'The World Of FTD'

A detailed review by Mike Lodge.

From the outset of when this "Follow That Dream" project/book set was announced, there has been a bit of a passionate discussion - between the pro supporters of this set who seem to have automatically decided that this must be an amazing or even awesome release, I suspect, purely due to who the author is, Elvis recordings specialist Keith Flynn.

Then there are the anti-supporters, myself among them, who whilst recognising the sterling work and effort that the author has done with gaining information on Elvis’ sessions and live shows and putting all these details on the internet, have taken a different view point and concluded (rightly or wrongly) that based on the marketing / advertising blurb and layout shots, that this FTD discography, whilst welcome to go alongside an FTD Collection, is likely to be an over bloated, padded out book-set, that is very expensive.

Some within this anti group have been accused of jealousy or harbouring a vendetta against the author, or having some kind of agenda in place - suggestions have even been made by some within the pro camp that the author should close down his website as some kind of punishment or retribution, or even make the website a fee-paying arrangement but as yet they have not been accused of treason, although I guess anything is possible. So, from my point of view, any criticisms are not about the project itself or the work involved, but how it has been put together and they should be viewed as constructive criticism and not personal attacks on the author.

Finally there are those who are sitting on the fence and waiting for some reviews before committing one way or the other, so maybe this review should be dedicated to them.

I have tried to be as objective as possible in this review – it is not a full in depth review as such – time would simply not permit that and I am sure others will add their own thoughts or spot things over the coming weeks. I do not know the author personally, have never met him and certainly do not have any agenda or vendetta against him, but as we know, when someone reviews anything, there is always an element of personal subjectivity that can creep in.

- So who is the target audience here? Well with the cost and the limited numbers being printed (1,250 as I understand it), the set certainly seems to be aimed at the serious collector who buys virtually everything and in a recent interview, the author stated. “I think the book will appeal to the hard-core FTD collectors, fans of Elvis sessions information, the kind of fan who frequents Elvis discussion boards and fans of Elvis photo books…….Once it sells out that will be it”.

Quite why the more general FTD collectors appear to have been excluded seems strange as I would have thought a similar number who bought the Ultimate Sessions book would have been interested in this set. It could of course be argued that the general FTD Collector would not pay the asking price, but there lies one of the fundamental issues regarding this set. The size and price, but more on that later.

The set itself comes shrink wrapped, unlike its predecessor The Ultimate Sessions, where the wrapping was removed to accommodate a number allocation against each set, which it seems turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Upon removing the shrink wrap, the books like the Ultimate Sessions are housed in a similar slip in container, which whilst very nice, is a little a little flimsy and I am not sure would withstand frequent removal or insertions of the books over a period of time, so perhaps it would be easier to remove them totally, and place the slip container somewhere safe.

Removing the books from the housing reveals a product which oozes quality. If I were to see the set in my local bookshop, without any prior knowledge, I would say “wow” however, in finding out the price, my flexible friend would also say “wow”, but not necessarily for the same reasons.

Volume One starts with a montage of all the sleeves from inception up to September 2016 sorted by category i.e. 5”, 7” Books and Vinyl and sub sorted by release date and the author has decided to effectively mirror those releases by having smaller reproductions for the 5” sleeves and then slightly bigger for the 7” sleeves etc. within each montage. Nice touch I guess, but the montage on the 5” sleeves does make your eyes swirl a bit.

