Young Ernst talks about "On Tour" tapes in EMM

[samses]

As I said, both RCA and MGM recorded the shows on 16-track. MGM own their tapes and RCA own their tapes. MGM may of course not release the audio on their tapes without consent from RCA.

no they did not NOT PROPERLY !!
just throwing that statement out there doesnt make it true - its like the "Tiger man " acetate saga ! i dont care if erik rasmusen or someone told you that over a beer , thats not proof!

what & where is your evidence for this?? lets just say you are right anyway, it doesnt make the slightest difference to the FTD release anyway !

ive already explained this but lets cover it again ...

There were 11 french Eclair lightweight (ie:handheld) cameras supposedly running on staggered schedules (of 11minutes each) so they didnt miss a song -
however we know thats not the case but that was just the logistics of such a complicated set up

Those cameramen were being directed in the moment by abel and/or adidge -
everyone was wearing NASA (yes! apparently) headsets to communicate -
this WAS fed into swiss tape recorders (what size tape i have no idea)
and i already stated before the evidence of THIS is especially very clear during the rehearsals when you hear exactly these kind of instructions such as " billy bob camera 2 drums " ..
" brad hush little baby cut to B track" - these are not verbatim but im sure you get my point

Those are you MGM recordings, as is the Buffalo rehearsal which sounds like crap!

The FOUR shows were then captured by the wally Heider 16 track mobile unit run by al pachucki as always !!!

case closed you honour !

According to the documentation, you´re wrong. There were two separate 16-track recordings made of the four shows.

[pmp]

I don’t understand the “lukewarm” reception theory for TTWII. Warner dropped the ball, Big Time! First they aired it for free on TCM before release! Then they announced 4 songs would be cut from the home video release and even though it was promised, no bonus material would be released either! If that wasn’t enough the VHS, already a dying format at this point was released on time, while the DVD was pushed back. This was just piss poor Marketing, but because the fans didn’t shut up and kiss their asses by buying whatever they threw at us, it “sold poorly”. Funny, not poorly enough to have several theatre showings or re-issues though. This was Warner’s screw up, but that apparently is the fans fault. It should be known, RCA / BMG got this one right during this time!

No, they didn't drop the ball. If anything, they were ahead of their time in showing the film on TV before releasing it on home video. Now, it's par for the course. Even in 2000 it wasn't abnormal. One of the biggest concert events of 1990 was The Three Tenors concert at the World Cup. It was shown on TV in July 1990, and it was released on VHS not long after. The VHS/DVD went 5xplatinum in the USA. So did the next concert in 1994. Even the 1998 concert went gold. THEY weren't affected by showing them on TV first. And nowadays, it is perfectly common for a TV series to stop airing in one month and for a home video to be released the next. Likewise, TV will show an anniversary airing of a classic film, but it doesn't affect the sales of a new anniversary edition on blu ray.

The TCM airing is just a deflection from fans. As I have said before, in the UK I sat in the cinema ALONE. You can't blame THAT on the TCM airing in the States, or for the dismal business the film did in any other country.

Well if you actually read what I wrote you would see I wasn’t blaming the early showing on tv! TCM was a fairly new station at the time and a lot of people didn’t have it! Try re-reading what I wrote! Not sure about overseas, but here in the US there was very little promotion for the movie at the theatres and you had to find a theatre showing it! The release schedule of VHS and DVD being out of sync, along with removal of 4 songs and the bonus footage WERE the main reasons it did not do that well, at first! Warner did drop the ball, plain and simple. With the 4 songs and bonus footage, along with releasing the VHS / DVD on their scheduled release date, probably would’ve given different results, but we’ll never know!

To my knowledge, no songs were cut from the video release that were in the cinema version of the special edition.

[pmp]

By the way, I find it strange that my FECC friends seem confident that Ernst has all the "On Tour" tapes and will release them next year. I still believe that there are issues we don't know about. Twenty years after they were recorded, Ernst confessed that they didn't have all the tapes, and like I said he's hinted at this in recent times too - either that he doesn't have them, or that he can't release them. Hopefully I'm wrong. I guess we'll find out eventually.

