Customer Reviews

Jungle Room Sessions (Dig)

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I am a huge Elvis fan. I was a bit worried about forking out the money for the album as some ''alternate take' albums can be terrible. This album however is a must have for an Elvis. If you like the Memphis boulavard album you will like this one. Great album, Elvis is definately on form.

I just got back from touring Graceland for the first time. In one of the gift shops, I saw this album and picked it up. This is a cool record and I hope that someday RCA decides to release it on their major label. BMG decided to release this under the hard to find "Follow that Dream Records" label. For more info on this release you can go to ALLMUSIC.COM or use FOLLOW THAT DREAM RECORDS for your search word. Here are some highlights: Track 17-Fire Down Below Instrumental- a rocker, ELVIS never put down vocals on this, it would've been cool to see the possible lyrics. The remaining tracks on this set are alternate takes from the last two studio albums THE KING released in his life. RCA sent a truck loaded with recording equipment and parked it in the backyard of GRACELAND. The famous JUNGLEROOM Sessions provided the world with MOODY BLUE,WAY DOWN(Guinness Book:Lowest Vocal Recorded),BLUE EYES CRYING IN THE RAIN,HE'LL HAVE TO GO,SHE STILL THINKS I CARE,FOR THE HEART,HURT,PLEDGING MY LOVE,THE LAST FAREWELL,I'LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN to name a few. These songs and more are on this cd. Two complaints-1.No liner notes,2. Hard to find status increases price. Do yourself a favor and visit the beautiful state of TENNESSEE, stay at the HEARTBREAK HOTEL, check out GRACELAND,SUN STUDIOS, SMITHSONIAN ROCK-N-SOUL MUSEUM, BEALE STREET; head on down to NASHVILLE and GATLINBURG!

The year was 1976. Elvis Presley was too depressed, or just plain lazy, to go to a recording studio. So, in order to fulfill his contractual obligations, RCA Records brought a mobile recording studio to his house. They set it up in his den, nicknamed "The Jungle Room", hence the title of this album. This CD features alternate takes from those recording sessions. The results are a mixed lot. Some really great songs were recorded, such as "Moody Blue", "For the Heart", "Hurt" and "Way Down". There were also some not so great songs recorded, like "The Last Farewell", "Never Again" and "It's Easy For You". There is even a song here that does not feature Elvis at all, called "Fire Down Below". The story behind that is, one night they couldn't get Elvis to come out of his bedroom for a recording session. So, they went ahead and recorded backing tracks to a couple of songs, so Elvis could overdub his voice later. Well, for some reason Elvis never got around to recording a vocal for "Fire Down Below". There is also one unlisted bonus track included. It is a fragment of "America the Beautiful". The story behind that is, they attempted to record "America", but were unsatisfied with the results. The tapes for that song were erased, and only a brief segment of one take survived. Despite the uneven quality of the performances here, this is a fascinating document of an artist in decline. I would recommend it for serious fans of the King.

Funny how you can't quantify taste... a previous reviewer rated several songs in this catalog as not good, for example THE LAST FAREWELL. So odd how there can be so much distance between elvis fans. This was always one of my most favorite elvis songs. Upon first listen, you can hear the quality of muscians in the background, how elvis' voice was very hardy & sincere, and how they did not "rush" the song, he did the complete version. If you really liked "later elvis" then you will love this, hands down. Don't even debate the issue, just go for it. After all, its elvis.

I'm not going to discuss the quality of these songs. Other reviewers have already done that. I want to talk about the sonics.

On the plus side, this album has alternate takes of these songs WITHOUT all the string overdubs that plagued many of Elvis' later recordings. Some of the Nashville Sessions from 1970 sound great with strings, as the arrangements seemed to clearly call for needed strings. However, Elvis' last recordings from '75-'76 seemed like they were fine without strings, and all that overdubbing was merely an afterthought. So, it's good to have these "raw" recordings as they were performed in the studio.

Also, the sound quality is top-notch...crisp & clean.

But now, the negative...it sounds to me like the songs on this album were not re-mixed for this CD. It sounds as though they were transferred to CD exactly as they were played in the studio, instead of correcting problems with proper mixing. There are instruments that at times seem either too prominant, or not prominant enough. The same goes for Elvis' voice. That's totally natural. But that's also why they recorded on multiple tracks. Adjusting volumes & such in the mixing process is really important, and it seems to be lacking here.

Conversely, check out the fantastic FTD edition of Elvis' album Today. It contains the original 1975 album plus alternate takes. But it also contains all the MASTER TAKES...WITHOUT OVERDUBS! So, you get to hear the BEST studio cuts of each song, with only Elvis and his studio band, and with proper mixing. It sounds fantastic, cleaner & clearer than anything before, and has now replaced my old Today album as the definitive edition.