'Elvis Today' is next Legacy release

[Johnny 99]

Quick question please, rather than reading through 68 pages, is there anything on disc1 not on the FTD?

[Rich_TCB]

No sir.

[Johnny 99]

No sir.

cheers Buddy.

[PiersEIN]

Yes, the FTD was (once again) a disaster)

The masters sound great on the Legacy edition, I think best ever.
The undubbed masters sounded much better on FTD however, mainly because of a more powerful mix.

Do the 1-1 comparison on TROUBLE for example.
Without judging DB's playing, Duke's bass is inaudible on the legacy, on the FTD it sounds great.

It is all a matter of personal choice but I have to disagree with you about the Undubbed Masters.
IMHO they sound WAY WAY better on the new legacy release ...

Some notes ex the EIN review
..

Disc 1 – ‘Elvis Today’.
While all these tracks were released on the 2005 FTD ‘Classic Album’ there were some audio remastering issues on that release. Here the songs have been remastered by Vic Anesini and they sound so much better here.
The original Album Masters only show a little audio improvement (a little more clarity at the top-end) possibly due to the extensive overdubs and were released on the 'Complete Masters'.

However the 'Original Session Mixes' show a vast improvement. Now there is a real clarity to the top-end - you can hear Ronnie Tutt's high-hat and cymbals so clearly now. It is obvious that a high-end filter had been poorly used on the 2005 FTD Lene Reidel masters. The track 'And I Love You So' for instance almost sounds like a different mix with a new incredible audio clarity with the cymbal and piano much more prominent. Similarly 'Shake A Hand' now has much more edge to Glen Hardin's piano amd even Elvis' vocal sounds clearer. With such a definite audio improvement, these Vic Anesini Original Session Mixes re-masters alone are worth the price of admission!

After the original album, the Original Session Mixes are presented in the order that the songs were recorded in - although the sleeve notes do not explain this. (If this legacy presentation is for the “General Public” more information would have been a good idea).

DISC 2: Elvis Live - Dallas, June 6 1975.

The sound is excellent for a cassette recorded soundboard and the audio-mix of the musicians is very fine indeed with James Burton’s guitar placed at a good level as well as a strong bass from Jerry Scheff. Even the orchestra is at a good level and there is a better than usual level of audience response in the mix.

The audio has been remastered for this release by Vic Anesini (go here for more) from “the original tapes” and although normally there is not too much you can do with cassette as a source it is a fabulous improvement. The high-frequency “tininess” of the original release has a smoother sound here and best of all the bass has been pumped up. While not so noticeable at the start, tracks such as 'Burning Love' (now with a nice thumping bass-line) and 'Funny How Time Slips Away'' (now with a much fuller mix) sound way, way better here.

Anesini has also removed the extra echo that was added to the 1980 original release. There are a couple of points where his edits are very minorly different from the original but hardly noticeable at all.

You can now crank this re-master up on a hi-fi and get a real feel for the concert - which is pretty impressive knowing their source.

See the complete in-depth review here
>>>
http://www.elvisinfonet.com/cd_review_Elvis_Today_Legacy.html

Cheers
Piers

[L Ray]

Thanks Piers for this and all of your great reviews.

[PiersEIN]

Thanks Piers for this and all of your great reviews.

No Worries, thanks for your comment.
for the price this is an Elvis album & concert well-worth buying all over again.
Cheers
Piers

[Z0S0]

well this release has certainly created a stir, it all sounds positive indeed & that's only a good thing!
I wont be purchasing myself as I simply don't have the funds to REBUY material I have already, FTD's TODAY & imports such as 'creeping Crud' suit me fine !