I've heard someplace that MGM owns the tapes, and not Sony. Could that be true?

The shows were recorded on multi-track by both RCA and MGM. MGM probably own their tapes.

I don't agree. If MGM/WB owned the tapes, then there would have been an acknowledgement in the Close Up box, thanking them for their co-operation. There wasn't.

As I said, both RCA and MGM recorded the shows on 16-track. MGM own their tapes and RCA own their tapes. MGM may of course not release the audio on their tapes without consent from RCA.

And where is this info from?

From a reliable source and documentation.

If you can't back up an outlandish claim with a decent source, people are not going to believe you.

[samses]

By the way, I find it strange that my FECC friends seem confident that Ernst has all the "On Tour" tapes and will release them next year. I still believe that there are issues we don't know about. Twenty years after they were recorded, Ernst confessed that they didn't have all the tapes, and like I said he's hinted at this in recent times too - either that he doesn't have them, or that he can't release them. Hopefully I'm wrong. I guess we'll find out eventually.

I've heard someplace that MGM owns the tapes, and not Sony. Could that be true?

The shows were recorded on multi-track by both RCA and MGM. MGM probably own their tapes.

I don't agree. If MGM/WB owned the tapes, then there would have been an acknowledgement in the Close Up box, thanking them for their co-operation. There wasn't.

As I said, both RCA and MGM recorded the shows on 16-track. MGM own their tapes and RCA own their tapes. MGM may of course not release the audio on their tapes without consent from RCA.

And where is this info from?

From a reliable source and documentation.

If you can't back up an outlandish claim with a decent source, people are not going to believe you.

You will have to wait for the book until next year. I have the documentation that says that there were two separate 16-track recordings made of the four shows. I have promised not to share it and I keep my promises.

[Tornado]

As long as I am not forced to buy one, two or three books to get unreleased Shows by Sony, I would be very happy.
Otherwise I will skip it. I do not start - after being a fan since 45 years - collecting photos or books.

So would I. Let me get my CD without being forced to buy expensive books. I listen often to my CD but rarely look to my books .

[Sugarfoot]

If you can't back up an outlandish claim with a decent source, people are not going to believe you.

You will have to wait for the book until next year. I have the documentation that says that there were two separate 16-track recordings made of the four shows. I have promised not to share it and I keep my promises.

I have also seen this documentation and can confirm that's what it says.

[Kingtiger0321]

I don’t understand the “lukewarm” reception theory for TTWII. Warner dropped the ball, Big Time! First they aired it for free on TCM before release! Then they announced 4 songs would be cut from the home video release and even though it was promised, no bonus material would be released either! If that wasn’t enough the VHS, already a dying format at this point was released on time, while the DVD was pushed back. This was just piss poor Marketing, but because the fans didn’t shut up and kiss their asses by buying whatever they threw at us, it “sold poorly”. Funny, not poorly enough to have several theatre showings or re-issues though. This was Warner’s screw up, but that apparently is the fans fault. It should be known, RCA / BMG got this one right during this time!

No, they didn't drop the ball. If anything, they were ahead of their time in showing the film on TV before releasing it on home video. Now, it's par for the course. Even in 2000 it wasn't abnormal. One of the biggest concert events of 1990 was The Three Tenors concert at the World Cup. It was shown on TV in July 1990, and it was released on VHS not long after. The VHS/DVD went 5xplatinum in the USA. So did the next concert in 1994. Even the 1998 concert went gold. THEY weren't affected by showing them on TV first. And nowadays, it is perfectly common for a TV series to stop airing in one month and for a home video to be released the next. Likewise, TV will show an anniversary airing of a classic film, but it doesn't affect the sales of a new anniversary edition on blu ray.

The TCM airing is just a deflection from fans. As I have said before, in the UK I sat in the cinema ALONE. You can't blame THAT on the TCM airing in the States, or for the dismal business the film did in any other country.

