each to their own, I do savour information about who played on what, where and when, but have no interest in price guides. My collection is my own, so I have no desire to know what it is worth as it is not for sale. But for those that do, great.