Customer Reviews

Sunrise

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

RCA continues to release and rerelease Elvis albums like the plague. Selling you with new bonus, never before heard alternate takes, etc. It's not different at all really, from the single cd "The Complete Sun Sessions" recording done 13 years ago. The sound quality is touched up a bit, and the extras are interesting But.. not worth the investment if you have the previous recordings. Although.. These sessions capture rock & roll at its most basic [12-bar blues] and romantic. Much has been said about Elvis' greatness, but this is the ONE album that proves it. Never before has an artist been so exagerated as Elvis was in the 60's and 70's for mediocore at best material, but the songs on this album will have you falling head over heals in love with Elvis, and wondering just how great things might have been if he would have stayed at Sun and never met up with the, err, the colonel. This is the greatest rock & roll ever recorded.. Period.. I've heard them all. This is the mecca that so many artists go back to.. The Beatles, Van Morrison, The Clash, Otis Redding, etc. It's got soul.

The recordings Elvis Presley made for Sun Records in Memphis are considered among the finest rock n' roll records ever made. There's an undeniable freshness about the studio tracks on these two discs that still conveys energy and fun. They're all very simply songs, quickly recorded, but they'd be absolutely impossible to duplicate.
That's probably why they've been repackaged and re-released again. With a $30 price tag, everyone from Presley fanatics to casual listeners interested in music history would be better off picking up the 5-Disc Box Set: THE COMPLETE 50s MASTERS, which gives you all the master takes here as well as many of the alternates and demos (plus all his RCA recordings from 1956-1958, including movie soundtracks, Christmas and gospel tunes and great singles like "Heartbreak Hotel", "Love Me Tender", "Jailhouse Rock", "Don't Be Cruel", "All Shook Up" and "Hound Dog") for only $25 more. That collection is well worth it.
I don't feel the unreleased studio material justifies re-releasing these songs again. With a few exceptions, it's easy to see why these alternate takes were originally rejected.
The rough tapes also don't contain the priceless moment of Elvis cracking up on a take as Carl Perkins makes faces at him through the window of the Sun Records office that looked into the recording studio. That's the kind of informal spontaneity that made the Sun Recordings so vibrant (for Presley, Perkins and plenty of other great artists). That's why I bought this collection.
What is here is some incredibly racist studio dialogue between takes that is far more shocking to a modern listener than any pelvis-wiggling might've been at the time. It's incredibly embarrassing to the spirit of fun-for-all that this repackaging of the Sun material might be trying to market to.
There's also some live tracks to fill out the end of Disc 2. They sound like Elvis was giving a concert from a distant sewer while someone was sweeping gravel off the floor in the recording studio.
I love Elvis and the Sun material is arguably the greatest accomplishment in his recording legacy, but there are better packages to get all of the material anyone would want from this collection.

I don't care if you love Elvis, you hate Elvis, youi dig rock, you loathe rock, you are 8 or you are 80, this music will go right to your heart. You are hearing a truly original artist create an art form on the spot with irresistable caring and appeal. There's little here that has much do with the Elvis RCA fashioned the minute they got his contract; he isn't sinigng "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" here. What is here is pure, undiluted genius--a mixture of blues, soul, pop, country, folk and a lot else, all distilled into the most tender, gutsy, fascinating, honest music imaginable. And Elvis' taste in material is just fascinating--he has taken music from all sorts of sources here, nothing predictable, nothing linear, and fashioned it, bent it, molded it and delivered it with genius. And there is one noteworthy moment which has largely gone unnoticed. When he sings "I'll Never Stand In Your Way" he is all but imitating the original performer, Joni James, in the most affecting and complimentary way imaginable. He could even do THAT magnifiicently.

Forget the fat Elvis of the 70's, the hip shaking Elvis of the late 50's and the movie making Elvis of the 60's. Once you've done that then look at a young truck driver from Mississippi who wanted to hear his voice on record and this is what you get with Sunrise. the original Sun sessions do lay down the groundwork for what Elvis was to become but they also show rock and roll's close relationship with the blues. the rawness of their power is incredible. This is the stuff that the Elvis should be remembered for, not the other crap.

Outside of jazz and along with Robert Johnson's complete recordings, Presley's Sun sessions are possibly the most important recordings in the history of American music. What Presley (who was only a teenager) achieves on these songs is just staggering. A perfect and purely instinctive fusion of blues, rhythm and blues, country and pop into a new style of music soon to be baptized "rock'n roll". These recordings put to rest the charges that Presley "stole" the blues from the black artists he admired. Instead, it is clear that Presley "feels" the blues like no other white singer ever has. More importantly, he makes the songs his own...This collection is not, in fact, complete. It ignores the much better sounding live versions of "Maybellene" and "Tweedle Dee" included in the box set "The 50s Masters". It is, however, by far the best ever Sun sessions compilation. The songs sound as fresh as the day they were recorded and will probably sound the same 1000 years from now. This is one of the rare examples of a moment when an artist achieves something which is more than the sum of his influences to create a new art form. A monument of American music, a must for any serious music lover.

The essence of Elvis Presley in the pre-RCA era is captured on "Sunrise". All four sides of his pre-Sun acetates, the Sun releases, alternate takes and live performances provide the listener with the best sensation of what it was like to experience the raw talent of the King of Rock'n Roll before being commercialized. A must for anyone remotely interested in Elvis.

wheather you are a diehard Elvis fan or you are just discovering his music,this two disc set is a must have for anyone. Elvis was 18 years old when he walked into the Memphis recording service in 1953 and cut his very first record which by some accounts was a present for his beloved mother Gladys Presley.

