The undubbed masters on Our Memories Of Elvis weren't really the pure undubbed masters. They
were the fully overdubbed or regular masters but
with certain instruments and backing vocal channels
removed or stripped down.
An edited (2:10) version of 'Green, Green Grass
Of Home', with omitted intro and verse ("The
old house, is still standing, though the paint
is cracked and dry..." to "It's good
to touch the green, green grass of home..."),
was released in 1987 on the BMG Ariola release
The Definitive Country Album.
An edited (2:00) version of 'And I Love You
So', with omitted last two verses ("And
you love me too, your thoughts are just for me..."
to "All but love is dead, this is my belief..."),
was released in 1987 on the BMG Ariola release The Definitive Love Album.
The Venus bootleg Christmas Today has what is listed
as "FS, Take 2" (track 6) of 'I Can
Help', but in my opinion this is Take 1 too,
as you can hear Felton say at the start "Okay,
we're rolling, this'll be one", and then
there is a false start and a brief rehearsal.
We then get Take 2 consisting of two false starts
and a complete take, and which strangely also
includes some later overdubs, meaning this isn't
the pure undubbed master but a stripped down version
of the master as was done with the songs on Our
Memories Of Elvis. Also during this track (track
6) on Christmas Today at the 19 second
mark you can hear tape cuts that shouldn't be
there. They are identical to what can be heard
at the 3 second mark of track 14 before Take 4
of 'Green, Green Grass Of Home'. Very strange! This exact same edit of 'I Can Help' can also be found on the promo CD - Unedited Masters - The Next Generation, which accompanies the book/DVD release Tearing 'Em Up, also by Venus.
An artificially extended (4:20) version of 'I
Can Help' can be found on the 1983 UK Maxi
single RCAP 369 (PB 60125).
Duke Bardwell's bass parts were removed, and
re-done by Norbert Putnam (Mike Leech - 'I Can
Help') on April
8.
Backup vocal overdubs (April 9) were removed
from 'I Can Help' before release.
By taking out two of the four channels from the rare Quadraphonic LP of Elvis Today is how the "previously unreleased and undubbed versions" were created on the bootleg Yesterday / Today (Bilko).
In March of 2007, Sony decided to go through all of Elvis' masters. They retransferred everything and remastered all tracks including repairing as many clicks, pops, bad edits and dropouts as they could. They have used these newly mastered recordings on their new releases since 2007 including budget soundtracks, Legacy releases, the 30 disc Complete Elvis Presley Masters collection and the Franklin Mint package.
Thanks to Adrian V Stokes regarding the edited
versions of songs on the BMG Ariola set of Definitive albums.