Fool And Boston Out

I am looking forward to The Fool Album...

Me, too..GREAT !

Will buy "Fool." Not the "Boston" soundboard.

Ah The Fool album, one of the crown jewels in the King's record catalog. NOT! An aptly named album.

Sorry guys, I received my copy of Boston '71 today and all I can say that it's a sonic D I S A S T E R ! I tried to compare it with Madison's "ONE NIGHT ONLY" and the result is tragic. The FTD is not listenable, the sound is muffled, distant and the output level is way too low... The too much noise reduction destroyed it completely. It sounds like a 5-th generation copy of "ONE NIGHT ONLY". It even lacks the d*mn power... Why did they even release the cd when they knew that the result is horrible? All in all, I spent my hard earned 25 euros on the useless cd, and the guys and girls behind the FTD label simply LIED when they mentioned the sound improvement. The so called booklet is just a joke compared to the 16-page Madison booklet. The presentation is average at best. How, for Christ's sake, in the 21th century with all the sound devices available someone can screw up the sound sooo badly??? Bloody amateurs! So once again, the sound is pure sh*t, and in my opinion it's not even good for the people who don't have the Madison bootleg. Absolutely not surprising though,as the sound engineer is LENE REIDEL!!! I'll try to sell my copy, but I wouldn't pay more than 10 euros for that c.r.a.p. And I'll think twice before I buy an FTD cd with the 'improved sound' next time. My advice to everyone - avoid it like the plague!

The Boston CD arrived to Germany yesterday and while i don't think that the sound is a "disaster", but i have to agree that the Madison release sounds slightly better and the packaging/design/booklet is also better (much-much better) of the bootleg. I have no reason to keep the FTD anymore. If anyone is interested in it,just send me a p.m. Thank you. Love,Erika

Sadly FTD couldn't outshine the old Madison bootleg. The sound is not better at all (it's rather worse) and the packaging is weak compared to the bootleg. Lene (or whoever else) used a strange sound effect and you can hear the unnatural,almost metallic flat sound. There are 2 mastering errors,too. Nothing serious,just clicks. Still in an ideal world (and for this high price) these things shouldn't happen. The "Fool" FTD is slightly better but the mix caused some disappointment here. For example take 4 of "Love me love the life I lead" that was first issued on "I sing all kinds" FTD is repeated here but this time James Burton's guitar is almost missing! For God's sake why does someone have to ruin everything? Burton's part on this track was a highlight for me. Who and why mixed it out?? Have mixed feelings about sound on "Reconsider Baby",too........ Elvis' voice has an echo feel to it and the stereo image is a little narrow. Better than it was on the old and terrible sounding MSG CD in 1991 but still not good enough. It's disappointing that there's nearly nothing new on CD 1. Also there are factual errors and misspellings in the booklet (as always). They stated that "Don't Think Twice" was recorded in march 1971 but as we all know it was recorded 2 months later in may! Nobody is perfect but these regular errors are unacceptable for this kind of price. When i pay $35 for a CD i expect perfect sound and perfect booklet. Unfortunately it rarely happens with the FTD releases... All in all,the "FOOL" FTD is not bad but it's nearly not as good as "GOOD TIMES" or "NOW" FTD's.

Doesn't surprise me at all. When I saw the track listing of this FTD re-release some time ago (incomplete How great thou art) I knew it was the same source as the power of Zhazam from 1997. But I will buy the other one, Fool very soon.

Sorry, the Zhazam boot is even longer ago..from 1996...After all these years such a quality release as this..and ask a slightly 21 euros for it...very sad.

Sure as hell glad I stuck to my personal rule about avoiding soundboards at all cost.

Got the 1971 soundboard on Thursday. Compared to "The Power Of Zhazam" the sound is much better,but it's not as good as on "One Night Only". I have a feeling that they copied the audio from "One Night Only" but someone changed a couple of things to hide it and made the sound somewhat different with the help of his/her computer. Plus there are a few clicks on it that weren't present on the Madison bootleg. It doesn't sound bad but doesn't sound right either. As a whole it's not a bad release,the sound is acceptable,the cover is O.K. and there's even a minimal booklet but if you already have the Madison CD then there's no reason to buy the FTD (unless you're a collector and you want everything). The Madison CD is better both in sound quality and artwork/booklet. It's a rarity now but if you're lucky you may get a copy for the usual FTD price (or a little more).

Received both releases 2 days ago. Boston 1971: No better than the Madison cd. The sound is similar but slightly worse with a few clicks here and there (good old Lene...) The front cover and booklet are much worse. They couldn't beat the classic Madison which is no surprise. For those who don't have the bootleg it's ok i guess. Fool album: It's a worthwhile release for the few new outtakes and false starts. The sound is basically good but not as good as on Raised on Rock and Good Times FTD's. The booklet is nice apart from the errors mentioned before.