Each volume contains an index as to what is in each book and as you might expect, this is in order of release. Unfortunately, there is no other index, so unless you have a good idea of when each release came out, you might find yourself having to look through all volumes to find the release you want to research. Probably a case of Pot Luck (please excuse the pun). (EIN adds - please see below for links re overall index)

And if you are looking for details on Gold Records Volume 4, you will be out of luck as the author decided to make this project a celebration of the label up to September 2016, and not a celebration of the label during its lifetime, which some have found somewhat mystifying when most expect the label to cease in a couple of years’ time. This will result in the need for a fourth volume to cover the final period and we therefore have to hope that a final volume will see the light of day when that time comes. (EIN Note - please see author Keith Flynn's interview where the book's cut-off date is explained)

There is a nice introduction written by the author regarding the history of the FTD label and its aims from the outset and then a little bit of detail about how the concept for this discography book set came about. At this point, the author states that the original intention was to have a one book discography, but quickly realised that it had to be much more than that. Quite what the early visualization was, I am not sure, but I suspect it was to incorporate reproductions of the sleeves and track listings accompanied with other information and a few photos, like any decent discography book. But going from one book to three is a mighty leap and so along with the requisite sleeve reproductions and the release dates, we also see who mastered and compiled each release, together with a very generous abundance of photos and reviews of each album and FTD book, which has taken the set from around 400 pages to a whopping 1,200 pages.

The author mentions that there was an initial thought about including a list of musicians, but decided against that route, as it was felt that would add an additional page of data to each release. A wise move as I suspect it would have pushed the book-set up to 1400 pages and it is the overall number of pages that has been one of the complaints (if that is the right word) about this book-set.

As mentioned earlier, the overall presentation is top class with good quality silk finished paper used throughout like we have come to expect from Erik Lorentzen's (Elvis Files) publications.

So to the overall contents. Each CD release has front and back sleeve reproductions on one page, together with information on who mastered and compiled the release plus additional information such as track details on the following page. Occasionally, the sleeves are duplicated in a slightly offset manner (Girl Happy and Frankie & Johnny are two examples) so you can see both the original sleeve and a sleeve reprint that has occurred as a comparison (at first I thought it was a printing error, but hey ho!!) and of note is the Viva Las Vegas set which takes up two full pages for the sleeve variations. Note that this CD has been repressed four times (possibly others have too).

Now whilst the sleeve reproductions are very nice, to this reviewer's mind, I must ask why there was a need to have them so big at nearly 150mm (6”) square when they could have easily got away with 100mm (4”) square, without any detriment, especially as the serious collector, to which this set is firmly aimed, will already have the original CDs anyway. Strangely with the size chosen, the reproduced digipak sleeves now appear slightly bigger than the originals. The vinyl releases simply show the front page with data info on a subsequent page, but no reviews, which makes sense, unless you are a vinyl junkie (no insult intended to lovers of vinyl-just a current terminology). The Book Releases, like the Vinyl ones only take up 2 pages with no reviews that I could see.

The detail page shows when the CD or book was released with the track listing underneath, followed by any additional information to correct any original mistakes such as wrong take numbers or missing references used on the sleeve, coupled with some additional session info where appropriate. This I found quite interesting.

Unfortunately, the track numbers are not listed – just the song titles, so when it mentions that a certain song should have been Take X as opposed to Take Y, I found myself having to look through the track listing to try and find the location of the offending data, which seemed more frustrating with a release that has various “takes” of a song but are all over the place. A small niggle I know but…….

Following the data, which might cover two or three pages, and depending on whether the release is a single or double disc, is one review of each release coupled with mainly full page photos or smaller ones which are interspersed within the actual text. Various people have been chosen to write these with the majority coming from the pen of Piers Beagley EIN and these are probably the longer style reviews. The author has written some and I suspect that these are new for the project.

The reviews as a rough guide, cover between four to eight pages including any full page or smaller photos, plus the aforementioned two pages for the sleeves and data. Examples are - Something For Everybody takes 7 pages, GI Blues Vol 2 takes 10 pages, His Hand In Mine takes up 10 pages, whilst Kid Galahad takes up 8 pages, a random selected soundboard release Sold Out takes 8 pages and From Elvis Presley Boulevard takes 14 pages. The average single disc soundtrack takes up 6 or 7 pages, although Speedway takes 9 pages, which whilst being a double disc set, does not have that many outtakes, and as we know, Disc 2 is just a mono variant.

The release that does seem to take the most pages is A Boy from Tupelo with 20 pages, fourteen of them covering reviews and photos. Okay a 3 CD set, but…..

