foreword By RON BRANDON
I had just not snooped around your site enough. Love your layout . . . and it all looks great on the large computer screen. Think maybe you even had a couple of photos I had not seen before, although at age 87 there are entire concerts that I don't recall (but my wife reminds me, yep I was there).
In retrospect, I now realize, uniquely, that my career spanned the lifetime of rock & roll, even though in those first few years it had not yet been labeled rock & roll. Purely by accident, I traveled parallel avenues to Elvis.
I was born just a few miles from him in Tupelo, later lived at one time in Memphis, lived only a couple of blocks from the Presleys (when they lived on Lamar Ave), listened to Dewey Phillips nightly on WHBQ (and that's another whole subject), and went to Central High School (a competitor of Elvis' Humes High).
Later in my radio years, I knew both Marty Lacker and George Klein well (from their radio years). I saw Elvis when the group played from the back of a flat-bed truck at the grand opening of the Lamar-Airways Shopping Center, just a couple of blocks from my home, just a block off Lamar Avenue. That, of course, would explain my interest primarily in those early years.
My family was just as poor as Elvis's, so I related on that level as well. I hope you'll continue the story, how I sent the tapes to Elvis, how they were found by Joan Deary (who was dead before I became aware of her end of the story), etc. And how I discovered and followed up on the details only after RCA released the recordings.
FYI, and I've never discussed it with anyone (except my wife, who's heard the story dozens of times) . . . what happened to the tapes? There were three 30-minute reels that I sent copies of to Elvis. One contained the interviews, which were of good quality and are still good on the net today. The other two reels were of the afternoon and evening performances. The afternoon slow was of terrible quality, because (as discussed in the book) of the faulty take-up reel on the old Magnecord machine. The tape of the evening show was ok since I had replaced that reel. Joan Deary found the tapes at Graceland for the Col. and RCA. RCA corrected the problems with the afternoon tape. Memphis Recording Service lip-synched the tape to the video, and that's what you have on the net today.
I've racked my brains a hundred times about what happened to my original tapes. I kept them with me at times as I moved about . . . other times left them with my mom at her home. When RCA released "A Golden Celebration," I immediately thought, "Where are my tapes?" I quickly realized I did not have them with me, and a quick check with mom confirmed she did not have them either. Over the years . . . hundreds of times . . ."Where are the tapes?" My best and only memory. When I left Cincinnati for Atlanta, as a bachelor and with very minimal belongings, I think that I left them with a young lady friend who had an Elvis fan friend, etc. Then I promptly moved and forgot all about it till RCA showed up on my desk in 1978. If that's a true memory, she likely gave the tapes to a friend, and he either sold or lost them. When I was searching back in those years, someone related to me that they had seen an ad offering to sell tapes of the '56 concert recordings. I never could follow the hint further.
If you'd like to have a conversation about those old days, or list my email address if any of your readers have questions . . . no problems. Time is short, at 87, who knows? Of all those involved professionally with the '56 concerts, I now believe that I am likely the only person surviving.
Robert, I particularly admire your layout skills. In doing the layout for the original book, with my very limited computer skills, I drove myself nuts trying to resize pictures, get the layout at the proper place in the text, etc etc etc.
Ron Brandon
email me: n4ah@aol.com
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Elvis In The Closet . . . by Ron Brandon
. . . At Graceland 1976-2009
Elvis had not been a part of my life for a number of years. Sure, I heard, and played his hits on the radio, maybe saw a couple of his movies, read about his exploits in trade magazines. While at WORD Spartanburg, the local RCA rep presented a couple of tickets to Deb and me, and we attended the Elvis concert in Charlotte on March 20, 1976.
Arrival at Charlotte airport on March 20, 1976, for two performance at 2:30 and 8:30 pm in The Coliseum.
Elvis Presley performed two concerts at the Charlotte Coliseum in North Carolina on March 20, 1976, featuring a 2:30 p.m. matinee and an 8:30 p.m. evening show. The shows were part of his 1976 tour. Fans packed the venue, and at least one woman rushed the stage during the performance.
The fact did not escape me that I had last seen Elvis 20 years earlier. I was tremendously impressed with his performance, but there was little to recognize as the same person I had seen way back in Tupelo in 1956. I gave some thought to introducing myself backstage but hesitated, thinking, “He’s busy. He wouldn’t remember.” I regret that I did not make the effort.
A bit more than one year later, August 16, 1977… my friend Courtney Kaufman called with the news. She lived in Memphis and had heard on the radio that “Elvis has died.” As the shock sank in my thoughts swirled in a jumble of confusion, He was only 42. How? Why? Wonder if maybe the rumors? I remembered those long-ago Tupelo days and was sad to hear the news but we were struggling to get Radio Music Report off the ground, and I just didn’t have time to deal with much of anything else. So, it was seven years later before the subject of Elvis resurfaced.
In 1984, as I opened the morning mail, there was a package from RCA containing an LP (long-playing 33 1 rpm record) with a banner promoting Elvis Presley–A Golden Celebration. It proudly announced the release of, The Two Concerts Elvis Gave That Day Issued For The First Time. My heart just about stopped before I could extract the disc from its cover and get it on a turntable to listen. Had someone else made recordings on that day way back in 1956? Curiousity and surprise quickly turned to anger. My memory was that I was the sole possessor of those tapes. How the heck did RCA get them? And without me even knowing about it! But there was the unmistakable voice of WTUP’s Charlie Watts. What the heck?