What a let down! Just listened to the Boston FTD and it is NOT better sonically than the Madison CD! I hoped that they have a better source but they don't have. It's exactly the same incomplete source and the sound is not better at all. They just copied the Madison CD and issued the same material in much worse packaging and at double price. If somebody doesn't have the bootleg then the FTD is an essential buy but otherwise skip it!!! It's inferior compared to One Night Only. Once again FTD proved that they didn't put their hearts in the product. It's just an OK release,nothing more and nothing less. Sad,very sad. The same goes for the Fool album. Why they repeated the old Hawaiian tracks instead of releasing unreleased outtakes? And where is the 3 minutes and 20 seconds long complete,unedited master of Fool? Why did they omit it? It's only available on a bootleg. A missed opportunity.

Hi folks. Just ordered both because I want to. HangLoose, Your review is commented on another site! It is said that you have copied and pasted another persons review of Another CD!!!. I think this might be true because I have heard samples of Boston, and have the Power of Zhazam, and there is sound improvement indeed. Dont know what your agenda is, but it is not a positive one!!!

Please cool down,guys. Some of the opinions and reviews are too negative here. On the other hand it's a fact that the FTD is not better audiowise than the Madison release and the digipak and booklet are very inferior. Sadly i can't be positive regarding this release. For those who already have the bootleg it's pointless to buy it. Erika

Erika. Why do you say that? I have the bootleg but found sound improvement on FTD's version. IMO its a must have.

Just a couple of corrections to a previous posting. The "Elvis" LP (known these days as "Fool") was released in 1973, not 1971. The author states that "Steamroller Blues" should have been added to the FTD CD as a bonus track. In just two words, they have! Also on this posting, the "Speedway" out-takes are being asked for yet again. The session tapes have never been located and are not known to exist.

It's an injustice when people of Roger & EJ's position remain out of touch and unaccountable to the fans and collectors who support their product, especially when they fail to deliver on a product such as Boston '71. In this case they should give us replacement discs like they did with "So High". It's ok to call for Lene Reidels head but it's Ernst & Roger who ok the finished product. If this is a sign of things to come maybe EPE need a new FTD crew and I've been a patient supporter of the FTD bosses.

Speedway out-takes: The session tapes have never been located and are not known to exist. (??) Is that right? I don't think so. Some of the speedway outtakes are released back in 1998 in very good sound on the cool romeo bootleg cd box: Celluloid Rock Vol.2 - Disc 3 (!) Or am I one of the very few who own these wonderful cd boxes??

I believe all the versions of Speedway songs on Celluloid Rock are merely binaural mixes of the master takes. Except for the masters and already released alternate masters all the original tapes are lost. Not everything on Celluloid Rock was what they suggested it to be!

I'm really disappointed in Ernest Michael Yorgonsen and the FTD label. They just stole the audio from Madison and repackaged it in a very inferior style. What's to point to re-release the same audio in worse packaging? At least a little audio improvement or a thicker booklet would have been useful. But 4 years after the great Madison release they reissued an inferior copy. Guys,what's the point to do this? Other than milking the fans again... A total disgrace. Shame on you. I will never buy another FTD product again. This label is totally unrespectful towards the fans!

It will be the same with the Chicago shows in November. I don't think that FTD has the budged to restore 40 year old cassette tapes to a high quality level for a handful of fans. But some bootleggers have the heart and possibilities to spend quite some studio-time after hours and optimize these recordings. FTD is official. And official studio time is expensive. So, after hearing the Boston FTD I wish Ernst would have never stopped the bootleg-release of the Chicago shows by the bootleggers. How about kickin Lene Reidel out and employ some bootleggers Ernst?

I understand that a lot of people compare Boston with other cd releases before with the same show on it. But on the other hand I don't understand it because people who allready own the show on other releases could listen to samples of the ftd release that where on the internet. So don't complain. I also read here "I will never buy another FTD product again", c'mon man, that's a very big lie of you are not an real Elvis-fan. I thank FTD a lot for all the great releases until now (almost 100 cd !!) and I got them all, so if there are a few releases that are not that good, so don't buy them ! It's very easy ! I don't complain that often because we allready have a lot of great releases until now. Thanks to FTD ! So please FTD-team, let them coming, He touched me, Elvis in Concert, from Elvis in Memphis, EP Boulevard, the 2 Christmas albums and other great future releases !

The "Speedway" material on the "Celluloid Rocks" box set are not genuine out-takes, they are just re-mixes of the already released master and alternate master takes. All that appeared here from "Speedway" and remain unreleased are the count-in's, which obviously do exist on the master reel. As stated elsewhere, all of this information is carefully documented on Keith Flynn's site.