The reviews themselves seem to be very well written although they are not written in the same way that a music paper might review an album – mainly they drill down further and in most cases, especially the outtakes, mention the words that Elvis says between takes and then offer a little analysis and comparison to the master. Like any review, they are subjective so I did not agree with all that was written.

One review that springs to mind, and I have no idea why I homed in on this one, is the Back In Memphis release where the reviewer certainly does not show much initial appreciation for this album and whilst it does not quite live up to its predecessor, the reviewer at one point does seem to compare “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind” with “Old MacDonald”, which does seem rather bizarre, but maybe I missed the point. If the reviewer thinks that some of the tracks on this album are poor, then it was certainly a good job RCA did not include Hey Jude. I’m just glad I already have the album as the review might have put me off totally or certainly would have put the album toward the back of my wants list.

Also, scattered throughout the reviews are an abundance of other information but is probably more important or beneficial to anyone who has not already got the actual release. Under the section for the “Elvis For Everyone” release is a reprint from the FTD Booklet of how the album came about, and this takes up just over a page – two pages if you include the accompanying photo. Okay, two pages is nothing major, but I go back to the need to actually have this included, as it is there for all fans to see within the FTD booklet – target market = serious collector = already know this and have it.

However, I do believe there is a small element of interest within the review sections and I found myself dipping into the comments/reviews and then wanting to get the CD out just to compare thoughts on things like the overall sound and separation. Maybe I will not be alone thinking along those lines too, so the reviews are okay in that respect, but I’m not sure that such in depth reviews are needed – I can play the individual songs and form my own ideas and I will not be using the reviews to build up an opinion on whether I should buy the discussed album – as mentioned, most reviews concentrate on the outtakes rather than the masters.

This brings me onto the inclusion of the photos. Now let me begin by stating that the majority are great, as you would probably expect, although there are only a few that I cannot recall having seen before, although I have not had an opportunity to dissect every page. If you have the Elvis Files books, or you are a photo collector, you probably have them already and if you do not have the books, you have probably got them or seen the majority elsewhere. But I was drawn to a great colour shot from Tickle Me with Elvis and Jocelyn that I cannot recall seeing before.

There appears to be a few quality issues on some of the studio shots - the famed one of Elvis from Loving You with the Teddy Bears seems a little fuzzy or soft and there are a few others that do not seem to be as sharp as I would have expected. The photos that do suffer more, are the ones taken at “live shows”, especially the full-page shots which in general have a soft focus about them and are quite dark, probably because they have not been captured on high end cameras and they have been blown up to fill full pages. Not the fault of the person who took them of course – a fan wanting to capture a moment in time. However, these books are not photo books, so decisions should have been made to remove the lesser quality ones.

With that in mind, I must therefore question the validity of including so many photos, after all this is a Discography Book-set and not an Elvis Files type of book. As an example, under The Jungle Room Sessions release, there are two photos – one half page and the other full page. The half page one shows someone, and I say someone, as the photo shows a person who looks like they are trying to remove their motorbike helmet, but that together with the placement of the arms totally obscures the face – It could be anyone really. The photo on the following page shows Elvis on one of his tri-motor bikes, but because it is a photo taken by a fan with a basic camera and the subject looks like it is moving, the result is quite blurry, once again because of the blow up in size.

So yes, interesting photos, and they would not look out of place in an Elvis Files book, or even a Pictorial Private Moments Photo book, but they are simply not needed here in a Discography Book – they do not add any benefit to the CD release. Moving to the back of Volume One for the “His Hand in Mine” release, that’s the one that has 10 pages devoted to it, the last two full page colour photos are virtually identical – is it a different shirt or a colour saturation issue? Whatever it is, one needed to go.

Concluding then, does this book-set match the advertising hype? Well yes it does in as much as it delivers exactly what it says it will although I still haven’t found too many photos I haven’t seen, but then again, the memory sometimes blurs. It is certainly less clumsy in its approach compared with the Ultimate Sessions book.

