TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS: The Elvis Forum

Here a few cd's from my collection.
These, as the cd's from Fort Baxter were a sensation at the time.
I think BILKO was there sooner as Fort Baxter, but I'm not sure anymore.
See the pictures for the contents.

If someone wants to command on these cd's please do.

BILKO CD 1591
STAX TRAX





BILKO CD 1592
Yesterday/Today





BILKO CD 1593
Lost On Tour - The Sequel





BILKO CD 1594
The Request Box Shows





BILKO CD 1595
More Pure Elvis - The Lost Album





BILKO CD 1596
The Other Side Of Memphis

BILKO 1800
American Crown Jewels






Were there more on the BILKO label ?
I'm not sure....

Is there someone who can tell something on the history of this label ?

yes there is... but not now...everybody who was involved
is still walking this planet... Some stories should stay in the
closet...

My favorite Bilko releases were the There Always Me Volumes - FTD has released a lot of these takes but still lovely sets.

A great collection released by Bilko; the tracks on CD More Pure Elvis have the wrong speed but it stays a great release.


colonel snow

I totally forgot about these great cd's. A few years ago I sold mine.

That's a shame. I still have mine and play them every now and then. They were the first Elvis boots I got in 1997 so they are sentimental to me.

Yeah same here and like you i still give em play,especially American crown jewels gotta be along with I got stung two of the best boots ever! not counting some of the recent box sets!

I still miss the Bilko's that started the Bootleg CD Age: The Hollywood Sessions and Hot & Tight. Boy what was I exited when I got those at the time (1988). I am on holiday right now but when Returned I will make scans available. When checking my collection I saw these were on the Flashback label.

wow this is a great thread and board to have the KING of boots on here talking about his great releases over the years. I can still remember back in 90 when i got a little b/w advert for a cd from 75 recorded from the soundesk and the title - JUST PRETEND , it was and will always be my fave boot cd ever. This new label FORT BAXTER was rolling out some great , and i mean great releases , this was a fans dream come true , to have an ELVIS show in such great quality , instead of having to listen to those bad tapes that you orderd from a guy in arkansas and all you heard was hiss and had tape slack.

As the years go by i appreciate more and more that i lived to hear these and have them in my collection , i long for the days of BILKO and FORT BAXTER releases and something great to be unearthed and put on shiny by these labels - a reserection maybe? it would be great , thanks for all the great memories and hours of listening pleasure , just another fan of the label that started it all.

HA! How nice to read your comments in this section! Ive done some stories on the old days
for the Vinyl boot book... some background information and fun stories on how it all
began... back in 80-81, after Vic Colonna & Paul Dowling got kicked off the map by the
FBI... Kempo Dick, one of the publishers, is keeping all informed on when this book
release will see the light of day. Later this summer, If I remember correctly?!

I can't wait for this book. Ger, do you know offhand how hard it was for the producers to move from vinyl to CD?

MR RIJFF [they call u mista when u have the midas touch] , i'm one devoted fan of yours , also have 3 books of yours , i believe all was kool then , when all those boots were comming out on a semi regular basis , you really looked forward to gettin that package from across the pond , and popin in that shiny disc and getting imersed in the tracks - this was a great time for ELVIS boot collectors.

I just love my first and fave cd - JUST PRETEND , it;s one hell of a performance of some real great versions of the title track , i loved the insert and how it read , that you may like listening to a concert recorded ar , but not this cat [lol] and the promise that there was more in the can , only made you thankful that you were still breathing and on the way to the post to pay for your next hit of FORT BAXTER 's latest release. From then on i kept my dealer busy and rollin in it- i loved the incluison later on of the tape boxes [a real fans dream] whatever bmg was releasing on disc at the time was irrelevant to me and many ELVIS addicts , we had a new collectors label and in my opinon the best -FORT BAXTER, BILKO, 2001 and it was a sad day to see them go , i do pray that they will be ressereected in the years to come, i sure miss em something awful!


