Post Description

A Dream Come True...

Post August 16th 1977, the market was flooded with bland and speculative recordings of Elvis. Previously released songs were rearranged by using new titles and album covers, where the reuse of old photographs belonged to the common practice. Several releases also suffered severely from the composition of the songs, which completely lacked an eloquent context. I would say that RCA showed a significantly poor judgment when it came to safeguarding Elvis’ legacy. To people who really loved the work of Elvis it seemed that commercial considerations came way ahead of the artistic concerns. In comparison to for instance The Beatles, it is only to acknowledge that Elvis' integrity as an artist was damaged by this hilarious releasestrategy.
Already in 1977, RCA began to combine well-known material of unreleased songs on the release “Welcome To My World”. In this collection they included a live version of “I Can’t Stop Loving You” from the unreleased afternoon show at Madison Square Garden in 1972. Fans then had to buy an album of songs they already got on other records to get access to this one track. This would be a trick RCA did several times after 1977. Many fans wrote articles in various Elvis-magazines and expressed frustration over this cynical policy. I don’t know if RCA took notice of these articles, but the releases seemed to improve as the 80s progressed though.
In 1987 Ernst Jorgensen from Denmark got the job with RCA to protect Elvis' musical legacy. Along with teammate Roger Semon, Jorgensen managed to make the Elvis catalogue the most perfected and best preserved in the market. The 90s gave the fans quality releases such as the three decennium box-sets (50s, 60s and 70s), and a number of other box-sets and collections that provided Elvis fans with fresh material. In addition, more or less the entire Elvis catalogue was re-mastered, which led to a revelation of sonic pleasure.
In 1999 the label “Follow That Dream” was established, named after Elvis’ ninth motion picture. This sub-label of Sony/BMG was launched as a record label for the dedicated Elvis fan. The mandate was to supplement the market with a catalogue that could be considered interesting for collectors of Elvis' music, including material that is not considered to be interesting in the same way to the mainstream listener. The releases from the “Follow That Dream” label is only marketed and sold to fans through the official Elvis fan clubs, selected web-shops anda small number of dealers.
From being an artist that was quite poorly treated by his record label, Elvis’ musical legacy has now become the best-preserved catalogue existing ... an Elvis collector’s dream come true!

FTD 103 - Elvis Sings Guitar Man, CD 1

Label: Sony Music Entertainment / Follow That Dream (FTD) 506020-975021 (Released: 2011)

Track listing:

01 - Guitar Man
02 - Tomorrow Is A Long Time
03 - Big Boss Man
04 - Love Letters
05 - Indescribably Blue
06 - Fools Fall In Love
07 - Hi-Heel Sneakers
08 - Down In the Alley
09 - Come What May
10 - Mine
11 - Just Call Me Lonesome
12 - You Don't Know Me
13 - Singing Tree
14 - I'll Remember You
15 - Beyond the Reef
16 - Guitar Man (Takes 1-2, 5)
17 - Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Takes 1-2)
18 - Big Boss Man (Take 2)
19 - Love Letters (Take 2)
20- Fools Fall In Love (Takes 1, 4)
21 - Hi-Heel Sneakers (Take 5)
22 - Down In The Alley (Take 1)
23 - Come What May (Take 2)
24 - Singing Tree (Take 1)
25 - I'll Remember You (Take 2)

CD 2:

01 - Down In The Alley (Takes 2-4)
02 - Down In The Alley (Take 6)
03 - Love Letters (Takes 3-7)
04 - Love Letters (Take 8)
05 - Beyond The Reef (Take 1 & Undubbed Master, Take 2)
06 - Come What May (Takes 3-4)
07 - Come What May (Take 6)
08 - Come What May (Take 7)
09 - Indescribably (Take 1)
10 - I'll Remember You (Unedited Master)
11 - Guitar Man (Takes 7, 9)
12 - Guitar Man (Take 10)
13 - Guitar Man (Take 11 & Unedited Undubbed Master, Take 12)
14 - Big Boss Man (Takes 1, 3-5)
15 - Big Boss Man (Takes 7, 9)
16 - Singing Tree (Takes 2, 4)
17 - Singing Tree (Take 8)
18 - Singing Tree (Take 10 & Alternate Master, Take 13)
19 - Just Call Me Lonesome (Takes 3-4)
20 - Just Call Me Lonesome (Takes 5-6)
21 - Hi-Heel Sneakers (Takes 1, 6)
22 - Hi-Heel Sneakers (Unedited Master, Take 7)
23 - You Don't Know Me (Take 2)
24 - Singing Tree (Remake, Takes 1-3)