Thanks Tony for the info BUT we'd be more than happy even with only working parts or false starts/parts of rehearsing Elvis for KCousins, Roust and his five last movies, wouldn't we my friend. I'm sure that the Jordanaires have silently kept those outtakes/working outtakes in their library. The same for Chet Atkins for the 58 recordings. Maybe Jorgensen or Semon or Tunzi should approach them and pay them a good fee to release them so that all fans can enjoy our man. I know several people interested in this. If FTD has ...obtained...those Boston Concert tapes in an unorthodox way, then everything is possible I guess.

Nor do I like Briggs' piano work. Miss the master's hand, indeed. Also feel that the Jordanaires should have sang alone several of the beautiful songs on HGTArt (listening carefully now to those outtakes), next to the Imperials alone on some other ones; except for both on HGTArt title song where a choir fits in beautifully. In the Garden, Somebody and especially the gospel songs leave a lot to be desired. Sometimes I have feel that Elvis did UPSET the Jordanaires' feelings in bringing in Moscheo's men...After all the HisHinM album sold well and the vocal quality is of the very best you'll ever find in music business ! I'm looking forward to hear (and maybe buy?) the FOOL outtakes (hope the qualqity is better than the boots' CDs I already have for quite some time). The same here with Briggs. Why was Tony not around ? or Per ?But David???

The unreleased pieces I mentioned on master reels such as "Speedway" are not workparts or false starts, they are literally just the "1-2-3" count-in with some still having the engineer giving the take number. These were cut out (literally) of the session tape and compiled to make the master reel. The masters were always separated from the out-takes, this is how some of the "Follow That Dream" stereo masters cannot be found despite the existance of all of the out-takes. As to the whereabouts of these missing tapes, one thing we can be certain of is that The Jordanaires do not have them. A musician or backing singer would never be allowed access to the session tapes and in those very union orientated days, would probably not even be allowed to enter the control room. It is the same with Chet Atkins, the only thing he could have left the studio with after a session would have been an acetate, as would Elvis himself. The facts regarding the tapes recorded for movie soundtacks are that generally, only the master reel was handed over to RCA. The out-takes were either filed away, destroyed or thrown away. The out-takes that were filed away have made their way to BMG in recent years. Any tapes that were thrown out could have fallen into private hands, but as the missing tapes have never been bootlegged or offered for sale to BMG, I think their existance is doubtful. We have to be realistic and accept the probability that most of these missing tapes will never be found. We should be grateful for the huge amount of material that does exist from a time that spanned not much over twenty years.

I'm basically done with FTDs myself. With releases like this & the way overpriced King Creole book/cd they will not get my hard earned money again unless something truly special and worthy of the price comes along. Now lets thrown in the much anticiapted but not up to potential Elvis On Tour DVD/blu-ray and this has been some banner year for Elvis' 75th.

So all you guys seem to have every boot; good for you! I don't, so I appreciate this "awful" and "sonic disaster" of a release... FTD, thanks for your efforts!

Pietro S, well said. I agree 100% with your comments.

I'm glad for the FTD label. I love the bootlegs just as much as the next person but there are some that have no clue how to get them. Having that rare music for sale across the street from Graceland, being played on Elvis Radio is all good stuff for his legacy. I think the FTD label has done more for him then EPE. Look at the crap they make and try to push on us Elvis fans... Ducks, Potato heads.. the list goes on. I find some stuff on the FTD label as new and I'm all about new Elvis material. BTW... Are there outtakes to Return to Sender for all you experts!!??

EinVegas, the answer to your question about the existance of any "Return To Sender" out-takes is probably no. The majority of session tapes for "Girls! Girls! Girls!" album have never been located, and "Return To Sender" is among the missing tapes. What we do know is that the master was take two, but we do not know if the first take was a false start, an incomplete take or a complete take. We also do not know if any more takes beyond the master were attempted. That I would doubt, as everybody in the studio would have known a masterpiece when they heard it. All that has been bootlegged is the regular master take but without the fade making it a bit longer.

Talking about outtakes of Return To Sender which I never came across, Did anybody hear of Elvis doing Viva Las Vegas live in Vegas?

Isn't it time for BMG to re-release for the big public worldwide the great FOOL album+bonus hits of that time (72/73) together with the Bosten Garden Concert. A double CD that would sell very well, worldwide indeed. I will not buy these as I don't want to spend so much money for inferior EP product (that I already have on boots anyway...) But keep the others coming FTD: Promised L, EP Blvd, He touched me, MBlue--if possible all with bonus songs/hits of that era as many comments state (very creative ideas that Semon/Jorgensen duo should listen to).

