Bootleg material in 1971

[MikeFromHolland]

In The Elvis Files Vol 6, I read on page 84 ( in a Strictly Elvis article about Elvis in Louisville in November 1971) that "there was quite a bit of 'bootleg' Elvis material being offered outside the hall". What bootleg material was available in 1971? Does anyone know?

[hm80ep]

Was it unlicensed merchandise that was being offered for sale? Or maybe the 'Please Release Me' LP?

[MikeFromHolland]

Who knows? The article doesn't mention it...

[superrg]

There, most likely, were no vinyl bootlegs on offer for the following reasons, which can be read in-dept in last year's essential book "Bootleg Elvis."
The only Northern American bootleg available at this moment was "The Hillbilly Cat "Live"" and as it's pressing run was limited to 189 copies only and as most of these discs were sold to members within the producers own fan-club in Quebec, Canada, chances that copies of this album found it's way to Louisville KY are very small.
The Europeans - up to this moment - only had the "Please Release Me" LP and single. However, limited to a couple of hundred copies each and with most of these sold at a 1970 Luxembourg fan convention, it also is very unlikely that either the LP or the single found it's way to Louisville KY. There also was a lesser known, very plain, European (French to be exact) E.P. in existence at that particular time. But with only 100 copies manufactured in late 1970 and distributed within that producers Paris based fan-club, again chances that it might have been sold in Louisville KY are about zero. The Elvis vinyl bootleg industry did only start to explode a couple of years later, around 1975.
It was, with the exception of two, three more Canadian albums and one US-production from 1973 (The Monologue L.P.) only from the mid-seventies onwards, when Elvis vinyl bootlegs started to appear in a larger scale, many of them springing from U.S. manufacturers like Wizardo, The Amazing Kornyphone, Dowling and Theaker.
Please also note that US counterfeits of the above mentioned albums and single only were available to the fan from 1979.

But maybe available in Louisville KY were illegal fan articles, such as hats, stickers, shirts, photo booklets, posters and similar items, on sale outside the concert hall.
Perhaps a (small) selection of Far Eastern Elvis vinyl discs, which count as bootlegs as well, however, only contain Elvis' regular RCA output, was available to the fan.
I hope I was able to help a bit.

[Greybeard]

I would wager that the "bootleg material" refers to T Shirts, Photos & Pennants that were sold outside of the venues back then. Rumor has it that the Colonel had his hand in these items sales also.

I tend to not believe this as one photo that was being sold was a color 8x10 of the poster that came in the 4 LP set "The Other Sides". The fact that Elvis' "signature" that was printed on the picture had the word "Presley" spelled incorrectly as "Presly" the Col would never let the name be spelled wrong LOL.

I still have some of these items I bought outside the arena in 1972 when I saw Elvis at MSG.

Just my opinion though as I never saw recorded material being sold openly at any venue I was at.

[Lohmax]

Possibly live tapes? I know that in the 80s, I made copies from second generation 70s tapes in the USA. I was told that they were copies of the originals which a private collector had (I actually met her later).

[MikeFromHolland]

That could be it. Thanks to you all...

[The Pirate]

Possibly live tapes? I know that in the 80s, I made copies from second generation 70s tapes in the USA. I was told that they were copies of the originals which a private collector had (I actually met her later).

You may of course be right, but I don't think that by 1971 the cassette market had taken off sufficiently to make it financially worthwhile for someone to duplicate live tapes and sell them outside venues. I'm trying to remember when I got my first cassette player, and I think it was around that time, but it cost me a fair bit of money and I was one of the the only people who owned one out of everyone I knew then. I think they were popular as in-car entertainment though, so maybe that could have been the intended market.

[zolderopruiming1]

The Please release me LP and the My baby's gone single plus some then unavailable single tracks were also available on the LP I wanna be a rock and roll star in 1971

[MikeFromHolland]

Would they sell those bootleg records at an Elvis concert? Seems a bit hard to believe....

[merry77]

even at concerts now there are people selling illegal T-shirts. So most likely it's that.
It was too soon for vinyl bootlegs. Tape copies would hardly sell.

[G.I. Blues]

Once read somewhere that some folks had fan footage for sale at the concerts and didn't Paul Lichter spread flyers too? Can't confirm either.