There is the video presentation of the release: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUtyUm2Dk3s
Notes on versions and takes numbering
As with so many things connected with Jerry Lee Lewis, when it comes to compiling a discography, the usual rules can’t readily be applied. There are, of course, few neatly annotated labels identifying the contents of each tape box as ‘take one’ et seq; nor, in most instances, has any other formal identification, be it written or otherwise, been found of all the many recordings discovered in the vaults. What compounds the difficulty in the case of Lewis’s work, when compared to those of his contemporaries at Sun Records, is that Jerry Lee would return to the same material on different occasions across the weeks, months and years, in so doing blurring the distinction between what are traditionally thought of as ‘takes’ and /or ‘versions’ of particular titles.
Consequently, in order that a coherent presentation of all of Lewis’s work that has survived in Sun tape boxes can be achieved, a unique system of identifying specific performances has been devised. It will be understood that the individual ‘tags’ ascribed to specific tapes will not necessarily coincide with the identities given in previously published discographies to the same recordings; this is inevitable in cases such as Little Green Valley, where the previous ledger of three takes proved to be only one-third of what is now being made available.
Individual tracks have thus been identified according to the following principles:
- If there is no evidence of a song having been recorded more than once, i.e. all that is available is one tape of a unique performance of a specific song, then no ‘take’ number is indicated after the title concerned, e.g. Born To Lose
- If a particular song was recorded at two or more distinct sessions, but there is only one known take from an individual session, then the version number is indicated without indicating a specific take, e.g. Crazy Arms (1) and Crazy Arms (2)
- If a song was recorded at a single session only but there are multiple surviving takes, then the individual takes have been numbered sequentially based on the chronology of recording, using a ‘take sequential number’. However, these numbers are not necessarily the actual ‘take number’ representative of all that was performed during the session concerned, because some takes have been lost or erased. Conversely, in some instances, several takes that amount to no more than ‘false starts’ have been presented together as one CD track and, thus, have been ascribed a single ‘take sequential number’, e.g. Deep Elem Blues (1), Deep Elem Blues (2).
- If a song was recorded on different occasions and there were several takes at a particular session, then the individual session is identified by the version number, followed by the ‘take sequential number’, e.g. It’ll Be Me (1.1), It’ll Be Me (1.2), It’ll Be Me (2.2) (3 false starts)
In the few cases when the actual take number, as assigned by the engineers at a session, is actually known, then this is clearly stated in the description of the track, e.g. As Long As I Live (6) (slate and take 5).
Annotation last modified on 2017-02-28 13:21 UTC.