The crazy TTWII saga

Seems not only is there a battle going on between FTD and the bootleggers at the moment. The bootleggers are also fighting each other.

I'm talking, of course, about the recordings from Elvis' third stint in Las Vegas, in August 1970. A total of six shows were recorded from August 10 to August 13, and so far FTD and BMG have released three of them. FTD's next offering The Wonder Of You will be the fourth, containing the dinner show from August 13.

As for the last two shows, these are due for release by the Audionics label. Containing the dinner shows from August 11 and 12 respectively, they are titled Something and Twenty Days & Nights. Incidentally, it was this very label that rush released exactly the same show as the one FTD plan to put out on their The Wonder Of You album.

As if this isn't enough, then enters the International label, the one behind the unofficial CD/DVD package That's The Way It Is: The Complete Works. Not only does International apologize for having made a blunder, releasing the shows on the set in mono instead of stereo. The label also claim the sound on the Audionic releases is in poor quality stereo. "To make a wrong made right," the International label therefore decided to make the shows available as downloads for free, in full stereo.

How all this is going to end, I have no idea. What is pretty clear, though, is that the battle or whatever one chooses to call it, is caused by the high demand among the fans for the complete shows that RCA recorded in Las Vegas during those four nights in August, 1970.

That's why I think Ernst Jorgensen would've stood a better chance leading FTD to victory against the bootleggers if he had released all six shows in a box, together with a nice booklet and maybe even a DVD, instead of picking only the one from August 13. After all, two of the three shows released officially so far have had the introductions edited out, and the fans want them to be complete. Isn't that what a collectors label is all about?