The A. side of the record Elvis made for his mother contained a very beutiful ballad called "My happiness" and the B. side contained another ballad called "That's when your heartaches begin".The first disc of this Album kicks off by introducing Elvis' very first release on the Sun Records label which was recorded in 1954 called "That's all right".

The first disc contains all of Presley's official records on the Sun Records label, starting with "That's all right" and ending with an unreleased outtake of a song called "When it rains it really pours".Both of these discs showcases Elvis'unique singing style and many of these songs were performed by Elvis from 1954-1977 "Tomorrow night" is a beutiful song which Elvis recorded on Sun records before he was famous yet in the 1960's "Tomorrow night" was released on an album called "Something for everybody" it had been "Overdubbed" with studio musicians but on this two disc set for the first time, "Tomorrow night" has been stripped of the overdubs and we get to hear the song with Elvis' haunting vocal which is swamped in "echo"The second disc on this album contains the recordings Elvis made on Sun records before and after he became a star.

This second disc contains studio alternate takes ,live recordings, and the first records Elvis made starting with "My happiness" which I mentioned earlier.One very cool track on this second disc is a very early rendition Elvis did of the old Bill Monroe blugrass song "Blue moon of Kentucky"When Elvis recorded "That's alright" the B side of that single was "Blue moon of Kentucky" yet Elvis rocked it up instead of staying with the early version which sounds very much like the actual Bill Monroe version.

There is also an early alternate take of "That's all right" You've got to get this album,it may not rock as much as Elvis' RCA records recordings but this album gives us insight into a very unique person who will never be replaced.Remember this:"The sun never sets on a legend"

This a collection of Elvis Presley's Sun Records recordings. Disc One features the master takes of all the songs he recorded for Sun Records (Plus two false starts in the case of "When It Rains, It Really Pours". Elvis talks about Carl Perkins between takes.) Disc Two features alternate takes, demos and live recordings. Much has been written about Elvis' Sun recordings being among the most important (and best) recordings of the early days of rock and roll. That is certainly true, just listen to Disc One here to find out. Disc Two is also interesting, although not quite as good as the first disc. The four demos, with just Elvis and his guitar, are the most important tracks here. The alternate takes of the Sun recordings are all very good, although not quite as good as the master takes. By the way, there are some other alternate takes in existence that are not included here, because they decided not to include more than one alternate take of any particular song (and there is an alternate take of "Harbor Lights" that wasn't discovered until after this collection came out). As for the live recordings, they sound terrible. I don't mean that the performances are terrible, I mean that the recordings are scratchy and worn out (and seemingly playing too fast at one point). But it's still better to have these live perfomances than not to have them. This is the definitive collection of Elvis Presley's Sun recordings, and it's a must get for every Elvis fan.

As these sessions near 50 years of age, they have passed into the legend as where rock and roll was invented. And like other forgotten classics (The Basement Tapes, Smile, the Get Back sessions) they were never extremely well-compiled... until now!

Sure there have been many compilations of the Sun Sessions, but they were either missing too much or far too repetetive. This one is better in that it separates the master takes from the alternatives. Disc One contains the masters, beautifully remastered bringing out all those remarkable Sam Moore licks that laid the foundations for rockabilly, with amazing clearness. While some selections come off dated now, when Elvis and his group (one of the best ever in terms of being tight and on the same page) are on, it is still as great now as it was then.

Disc Two is the true gem for collectors. Not only does it contain alternates and outtakes, the last quarter of this album contains an amazing previoulsy unreleased live set, with classics from the Sessions as well as great roots rock standards. (Money Honey, Tweedle Dee, Hearts of Stone) While the sound is downright terrible at some points, the performances are still magnificent, and a valuable addition to any fanatic's collection. (Though probably worth little to the casual fan.)

These recordings are some of the most important in the evolution of rock and roll. (Along with the singles of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Chuck Berry) Therefore it should automactically be in everyone's music collection. The Sun Sessions created some of the most influential music in history, and its good to see at last a set that contains almost all of those great Suns Sessions performances. If you are a rock and roll fan you owe it to yourself to buy Sunrise... RIGHT NOW!

This is where it all the started, the sunrise of the music we all listen to. The CD begins well, brilliantly in fact. For nine tracks you get such freshness, such enthusiasm and originality, it just cheers you right up for hours. When at the start of Milkcow Blues Boogie, Elvis says, "Hold it fellas, that don't move me - let's get real, real gone for a change," it's so hammy and yet so right that you just love him for it. Baby Let's Play House ("b-b-b-baby" - he's so excited, he can't get it out), Good Rockin' Tonight and especially Mystery Train are not just classics - they're all-time standard-setters for charm, for sheer attractiveness. Then the pace drops a little - the rest of this side is interesting rather than compelling, until you get to When It Rains It Really Pours which is utterly wonderful. Disk Two starts with something I have wanted to hear for years - Elvis's first ever recording, My Happiness, sung for Marion Keisker in Sun studio, almost an audition tape. It's utterly wonderful - it proves he was extraordinary from the start. But then, again, the pace drops. That track aside, I hardly ever play Disk Two. Sure, there's good music here, and interesting music if you want to think about the birth of rock 'n roll - but who wants to think about that more than occasionally? Then the last six tracks are a live recording, but a dog ate the tape - they take real dedication to get through. Two CDs, the price is a bit steep for what you get. So why the four stars? Because the things that are good about this CD aren't just good, they're sensational. If you don't know them backwards, you don't know rock 'n roll.