Elvis At Sun
Catalogue Number : 8 - 28766 - 12051 - 6
Year Release : 27th June 2004
Side
A :
Harbor Lights
I Love You Because
That's All Right
Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Blue Moon
Tomorrow Night
I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')
Just Because
Good Rockin' Tonight
I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine
Side B :
Milkcow Blues Boogie
You're A Heartbreaker
I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (slow version)
I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
Baby, Let's Play House
I Forgot To Remember To Forget
Mystery Train
Trying To Get To You
When It Rains It Really Pours
Details : 2004 Release
Front Cover : Photo of Elvis. Title to the left.
Rear Cover : All text back. Catalogue number bottom right.
Made in U.S.A. bottom right.
Label : Mustard/Yellowish.
Side A : SUN logo top.
Side B : SUN logo top.
Pressing Plant : Unknown
Matrix Number Side A : 82876 - 61205 - 1 -A (Hand Etched)
Matrix Number Side B : 82876 - 61205 - 1 -B (Hand Etched)
*Note* Made in U.S.A. on vinyl label.
Brief History : Elvis at Sun marks the third time that
RCA has given Elvis Presley's seminal Sun Records recordings
a refurbishing, but while the 1987 The Complete Sun Sessions
and 1999's Sunrise both added plenty of bonus materials
along with the ten single sides and various outtakes Presley
cut for Sam Phillips' pioneering label, Elvis at Sun seems
to follow the notion that "less is more.".
While the supposedly definitive Sunrise spread 38 cuts
over two discs, Elvis at Sun sticks to 19 cuts (all of
which appeared on disc one of Sunrise), and reissue producers
Ernst Mikael Jorgensen and Roger Semon have done extensive
cleansing on these vintage recordings, in some cases buffing
off layers of echo and reverb that have been part of these
performances since they first appeared on LP (most notably
on "You're a Heartbreaker" and "Good Rockin'
Tonight").
With neither Elvis nor Sam Phillips around to offer their
views, it's hard to say if this amounts to presenting
the tapes as they were meant to be heard or playing around
with history, but on most of the tracks the effect is
startling -- these recordings have never sounded quite
so clear and sharp, with a richer sense of detail in the
nooks and crannies of Elvis' voice and Scotty Moore's
guitar (the always spooky "Blue Moon" is now
gloriously spectral -- has anyone ever sounded quite like
that?).
Too bad they couldn't fix the speed glitch on "I
Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine," though. The disc
also abandons the sequencing of most previous releases
of this material, which presented songs in the order they
were released, in favour of assembling the songs in the
order they were recorded, which is probably better history
if less satisfying as pure listening. As for the music,
well, this is arguably the most important music of Elvis'
career and the growth of rock & roll into a mass art
form; Presley's wildly idiosyncratic fusion of blues,
country, pop, and anything else that crossed his path
was still evolving as he recorded these songs, and there's
a thrill of discovery here that's a wonder to behold.
No, Elvis didn't invent rock & roll, but it would
have been a very different creature without his guiding
influence and listening to him making it happen on Elvis
at Sun is history at its most wildly entertaining; this
isn't necessarily the best collection of these vitally
important sides, but it inarguably presents this brilliant
music in a new and fascinating light.
