Complete Masters Book Content

[KiwiAlan]

How does The Complete Masters Book compare to A Life In Music.

Is there any new information not contained in Day By Day and Tunzi?

[Frankie Teardrop]

I haven't noticed any new info thus far. Its worth is primarily as a beautiful, illustrated companion to the box set, exactly what it was designed to be.

[elvissessions]

Hmmm ... what do we mean by "information"?

New data? new insight? New comments?

[KiwiAlan]

Hmmm ... what do we mean by "information"?

New data? new insight? New comments?

More in the line of new dates nad facts rather than comments and thoughts

[elvissessions]

Well, yeah, I do some refinement in the dates, for sure.

Some of the approximations are approximated more narrowly, things once guessed at for a couple of months, now moved to a specific month. Things that were marked for a month, sometimes now home in on a particular week.

I Forgot to Remember to Forget, Mystery Train and Trying to Get to You have moved 10 days later since Life in Music published.

That kind of stuff. Some things known from other sources published since then. Nothing so far that's completely shaken my perception of the space-time continuum, though.

I dunno, trying to go through it fairly systematically -- but slowly -- but it looks updated to me.

Mostly enjoying the commentary. No surprise with these guys, it's well-written and pretty sharp.

[KiwiAlan]

Thanks. That's good news

[JimmyCool]

Anything new about the SUN recording sessions apart from elvissessions' information?

[frus75]

New info on sales figures of albums and singles?

[TONY]

New info on sales figures of albums and singles?

I always find that stuff with figures quite boring and superflous. Of course sales figures will go up every day as SONY / BMG / RCA keep on rehashing / re-releasing Elvis' music in different guises etc.

[Deke Rivers II]

What about Master Take numbers where previously unknown...or splice information?

[Daryl]

Having looked through the book, to me the book is a giant annotated discography with comments on each single, album, extended play. I didn't expect the book to be a "sessions" book like "A Life In Music" or Tunzi's "Sessions" books. There's an essay at the beginning of the book by Guralnick, but once that's over, it goes directly into each release during Elvis lifetime, with tracklisting, artwork, how and if it charted, catalog #, and a commentary. Some of the commentary comes across as a retread from previous Jorgensen and Guralnick books. That's isn't neccesarily a bad thing. There are a number of photos of Elvis at, before, or after recording sessions. The final part of the book breaks down each CD track by track with songwriters credtits and where and when it was recorded along with a listing of main musicians. There are a number of great photos taken of various instruments from RCA Studio B, such as the piano that Elvis played "You'll Never Walk Alone" on and the celeste that David Briggs overdubbed onto "If Every Day Was Like Christmas." Could the book have been much more? Of course, why not. But I don't think that necessarily was the point of the book. I think the book more or less serves for those fans who bought the box set as a point of reference as to how and where these recordings were originally released. I think it's a shame that FTD didn't have their website up and about where a link could have been provided for those who bought the set but still don't know much about FTD. A lost opportunity. I also think since there were a number of tracks on the set that first appeared on a number of major mainstream releases such as box sets, the artwork for these box sets should have been documented as well.

Daryl