Title: Jungle Room Sessions, The (released in 2000)

Label: FTD

Date: February 2-8, 1976 & October 29-30, 1976, The Jungle Room, Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee

Sound Quality: * * * * * + / * * * * * +

Compilation Rating: * * * * * + / * * * * * +

Tracks: 1.Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall (alt. takes 2-5) 2.She Thinks I Still Care (alt. take 2A) 3.The Last Farewell (alternate take 2) 4.Solitaire (alt. take 3) 5.I'll Never Fall In Love Again (alt. take 5) 6.Moody Blue (alt. take 3) 7.For The Heart (alt. take 2 & 3) 8.Hurt (alt. take 3) 9.Danny Boy (alt. take 8) 10.Never Again (alt. take take 11) 11.Love Coming Down (alt. take 2 ) 12.Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain (take 2) 13.It's Easy For You (alt. take 1) 14.Way Down (alt. take 2) 15.Pledging My Love (unedited master) 16.He'll Have To Go (rough mix master) 17.Fire Down Below (instrumental) / (not listed) America the beautiful

Review: This is one of the best FTD releases. It represents outtakes to [almost] all the songs Elvis recorded at the Jungle Room in 1976 (with the exception of Pledging My Love, which is an unedited master, running for some five minutes, and He'll Have To Go, which is the same as the original with more obvious orchestration and sounds different) in chronological order and is a very important release.

But let me go through all the takes. It is really worth it.

The take 3 (not 2 in fact) of Bitter They Are, Harder They Fall is interrupted because of a ringing telephone. Elvis says: "Cut. Damn telephone. Turn the thing off. Shut it off for a while". As the intro of take 4 starts, a dog barks. Elvis shouts "Shoot the dogs and the phone. Shoot the yellow dog!" The performance is pretty like the original but without the overdubs. Take 2A of She Thinks I Still Care, on the other hand, is pretty different from the original - it begins with an intro sung by the vocal groups: "She thinks I still care". The song has a more country feel than the original. The ending is also different, because it is not a fade out like in the case with the original. The Last Farewell is take 2 and sounds pretty good for such an early try. Solitaire is take 3, and sounds fresh because of the different guitar picking by James Burton (probably). Some power is lost, though, because there is no orchestra overdubs, but at least it sounds different. I'll Never Fall In Love is take 5 and in my opinion is better than the pretty weak original. It contains a bit different lyrics, also, in the end ("When you fell for that someone else, baby" instead of "When I saw you in his arms, baby"). As you may know, Tom Jones' original contained one more couplet, and with Elvis probably singing without the paper, he differed words. Moody Blue begins with an incomplete take, during which Elvis sings "chukamotherfuckersongofgunbitch I lost the words somewhere again" and adds "It's Italian verse". The next take is a looser comparing to the original, Elvis still messes up with the words (though now he sings by paper) before the James' solo. The weakest thing on the whole CD is probably the next track - a "country" version of For The Heart. It isn't even a matter of the arrangement which is weaker than the original. Elvis' voice cracks on the high notes, and after them also. As about the arrangement, instead of a rhythm guitar used on the original an acoustic was chosen, and as I said before, it has a country feel. Hurt begins with Elvis singing "I-I-I-I-'m" and that's all. After the band stops playing he adds "The End" which brings laughter to all the musicians. The performance is close to perfect, but still needed some polishing. Only the 7-the take became the master. Danny Boy begins with Elvis saying "I'd like to do it in C better. That's what I would like to do better". What a brilliant performance, for a (in fact) first take in the setup chosen for the original. It only needed two more to get the master. Also on the beginning, Ronnie Tutt does some beats on the drums. Other difference from the original is the fact that the vocal groups quit after the line "...my grave will richer...".

Never Again is close to master (the version here is take 11 and the original is 14). In my opinion it was not quite correctly chosen, because it is a too late take and close to master, an earlier take would be more interesting. But anyway, thanks for what we've got. It is nice, anyway and Elvis sounds powerful. Love Coming Down is just perfect for take 2. Also without the overdubs done later with the original, it sounds better. Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain contains some different playing by James Burton, also the echo added to the original is (of course) out on this version. It's Easy For You begins with Elvis saying "I get carried away very easily. Emotional son of a bitch". The song itself takes us from February sessions to October. It is a good performance, in my opinion, without the overdubs it sounds like "Beatles" I think, because there are too much guitars - James Burton, John Wilkinson, Chip Young and Charlie Hodge (to compare - only James and Bill Sanford were present at the February session, so John Wilkinson, Chip Young and Charlie had to overdub their parts later) and no orchestra. Way Down is yet another great version, very funky, with different arrangement for the Jerry Scheff part. I like this version even more than the original. Pledging My Love is an outstanding not edited master, which is the jam. Next is the so called "rough mix master" of He'll Have To Go which, in fact, is the same thing as the original, with a bit different orchestration.

And the last track. The so much discussed There's A Fire Down Below. It is only an instrumental track to the song Elvis' bass player Jerry Scheff had written for Elvis. Elvis promised to record his voice over the instrumental track, but in fact he never did. And it's a pity. If it had been released it could easily become a classic number. Too sad Elvis died before he could put his hands on it. But anyway, it brings us a chance to understand what Elvis' music could be in a couple of years, if he hadn't died. And after some 10 or so seconds we get all that has survived from America The Beautiful, and it is a shame that the song didn't survive completely, I must say.

Conclusion? This is a wonderful release. I am out of words, and that doesn't happen to me very often. All I can add is GO AND GET IT! Great contents in great sound.

J BMG / FTD releases index