Well if you actually read what I wrote you would see I wasn’t blaming the early showing on tv! TCM was a fairly new station at the time and a lot of people didn’t have it! Try re-reading what I wrote! Not sure about overseas, but here in the US there was very little promotion for the movie at the theatres and you had to find a theatre showing it! The release schedule of VHS and DVD being out of sync, along with removal of 4 songs and the bonus footage WERE the main reasons it did not do that well, at first! Warner did drop the ball, plain and simple. With the 4 songs and bonus footage, along with releasing the VHS / DVD on their scheduled release date, probably would’ve given different results, but we’ll never know!

To my knowledge, no songs were cut from the video release that were in the cinema version of the special edition.

4 songs where cut from the tv airing, that was to mirror the home video! Plus bonus clips. All were announced by Warner, so regardless of it was in the theatrical release or not is irrelevant. The fact that the did a full reversal on their own press release says a lot! Face it Warner screwed up on the release. From EPE’s site in October of 2000

"ELVIS,THAT'S THE WAY IT IS" VIDEO/DVD

The TCM premiere of the film was originally scheduled for January 8, 2001 and the video/DVD release was orginally scheduled for January 9, 2001. Both have been delayed for one week to accommodate some additional promotional work that has been planned. The TCM premiere will now be January 15 and the video/DVD release will now be January 16.

Due to unresolved legal complications, the 60 minutes of additional footage planned for inclusion in the DVD will not be part of the 2001 DVD release. We have no details to share regarding this situation other than to tell you that none of these complications involve Graceland/EPE. If ever there is anything to report regarding the status and future of this additional footage we will post information in our news and distribute it via our e-newsletter service. In the meantime we continue to rejoice in the new edition of the film - what it will mean to all of us who will enjoy it and all that it will do to introduce Elvis to new audiences in an exceptionally wonderful way.”

[drjohncarpenter]

If you can't back up an outlandish claim with a decent source, people are not going to believe you.

You will have to wait for the book until next year. I have the documentation that says that there were two separate 16-track recordings made of the four shows. I have promised not to share it and I keep my promises.

I have also seen this documentation and can confirm that's what it says.

Outlandish! Both of you!!

[drjohncarpenter]

They didn't seem to have any problems in releasing a set that contained 11 shows that were basically all the same (Live 1969).

And yet ... they were not.

[Rockin_John]

Face it Warner screwed up on the release. From EPE’s site in October of 2000

They did, but it's not why it didn't sell enough. There isn't that much interest in the general public. I don't think the "average Joe" even was aware there was bonus material intended.

[pmp]

I don’t understand the “lukewarm” reception theory for TTWII. Warner dropped the ball, Big Time! First they aired it for free on TCM before release! Then they announced 4 songs would be cut from the home video release and even though it was promised, no bonus material would be released either! If that wasn’t enough the VHS, already a dying format at this point was released on time, while the DVD was pushed back. This was just piss poor Marketing, but because the fans didn’t shut up and kiss their asses by buying whatever they threw at us, it “sold poorly”. Funny, not poorly enough to have several theatre showings or re-issues though. This was Warner’s screw up, but that apparently is the fans fault. It should be known, RCA / BMG got this one right during this time!

No, they didn't drop the ball. If anything, they were ahead of their time in showing the film on TV before releasing it on home video. Now, it's par for the course. Even in 2000 it wasn't abnormal. One of the biggest concert events of 1990 was The Three Tenors concert at the World Cup. It was shown on TV in July 1990, and it was released on VHS not long after. The VHS/DVD went 5xplatinum in the USA. So did the next concert in 1994. Even the 1998 concert went gold. THEY weren't affected by showing them on TV first. And nowadays, it is perfectly common for a TV series to stop airing in one month and for a home video to be released the next. Likewise, TV will show an anniversary airing of a classic film, but it doesn't affect the sales of a new anniversary edition on blu ray.

The TCM airing is just a deflection from fans. As I have said before, in the UK I sat in the cinema ALONE. You can't blame THAT on the TCM airing in the States, or for the dismal business the film did in any other country.

