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A Legendary Tiger Man

By ElvisNews / Kees, January 28, 2008 | Music

The volumes in both the “Tiger Man – An Alternate Anthology” and “Legendary Performer” series keep popping up. Elvis fans must be very rich as these bootleggers appear to be in it for the money only as they add nothing new to the material already available. I may as well review these two releases as a package to keep up. Volume 11 of the Tiger Man series has already been announced.

Design

Judging a CD by the cover one might even think that these CDs all come from the same source. The designs are very decent the information on the content provided is of the same basic level.

Content A Legendary Performer Volume 13

These two volumes contain fifty alternate takes and live performances; something old, something blue, but nothing new.

This time the compilation contains some gospel and Christmas material. And although informal recordings of our man singing some of his favourite music is interesting the informal sounding recordings of “”He” and “Hide Me Thou”, as featured on this compilation don’t match the overall sound spectrum. The same goes for the “Spanish Eyes” duet with Sherrill Nielsen as recorded in Palm Springs.

Some the most enjoyable tracks are the first take of “Bossa Nova Baby” on which you can hear the band and Elvis are still experimenting with the tempo. Tracks like “Seeing Is Believin’” or the light hearted “Sound Advice” are not featured on my play list, but nice to hear a again. This compilation end with an overdubbed version of the classic “Whole Lotta Shakin’Going On”. This rocker got three spins before I changed the CD.

Content Tiger Man – An Alternate Anthology Volume 10

The back cover mentions “more that 75 minutes pure listening pleasure”. This is in part true, but I guess that is a matter of taste. With “Something Old This” CD really starts for me, a great song and very well performed. It continues with “Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello”, another great country tune. It makes me wonder why Elvis isn’t a bigger name in country music; he laid down some great country performances.

“Wisdom Of The Ages” is one of those songs that has a nice lyric to a bad tune. It should sound far more bombastic like “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. After “Am I Ready?” this compilation really gets me going. With the upbeat “Fools Fall In Love” through “U.S. Male”, a rocking “Tiger Man”,

“Where Did They Go Lord”, informal versions of “I’ll Remember You”, “You Gave Me A Mountain”, undubbed versions of “She Wears My Ring” and Tom Jones’ ”Green Grass” and finally rocking live versions of “Mystery Train” with “Tiger Man” and “That’s All Right” (the cover mentions remastering of the audio, but the slipping tape has not been corrected) there is no complaining from my site content wise. The compilation ends with the Ocean’s Eleven version of “A Little Less Conversation” as copied from the movie itself (and edited amateurishly).

Conclusion

Yes again a positive review of these two volumes in these rip-off series. Perhaps it is me being too lazy to compile my own compilations that I enjoy these re-issues. Doing it myself I would probably end up playing the same set of all-time-favourites; many of them listed in our site’s own favourite song list. For some reason no bootlegger rose to the occasion and released that list of fan favourites as compiled by the fans themselves. At least that would save one fan the time to compile that great track list onto a CD.

Tracklist A Legendary Performer Volume 13

Bossa Nova Baby (Take 2) - Girl Happy (Take 13, Take 4 Of Ending) - He (Monovale Drive, Hollywood 1960 Autumn) - Heart Of Rome (Take 1) - Hi Heel Sneakers (Take 5) - Hide Thou Me (Februar 1966, Rocca Place, Hollywood) - Home Is Where The Heart Is (Take 7) - If I Loved You (Februar 1966, Rocco Place, Hollywood) - I´ll Be Home On Christmas Day (Take 9) - O Come All Ye Faithful (Take 2) - Reach Out To Jesus (Unkown Take) - Roustabout (Take 8) - Seeing Is Believing (Unkown Take) - Sound Advice (Take 5) - Spanish Eyes (Duet S. Nielsen April 1974 Palm Springs California) - Speedway (Master) - The First Noel (Remixed Version) - The Sound Of Your Cry (Take 3) - U. S. Male (Take 10) - Whole Lotta Shakin´ Goin´ On (Overdub)

Tracklisting Tiger Man – An Alternate Anthology Volume 10

Young And Beautiful (Alternate Take) - Summer Kisses, Winter Tears (Take 25) - Something Blue (Take 6) - Just Tell Her Jim Said Hallo (Take 3) - Wisdom OF The Ages (Take 9) - Am I Ready (Take 2) - Stop, Look And Listen (Take 4 + 5) - Fools Fall In Love (Uedited Master) - Come What May (Take 1) - Stay Away (Uedited, undubbed Master) - U. S. Male ("Fucked Up"-Version, Take 2) - Tiger Man (Original master From The "Elvis Sings Flaming Star" Album) - Onliy Believe (Undubbed Master) - Where Did They Go Lord (Undubbed Master) - The Impossible Dream (Live Version) - I´ll Remember You (Informal Recording) - You Gave Me A Mountain (Informal Recording) - Polk Salad Annie (Informal Recording) - I Can´t Stop Loving You (Informal Recording) - Blue Spanish Eyes (Undubbed Master) - She Wears My Ring (Undubbed Master) - Green, Green Grass Of Home (Undubbed Master) - I Can Help (Undubbed Master) - Mystery Train / Tiger Man (Live Version) - Danny Boy (Unedited Take 7) - That´s All Right (Live Verion) - Way Down (Part Of Take 1 + Take 2) - You Gave Me A Mountain (Live Version) - A Little Less Conversation (From The Motion Picture Soundtrack "Ocean´s Eleven")

Jerome wrote on January 31, 2008
no word on Reach Out To Jesus (Unkown Take) - Seeing Is Believing (Unkown Take)? still very curious..
Lex wrote on January 31, 2008
Yeah, Jerome... I agree, it would be easier if they mention from which CD they ripped it.