The Guitar Man Sessions

Outtakes

Content

Guitar Man (take 1-6) / Guitar Man(take 10) / Guitar Man(take 12 master) / Going Home(take 16-22) / Going Home(take 23-26) / Going Home(master) / Stay Away Joe (take 1, 2) Jam / Stay Away Joe(take 3,4) / Stay Away Joe(take 6-14) / Stay Away Joe(Take 15 master) / US Male (take 1) / Wings Of An Angel (short) / U.S. Male (take 2-12).

Reviews

Released some time ago was the import CD “Guitar man Sessions”. The CD is a re-release of the “Going Home” CD-R (factory made) from a few years back. Is it an improvement?

Design

The design of this CD is stunning, but ... made for another CD it seems. The images inside, presented in a collage style, are from the famous 1969 Memphis Sessions while the songs on this CD were recorded over a year earlier in Studio B in Nashville. The other images are from Elvis’ return to the stage, great, but again no relation to this release.

Content

The producers put lesser effort in the music on the CD itself; it is a straight copy of the previous CD-R release of this material, the same playing time and number of tracks. Listening to the material, we hear no difference in the quality.

As for the content itself; the tape does not run 100% at the correct speed (especially on “Going Home”), but this improves on later takes. The audio quality is good, with now and then a little distortion, the various takes seems to come from various sources.

We get most takes and the master of “Guitar Man”, “Going Home”, “Stay Away” and twelve takes of “U.S. Male”. In between these sessions there is a little “Jam” and a short rendition of “Wings Of An Angel”. The “Guitar Man” and “Going Home” takes are presented in chronological order, the “Stay Away” and “U.S. Male” takes are interrupted by the other titles.

The CD is a good addition to the collection, “Stay Away” has a melody you can’t get rid of easily, nice to hear. But these songs were not everyones favorite. Elvis had a lot of troubles getting "Going Home" on tape, saying “I just don’t know what I can do to improve this, except going home”.

A big minor is that you have to count the tracks yourself. The cover lists “Going Home (takes 16 – 22)” but the takes are presented as single tracks on the CD.

Conclusion

This CD is a good addition to your collection if you don’t have the original CD-R release, or don’t mind having some interesting takes packed in a good looking digi-pack which seems to be designed for another CD.