Album Discussion on "For lp fans only" lmp 1990 & lsp 1990 e

[curtis simpkins]

I would like to start something new here.

Let's talk about Elvis Albums and your thought's on that Album.
So let's start on the one i like most of all "For Lp Fans Only" LMP 1990 & LSP 1990 (e)

Tracks are.

1.That's All Right
2.Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
3.Mystery Train
4.Playing For Keeps
5.Poor Boy
6.My Baby Left Me
7.I Was The One
8.Shake, Rattle And Roll
9. I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
10.You're A Heartbreaker.

This lp has some of his early works from sun like That's all right, mystery train,
i'm left your right shes gone, and youre a heartbreaker.

and it also has song from his movie "Love me tender" Poor boy"
and the rest are from his rca singles my baby left me, i was the one, shake rattle and roll, and playing for keeps.

and at the time these song's where frist time on vinyl lp. and i love the tittle
of this album.

and the cover on this album was also great, you have a very nice photo of Elvis with his hair still brown, not the black clour.

and this album was around for a very long time even when Elvis passed away
in 1977.

[stillrockin]

My version of this album is on the RCA Victor label, mono, RD-27120 (LPM-1990). The label is black with a red circle containing the letters RCA. It was made from a master recording of RCA N.Y. by the Decca Record Company Ltd, London. I purchased it new more years ago than I care to remember. Included are two extra songs, 'Tryin' to get to you' and 'Blue suede shoes'.

I have a fairly good CD player but IMO Vinyl is still the better format. It has a rich, warm, and intimate sound. I find CD's to be harsh and brittle at times even on top of the range players.

The photo on the front cover is one of the most natural I've ever seen of Elvis and his brown hair suited him perfectly.

This is a fantastic album, I simply prefer the 50's and 60's material to the 70's although I hasten to add that no mater what the year I play it all regularly.

You certainly picked a truly great album to start with - what's next I wonder?

[Lonniebealestreet]

IMO Vinyl is still the better format. It has a rich, warm, and intimate sound.

I love to hear other people say that.

Great topic, Curtis.

My favorite fifties album in my collection is the extended (18-track) version of his self-titled first album. It came out in 2001, was made in England, and was pressed on 125-gram vinyl. Anyone wanting to knock the sound of vinyl needs to listen to this thing. (For more, go to http://www.simplyvinyl.com.)

As far as the cover art goes, it doesn't get any more classic rock and roll than this one.



The same could be said of the music too, obviously. The tracks are:

Heartbreak Hotel
I Was The One
Blue Suede Shoes
I'm Counting On You
I Got A Woman
One-Sided Love Affair
I Love You Because
Just Because
Tutti Frutti
Trying To Get To You
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)
I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')
Blue Moon
Money Honey
Shake, Rattle And Roll
My Baby Left Me
Lawdy, Miss Clawdy
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You

I am primarily a seventies fan, but this is a great album (a bit of an understatement) I occasionally like to enjoy for a change of pace and trust me--the sound is killer!

It has a single page insert of liner notes from Colin Escott, taken from Ernst's book, as I assume the CD does.

[Hmmm...regarding my link, there are only three Elvis titles now. There used to be more, if I'm not mistaken.]

[Lonniebealestreet]

OK, since that last one was so close in content to the album Curtis highlighted, I decided I owed the board a quick follow-up.

Elvis Country/"I'm 10,000 Years Old" is surely considered among Elvis' best by most people who are familiar with it.

My copy is from one of the original pressings in January 1971 (there were three different originals, if I'm reading this Osbourne's guide right); it is flexible vinyl with an orange label. You do hear the occasional snap, crackle, and pop on my record--it's not bad though--but the cover is near mint.

This album has the distinction of being one of a select few from the seventies which does not feature a live action shot of Elvis on the front cover.



Another thing which sets it apart is that it was a somewhat rare "concept album" from Elvis, and one for which his participation was perhaps more in evidence than any other. It was his own idea to take the song "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" and fade segments of it in and out between the album's tracks. It makes for a unique listening experience, and seems to strengthen the already deep ties between the songs on this album. This song, which wasn't featured in its entirety until its release on Elvis Now (what a great teaser, because from the segments you can tell the song really rocks), was of course the inspiration for the album's subtitle.

This album really had some meat to it. It is a shame that follow-up albums fell short of the high standard this one set. Plenty of great music was yet to come (like most of my favorites), but in terms of great albums, there weren't many more quite like this one. Elvis is not really to blame for this, since he wasn't really behind that end of things. No, that's a cop-out. As the artist, he should have demanded more input in the entire process. But as we know, sometimes the finished product did not totally please Elvis, so that alone illustrates he wasn't involved in the way that he should have been, and that if he had been, things could have been a lot better. For one thing, tracks which were unfinished or basically unacceptable for release in his mind somehow ended up on records. That's hard to fathom...as is my capacity for digression. Sorry to go off on a negative tangent there.