I don't get the lack of love for this album , especially when its generally the people who dismiss today but fawn all over 'Elvis Country' - yes that was an concept album though not a planned one, (now WATERTOWN by Sinatra = that's a true concept album)
and he was obviously well in control & superb voice but it was no more planned genius that 'love letters' - as always it was a very productive session scattered in any old order & milked to every last second of recorded material !! 3 albums instead of 2 or even 1 classic !

anyway I'm actually in the camp that loves TODAY ! it was a fitting release at the time & as the last proper studio album and I agree he sounds excellent here, just shows us how effective the recent detox was to his voice, thought provoking indeed !

for the naysayers - I just don't get it !? he sounds far better here than he had since most likely 1970 .....its undeniable go ahead and scoff but compare 'Green Green Grass' or 'and I love you so' to the xmas sessions from 71, tripe like 'love me, love the life' -
'whered I go from here' etc etc - even burning love, yeah its classic & its rocking but he doesn't really sound right !!

keep going.......'girl of mine', 'Its Midnight' , 'three and a dozen others from 73 - The Today voice is far better as is half of the material - its a shame he didn't tackle some of the better material that would come , ie: a studio 'Unchained Melody' whilst he still had the goods to deliver it ! 'pledging my love' & 'he'll have to go' and 'moody blue' from the these sessions would have been very nice indeed

anyway, kinda a surprising release in some respects, especially the use off vic for the soundboard material but again all in all very positive

[Rob V]

[quote="PiersEIN"][quote="Robert"][quote="Tony.."]Yes, the FTD was (once again) a disaster)[/quote]

The masters sound great on the Legacy edition, I think best ever.
The undubbed masters sounded much better on FTD however, mainly because of a more powerful mix.

Do the 1-1 comparison on TROUBLE for example.
Without judging DB's playing, Duke's bass is inaudible on the legacy, on the FTD it sounds great.[/quote]

It is all a matter of personal choice but I have to disagree with you about the Undubbed Masters.
IMHO they sound WAY WAY better on the new legacy release ...

Some notes ex the EIN review
..

[b]Disc 1 – ‘Elvis Today’.[/b]
While all these tracks were released on the 2005 FTD ‘Classic Album’ there were some audio remastering issues on that release. Here the songs have been remastered by Vic Anesini and they sound so much better here.
The original Album Masters only show a little audio improvement (a little more clarity at the top-end) possibly due to the extensive overdubs and were released on the 'Complete Masters'.

[b]However the 'Original Session Mixes' show a vast improvement.[/b] Now there is a real clarity to the top-end - you can hear Ronnie Tutt's high-hat and cymbals so clearly now. It is obvious that a high-end filter had been poorly used on the 2005 FTD Lene Reidel masters. The track 'And I Love You So' for instance almost sounds like a different mix with a new incredible audio clarity with the cymbal and piano much more prominent. Similarly[b] 'Shake A Hand'[/b] now has much more edge to Glen Hardin's piano amd even Elvis' vocal sounds clearer. With such a definite audio improvement, [b]these Vic Anesini Original Session Mixes re-masters alone are worth the price of admission![/b]

After the original album, the Original Session Mixes are presented in the order that the songs were recorded in - although the sleeve notes do not explain this. (If this legacy presentation is for the “General Public” more information would have been a good idea).

[b]DISC 2: Elvis Live - Dallas, June 6 197[/b]5.

The sound is excellent for a cassette recorded soundboard and the audio-mix of the musicians is very fine indeed with James Burton’s guitar placed at a good level as well as a strong bass from Jerry Scheff. Even the orchestra is at a good level and there is a better than usual level of audience response in the mix.

[b]The audio has been remastered for this release by Vic Anesini (go here for more) from “the original tapes” and although normally there is not too much you can do with cassette as a source it is a fabulous improvement.[/b] The high-frequency “tininess” of the original release has a smoother sound here and best of all the bass has been pumped up. While not so noticeable at the start, tracks such as 'Burning Love' (now with a nice thumping bass-line) and 'Funny How Time Slips Away'' (now with a much fuller mix) sound way, way better here.

Anesini has also removed the extra echo that was added to the 1980 original release. There are a couple of points where his edits are very minorly different from the original but hardly noticeable at all.

[b]You can now crank this re-master up on a hi-fi and get a real feel for the concert - which is pretty impressive knowing their source. [/b]

See the complete in-depth review here
>>>
http://www.elvisinfonet.com/cd_review_Elvis_Today_Legacy.html

Cheers
Piers[/quote]

Fantastic review Piers, as always.

Thanks!

[Rob V]

The Original Session Mixes... are these the 'true' Undubbed Masters? Some on this board have been saying the FTD version and now on the new Today Legacy Edition they aren't the real deal.

