Elvis Fans killing new releases????????

I agree, on the whole 70's Elvis is treated very poorly, the image of Elvis is handled very poorly, we are in a age where image is everything and sadly the image of Elvis in the 70's is driven by the gutter press :angry: who still publish unflatering images which personify Elvis as overweight. if you look at bands and artists today they have some quirky logo of some kind, hell some companies spend thousands on a corprate image or identy just so they can be recognised.

Elvis is probably the single most copied artist of all time, this is a doubled edged sword, unfortunately there are far to many people of a certain age and weight who do little to ease the minds of RCA/BMG in moving to this period of Elvis' life, there are thousands of pictures of Elvis post Aloha which could be used, in the 70's and 80's they were but few in number. It seems that they wan't to re-write history at any cost, unfortunately life is not that simple and if you decide to erase the last four years of Elvis' life you lose a treasure trove of goodies

EPE are guilty of avoiding the image of Elvis anywhere past 1973 as their site goes to great lengths to limit images from this timeframe.

As for the CBS Special (I have a bootleg DVD) I'm in to minds as to if this should be released :hmm: YES I would love to have a pristine cristal clear version of this but i fear that this image would once again be highjacked by the hacks and journalists into summing up elvis with one Image, he is much, much more than this!!! (I'm sorry :'( as great as he sounds, this is not Elvis' finest hour)

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As for the CBS Special (I have a bootleg DVD) I'm in to minds as to if this should be released :hmm: YES I would love to have a pristine cristal clear version of this but i fear that this image would once again be highjacked by the hacks and journalists into summing up elvis with one Image, he is much, much more than this!!! (I'm sorry :'( as great as he sounds, this is not Elvis' finest hour

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ok,ask yourself this friends,what is a singer? do we need to look like a hundred dollars to sing.Do you we need to look like a model to sing? nah didnt think so,yet so many seem to slander elvis in '77 even though his singing ability was ever so high.Ok so its not nice seeing elvis look as good looking as he once had been however his voice never failed him.The day fans ,companies and people can see that singers are to listen to not to look at then that mat be the day we get a official copy of 77.

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Originally Posted by E.L.V.I.S

ok,ask yourself this friends,what is a singer? do we need to look like a hundred dollars to sing.Do you we need to look like a model to sing? nah didnt think so,yet so many seem to slander elvis in '77 even though his singing ability was ever so high.Ok so its not nice seeing elvis look as good looking as he once had been however his voice never failed him.The day fans ,companies and people can see that singers are to listen to not to look at then that mat be the day we get a official copy of 77.

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I 100% agree with what you are saying (y) but lets not fool ourself that the image does not count, Elvis was all about image, be it 33 films or Jumpsuits and cars, what pictures do we see in the tabloids not the one of Elvis looking cool, but the one where he is not 100% (or both), thats because it's easy to critiscise than praise, if a good pictures catch someones eye and they want to read further then that's the picture i would rather use to draw new fans, i don't agree with it, it's just the way people are. I love Elvis :worthy: , people look to find the worst, Elvis was not just about 1977, he was 1935 - 1977, it's just that the CBS Special didn't capture Elvis in good health and i don't want some scumbag getting milage out of it, if there was a way to release this without it being mis-used then release it.

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I 100% agree with what you are saying (y) but lets not fool ourself that the image does not count, Elvis was all about image, be it 33 films or Jumpsuits and cars, what pictures do we see in the tabloids not the one of Elvis looking cool, but the one where he is not 100% (or both), thats because it's easy to critiscise than praise, if a good pictures catch someones eye and they want to read further then that's the picture i would rather use to draw new fans, i don't agree with it, it's just the way people are. I love Elvis :worthy: , people look to find the worst, Elvis was not just about 1977, he was 1935 - 1977, it's just that the CBS Special didn't capture Elvis in good health and i don't want some scumbag getting milage out of it, if there was a way to release this without it being mis-used then release it

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(y) right on matt couldnt agree more,i tell you what this pathetic ,fools,idots impersonators dont help either.Prancing around with wigs and usually all over weight.:angry: .I dare one of them to have ago at seeing jailhosue rock 50's style,ha! they cant,thought not....see matt they need guys like us running epe we would soon kick *** :flex: :lol: (h)

I agree with you to a certain extent Matt,
sure they probably would have a field day should the cbs special be released :angry: but here is one fan who wants it (y) I have copies of it too and i'm 100% certain that because of the bad quality Elvis looks far worse than he actually was.
Ok, i'm not kidding myself...he was ill and it showed...moreso on Omaha....but if you watch the re-mastered Unchained Melody clip on the great performances it looks a hell of a lot better than any CBS special copy i have ever seen.
As for putting it on generel release like Aloha ans the NBC...(even though that wouldn't bother me)...maybe that wouldn't be the way to go...but putting it out through FTD certainly would.
If i have a problem with these people its the time it takes to get these released. We have finally got the stand up shows from NBC...how many years after the event :blink:
That means that in approx 4 years we may get Elvis On Tour and then in another five after that the CBS special ;) ( If you go by how long it took to get the stand up shows :P )
I have waited for years to get the cbs special. Good, or bad ( and i like it ) it is an event in elvis' career and should be made available to his fans BEFORE we have all popped our cloggs :P

I completely agree with most of the comments and as an Elvis fan I would like to see the complete works out there for those that choose to buy it!