This fantastic album, which commanded immediate respect, featured the following twelve songs:

Snowbird
Tomorrow Never Comes
Little Cabin On The Hill
Whole Lot-ta Shakin' Goin' On
Funny How Time Slips Away
I Really Don't Want To Know
There Goes My Everything
It's Your Baby, You Rock It
The Fool
Faded Love
I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water
Make The World Go Away

Not all straight country, but with a strong country flavor throughout, this LP featured powerful and impassioned singing from Elvis, a man in perfect control of his voice. These were songs he obviously felt from the heart, songs which were deeply rooted in him...songs which do his legacy great justice to this day.

[Lonniebealestreet]

OK, I feel like one more.

One of my favorite albums is one which seems to get a bad rap, or at least ranks considerably lower on a lot of other people's lists. It is Elvis' penultimate studio album of new material released in his lifetime: From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee.

When I first got this CD--which was well before my acquisition of the LP , it was one I played over and over. Well, we all have done that with many of our Elvis CDs, but this one really struck a chord with me.

I'll address the content of this one first. This LP, though not commonly recognized in this manner, represents another one of Elvis' concept albums, the theme being one of lost love, separation, isolation, etc.

Not the cheeriest theme, no, but one that is at least consistent throughout. And I don't know about you all, but for me there is some kind of joy which can be derived from listening to sad songs. I think it is one or more of these three things at play:

1 - Hearing someone else "sing the blues" makes you realize that other people have felt the same things that you have when you thought you were at your lowest, hence you have reason to be encouraged;

2 - You really haven't been there, so you're enlightened to the fact that things could be a lot worse [2b] OR, since you haven't been there, you may find the stories these songs tell to be extra interesting or intriguing;

3 - Simply hearing a singer bare his soul, emoting so effectively that regardless of your experiences you feel that you know precisely what it's all about, and appreciate the insight that you have been allowed to vicariously gain through the music...but essentially it's about respecting the ability of the singer to convey the feelings that well. It is as if he has refined his singing to where it is essentially pure emotion that is coming across, so you can't help but believe it. You might say Elvis' best acting was not done in front of a camera but behind a microphone.

Is it the melancholy theme that some are not drawn to, or the prevalence of ballads, or a change in Elvis' voice or delivery? I don't know--I'm not one of those people, so I couldn't say. I like all of the above, so I'm not qualified to answer. But they are all in evidence here.

At least half of the following ten songs, recorded in the Jungle Room in February 1976, do literally rank among my very favorite Elvis songs:

Hurt
Never Again
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
Danny Boy
The Last Farewell
For The Heart
Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall
Solitaire
Love Coming Down
I'll Never Fall In Love Again

Perhaps because the overall style isn't everyone's cup of tea, this observation is not often made, but I think this is a very impressive collection of songs.

One downer about this album, I must concede, is that Felton Jarvis went a little overboard in the overdubbing on this album. Not only did Elvis at times seem to get lost in the mix, but its being done that way helped contribute to the myth that Elvis was in such poor voice at this time that he demanded (or it was simply made necessary) that the backup singers drown him out, i.e., he wasn't up to the task himself. Thank goodness for FTD...

A couple interesting things about the cover...



Once again, a live shot of Elvis was used on this cover, which was not uncommon for his studio albums in the seventies. However, if it was known in 1974 that two years later he would be recording at home, RCA would most certainly have saved the great pics Ed Bonja took of Graceland for the '76 album. Instead we have pics of Graceland on a live album, and concert pics on an album recorded at Graceland.

Adding to the confusion are the words "Recorded Live" on the cover. Though still surely misleading to some, it would not have been entirely inappropriate to use such terminology if the recordings were made with no overdubbing; i.e., everything heard on each track had been recorded simultaneously--that would actually qualify as "live". But as mentioned above, that couldn't have been further from the truth. So what was the deal with that? I can't remember now exactly how she explained it, but questioned about that years later Joan Deary did give a rather unsatisfying explanation, but went on to say it was not their intention to have been misleading with that.

The photo, incidentally, was taken on June 10, 1975 in Memphis, and featured Elvis in his Indian Feather suit.

On the back, it is made to look like a personal memo from Elvis to the fans. It reads:

Dear Friends:
Thank you for your loyalty. I sincerely hope you like my new RCA album.

Then, in Elvis' handwriting:

My best wishes
Elvis Presley


(h)


On a side note, I need to upgrade my EPB LP. Mine is a black label reissue that is not in the best of condition. The cover looks rather good, but the disc would probably be graded VG++ or something close to that. One time on eBay I bid for a while on a sealed copy that had the Hurt/For The Heart sticker on it, which would have looked nice framed next to my sealed Moody Blue with stickers, but I let it go. I'd like to have either another sealed, "stickered" original like that, or just a copy that is in excellent playing condition--eventually having both would be ideal.

[Cherokee]

My (much ) older sister had Elvis on vinyl so I listened to her records as a kid. I don't remember which ones she actually had. But when she got married and left the house, she took her records with her and my allowance wasn't big enough that I could buy stuff, nor was I that interested yet at that age I did have tapes she made for me of her albums and would play those until they pretty much disintegrated
Then my stereo died, again no money to replace it and I didn't play any of my records for the longest time.
So I pretty much started my collection from scratch with CD's.