“Someone has stolen my tapes!” What other explanation could there be? I hadn’t seen the tapes in years and thought I had left them at my Mom’s house. But how could RCA have gotten them? There was no internet in those days, so I picked up the phone and called around to anyone that I thought might have any explanation. No success. In desperation, I called RCA in New York and was connected to someone in the A&R (artists and repertoire) department. I told my story with the final question, “Where did they get a copy of the Elvis tapes?” “They were found in the closet at Graceland after Elvis’ death.” Stunned, I thanked him and hung up. Slowly, ever so slowly . . . the mist cleared, and I recalled sending the copy of my recordings to Elvis.
Years later on the net, I discovered a December 1984 issue of People magazine containing an article “Joan Deary Didn’t Find Any Skeletons In Elvis’ Graceland Closets, Just A Record Bonanza.” The article explained that RCA and Colonel Parker had instructed her to go to Graceland and see what might be found. She discovered 29 reels of tape including “a tape from his triumphant homecoming in Tupelo in 1956.” According to Joan, “The speed varied up and down, and not just slightly. At points, it came to a standstill, and then it would speed up so it would sound like Donald Duck.” Joan speculated that the recordings had been made on a battery-powered machine, and that low batteries had been the cause of all that “wobble” you’ll recall I described in Chapter 2. Wrong!
Here for the first time ever, I will share with you what really caused the problem. It was a broken take-up reel. On those old reel-to-reel recorders, the tape fed from one reel, through the recording and playback heads, and onto the take-up reel. That reel, made of plastic, had a broken spot. And with each revolution the tape would snag, causing it to slow down to an almost stop, and then snap fast-forward. That’s what caused the variations in speed, with the resulting terribly distorted audio. At the time I should have stopped the recording and repaired the reel, but I was inexperienced in such matters, and did not realize the severity of the problem. I didn’t want to miss recording any part of the show and thought that any problem could be corrected later. The recording of the evening show did not have the “wobble” problem, because I had found another take-up reel. Unfortunately, the only video was of the afternoon show.
Next question: Why did Elvis save those 29 reels of tape? Obviously, he could have saved a warehouse full of tapes if he so desired. What was special about those 29 reels? From my research, it seems that most were from the early years of his career. Certainly, there must have been satisfaction from returning to Tupelo and all the acclaim showered on him and his family. But it’s my belief that Elvis saved the Tupelo tapes for only one reason . . . the sound of his mother’s voice.
The interview that WTUP’s Charlie Watts conducted on that September day in 1956 has gone into the history books as the only known recording of the voice of the person that Elvis cherished above all others . . . his mother.
I asked Marty Lacker, one of the prominent members of Elvis’ Memphis Mafia, if he recalled Elvis ever listening to the tape, and he replied that in his presence Elvis never spoke of his mother.
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To my knowledge, of the 29 reels of tape that Deary discovered, only the Tupelo recordings were released by RCA. I communicated this story to RCA and never received a reply. Joan Deary and RCA won a Grammy for Elvis A Golden Celebration.
Once again Elvis slipped from my day-to-day routine. Only many years later in 2009, while searching for something on the net, did I come across a site with information about a video of Elvis’ concerts in Tupelo in 1956. Someone had taken my audio recording of the afternoon concert and lip-synched it to the old MovieTone video. (MovieTone was a service that filmed newsworthy events (but no audio) and sold the video for showing in theaters or on TV). I ordered a copy and it soon arrived. Upon viewing, to say that I was stunned would be an understatement. There, on the video was the WTUP microphone at its precarious angle directly in front of the old horn speaker. And there I am alongside the stage, surrounded by police enjoying their day in the sun.
A Golden Celebration
If you have a copy of one of these, you have something very rare. Joan Deary returned to Tupelo and distributed promotional copies to a select few.
Joan Deary and the "50th Anniversary" Release
Deary was an RCA executive in charge of the Elvis catalog and was responsible for compiling much of his archival material.
A Golden Celebration 1984
Joan Deary compiled the 6-LP box set Elvis Presley - A Golden Celebration, released in 1984 to mark what would have been Elvis' 50th birthday in January 1985.
Content: This set featured the live, albeit raw, audio recordings of the Tupelo 1956 Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show performances.
Legacy: The box set, often associated with the 50th anniversary era of his birth, was reissued on CD in 1998, continuing to preserve that specific 1956 performance.
When I toured the museum at Elvis’ old homeplace in East Tupelo in 1984, my audio of the ‘56 concerts was playing on their sound system. As the music and screams of that long ago event echoed through the building, I couldn’t help but wonder . . . If we had only known.
In later years RCA again released some of my 1956 Tupelo recordings. Once again, I communicated my background story to the label. Once again, no reply. And there I am, in the sunglasses and white shirt alongside the stage, right in the middle of the picture.
Some have queried whether or not Charlie Watts and I might have had a claim against RCA/Sony for using our recordings without permission. Interesting question. Several years ago I asked an attorney friend. He observed that the argument could be made that as the recordings were gifted to Elvis, they became his possession and we would have no claim. He also pointed out that conversely, even though a gift, no rights were granted for commercial purposes. Additionally, we must wonder why Elvis saved the tapes so privately, never revealing them to RCA. Who knows?
On two separate occasions over the years, I communicated all pertinent details to RCA/Sony, and the results of both efforts . . . zip. No reply. Not even a courtesy acknowledgment. I cannot speak for Charlie Watts (RIP), but for me, I do think that at least they credit us with the product.
Listen as Joe Krein interviews RB in 2012 about recording the Tupelo concerts, how they were discovered at Graceland, and ended on the web where you can see and hear them today.