Overall, the reviews of the CDs from what I have read are well written and interesting – could they have been scaled back so that they took more of a summary approach as opposed to an in depth one, probably. The general layout is good, but as I said at the outset, the first two pages could have been styled in such a way that by reducing the size of the sleeves, both pages could have fitted onto one page and maybe a point reduction in line spacing would have reduced the number of pages required for the reviews.

So on every CD release, excluding vinyl, and there are 137 of them, if there were two less pages used for reviews section, and a reduction on photos, that would have probably saved around 350/400 pages. I realise that sounds simplistic, but I certainly feel that goal would have been achievable without any real detriment to the discography.

Is it value for money? Well this is a tricky one. It’s value for money if you want to buy exactly what is on offer here i.e. a 1,200-page set crammed with photos, because the price would indeed be favourable. But that is not quite the same thing as value for money on a Discography Book and what should be included against what needn’t be included or has been. Personally, I feel that there are too many photos and if anything needed to go between the reviews and the photos, it would have to be much of the latter, as the reviews could be classed as an integral part of the subject matter.

I can understand why the author felt that one book would not be sufficient, but feel that 3 books with 1,200 pages is not really needed – nice to have but not important – I cannot imagine that with a lesser number of pages, that fans would have been crying out for more pages of photos or reviews, so a two-book set would have been ideal. This would certainly have helped reduce the unit price and with a slightly bigger print run would have allowed more FTD Collectors to buy into the project.

Did the set work for me? Well I did not get any real surprises. I always knew that it would be a quality set and I can honestly recognise the hard work that Keith and everyone else involved has put into this project – anyone who tries to deny that does indeed have some kind of vendetta.

Have I changed my mind about the overall product? No I have not. I still feel that a 25% reduction in the less important content would have been ideal and good value for a set of discography books. Does it tick all the boxes – Yes and No – It certainly does if you are looking for a discography book that is packed with photos and in depth reviews etc., but it would have ticked all the boxes had it been a two-volume set.

Lastly, if you can afford it, without having to think too much about what is in it or should not be in it, then buy it.

This review by Mike Lodge - - - (originally posted on FECC and posted here with his permission)
-Copyright EIN January 2017
EIN Website content © Copyright the Elvis Information Network.

Buy Direct from Elvis Files for €199 = US$214 - including postage. The combined three books weigh 8Kgs, so it is the postage that makes it expensive. Click here to ORDER at The Elvis Files website> www.elvisfiles.no

(PLEASE Note- Your local Elvis dealer MAY have it even cheaper - so do ask around. EIN cannot know exactly what all international dealers are charging)

(PLEASE Note- Your local Elvis dealer MAY have it even cheaper - so do ask around. EIN cannot know exactly what all international dealers are charging)

Click here to Elvis Files
Or if in the UK click here to The Elvis Shop London

- 'Ultimate Elvis' Book Review: 'Ultimate Elvis – The Complete And Definitive Recording Sessions' is a this three-volume, deluxe set that not only comprises all the session information available to date, based on Keith Flynn's incomparable website and includes comprehensive notes on each session, discographies, letters, original sheet music covers plus huge index all included in its 1,800 pages.
The book includes around 3,000 stunning high-quality photographs many of them previously unseen, relating to the time period in question.
The promotional publicity for this three-volume set was very impressive with the original publishing date of August 2014 missed as more photographs were discovered and the content expanded. Finally published in December 2014, Elvis enthusiast Brian Quinn checks out this astounding deluxe package to discover if it is as good as promised.
Go HERE to check out Brian Quinn's review - Now updated with some detailed comments from author Shane Brown and Elvis expert Jordan Ritchie - -
(Book Reviews, Source;BrianQuinn/ElvisInfoNet)

Reviews - by Mike Lodge & Stefan Kock

See Below for our initial "Mini-Review" by Stefan Kock

Below is our initial "Mini-Review" - by Stefan Kock

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