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For The First Time Ever By Joe Tunzi

September 01, 2001 | Book
This book from Joe Tunzi took a long time to to appear. It was originally supposed to come out with a CD with rare Elvis' songs. But due to legal problems regarding the (possible) release of the 'new Gladiators" DVD BMG didn't want to be involved in a release with somebody with whom EPE have a (legal) dispute. For now, we have the book. The book itself is a 96 pages soft cover book with both colour and black and white images. The images seem to come from 7 sources covering the years 1969 - 1977. The images are presented like in most of Tunzi's other books, so not many people will complain about that. There's not much text in the book, only when a new series images starts describing date and place. Unfortunately you can't rely on all information, since there are several mistakes. The " Fringe Suit" wasn't worn by Elvis in the afternoon, but in the evening show. And on page 88 there's an error, since Elvis wore the "Sundial Suit" most of '77. There also are a few date-errors like the ones credited as being from September 10, 1970 at Kiel Auditorium in St-Louis. Those are actually from one of the Miami, FL. show, Elvis had a different belt (Red Macramé) at the St-Louis concert and no curtain on the stage behind him. You see a difference in the printing between the colour and black and white images, somehow the colour ones look sharper. Since there are not too many colour images in the book, this is a minor.   The book comes in four versions. World Wide Elvis offers three box-sets-versions of this book with vinyl, promo CD's an photos. But there's nothing special there, all the additional items in the various box-sets seem to come from Paul Dowling's "attic". Apart from a handful, all images are of Elvis on stage covering the above mentioned period. This book started with a request on the world wide web in search for new photos of Elvis. Browsing through the book we see both known and new images. One of the best images in the book is on the cover, a catchy photo of Elvis from 1969. Conclusion For picture fans this book is a must, like most of Tunzi's books. It gives a nice overview of Elvis in the seventies and although the title "For the First Time Ever" doesn't fit every picture, you'll find enough "new" pictures. We'd settle for the book by itself, the box-set-versions don't offer any really interesting additions.

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