Bear Family 18-CD SUN Box Set (2015)

[thrund]

BF will put out a new box set next year.



Many Thanks to Pierre Pennone for info!
Thomas

[PeterC]

I've known about this for over a year (I was offered the job of sifting through the tapes for outtakes but I recommended someone far more expert than me). There's some few real surprises included!

[rockin532000]

Any hint you would like to share with us?

I just hope we do not have just the 25th alternative take on You Win Again, WLSGO etc. but something really new.

Best Wishes
Joerg

P.S. But I probably buy it anyway

[PeterC]

Well I don't want to reveal too much, but if you're expecting newly discovered songs then you're going to be disappointed... However, I believe there will be around 80 alternate versions that haven't been released before. There's also been extensive research on sessions. For example the so-called "solo session" is in fact two seperate sessions, & 'Lewis Workout' is from a much later date than previously thought.

[PirateHook]

I am so happy & existed so i don't know what to write! I am an SUN Collector (Well it's my main part with Jerry) And i have wondering why BF haven't released new takes since the last Box (I know that there have been some alt takes on different Cd's out before that can not be found on any of the Cd Box sets or Lp's) I also know all the misplaced takes on the Cd-Boxes, and i know that mistakes are easy to do. But there are many of them. Especially on the CD Sun Box 4) 11CD or 12CD when they later added a Bonus CD, that Bonus CD could almost be counted away because of the Duplicate tracks. I don't know how true the Session information is in the Booklets to Sun Box 4. It's good information in the Booklet, but some mistakes to but i don't blame them to much.

[PeterC]

I am so happy & existed so i don't know what to write! I am an SUN Collector (Well it's my main part with Jerry) And i have wondering why BF haven't released new takes since the last Box (I know that there have been some alt takes on different Cd's out before that can not be found on any of the Cd Box sets or Lp's) I also know all the misplaced takes on the Cd-Boxes, and i know that mistakes are easy to do. But there are many of them. Especially on the CD Sun Box 4) 11CD or 12CD when they later added a Bonus CD, that Bonus CD could almost be counted away because of the Duplicate tracks.

Believe me, this box has been researched by real experts & will really be the ultimate SUN box.

[PirateHook]

I don't doubt you Peter so I'll do that! I hope that they have found the tape to the High School Confidential Movie, i have heard that it was not in the SUN can.

I noticed an Comment from Pierre on FB, i found it interesting!

We say complete and I agree that it cannot be guaranteed that in a few years a tape is found out somewhere with a missing take or hopefully a song like "We Three". One thing is sure, it will contain everything issued on any label to date. The project team is made of long time fans who have collected over the last 50 years all Jerry Lee Lewis singles, LPs, EPs, CDs, boxes. We have compared 100s of them, not only with our ears but also with graphical tools on computers which our predecessors missed when they made the Charly "Ultimate" box, resulting in some takes appearing up to 3 times and many omitted. So everything issued so far will be there (including rare cases like a "DJ promo" single having a different take than the commercial release, typical of Shelby Singleton's mess handling his tapes). And on top of those there will be about 80 tracks never ever issued.So it is as "complete" as it can be. We have not even discarted false starts and chats (yes Graham, we followed your advice!). Another point is the re-thinking of the time sequence of recordings, i.e;, sessions. It is known that there is almost no reliable data on date and musicians of Jerry's sessions at 706 Union, i.e., before the move to Madison Ave. A lot of time has been spent trying (I repeat "trying", nothing unfortunaly is factual here) to put songs in the right order and session. This will be argued but the project team has spent a lot of time on this again making comparisons of sound, echo of each instrument etc... in order to get pieces of the puzzle in the right p

[PeterC]

I noticed an Comment from Pierre on FB, i found it interesting!

