Elvis At Sun

[gryphon]

I picked this up a few days ago and have been listening to it a lot recently.

This shows Elvis before the commercial influences of RCA took over.

He sounds so fresh and young and yet there is clearly a huge talent here.

One of the most striking things here is how well Sam Phillips has captured Elvis , its only simple mono recording from the 50s but they were so well done and have such a great feel about them.................its as if you are in that tiny studio with them

[Tiggi]

I have a box set of Sun Records releases, but it's entirely Elvis free. My recollection is that the quality of the recordings is very variable.

[gryphon]

I too have heard that the quality is variable and was quite careful but I read the reviews on this one and it said hat all the recordings had been carefully restored and they were right , the quality on this issue is excellent.................

[Tiggi]

Interesting.

Thanks for that, buddy.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

I picked this up a few days ago and have been listening to it a lot recently.

This shows Elvis before the commercial influences of RCA took over.

He sounds so fresh and young and yet there is clearly a huge talent here.

One of the most striking things here is how well Sam Phillips has captured Elvis , its only simple mono recording from the 50s but they were so well done and have such a great feel about them.................its as if you are in that tiny studio with them

IMO Elvis' "sun sessions" material is the best he ever did, its raw,intense,spontaineous....its everything "rock n roll" was supposed to be.

as for the RCA thing you mentioned Gryphon, i have to disagree with you, they exposed his talent to the world, Sun Records could never have done that, they were just a small independant label, pretty much a stepping stone for the "big time".
the quality of the songs Elvis did at RCA in the 1950s and 1968 onwards were incredible. It was the "ringmaster"(Parker) and Hollywood that let Elvis down after his return from the Army. Parker didnt care about Elvis...just the money and made him sign ridiculous Hollywood contracts that forced him to make three, sometimes four movies a year throughout the 1960s. RCA had to go along with it begrudgingly as they knew the only material they could get from him was movie soundtracks, they were either pretty stupid not to sign him to album deals rather than just have him on their books....either that or they were totally conned by Parker also.
Elvis didnt want to make those 1960s bubblegum movies and sing those stupid songs, it wasnt till the late 1960s that during further Hollywood negotiations that Elvis actually started standing up to Parker, what is unclear is whether Priscilla was pushing him to do what he wanted or not, i suspect she did exert pressure and instill self belief in Elvis as she was/is a smart woman, youve only got to look at the way she brought EP-Enterprises back from bankrupsy after his death to be a multi-billion dollar business.