The man who gave the world All Shook Up may now be all cut up, according to a company selling what it claims are two-inch pieces of one of Elvis’s famous songs.
The sale has provoked a row within the music world over what some critics call sacrilege.
A company called Master Tape Collection (MTC) is offering mounted segments of what it says is the first cut of Elvis’s 1954-55 Sun sessions, which included such songs as That’s All Right.
MTC’s president, Michael Esposito, says the tape recording, which was bought at an auction after being found in a Tennessee warehouse 12 years ago, has been digitally copied but is now too fragile to play.
”Once we knew what we had, and given the condition it was in, we realised that the process to preserve it intact would, instead, destroy it,” said Esposito, who announced the sale this week in New York.
He said that rather than disintegrate in a museum, it will, hopefully, grace the homes and offices of Elvis devotees.
Two-inch pieces of the tape, the first of which was cut this week, will be mounted on a plaque and sold for $491 (R3 441).
Esposito said the tape had been authenticated by recording experts.
The sale has provoked anger from rock critics and musicologists, who say the tape should be preserved in its entirety. – Guardian Unlimited Â