Well if you actually read what I wrote you would see I wasn’t blaming the early showing on tv! TCM was a fairly new station at the time and a lot of people didn’t have it! Try re-reading what I wrote! Not sure about overseas, but here in the US there was very little promotion for the movie at the theatres and you had to find a theatre showing it! The release schedule of VHS and DVD being out of sync, along with removal of 4 songs and the bonus footage WERE the main reasons it did not do that well, at first! Warner did drop the ball, plain and simple. With the 4 songs and bonus footage, along with releasing the VHS / DVD on their scheduled release date, probably would’ve given different results, but we’ll never know!

To my knowledge, no songs were cut from the video release that were in the cinema version of the special edition.

4 songs where cut from the tv airing, that was to mirror the home video! Plus bonus clips. All were announced by Warner, so regardless of it was in the theatrical release or not is irrelevant. The fact that the did a full reversal on their own press release says a lot! Face it Warner screwed up on the release. From EPE’s site in October of 2000

"ELVIS,THAT'S THE WAY IT IS" VIDEO/DVD

The TCM premiere of the film was originally scheduled for January 8, 2001 and the video/DVD release was orginally scheduled for January 9, 2001. Both have been delayed for one week to accommodate some additional promotional work that has been planned. The TCM premiere will now be January 15 and the video/DVD release will now be January 16.

Due to unresolved legal complications, the 60 minutes of additional footage planned for inclusion in the DVD will not be part of the 2001 DVD release. We have no details to share regarding this situation other than to tell you that none of these complications involve Graceland/EPE. If ever there is anything to report regarding the status and future of this additional footage we will post information in our news and distribute it via our e-newsletter service. In the meantime we continue to rejoice in the new edition of the film - what it will mean to all of us who will enjoy it and all that it will do to introduce Elvis to new audiences in an exceptionally wonderful way.”

And that quote says nothing about four songs being removed at the last minute from the main feature. And, as we know from EOT, a song that doesn't have clearance for home video probably still has it for TV showings. We know this is/was the case with the opening of EOT, and also the songs that were not included in a home video release of Aloha.

I see nothing above to say that songs were cut from the special edition of the film? What were these songs? Are you talking of I Just Can't Believin' etc? If you are, then you are mistaken, because the live version was not "cut" from the special edition, it was never intended to be in it in the first place.

[Kingtiger0321]

Face it Warner screwed up on the release. From EPE’s site in October of 2000

They did, but it's not why it didn't sell enough. There isn't that much interest in the general public. I don't think the "average Joe" even was aware there was bonus material intended.

Valid point, but it also didn’t make the dedicated fans run right out and buy it either.

[Kingtiger0321]

4 songs where cut from the tv airing, that was to mirror the home video! Plus bonus clips. All were announced by Warner, so regardless of it was in the theatrical release or not is irrelevant. The fact that the did a full reversal on their own press release says a lot! Face it Warner screwed up on the release. From EPE’s site in October of 2000

"ELVIS,THAT'S THE WAY IT IS" VIDEO/DVD

The TCM premiere of the film was originally scheduled for January 8, 2001 and the video/DVD release was orginally scheduled for January 9, 2001. Both have been delayed for one week to accommodate some additional promotional work that has been planned. The TCM premiere will now be January 15 and the video/DVD release will now be January 16.

Due to unresolved legal complications, the 60 minutes of additional footage planned for inclusion in the DVD will not be part of the 2001 DVD release. We have no details to share regarding this situation other than to tell you that none of these complications involve Graceland/EPE. If ever there is anything to report regarding the status and future of this additional footage we will post information in our news and distribute it via our e-newsletter service. In the meantime we continue to rejoice in the new edition of the film - what it will mean to all of us who will enjoy it and all that it will do to introduce Elvis to new audiences in an exceptionally wonderful way.”
[/quote]

And that quote says nothing about four songs being removed at the last minute from the main feature. And, as we know from EOT, a song that doesn't have clearance for home video probably still has it for TV showings. We know this is/was the case with the opening of EOT, and also the songs that were not included in a home video release of Aloha.