The great Fool album? Selling well worldwide 37 years after it didn't sell worldwide? What are you on? You forgot to mention the Speedway, Kissin Cousins, and King Creole outtakes again, gellers one of your many aliases.

Elvis never performed "Viva Las Vegas" live at all, I don't think we even heard mention of a one-line performance. By that, I mean an occasion where Elvis just sang an impromptu line or two of a song, such as "Loving You" and "Surrender" which RCA managed to capture on tape in 1969.

I have received both CD's Regarding Boston: No complains at all, great show and great sound(I have the old capt. Marvel) and this release is a huge improvement. One must know this is taken from an MC soundboard recording and never( back then) considered to be released. Still this is a thrill show. The Fool: What a magnificent release, sound, music, art and back-stories are great. Dont think twice is a must have and you just got to have it. All the best.

I've just opened my package, and started out with the Boston CD. If you haven't got the boot, you really should dig this one out! It's a rare show, it's a great Elvis and it's one of the better sounding shows you can ever get across! I have both the boot and the FTD! Verdict: Don't miss this FTD if you don't already have the boot! I have both and the FTD is the winner imo! I'll keep 'em both! Now you go get the FTD!

Regarding the six songs mentioned below that we all eagerly await the release of out-takes of, the term used was correct. Not only are they missing from officially released and bootleg CDs, they are also missing from the whole world. None of the session tapes of any of these songs have ever been located, which makes them rather difficult to release. The mention of the FTD Boston CD being a waste of time just about sums up the views of many people here. They have the bootleg, so it is a waste of time, with no thought or consideration to the people who do not have the unofficial release.

I really love the Fool album. Don't think twice is really great ! Thanks FTD !

In my opinion the only thing, which makes it really worth to buy "fool" is, that we - finally - get the full 11:20 version of dont think twice (cool and easy and with his best voice ever); was waiting for it since Ernst mentioned it in his book, bought a second hand vinyl of "our memories vol. 2" to hear the 8 minutes there and was very upset, that they only gave us the 9 minutes on the FTD Now. Elvis should have finished his idea of a complete folk album, when listeners were in that mood...

I don't really understand the complaints about FTD "stealing" Madison's audio of the Boston show and putting it out as their own. Surely there's only one soundboard tape as there was physically only one soundboard at the concert and only one 60 minute tape which unfortunately ran out and was flipped over to the other side during How Great Thou Art resulting in an incomplete version. How are FTD meant to get an alternative soundboard of this show??? They're therefore working from the same source material. I don't know whether it's first generation or not but maybe it's all they could get their hands on. They have to pay for these shows from private owners to in most cases from what I understand. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the Madison release but not everybody can get their hands on a boot and they usually only print so many copies. So if FTD bring something out that's already been done by the bootleggers it's good news for the fans who can't or would rather not buy an unofficial Elvis album. From that point of view this release isn't a rip off or giving us something we already have. It's a great show and there hasn't been an official version of it before so it's fair game for an FTD release. Having said that, FTD don't operate in a vacuum so they can't ignore the high quality of releases like One Night Only because they're always going to be compared with them whether they like it or not. The Elvis community talks to each other on forums like this. But I'm sure if they could give us a different concert from 1971 or any other unavailable show they would. Because then they'd make more money from it. Which I hope they do cos I want them to stick around.

The FTD team can' t remake history, the "fool" album was a real album at that time, so today we have it in the classic album serie, i think it is a good idea to include the leftovers etc, ok it's more a compilation from 71 to 73 but pleasant to listen, the sound is really good except the aloha after show songs but the source is probably poor. The colors of the cover are a little too dark (Elvis' costume is beige) the booklet is nice except some pictures out of concept. I'm satisfied with this release, I like more the "Now" album but like I said before they can't remake history. I give a 4/5 to this release. I'm waiting for the 2 others classic albums from the 71 sessions ...thanks FTD

It's actually a completely different take of 'dont think twice', a complete new version - take 2, the other one is take 1! I love the Fool FTD. Only litte compaint is the sound level is a bit up and down from track to track, is that the mastering?

got both this week.....2 home runs for me.The Boston concert is awesome...arguably the best concert FTD they have released.The fool album sounds fantastic....one of the very best recently.I always loved the "NOW" and "fool" albums and both FTD releases are just fantastic.They might be the 2 best in the "classic album" series sound wise.AWESOME!!!!

Jay: Don't be surprised about the sound level errors,keep in mind that this release was mastered by the good old (and deaf) Lene Reidel :( It's not as bad as what she did on other FTD's like TODAY or UNCHAINED MELODY. Still it's a substandard work. Eric c: The Boston FTD may be good for those who missed the better sounding and better looking Madison release. If there is no horse, a donkey will do as well...