The Millbranch record label presented us the ‘Rags To Riches’ LP earlier this year, and now we hold the ‘Same Stage, New Script’ CD in our hands. Additionally, two new colorful double LP sets are due in August. I wonder which script they are following for their release schedule.
I enjoyed their previous ‘Rags to Riches’ set as a compilation, so I looked forward to this CD for the same reason. Let’s see if that’s justified.
Design
The set has a modern design, with a great shot of our man and a touch of the seventies in the typography. Inside, the 6-panel digipack doesn’t hold much information, as the designer chose to use the tape-box as the centerpiece. A nice choice; it adds to the (possible) source of the content, which was in part sourced from a 1979 Joan Deary project if I read the date on the tape-box correctly.
The question is, what project was she working on? Fortunately, the label already announced the release of a vinyl version, which includes a 20-page booklet detailing the background for this compilation, so perhaps we’ll find the answer there.
Content
The first months of 1972 can be characterized by heartburn and hard work for Elvis. Heartburn as his marriage with Priscilla was falling apart, and hard work in the studio recording and rehearsing to prepare for a revamped concert series with an updated setlist. On this set, you hear both: 7 studio recordings and 19 live performances.
The heartbreak is all too audible with songs like ‘The Impossible Dream,’ ‘Until It's Time For You To Go,’ ‘It's Over,’ ‘You Gave Me A Mountain,’ ‘It's Impossible,’ ‘Where Do I Go From Here’, ‘For The Good Times,’ ‘Fool,’ ‘Separate Ways,’ ‘Always On My Mind,’ and ‘I'll Remember You’ as a perfectly chosen closing song for this compilation. Even the slowed-down ‘Hound Dog’ fits in here. ‘(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear’ and the recent hit ‘Burning Love’ (Take 2) almost fall out of place here, but his last No. 1 hit can’t be omitted, of course.
The positive side of Elvis’ sadness is that he channels it through his performances, using his personal pain and turmoil to emotionally charge his performance, both live and in the studio. This still resonates with his audience today, making him the great artist he still is. There isn’t a bad song or performance on this set, although ‘All Shook Up’ is sung a bit too fast and during ‘Hawaiian Closing Theme’ Elvis takes his time saying his goodbyes to the celebrities in the audience instead of properly singing this song, so that one could have been omitted. ‘I'll Remember You’ is a fitting closing song for a tear-jerking compilation like this.
Elvis returned to RCA Studio C. in Hollywood in March 1972 to record new material and rehearse for his live tour, which were to be recorded for the ‘On Tour’ documentary. Looking back now, it is hard to understand how RCA handled these great songs from the March 27th to 29th recording sessions. Some of them became pillars under Elvis’ catalog: ‘Separate Ways,’ ‘For The Good Times,’ ‘Where Do I Go From Here,’ ‘Burning Love,’ ‘Fool,’ ‘Always On My Mind,’ and ‘It’s A Matter Of Time.’ But most of these were scattered away on singles - including my all-time favorite coupling of ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘Separate Ways,’ which should have been two separate singles! - or on Camden budget releases like ‘Burning Love and Hits From His Movies.’ These recordings, together with a hit like ‘Burning Love’ could have, and should have, been released as an album. What a smash record that could have been!
Recording a contemporary hit like ‘Burning Love’ illustrated that Elvis was still relevant in a changing musical world with artists like the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, and Joni Mitchell exploring new musical directions. The fact that some of them attended his 1972 Madison Square Garden shows a few months later is a clear illustration of Elvis’ fame and position as an artist.
So even with new musical trends changing the sound of popular music, our man made his stand with his ability to unite different genres and appeal to a broad audience.
Fortunately, the people from Millbranch stepped in to create this “album that never was” with some great live and studio recordings from early 1972. Thank you, guys!
The concert standards ‘Polk Salad Annie,’ ‘Never Been To Spain,’ ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water,’ ‘Little Sister / Get Back,’ ‘An American Trilogy,’ and of course some of the early fifties hits complete this compilation. Listening to the live performances, you hear that Elvis succeeded in presenting his audience a more serious and solid show, with less chatting. Although he still makes some jokes and makes fun of poor Charlie Hodge in ‘Never Been to Spain,’ “it sounds funny all by himself.”
Looking at the tape-box inside the digipack it appears that the producers were able to work with a transfer of the original binaural tape of the January 26th Opening Show, mixed to stereo as prepared for a possible release Joan Deary was working on in 1979. According to the tape Dick Bogert was the engineer. The content of this tape, featuring accounts for one-third of this album. The other performances seem to have been added to complete the 1972 compilation.
In the mix Elvis takes center stage, the band backs him there, with the piano a tad to the left, the orchestra further to the left and the backing vocalists on the right side. The bass and drums are very prominent in the mix, more than you would expect, but for me it works in the overall audio-presentation.
With this selection of songs the producers showed that they know their Elvis and his catalogue. They have chosen and mixed the songs cleverly. The live songs have a good 'concert flow, using the applause, the transitions were edited very well.
Deary was working on several projects, the book 'De Musik, Der Mensch, Der Mythos' by Marc Hendrickx shows another 1979 tape-box with binaural mixes, engineered by Dick Bogert from the RCA 'Tape Legends' archive (page 219).
The CD was mastered - by Petrushka at Planet of Sound Mastering - a bit louder, to create a more dynamic sound and it works. These performances sound richer than the FTD release of these performances on the 'Opening Night' CD from the 2001 import record label (1994) and FTD's ‘An American Trilogy’ (2007). The concert was also released by the Memphis Recording Service as 'Elvis: Opening Night 1972' and as 'Las Vegas 1970 And 1973' on the Homespun record label in 2023.
The mix has much detail, you even hear the drumming on the hi-hat. And listen to that 'Trilogy', shivers run down my spine when he sings “hush now baby, your daddy is bound to die.” Overall, the audio on this set, sourced from various concert dates, studio, and overdub sessions, sounds pretty much like a whole, with the live performances nicely flowing from song to song, almost creating a fantasy concert.
‘The Impossible Dream’ sounded a little sharp to my ears; the other tracks sounded great. Good to have the orchestra version of ‘Separate Ways,’ ‘It's A Matter Of Time,’ and ‘Always On My Mind’ together on this set as these were originally done four weeks after the original recording in an overdub session, led by Glenn D. Hardin using a fifteen-piece orchestra consisting of two cellos, six violins, two violas, and four trumpets. They complete the (original) picture.
The orchestral version of "Always On My Mind" would remain officially unreleased until 1985 when it would become the title track of an early RCA Elvis CD release. It hit the charts in 1997 when it was used in a British Airways commercial. ‘For The Good Times’ found a place on the ‘Essential Seventies’ box, but this version of ‘Separate Ways’ still has to be released officially. It has seen various bootleg releases, most recently on the Venus label CD ‘Unedited Masters - Nashville 1970 Revisited’ (2013).
Conclusion
This compilation presents a new script, used on the same stage, as performed with new (emotionally charged) energy. For the follow-up, RCA should have followed their own script and released this great material like the guys from Millbranch did. Mixing live and studio material worked great for Elvis, ever since the 1968 ‘ELVIS’ and 1969 ‘From Memphis to Vegas / From Vegas to Memphis’ LPs.
You can “complain” about the fact that we have heard these performances before, but then you underestimate the great listening experience this compilation of a “what if” album offers. If this compilation was meant to be played, the producers succeeded. It has been in my CD player for a few days now!
And I can’t wait to play the LP version. That magenta-colored LP looks stunning!