I think the Country album will be the next one that'll accompany me in the car, haven't played it in a long while It's pretty darn good and I love the uptempo songs on it

[Captain Elwood David]

Lonnie -

I must say, your above post regarding From Elvis Presley Blvd., .................

BRAVO ...... !!

Very much agreed.

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I remember being puzzled about the "Live" notes on the album, ........ as a kid (I thought I was buying a "concert" version of songs).

At any rate, From EPBlvd. turned out to be one of my favorite albums. Still is today. EP singing his heart out. It, along with the "Moody Blue" album were two of my first purchases when switching from vinyl to CD's.

-----------------------------

As for other personal favorites of mine ............... well ..........

EIC has and continues to, ............ get many spins on my player.

There is also one particular version of "Help Me" from the FTD Spring Tours that I find myself returing to time and time again ..................... how ironic that the '77 Elvis is constantly derided, yet ........... this version from 1977 IMO is one of the best I've ever EP do of the song.

------------------------------

Thanks for the great topics, Curtis. I respect your love & passion for vinyl .............. on some levels (perhaps simply nostalgia ........... and definitely the artwork) ............. I agree. For convenince & audio, though, ............ I'll personally take CD's anyday.


- Capt. "EL."

[Lonniebealestreet]

Thanks, Captain.

Just to add a note to my post, not only was the album's theme consistent throughout the songs; it was consistent with Elvis' state of mind. That is part of the reason the album succeeds as it does...in the minds of some, anyway.

[Jungleroom76]

BOBBY, MY MAN!!!

I knew you would come to the defense of one of my favorite Elvis albums of all time!!! I knew it was only a matter of time....

One of the first albums that I ever listened to was the EP BLVD. album....it was one of the Elvis albums that my Mom had in her collection, when I first discovered her Elvis records and one that "mysteriously" wound up missing from her collection (along with her copy of the TODAY album)....still not sure whatever happened to those records...

I have always had a special fondness for the EP BLVD. album....despite the melancholy feeling that one gets when listening to this album, as Bobby pointed out, this is probably the ONLY Elvis album to showcase Elvis' personal life and mood so effectively...even an uptempo song like FOR THE HEART, with it's lyrics "for the heart, I just can't love no one but you..." give such an insight into how Elvis was feeling in 1976....still missing Priscilla (and maybe even Linda)...not having that one "special person" in his life....the EP BLVD. album truly is a window into the soul of Elvis in 1976!!!

Quite possibly my second favorite Elvis album, right after my ALL TIME FAVORITE ALBUM - TODAY!!

TCB!
Mike

[Lonniebealestreet]

Glad you liked, Mike. Your additional input is certainly spot-on.

It would be great to see more LP reviews here...

[Jungleroom76]

THANKS PAL!!!

Couldn't have done it without you!!!

TCB!
Mike

[spinout-designs]

Great topic Curtis, and it is so refreshing to find others expressing such enthusiasm for the 'Boulevard' album.

I can only conclude that those that dismiss the recordings on Elvis' last two 'studio' LP's cannot be listening to the same Elvis I hear on these albums.

Elvis is not just singing these lyrics, he's singing them like he means them, and that comes through very much in the recordings, you believe every word he sings, you can empathise with the words he sings, on whatever level you relate to it at the time, the emotion encapsulated in these recordings is tangable, its relevant and it's real.

Given that, surely some of these recordings must rank among his greatest of all time, they certainly do for me, the 1976 Graceland sessions being among my very favourite of all Elvis' many studio sessions.

[Jungleroom76]

Great topic Curtis, and it is so refreshing to find others expressing such enthusiasm for the 'Boulevard' album.

I can only conclude that those that dismiss the recordings on Elvis' last two 'studio' LP's cannot be listening to the same Elvis I hear on these albums.

Elvis is not just singing these lyrics, he's singing them like he means them, and that comes through very much in the recordings, you believe every word he sings, you can empathise with the words he sings, on whatever level you relate to it at the time, the emotion encapsulated in these recordings is tangable, its relevant and it's real.

Given that, surely some of these recordings must rank among his greatest of all time, they certainly do for me, the 1976 Graceland sessions being among my very favourite of all Elvis' many studio sessions.

I AGREE COMPLETELY SPINOUT!!!

While it is true that the overall mood throughout Elvis' last 2 studio albums is indeed much more sullen and introspective, it certainly does allow us a "window to Elvis' soul", so to speak!! If ever there were albums that truly spoke to fans as to the emotions that Elvis was feeling during the last 2 years of his life, EP BLVD and MOODY BLUE were it, hands down!!

It is sad, as a fan, to sit and listen to these songs knowing how much pain Elvis must have been in, both emotionally and perhaps physically as well, but still....just listen to the depth and emotion that flow from the speakers of your stereo and you can truly "feel" Elvis' emotions, in my opinion.

I agree with you Spinout, that these 1976 sessions are, without a doubt, some of the best sessions of Elvis' career!!!

It is so nice to see yet another Elvis fan share the same opinions about this often underrated Elvis album!!

TCB!
Mike