We say complete and I agree that it cannot be guaranteed that in a few years a tape is found out somewhere with a missing take or hopefully a song like "We Three". One thing is sure, it will contain everything issued on any label to date. The project team is made of long time fans who have collected over the last 50 years all Jerry Lee Lewis singles, LPs, EPs, CDs, boxes. We have compared 100s of them, not only with our ears but also with graphical tools on computers which our predecessors missed when they made the Charly "Ultimate" box, resulting in some takes appearing up to 3 times and many omitted. So everything issued so far will be there (including rare cases like a "DJ promo" single having a different take than the commercial release, typical of Shelby Singleton's mess handling his tapes). And on top of those there will be about 80 tracks never ever issued.So it is as "complete" as it can be. We have not even discarted false starts and chats (yes Graham, we followed your advice!). Another point is the re-thinking of the time sequence of recordings, i.e;, sessions. It is known that there is almost no reliable data on date and musicians of Jerry's sessions at 706 Union, i.e., before the move to Madison Ave. A lot of time has been spent trying (I repeat "trying", nothing unfortunaly is factual here) to put songs in the right order and session. This will be argued but the project team has spent a lot of time on this again making comparisons of sound, echo of each instrument etc... in order to get pieces of the puzzle in the right p

Yesterday I was told much the same thing + more in a long phone conversation with another person involved in the project, namely Andrew McRae (he's the guy I recommended after I turned down the project myself). I believe there's 4 people involved in total.

Things that are NOT included:

Pre-Sun Demos
Million Dollar Quartet
Sessions where Jerry backs others (Carl Perkins, Linda Gail, etc)
Songs that were overdubbed after he left Sun (Allegro LP, I Can't Trust Me, etc)
Live recordings from Sun era (Cal's Corral '59, Paris '63, etc )

[PirateHook]

I have read many of his posts about SUN on this forum, and i haven't found any wrong information. I shouldn't blame him or any other for that. Sometimes it is very easy to mix up SUN takes if you think fast. I have learned the most from the Internet and i know very well that it was harder to know things before the Internet, (I wasn't a Collector then) I know about one more guy involved in this Project (Willem) and he can really think about the Sun Session Recordings, songs that could fit together from Sessions etc...

[Ajarius49]

As team member I can say that our work was very interesting, sometimes even exciting.
But I realized that a "complete Sun box" can never be released. Example: a sole available take of "Billy Boy" was announced on studio tape as take 7. Even if it was the last one, no trace of six previous takes. Obviously erased by thrifty Mr Sam C. Phillips for be used for some later recordings. Lost for ever.
For some titles the count of available takes was even decreased. E.g., "Ramblin' Rose" and "I've Been Twistin'", contrary to previous assertions, are presented each only by two takes (but for the master take of "I've Been Twistin'" spliced from those). The tracks previously considered as alternate takes did turn out to be simply a different edits of known tracks. That was hardly to define.

[Ajarius49]

Any hint you would like to share with us?

I just hope we do not have just the 25th alternative take on You Win Again, WLSGO etc. but something really new.

Best Wishes
Joerg

P.S. But I probably buy it anyway

Hi Joerg,

If you will buy it, even among these alternative takes you will certainly hear "something really new". Of course, many takes are very similar, so it will be very hard to distinguish them, but some others are very original versions having little in common.

Sincerely
Valerik

[PirateHook]

Thank you for the information! Very interesting. I go crazy over Sam Phillips decisions of (Use old Tapes) I can understand the thing if it only was for to fill them out. But not in any other way.

[PeterC]

Thank you for the information! Very interesting. I go crazy over Sam Phillips decisions of (Use old Tapes) I can understand the thing if it only was for to fill them out. But not in any other way.

I wonder if others (Shelby Singleton, Jerry Kennedy, etc) did the same thing at Smash-Mercury? Certainly there's very few known surviving alternate takes. Of course, they could've done much of the working out arrangements without the tapes rolling. Even so, there still should've been far more alternate versions. So let's not just complain about Sam...

[rockin532000]

As written before, I will buy it anyway and as long as the alternate takes are adding something or are really different I am fine with it. Do we know when it will be released in 2015? I could not find anything on the website.
Best Wishes
Joerg

[Ajarius49]

As written before, I will buy it anyway and as long as the alternate takes are adding something or are really different I am fine with it. Do we know when it will be released in 2015? I could not find anything on the website.
Best Wishes
Joerg

I think we can expect the release in summer, at the latest by the 80th birthday of Jerry Lee.