I see nothing above to say that songs were cut from the special edition of the film? What were these songs? Are you talking of I Just Can't Believin' etc? If you are, then you are mistaken, because the live version was not "cut" from the special edition, it was never intended to be in it in the first place.
[/quote]

Sorry bud, I am not mistaken, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, “Sweet Caroline”, “Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Movie closer), and “I just can’t help Believin’” were all supposed to be in the HOME VIDEO edition of the film. Yes HOME VIDEO Version. Nowhere in any of my posts did I say theatrical version. Also I don’t think it was made clear if those songs were supposed to be in with the bonus tracks or where they were on the tv screening.

The quote I posted was to point out changes were already being made before it’s debut anywhere!

[Z0S0]

As I said, both RCA and MGM recorded the shows on 16-track. MGM own their tapes and RCA own their tapes. MGM may of course not release the audio on their tapes without consent from RCA.

From a reliable source and documentation.

OK ! well i think youre wrong because RCA i assume were paying for the AUDIO recording, if they DIDNT and they convinced or MGM offered to pay for the recording then i dont think RCA would have also paid for a recording - now i dont know the set up, however if you look at the truck below it was either this or 1 just like it i imagine & it LOOKS like it was possible to have multiple tapes running
HOWEVER
i would presume that would be to start 1 when another ended therefore not missing any songs !

i dont think RCA ever recorded a show twice ie: a master & a back up tape - there is nothing to support this however it COULD be possible !

usually the Doc would be crying out for EVIDENCE - ie: an MGM TAPE LEGEND !!!
but then he doesnt when it suits him, eg: the tiger man acetate !

i still think youre wrong - i dont think there are TWO separate complete 16 track recordings of all FOUR known shows !! THATS what im arguing over ! i know there was MGM recordings on the swiss tapes as i explained - that is NOT the same thing!

BUT ...... if you ARE correct and there IS documentation then im confident David will find it & prove one of us right - if you are correct then ill apologise and im happy to eat humble pie !
i dont know for a fact ! im speculating using common sense and what i know about LIVE recordings throughout the 70's !!!

as for the "Failure " of TTWii S.E back in 2000 - im in the camp that thinks the TCM airing HURT sales - not encouraged them, i am & was in the UK and i recorded it on VHS , watched it at 5am before going to work and didnt buy the DVD for at least another 2 years !!

SHANE : just cant help believing - WAS due to be an EXTRA as part of the 4 BONUS songs - not in the movie itself, along with "ive lost you" and the other 2 !!

whoever owns the publishing on "are you lonesome tonight " suddenly wised up after the Lost Performances and asked for a kings ransom by all accounts !
Ernst was quoted and im happy to post it (though piers bagley should probably be asked first)
"some people ask for $1000 , others ask for a million " !!!!

like EMJEL said, if "elvis is back" in 1960 & "From Elvis in Memphis " - no doubt his 2 best studio albums of the 60's - if not infact his whole career - if they only had lukewarm sales at the time with elvis very much the epitome of the Zeitgeist !
what chance honestly would anything ON TOUR achieve today ! no one cares man !

[Z0S0]

Maybe it does, but then Elvis released 5 times as many albums as The Beatles, so they are hardly in a position to release the kind of numbers of albums that FTD have with Elvis. Soundboards and all that kind of stuff were not around in the 60s.

actually Emjel, i dont know if you collect Beatles Boots or mess with the TORRENT world but i Do believe the Beatles we're the most bootlegged band at one time !

I personally have some EXCELLENT LIVE shows from 63 - 65 of them, now i believe most are FM/Radio sourced but some are labelled as "soundboards " and they sound fantastic !
The Anthology triple set was a dip in the ocean !

Theres tons of studio out-takes, the john barrett tapes etc etc,

have you made your way through the 36 disc set of the "let it be "/Get Back recordings cos i did - it wasnt easy lol

Theres even hamburg shows out there - though not sbd

just a random example below - labelled as SBD though in reality it could be a TV broadcast source or radio
but regardless the BEATLES could easily have an FTD style collectors label and the stones do a great job with their "FROM THE VAULT " stuff - i urge anyone to give "BRUSSELLS 73" a spin

https://abootlegsups.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-musical-express-poll-winners-concert.html

[pmp]

SHANE : just cant help believing - WAS due to be an EXTRA as part of the 4 BONUS songs - not in the movie itself, along with "ive lost you" and the other 2 !!

