Elvis 68 Comeback Deluxe Boxset

[the record spot]

Never heard much of the great man's live stuff, but this is all killer, no filler. If you're near a branch of Fopp, they've got the deluxe 4CD boxset for £12. He's a different artist to the guy you hear on the studio material; very raw voice, great live performer. He must have been absolutely electric in his day. Like Buddy Holly, still one of the biggest losses in music.

 

[Andrew Everard]

But unlike Holly, one of the more avoidable losses...

 

[the record spot]

Can't disagree with that Andrew, though I wonder how many of his "hangers on" could've helped more than they did...too many yes-men too busy taking their cut.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Elvis's fate is none the less tragic for its avoidability, and i remember the sheer emotion of listening to the radio the night he died, with endless tributes and Elvis tracks while the rain bucketed down outside.

But somehow the Holly story seems to me more poignant in terms of unrealised potential, even if Holly did selfishly ditch the band of close schoolfriends with whom he had all his early successes and leave Lubbock for New York in search of greater fame beyond what he saw as small-town limitations.

 

[the record spot]

Agreed - Elvis had had a good bit of track to run on; God knows how much stuff he put out in addition to the unreleased material (there's a stack of bootlegs and then some on top of the official RCA work), but Buddy barely got out the starting blocks. He left some great stuff behind, but there'll always be the "what if...".

I caught a link to the US Aviation Board's accident report for the incident which made for fascinating reading. Turns out the pilot didn't do a full check on the weather conditions, wasn't trained to fly that aircraft on the then new instrumentation that'd been introduced for that plane and conseqeuently misread what it was telling him. When the weather closed in on his flight, the consensus seems to be that he pretty much flew into the ground.

I used to work for one of the big three airline engine manufacturers (clue: it's the only British one...!) and the engine reports we got back were always interesting. Up to the time I left, they'd never had a fatal accident due to one of their engines failing - pretty impressive record given the use that kit gets!

(Anyway, I digress a wee bit folks - Elvis - 4CD - superdooper boxset - deluxe thingy - £12 - Fopp - buy it and help the economy!)