Music publishing fiascos, creative frustrations, and Elvis Presley’s scrapped 1977 Nashville session

Forty-one-year-old Elvis Presley radiates happiness as he leans down from the stage of the Omni Coliseum to accept gifts from the 17,000-strong crowd on December 30, 1976, in Atlanta, Georgia. The “Promised Land” rocker had shed significant weight since his abysmally-reviewed tours earlier that summer, sporting the white Arabian jumpsuit for the first time since 1974. The impending New Year seemingly foretold that Presley was back with a vengeance, but his opiate addiction, depression, diminishing health, and inability to stop catering to a girlfriend half his age would overtake him eight months later in a lonely Memphis mansion. Photography by Keith Alverson / Restoration by Matt Ashton / For Elvis CD Collectors Forum

An exclusive interview summit with Elvis Presley’s TCB Band pianist Tony Brown is imperative to unraveling the boy from Tupelo’s latter-day career discontent. Brown, who veered from his origins as a gospel accompanist to kingpin of MCA Nashville, is also the recipient of an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original…