Excuse the snip of your post. Indeed, but as we know that wasn't meant to be in the SE film itself. That in itself was a strange decision - seeing Elvis rehearse it, and then not show the very well-known live performance. But what seems apparent is that the live IJCHB wasn't not included due to rights issues, because the rights would need to have been paid for the rehearsal footage. And, to be fair, if Turner (or whoever it was in 2000) was paying out the money for the film to be reworked, then rights costs probably weren't an issue anyway, given how small a part of the budget they would have been.

My biggest problem with the SE is that it has done the one thing it should never have done: superceded and pretty much replaced the original 1970 movie, which is now shunted into a corner as an SD bonus feature, and in most cases will not be the film shown if ever there are cinema showings. This may have happened almost by accident - just as the RPO recordings have, very quietly, become the versions of Elvis songs you most often hear if you ask Spotify or Amazon Music or whatever to shuffle Elvis songs when streaming. That the original TTWII isn't on blu ray in HD is close to criminal.

[davide]

setb.png

ee.jpg

See some information from my TTWII concerts book, revealing how MGM and RCA worked together. Sony have copies of MGM tapes.

David

[Z0S0]

See some information from my TTWII concerts book, revealing how MGM and RCA worked together. Sony have copies of MGM tapes.

David

damn it, i really need to read those books , i should stop posting here and go read them !
they are sadly in a pile with many others and im trying to get to the jimmy page anthology book i just got too!

so "samses" is correct then ?

was that the exact truck used on the april tour too ??

Thankyou David, Humble pie it is then lol

[emjel]

Maybe it does, but then Elvis released 5 times as many albums as The Beatles, so they are hardly in a position to release the kind of numbers of albums that FTD have with Elvis. Soundboards and all that kind of stuff were not around in the 60s.

actually Emjel, i dont know if you collect Beatles Boots or mess with the TORRENT world but i Do believe the Beatles we're the most bootlegged band at one time !

I personally have some EXCELLENT LIVE shows from 63 - 65 of them, now i believe most are FM/Radio sourced but some are labelled as "soundboards " and they sound fantastic !
The Anthology triple set was a dip in the ocean !

Theres tons of studio out-takes, the john barrett tapes etc etc,

have you made your way through the 36 disc set of the "let it be "/Get Back recordings cos i did - it wasnt easy lol

Theres even hamburg shows out there - though not sbd

just a random example below - labelled as SBD though in reality it could be a TV broadcast source or radio
but regardless the BEATLES could easily have an FTD style collectors label and the stones do a great job with their "FROM THE VAULT " stuff - i urge anyone to give "BRUSSELLS 73" a spin

https://abootlegsups.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-musical-express-poll-winners-concert.html

I’ve got loads of boots and some cassettes, but I’m not sure a lot of their TV and radio shows are actually owned by EMI/Apple etc in the same way as Sony own a lot of the Elvis soundboards. Yes, there probably could have been enough material for a collectors label, but I doubt the remaining members or their estates would sanction such releases anyhow.
The group have always taken interest if not initial control over their releases and it was only through some would say naivety at the outset when they first signed with EMI that allowed different territories to release a variety of records against their wishes, although of course back in ‘62, they had no idea how big they would become. The story goes that because they were so unhappy with the way Capitol treated and released their albums that when Capitol wanted to release Yesterday & Today, another hatchet job that comprised tracks from Help, Rubber Soul and Revolver, they wanted the sleeve with the butchers photo on the sleeve in a kind of protest as they considered that Capitol Records butchered their albums. But once their contract came up for renewal in ‘67, that changed and territories across the world were not allowed to issue random releases unless they were given consent by the group.
I often wonder had Elvis lived whether so much of the stuff that has been put out in the last twenty years would have seen the light of day.

[Robert]

See some information from my TTWII concerts book, revealing how MGM and RCA worked together. Sony have copies of MGM tapes.

