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Sunday, July 22, 2012

To My Surprise! (Reprise)

On August 22 last year I wrote a post called “To My Surprise!” after having returned from a one week holiday in a Danish cottage where I had no access to the Internet. The post dealt with me finding out that Ernst Jorgensen had announced the upcoming FTD release 48 Hours To Memphis while I was away. Featuring a professional recording of Elvis' concert in Richmond on March 18, 1974, this was big news indeed.

My buddy Troy Y. who runs The Mystery Train Blog must have remembered that post. Because today, aboard a ferry from Denmark to Sweden after another vacation in Denmark without the Internet, an e-mail was waiting for me as I checked my inbox on my smartphone. Titled “Doesn't the biggest Elvis news always break while you are away?” it went like this:

First, the fantastic live recording of "I Forgot To Remember To Forget" surfaces, and now PRINCE FROM ANOTHER PLANET 2 CD/1 DVD set is announced covering MSG!

Thomas, if you keep going away, all us Elvis fans are gonna go broke! ;)

Reading this, I immediately visited my favorite Elvis sites to learn more (a good thing the ferry had WI-FI aboard). My wife, sitting beside me with our 21 months old daughter in her lap, ready to give her some food, sighed as I became absorbed with the big Elvis news that had broken during our stay in Denmark.

As I quickly found out, Troy Y. himself had actually written a great piece about the out-of-the-blue clip on Youtube of Elvis singing “I Forgot To Remember To Forget” live on the Louisiana Hayride radio show in 1955. He actually sent me a link to the clip on the very day I went off to Denmark, so unfortunately I just missed it. How typical, as it is now removed from YouTube.

But, as Troy points out in an update, this may in fact be a really good sign, as Ernst Jorgensen is “now in contact with the owner.” Hopefully, it will see an official release soon (it's not part of the new FTD box set A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-55 Recordings, as Ernst himself didn't know about its existence either. “Wow it's unbelievably beautiful. I'm still trying to recover from the shock,” was his reaction).

As if this piece of news wasn't enough, I also learned that it was announced yesterday that Sony Music will release Prince From Another Planet, a Madison Square Garden 40th Anniversary Set on September 28. The set will include a 40 minute DVD with never-before-seen footage of Elvis' performance at The Garden' in June 1972 along with two remastered CDs of the June 10 afternoon and evening shows.

My eyes glued to the screen of my smartphone, I remembered the posts about lost footage from The Garden that I wrote in 2009 and 2010, wondering about the content of the DVD. I was then brought back to reality by my wife, asking me to remove some food from her clothes courtesy of our daughter.

“Seems like the biggest Elvis news always break while I'm away,” I told her with a silly grin on my face, grabbing a paper napkin and halfheartedly starting to wipe away spilled yoghurt from her trousers. Once again, Elvis was foremost on my mind. 

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