But when people find out I'm an Elvis fan they instantly make comments about the latter part of Elvis' life with ***** comments like "Have another Beefburger Elvis" I usually reply with F**CKOf* DICKHEAD :angry: Elvis accomplished so much more than this, When i watch the CBS Special it kind of puts a lump in my throat. In the late 70's and during the 80's CBS was used as the rod to which the hacks battered Elvis with, this has dissipated during the 90's and the millennium and we have got back an image of the 68 Special and TTWII, these are the images with which we need to draw new fans by and in time they will get to know the complete Elvis rather than see some negative image and look no further.

In no way do I want to criticise Elvis, he is my childhood hero :worthy: but I have to admit I'd sooner watch Aloha or on tour because CBS makes me feel sad :'( (Music Great) that at a time when Elvis should have been recuperating he was still putting his fans first, to the detrament of his health (what was the colonel thinking?? - probably $$$$$$ and certainly not Elvis)

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Originally Posted by Matt Ashton

But when people find out I'm an Elvis fan they instantly make comments about the latter part of Elvis' life with ***** comments like "Have another Beefburger Elvis" I usually reply with F**CKOf* DICKHEAD :angry: Elvis accomplished so much more than this)

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I know what you are saying there mate...i used to ( and still do on on occasions) get that all the time. These people have never even seen ( or even want to ) the true Elvis.
I used to get angry too...but i tend to ignore them now...if they can't see it, its their loss.

Now , if the want talk sensibly about it i am happy to oblige whether they are fans or not :P
You can say whether you like something or not...but to rubbish and ridicule thats a different matter.

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Originally Posted by Matt Ashton

he is my childhood hero :worthy:

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In that you are not alone mate (y)

I think that pretending Elvis died in 1973 (like BMG/EPE) are doing, does more harm to the total image of Elvis, than to accept that post-Aloha period. And there's still a big difference between releasing more music from the 70s and releasing the CBS Special. ;)

Why is 'Love Me Tender' on every lovesong compilation, and never a song like "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" or "It's Impossible"? That has nothing to do with the CBS Special, but everything with playing safe. BMG is still making compilations with the charts of the 50's and 60s in their mind. They still don't seem to understand that todays fans and mass audience aren't those fans/audience from the 50's and early 60's.

Come on BMG! Get out of that safety zone and reclaim the world!

WOW!!!! :blink:

So many great thoughts on this topic....

I personally have bought every single FTD that has been released, and while some I listen to much more than others, every one of them is truly a blessing for Elvis fans....where would we be if we had to depend exclusively on RCA to release all of these unreleased recordings? There would be no NEW YEAR'S EVE, or SPRING TOURS '77, or JUNGLE ROOM SESSIONS...and on some other messageboard (which shall remain nameless ;) ), there is almost constant bashing about each and every FTD that is released! I mean REAL BASHING....not just constructive criticism. I mean, I know I have said some things in the various reviews I posted in the FTD FORUM about the various FTD releases, but I certainly didn't mean for any of my comments to come across as harsh or negative. When I write a review, I try to be objective about the CD...I report what I see, hear, etc. and then I basically let the buyer decide for themselves if they agree with me or not. I just try to give an honest opinion....I'm certainly not trying to bash anyone, especially FTD/Ernst as I know that without them, we would not have nearly as much of these great recordings as we have now! But the true bashing that I see happening on the other aforementioned (but still unnamed) board is just wrong....and to be honest, I have to give FTD/Ernst a lot of credit...if I were them, and read some of the really nasty comments that people have written in other places, I would just throw my hands up in the air and say "that is it!" :!:

As for promotion of Elvis....well, I've said this before, but there really needs to be more promotion of the new releases....I haven't seen one piece of advertisement for ELVIS AT SUN or either of the deluxe edition DVD sets! Not one TV ad, not one magazine ad, NOTHING.....that is truly sad when no one is willing to spend some money to advertise these things, to potentially reach a new audience with the ads, thus increasing the number of people who might buy these new releases!