[PiersEIN]

The Original Session Mixes... are these the 'true' Undubbed Masters? Some on this board have been saying the FTD version and now on the new Today Legacy Edition they aren't the real deal.

They are the original "rough mix" made by Rick Ruggeri and Felton Jarvis mix.
Noted on the sleeve as "Original Undubbed Session Mixes" with Duke Bardwell playing.
There is no other Elvis album where a key musician has been removed before orchestra / sweetnings were overdubbed.

As such the "Original Undubbed Session Mixes" are as close as we can get. They certainly run longer / shorter than the "Masters" so cannot be quite the same.
Perhaps the "Undubbed Masters" would be the band with Duke Bardwell replaced before the orchestra is added.
It's all semantics in any case with this album...

Cheers
Piers

[goldbelt]

Out of curiosity, I played some of the new Legacy Today on Spotify to compare and whilst the old Silver Box show does sound better, I didn't really find any improvement in the sound of the original session mixes comparing them to the FTD Today 2 disc set.

[Arvis Paisley]

Out of curiosity, I played some of the new Legacy Today on Spotify to compare and whilst the old Silver Box show does sound better, I didn't really find any improvement in the sound of the original session mixes comparing them to the FTD Today 2 disc set.

Well, I just compared the two CDs (1998 box set and 2015 Legacy) and it's like night and day. Compare the opening of If You Love Me (Let Me Know). The Legacy edition has a fuller sound. The box set CD has a tinny quality and it sounds like you're listening on a bad cassette tape.

Also, the distortion in the first 30 seconds of Burning Love has been corrected on the Legacy edition.

If you don't like a warmer sound with more bass I can understand, but in general it makes for a better sound.

[Juan Luis]

Out of curiosity, I played some of the new Legacy Today on Spotify to compare and whilst the old Silver Box show does sound better, I didn't really find any improvement in the sound of the original session mixes comparing them to the FTD Today 2 disc set.

Well, I just compared the two CDs (1998 box set and 2015 Legacy) and it's like night and day. Compare the opening of If You Love Me (Let Me Know). The Legacy edition has a fuller sound. The box set CD has a tinny quality and it sounds like you're listening on a bad cassette tape.

If you don't like a warmer sound with more bass I can understand, but in general it makes for a better sound.

It has to sound better (before sound restoration even attempted) with at least one analog generation removed. And that's significant with a limited source such as cassette tape.

[goldbelt]

Out of curiosity, I played some of the new Legacy Today on Spotify to compare and whilst the old Silver Box show does sound better, I didn't really find any improvement in the sound of the original session mixes comparing them to the FTD Today 2 disc set.

Well, I just compared the two CDs (1998 box set and 2015 Legacy) and it's like night and day. Compare the opening of If You Love Me (Let Me Know). The Legacy edition has a fuller sound. The box set CD has a tinny quality and it sounds like you're listening on a bad cassette tape.

Also, the distortion in the first 30 seconds of Burning Love has been corrected on the Legacy edition.

If you don't like a warmer sound with more bass I can understand, but in general it makes for a better sound.

Yes, I said "whilst the old Silver Box show does sound better" - meaning the old show sounds better on the Legacy, probably didn't phrase that as clearly as I could have.

What are your findings on the original session mixes for the Today album?

So, yeah, The live show sounds better on the Legacy, agreed. I didn't really find any improvement in the Today album original session mixes though.

[Arvis Paisley]

Ahh, I thought you had said the old silver box was better. Thanks for clearing that up. I don't have the FTD so I can't compare those tracks, but I agree concerning the concert.

[James27]

Great to read about the improvements. After skipping some of the previous Legacy releases, I'm confident judging by the respected reviewers here, that this one is a bonus to my collection.

[Stvimpe]

I'm quite happy with the Legacy release of Elvis Today. One minor quibble though: they could have added some bonus live performances on the second disc. Sony (or FTD) has enough material to add something extra to disc 2.

---

Regarding future 'Legacy' releases, what may we still expect?

For LP Fans Only + A Date with Elvis ?
Pot Luck + 'The Lost Album' ?
EIC ?
On Tour ?
Jailhouse Rock + King Creole ?
...