So MR RIJFF , may i ask that we see the tape that was used for the just pretend cd - the curiosity has bin killing me for years. Was it taped on reel to reel or a cassette tape? I look so forward to the upcomming book -as many other fans do , and i wish you and the contributors many , many years of health and prosperity , to publish some more great books and most importantly cd's - making us ELVIS fans happy is not easy , i understand , but i believe you got it right from the start.

the tape used for Just Pretend?
An original reel to reel on a plastic spin, first generation.
Black front, white back with songtitles and date typed on an
a white sheet. Probably by Joan Deary.
The reel and tape box were those from the night it was recorded.
Can't show it. It went to a collector, many years after the cd was made.
And, sorry, I didn't photograph the piece before it went out...
The rarity had worn off by then...
Several Baxter titles originated from authentic reel to reels, ( about 4 or 5)
while most came from Dat tapes or cassettes.

thanks for the info , i remember when the colonel sold his collection to E.P.E. i saw a segment on entertainment tonight , where it showed some reel to reels on a shelf marked in magnetic labels. Was this truly from the colonels stash MR RIJFF. Of all your releases what is your fave and why?

give me a day or two, to come up with my favourite title, and why.
A bit of nostalgia and history, okay?

There was a list, once, of what was handed over by Parker to The Estate...
Anybody??

i remember when i bought a copy of the ELVIS and colonel collection booklet , it was a total let down when i got it as it was filled with a couple of pages of colonels elephant collection , belt buckle some photos of colonel and a nice shot of E.P. arriving in phoenix in 70 i believe, but no real details about film , unreleasd audio tapes etc.. I look forward to your list of faves.

Take your pick!
A look in my basement...or was it the Indy RCA Vaults?
Can't remember for sure anymore?

Story on my fave boot later, when inspired to do the the job.

aaaaaaahhhh i can smell the dust from here. How very lucky you and ernst were to go over these releases , and even luckier were we the fans , that you shared some of these tapes over the years. One hopes and wonders if you will sahre more- no ELVIS PRESLEY fan can ever have enough. and maybe , just maybe you can drop some hints as to what you have or is yet to be released.

Don't want to spoil the party, amigo... But I have nothing left.
Not one snippet of rare audio. You have to rely on the Venus
label for the goodies nowdays. My work is done. Except here
on Monkey...

Here is a GREAT BILKO CD, and back in the day they just didn't come any better than this...
It was (and still is) a BILKO REVELATION with a design nod and a wink to 'LIFE' magazine.

When I was in Little Rock some years ago I just had to go and find the building where this was recorded, I bet Ernie Bilko doesn't realise just how much he influenced us all with his releases.

Here's another BILKO release (notice I didn't say great?).

It ain't no LITTLE ROCK but was more than welcome at the time, thanks Ernie.

I also have two more not mentined here:
Bilko 5100 - ELECTRYFYING ELVIS (sounds painful for him)
Bilko 1900 - GIRL HAPPY AT THE WORLDS FAIR

Can't be bothered to dig 'em out and scan 'em though.

There were also another couple of GREAT labels back in the day titled '2001' and 'Southern Style'.

no need to bother, bro, Im getting enough attention here.
elect RYF ying...?! Kool.

i sure appreciated all the releases at the time , and i still do . Again i can't tell ya how great it was to get news that there was a label named FORT BAXTER and the first cd was titled just pretend and contained the december 13 75 show [no big deal ] taken directly from the soundboard[what the hell , am i dreaming???] it was is and remains my first and favorite baby.

I can only say A million of a hundred thanks to you MR RIJFF for pleasing so many fans , especially me , it was with one release after the other that i got back into the great game of bootleg collecting. It is a sincere HONOUR to talk to the master on this great forum. I hope to learn more about this great label and the greta man behind it , i 'm also looking for a large enough logo i can use for the iron on t shirts i want to make.

Great boots and all of them in my collection

The first boot I ever bought was 'The Other Side Of Memphis'. I went to Amsterdam (Holland) to a fantastic shop called 'Sound Of The Fifties', long since closed sadly enough. When I bought the cd I also for the first time bought the great magazine 'Elvis The Man And His Music' and have been doing so ever since. The excitement of going to the shop for new boots and bringing them back home to play was great. The journey back home always seemed to take for ages. The Fort Baxter release 'Just Pretend' really blew me away, that was so cool. I still think it is amazing how lucky we as fans are that so many live shows have been recorded and that they surfaced at the start of the nineties. 'American Crown Juwels' is still a big favourite of mine and I remember thinking that is seemed there was no stopping to boots bringing us all this great stuff. Labels like Baxter and Bilko really did a lot of good for the fans! And to be honest: I miss releases on those labels. For many years they were the trusted label that would every now and then deliver the goodies. I still treasure the cd's very much.