Elvis A Touch Of Gold

On The Elvis Beat: “A Touch Of Gold” is actually platinum

/ TY / 1 Comment

On The Elvis Beat

Today, I want to point you over to an Elvis site I’ve been enjoying for a few years now. Neal Umphred’s Elvis – A Touch Of Gold is one of those factual deep-dive yet personal blogs that I love. Here are just a few of my favorite pieces:

From Graceland To Burbank To Graceland: Covers the 1968 ELVIS (Comeback) special and its aftermath. There’s a wonderful anecdote near the beginning of the post that you must read. Ironically, this same sort of thing happened to me when a couple of months back I read a great post by Neal about Mac Davis and wanted to comment on it. When I scrolled to the comments, I found that I had already responded to it years ago. The same thing has happened to me over on Sheila O’Malley’s blog as well. It’s actually kind of unnerving.

An Alternative “Back In Memphis” Album: The post title explains it, but this isn’t solely an alternate tracklisting. It includes an in-depth look at the original album, first released as one half of the double LP From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis, and why Neal would have released a different album.

Collecting Elvis 78 RPM Singles From The ’50s: Did I mention Neal likes to deep-dive? This fantastic post reveals his methodology around determining the rarity of Elvis’ 78 RPM singles.

Facts And Fallacies About Elvis’ Gold Records Volume 4: Ever wonder why the fourth volume in this series seemed a little different from its predecessors? This post explains it.

Neal has an affinity for using footnotes in his posts, which actually inspired me to try that technique in my recent The Elvis Odyssey series. Neal even sent me some help on one such footnote, which you can read about here. Footnotes are fun, so you’ll probably see more of them here on certain types of posts in the future.

Neal has several other blogs, which you can access via his homepage. He is also the author of multiple record pricing guides, including two focused on Elvis.

A lot of people out there write a lot of things about Elvis. Neal’s words are worth reading.

On The Elvis Beat: From Elvis In Memphis/A Life In 57 Albums/John Walker Ross

/ TY / 4 Comments

Friends,

Thomas Melin over at The Elvis Today Blog continues to post must-read content. After reviewing the new 33 1/3: From Elvis In Memphis book (“From Elvis In Memphis Revisited“), he interviewed the author, Eric Wolfson (“From Elvis In Memphis: The Eric Wolfson Interview [Part 1]“). I enjoyed Thomas’ review so much that I immediately ordered the book. It is now in a very large pile, waiting for me to have time enough at last to read them all.

Howard Jackson is 19 albums deep into a 57 album look at Elvis’ life and times that began back in November with his debut album, Elvis Presley (“Elvis Presley — A Life In 57 Record Albums 1: Elvis Presley“). What I enjoy about Howard’s series is that he intermingles in-depth looks at the albums with personal reflections. The Elvis portion of his site can be found in the Music, Stuff and Elvis section.

Finally, Neal Umphred on his Elvis — A Touch of Gold site provided a worthy tribute to his friend and collaborator John Walker Ross, AKA “Nondisposable Johnny” of The Round Place in the Middle, who passed away last month (“John Walker Ross — Rest in peace, my friend“). While I unfortunately never got to know Nondisposable Johnny personally, I enjoyed reading his blog over the years. He also commented here on The Mystery Train about a dozen times. Back in 2012, I asked readers what Elvis event they would record with an audio time machine. Here is Nondisposable Johnny’s response:

“I want the recorder to be trained on Elvis at the moment when they came and got him out of the theater the night ‘That’s Alright Mama’ was first played on the radio. Love to see his expression at the very first moment when he might have had some inkling that there was a public out there that might actually respond to what was in his head.”

He’ll be missed. I’m praying for his family and friends to have strength and peace.

Blessings,
TY

“My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.”
Psalm 73:26