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Monday, August 22, 2011

To My Surprise!

Having returned from my one week holiday in a Danish cottage where I had no way to access the Internet, I immediately sat down in front of the computer to get an update about what had been going on in the Elvis World.

One news item stood out from all the rest, the announcement made by Ernst Jorgensen during Elvis Week in Memphis that the upcoming FTD September release 48 Hours To Memphis is, in fact, a multi-track recording of the concert in Richmond, Virginia, on March 18, 1974.

As Troy Y. writes in his post "Elvis Shocker: 1974 Richmond concert is a muti-track recording" at The Mystery Train Elvis Blog, many questions abound:
Did RCA record Richmond as preparation for that Memphis concert album? Or did RCA originally conceive the album as a tour compilation? How did RCA seemingly lose this multi-track recording and any record that it ever existed?
In the booklet accompanying the FTD release of Elvis Recorded Live On Stage In Memphis (featuring the last concert of the tour in Memphis on March 20), there is a reprint of an article in The Commercial Appeal on March 21, 1974, titled "Elvis' final taped for release in June." In it the reporter writes, among other things, that:
Elvis said he turned down requests from other cities on his current tour to record in order to save the recording show for his hometown fans [...] Presley and Felton Jarvis, his record producer, said there was some discussion aobut his recording at the Houston Astrodome and other cities.
My guess is that it will remain a mystery why the concert in Richmond was nevertheless recorded. Not that it matter that much. What does is that the fans will get to hear a second professionally recorded Elvis concert from the same tour. The last time something like that happened was when RCA/BMG released An Afternoon In The Garden in 1997. So be sure to enjoy this release!

2 comments:

MĂ„rtenbrother said...

And San Antonio in 2003! Well, this will be very nice!

MĂ„rtenbrother said...

Ah, you mean another concert from the same tour! If not counting Aloha I think you're right!