Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
That's Alright!, February 22, 2001
I'm not much of an ELVIS fan. I originally bought this CD because of the unusual version of "Blue Moon" that it contains. I was pleasantly surprised to find the rest of the album just as if not more enjoyable than that particular track. A young elvis, walks in to Sun Studio hoping to be discovered, and lays down some of the best pure rockabilly/blues stuff you'll ever hear. To describe it as "raw" doesn't do it justice...it's beyond raw, it's minimalist, it's spare, it's beautiful. Buy this album. You don't have to like ELVIS to appreciate the sound heard here.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elvis before "Heartbreak Hotel", February 1, 2003
This is the really young Elvis, before most of us ever heard of him. As such, this CD is a must for those who really want to know the whole Elvis. This shows his raw and undeveloped talent. He's presented here as the inventor of rock 'n roll. That may be arguable, but his importance to the genre isn't. He popularized a style which was part R&B, part country, and a whole lot more. I've read comments by naysayers claiming he stole the music from the black musicians, but what I've researched indicates that he always gave credit to the writers and first performers of the songs he performed, and it sure appears that he gave this music national exposure which ordinarily it would never have received given the repression that was rampant at the time. Anyway, the important thing for the listener is that this is good music, and that songs like "That's All Right", "Good Rockin' Tonight", "Milkcow Blues Boogie", "Mystery Train", and "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" preceded his phenomonal nationwide fame.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable piece of Americana, October 8, 2002
By A Customer
I've never been much of a fan of Elvis, but there is no question in my mind of the huge impact of his singing style and personality on North American culture. I've always believed that the earliest recorded Elvis was the best Elvis, and this collection confirms my belief, although there are some of my favorite tunes from his early career that are not included in this collection, probably because they were recorded somewhere other than Sun Records -- I'm thinking of Heartbreak Hotel; Hound Dog; Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawdy Miss Claudie; and Mean Woman Blues, all of them songs which go against the grain of the whitewashed image of Elvis created for him by Colonel Tom Parker and RCA Records. The tunes on this collection are a valuable record of the first emergence of this overwhelmingly important American cultural phenomenon. The liner notes to this collection, with several important quotes from Sam Phillips of Sun Records, help to evoke the musical and social atmosphere in Memphis when Elvis first appeared on the scene, and also provide insight on the extremely shy and introspective personality of the young Elvis.Once ordered, the album arrived with unexpected speed from dk Collectables.
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