David

Richmond import liner notes say RCA got 8 track (safety) copies, and MGM owned the 16 track tapes made by WH company.

That may explain the inferior San Antonio sound, released on Close up?

[pmp]

I know people who didn't buy it because they taped it off the TV and they yanked the bonus songs to make matters worse.

And then when they released the bonus songs, people moaned they weren't in good enough quality.

People always taped stuff on TV rather than buy a video. That was always going on. It wasn't something unusual for this film. But any Elvis fan would have wanted the film on DVD, not recorded off the telly on a videotape that would wear out.

[Mister Mike]

They didn't seem to have any problems in releasing a set that contained 11 shows that were basically all the same (Live 1969).

And yet ... they were not.

Similar then?

[Mike in New Jersey]

like i said, i dont really know what your argument is??? that it should be retail -to lacklustre sales??? and it should be optional to have a book or not?? I already agreed with you there!!

I'll make it easy:

Your comment:

There will be a book because after 50 years its a big deal and it deserves the appropriate FTD DELUXE treatment

My comment in reply:

If the 50th anniversary was that big of a deal, this would be a boxed set at retail level, as has been seen with the TV show of 1968, the live shows of 1969, the live shows of 1970, and Nashville 1970. And yet it's tucked away on FTD. While the book might be masterful, the reason for pairing unreleased audio to books is to suck as much money out of fans as possible. And I don't mean to denigrate anything that David produces, but the truth is that many would not buy the book if it didn't have the audio with it. And it's not a cheap book. It's a cynical ploy, and that's very sad both for fans and for David's work which doesn't deserve to be linked to such an exercise.

In other words, this is getting the FTD treatment because it's seemingly NOT as big a deal in the Elvis world as the 1968 TV show, the 1969 live performances, the 1970 live performances, or the Nashville sessions.

I think throwing away an unreleased multi-track complete concert at this stage in the game on FTD (with or without a book) is a rather sad situation. Yes, they did that with some of the 1969 and 1970 shows, but they had been well-represented at the time at retail level by Collector's Gold, In Person, the 3-disc TTWII set, Live in Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas (2 disc live set) etc. That's not the case here with On Tour. One concert was issued twenty years ago. That's it.

It seems utterly unthinkable that Sony saw the Jungle Room Sessions and Stax as worthy of retail-level releases exploring those sessions in detail (not to mention the Today sessions and the tours that followed), but not the On Tour shows of 1972.

We SHOULD be expecting something like a four disc collection at retail level - with a couple of concerts, a disc of rehearsals, and a final disc of the mock session and maybe the March studio recordings. We SHOULDN'T be expecting these long-unreleased concerts to be released with a book many people don't want, on a label the general public has never heard of, and at a price many fans can't afford.

While I don't hold these concerts in as such high regard as many here, the truth is clear: these are the last complete Elvis shows on multitrack in the vault. And it's a pitiful situation if Sony can't/couldn't make a retail release built around that fact.

I suppose I question I'd interject with is this... Are we absolutely sure that there will be no retail release of this material by Sony? Absolutely sure? It seems to me a package of the concerts (with limited rehearsal material included) at retail, along with the full boat of rehearsal and mock session material along with a book for FTD is what I'd expect. If not, then that's a shame.

I guess you didn’t read a couple of my posts above where I wrote that it is Sony’s intention to release a cd and vinyl on mainstream. Of course that could change between now and then, and the idea could get cancelled but I doubt it will go above a single CD set otherwise it would encroach too much on the sales of the FTD release.

Yes I did read that, so I'd amend my question to "next to no retail release?". Really one concert and that's it? Is this set in stone? I guess we'll just have to wait and see for the eventual official announcements.

[drjohncarpenter]

And yet ... they were not.

Similar then?

Sure. "Inherit The Wind" is certainly easy to mistake for "Blue Suede Shoes."

[drjohncarpenter]

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See some information from my TTWII concerts book, revealing how MGM and RCA worked together. Sony have copies of MGM tapes.

David

Thanks for this.