2 LPs on 1 CD. Missing 4 songs from the 2 LP set, which was recorded 1954-1955 (the LP version is called "The Complete Sun Sessions"). The CD consists of 16 "master takes", 8 outtakes and 4 previously released alternate takes.
Personnel: Elvis Presley (vocals, guitar); Scotty Moore (guitar).
Liner Note Author: Peter Guralnick.
Recording information: 07/1954-07/1955.
From the extraordinary opening track, "That's All Right Mama," to the rock & roll reworking of Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky," this collection of Elvis Presley's early recordings for Sam Phillips's Sun record label is a fascinating document of the birth of a musical and cultural phenomenon. Presley was the first artist to successfully synthesize the vital musical elements of country music and R&B, and the effects still resonate down the decades. Whether he's performing the romantic balladry of "I Love You Because," or the dark, menacing "Mystery Train," rock & roll is heard here at its most primordial.
Essentially the rock-&-roll answer to the King James bible, THE SUN SESSIONS captures Elvis Presley's original recordings from his sessions at the famed Memphis studio in 1954 and 1955--just before he brought rock & roll to the masses. The legend has become cliché: a humble boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, pays producer Sam Phillips to help him cut a record for his mother and subsequently turns the world on its ear. Buried beneath this legend is a vibrant collection that still astonishes.
Backed by master picker Scotty Moore and double-bassist Bill Black, Presley dynamically fuses hillbilly country and rhythm & blues--most notably on tracks like his recasting of Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in rollicking 4/4 time or Arthur Crudup's blues classic "That's All Right", here turned into a rockabilly rave-up--with an exhuberance that suggests it is all a happy accident. Elvis's voice reveals a remarkable versatility alternating between an emotive rasp ("Mystery Train") to a spry croon ("I Forgot to Remember to Forget") and on some tracks--like the reverby "You're a Heartbreaker"--evoking an alien stranded on planet Earth. Raw and magnetic, THE SUN SESSIONS remains Presley's definitive statement as it bottles his giant charisma years before stardom dulled its edge. minimize