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December 14 / 15 1973
(+ means you need both    ~ means same material    °° means stereo or binaural    ° means mono)
(SFS = Short False Start | FS = False Start | LFS or BD (Breakdown) = Long False Start | PB (Playback) or Complete = Complete Take)

Stax Studio - Memphis, Tennessee
Producer: Felton Jarvis
Engineers: Mike Moran / Dick Baxter
(9.00pm - 12.00am / 1.00am - 3.00am)

Musicians:   Backup Vocals:
Guitar: James Burton JD Sumner & The Stamps: Bill Baize; Ed Enoch; David Rowland
Guitar: Charlie Hodge Voice : Donnie Sumner; Sherrill Nielsen; Tim Baty; Per Eric "Pete" Hallin
Guitar: Johnny Christopher Mary Holladay; Susan Pilkington; Kathy Westmoreland; Mary 'Jeanie'
Greene
Piano / Organ: David Briggs  
Bass: Norbert Putnam  
Drums: Ronnie Tutt  

Talk About The Good Times
CPA5 1628
  December 14 / 15 1973 (Fri / Sat)
Take 1 LFS 1:00   Good Times (FTD)°°
Take 2 LFS 0:41 "The Lord's Prayer" Good Times (FTD)°°
Take 3 Complete 3:16   Good Times (FTD)°°+Essential Elvis Volume 5°°+Elvis At Stax 1°°
("Farther Along" & "Wasted Years" - different mixes)
Take 4 (M) 2:55 Unedited undubbed master Good Times (FTD)°°~By Special Request - Fr. Louisiana to Tennessee°
~Tiger Man - An Alt. Anthology Vol. 2° (backing vocals - faded)
+Memphis 3°° (remixed - no backing vocals)
         
Overdub (M) 2:58 Backup v.o's on January 2 1974
Unedited master
Unedited Masters - Stax 1973 (Venus)°°
Faded M 2:25 Master faded Comp. Elvis Presley Masters 25 (Sony)°°~Country Legend (Franklin Mint
Comp. Masters Collection 18)°°~Good Times (FTD)°°~70s Box 4°°~Elvis
At Stax 3°°+Good Times°° (20 Bit - too slow - faded) (different mixes)

We Had It All
  December 14 / 15 1973 (Fri / Sat)
Rehearsal     (abandoned)  

Notes

Elvis can be heard singing excerpts of 'Farther Along' and 'Wasted Years' before Take 3 of 'Talk About The Good Times' on Essential Elvis Volume 5 and Elvis At Stax. 'Farther Along' is edited in from Take 3 of 'Loving Arms' (December 13) and 'Wasted Years' is edited in from Take 9 of 'I've Got A Thing About You Baby' (July 22).

'Talk About The Good Times' was faded for release by RCA. The complete unedited undubbed master can be found on FTD's Good Times classic album release and the complete unedited overdubbed master can be found on the Venus bootleg release Unedited Masters - Stax 1973.

'Talk About The Good Times' was remixed when used on the 70s Box.

Although it is the best source with regard to sound quality apart from FTD's Good Times classic album, 'Talk About The Good Times' runs approximately 2.4% too slow on the Japanese 20 Bit mastered Good Times release.

During this session they attempted to record the Waylon Jennings hit 'We Had It All' and although they ran through several takes Elvis couldn't get it right, and nothing was put down on tape, or at least kept on tape. However, with two tapes missing from these December sessions, it isn't known what exactly was tried out tonight.

The song was written by Donnie Fritts and Troy Seals; recorded in August 1973 by Troy Seals and released in october 1973 on his album Atlantic SD 7281 Now Presenting Troy Seals.

In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis' masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, Legacy releases, the 30 disc Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection and the Franklin Mint package.

All outtakes and masters used on the Sony 3xCD set Elvis At Stax have been completely remixed and remastered from scratch.

Thanks to Matthew Worsley for pointing out the difference on the Japanese Good Times release.


Music Sheets
Music Sheet
Talk About The Good Times
Talk About The Good times (Thanks to Christopher Brown)
Music Sheet
We Had It All
 (Thanks to Christopher Brown)
 

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