As far as Elvis' catalog goes with RCA, I still don't quite understand their release strategy. Don't get me wrong...I think the new ELVIS AT SUN CD is quite good, but we just got SUNRISE 4 or 5 years ago...and that was supposed to be the "definitive Sun collection"....so why do we need another one? Instead of deleting SUNRISE from the catalog, just keep it available in record stores for fans to buy and promote it with advertisements...and maybe release a CD single (like they did with THAT'S ALL RIGHT this year)...why must we have another compliation? If I remember correctly, RCA is planning a new LOVE SONGS COMPLIATION for later this year...WHY???? DIdn't we just get 50 GREATEST LOVE SONGS a couple of years ago? Why do we need another one???? The catalog strategy for RCA has always baffled me... :blink:

Elvis post-Aloha....oh my gosh, don't even get me started on this (right Bobby?? ;) ) Suffice to say, I think it's really wrong that EPE refuses to promote Elvis in any way after ALOHA. Elvis recorded so much great music over the last 4 1/2 years of his life, it deserves to be heard....maybe those recordings would bring in a whole new generation of fans....I mean, everyone knows and has probably heard Elvis singing HOUND DOG or JAILHOUSE ROCK, but some person might hear Elvis' version of GOODTIME CHARLIE'S GOT THE BLUES or BLUE EYES CRYING IN THE RAIN, and say to themselves "wow, I didn't know he did that too" and therefore become a fan because they have realized the true scope of Elvis' music....that he isn't just known for HOUND DOG and JAILHOUSE ROCK!!

And finally...ELVIS IN CONCERT...to be honest, unless FTD figures out a way to do a special DVD release of this concert, and knowing EPE's stand on Elvis post-Aloha, I just don't see this coming out anytime soon! It's sad to think about, but unfortunately, I believe we are still YEARS away from any kind of release featuring the '77 footage... :'(

Just some random thoughts/opinions I had on these various topics....this was a GREAT discussion everyone has participated in!! (y)

TCB!
Mike

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Originally Posted by Jungleroom76

WOW!!!! I think it's really wrong that EPE refuses to promote Elvis in any way after ALOHA. Elvis recorded so much great music over the last 4 1/2 years of his life, it deserves to be heard....maybe those recordings would bring in a whole new generation of fans....I mean, everyone knows and has probably heard Elvis singing HOUND DOG or JAILHOUSE ROCK, but some person might hear Elvis' version of GOODTIME CHARLIE'S GOT THE BLUES or BLUE EYES CRYING IN THE RAIN, and say to themselves "wow, I didn't know he did that too" and therefore become a fan because they have realized the true scope of Elvis' music....that he isn't just known for HOUND DOG and JAILHOUSE ROCK!!



TCB!
Mike

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Excellent point Mike....its this sort of material that would create more Elvis fans as its the stuff a fair percentage of the non-elvis world have never heard before.
I said in another thread ( somewhere) that a close friend of mine who didn't appreciate elvis' music...soon changed his mind when he heard something different to the norm.
As you say...he thought elvis was only 'don't be cruel','jailhouse rock' or ' are you lonesome tonight'. And not that there is anything wrong with any of those songs....but as the man sung 'there is so much world to see' or hear in this case(y)

I know what you mean NightRider!

Bobby (Lonniebealestreet) and I have had this discussion many times before, and he has said the same thing....he knew someone who wasn't really an Elvis fan, played them something from Elvis in the later 70's, and BOOM...instant Elvis fan!!!

There are SO many people out there that I run into, in my daily travels, who say to me "gosh, I didn't know Elvis sang that song" when I mention things like "Green, Green Grass of Home" or "Danny Boy". Heck, most of the time when I tell them that Elvis originally recorded "T-R-O-U-B-L-E", they think I am making it up because they thought Travis Tritt was the first person to ever record the song. But, why do these people think that? Why do these people not know that Elvis recorded these songs? Because EPE refuses to promote Elvis in any way, shape or form post-Aloha!

Truly a sad state of affairs, when Elvis' own ESTATE can pick and choose what to promote, instead of just releasing everything he did and let the fans decide for themselves!! :angry:

TCB!
Mike

A shame indeed, Mike.

I find it's always the music that turns the tide. What I do is get them in my car, plug in my iPod (about 2000 of the song's on it are versions of Elvis tracks :D ) Pick a playlist of 70's songs, by the end of the drive, most have a more positive outlook, on our man.

Just let Elvis speak for himself :!:

Jeff

COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF JEFF!!! ;)

99% of the time, when I am driving to/from work, I grab an Elvis tape or CD from the 70's to listen to!!! Just something about the maturity in his voice and the song material he chose to perform during that last decade....

TCB!
Mike