Incl. covers

"Notes: This is a special collector edition housed In a 7" (17,5 cm) triple-fold-out cover. Includes a 12 pages booklet with "Behind The Scens" facts and info's about the "cancelled session"

Liner Notes: BEHIND THE SCENES
Few will argue that the mid-sixties were the most troubled part of Elvis Presley's recording career. The many movie soundtracks seemed to offer fewer and smaller hits, songs that made more sense in the movies than on records, and performances of little imagination by Elvis and his bands. His"real" recording career had been on hiatus sinceJune 1963 with the exception of just three new studio recordings over a three-year period two of them re-recordings of songs from the May 1963 sessions. Seemingly totally out of touch with new trends in music, Elvis was only heard through the movie soundtracks and a series of singles culled from the vaults or previous album releases.

When by the spring of 1966 Elvis decided to get back in the game, he chose a repertoire that was far from his glorious pest as a rock & roll singer. Three ballads were released as singles: "Love Letters," "If Every Day Was Like Christmas" and "Indescribably Blue", and in spite of the great performances, none of them made a real difference to a world that was celebrating new artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan. Elvis did not record enough for a new pop album, but instead chose to prioritizerecording a new gospel album. HOW GREAT THOU ART turned out to be one his major artistic achievements. Something that went by mostly unnoticed at the time, at least until the album won a Grammy in early 1968.

The May/June sessions of 1966 produced a handful of additional cuts. "Fools Fall In Love" and "Come What May", two of the singles b-sides, were enjoyable, but not significant covers of fifties R&B material, as was the raunchy "Down In The Alley." "Down In The Alley" was one of the three cuts from the sessions that were added as bonus songs to the above-average movie soundtrack Spinout, simply to make up for the fact that the soundtrack had only nine songs. Another one was the beautiful song "I'll Remember You", but it was the last of that trio of songs, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Tomorrow Is A Long Time", that held the promise of a "new" Elvis Presley emerging. lt was a signal that Elvis was indeed aware of what was going on. His home recordings from the spring of 1966 include Elvis and friends singing Bob Dylan material, most likely inspired by Peter, Paul and Mary's versions, but "Tomorrow 1s A Long Time" Elvis found on an album by folk singer Odetta.

More than a year elapsed before Elvis took another stab at updating his musical stance. The goal was really to supply extra material for the Clambake soundtrack album. Sessions were first lined up in August of 1967 in Los Angeles. Legend has it that a car accident involving one of Elvis employees postponed the sessions and they were rescheduled for September at RCA's studios in Nashville, but researcher Bill Bram has investigated this story, only to find out that the accident took place in 1963, and leaves us with no explanation as to why the sessions were postponed. None of the songs from the Clambake soundtrack had hit potential, so part of the agenda was to cut bonus material strong enough to be released as singles. Elvis had heard country singer/guitarist/songwriter Jerry Reed's record "Guitar Man" and thought it was great. Elvis' new A&R man Felton Jarvis, introduced as Chet Atkins' replacement at the May1966 sessions, got hold of Reed and brought him to the sessions (straight from a fishing trip according to legend). The September sessions produced several great performances, but it was with the first two songs, with Reed on guitar, that Elvis brought something new and inspired to his artistry. They started with "Guitar Man" and followed up with a reworking of Jimmy Reed's 1961 R&B hit "Big Boss Man", both gutsy performances merging R&B and country like Elvis had done back at Sun, yet creating a new contemporary sound, like nothing he had done before. Both tracks, as well as three others from these sessions were included on the CLAMBAKE album, and with "Big Boss Man" first, and then "Guitar Man", two singles were released to boost the album's sales. However, neither singles made great chart impact, with respective #38 and #43 placings on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album barely fared better (#40) on Billboard Top LP's chart than it's movie soundtrack predecessor (#47).

This is an album that would