Elvis - The Man In White Volume 1

Just out on the Lone Star label is the ‘The Man In White volume 1’ with the soundboard recording from the June 15th 1974 afternoon show in Fort Worth.

Design

The cover is a very simple but thereby oh so beautiful one even though the photo is from another year than the recording. It reminds us of the simplicity of the ‘He Walks Besides Me’ album, just Elvis. The booklet contains no additional information on the concert or the recording, just the announcement of volume 2 with the Huntsville September 6, 1976 show.

Content

There were probably some problems with the tape of this release since we fall into the opening drums of ‘C.C. Rider’ which sound a little distorted. The 2001 theme is missing but the producers probably wanted to be as complete as possible and still have a good sound. Apart from the missing theme the show is complete.

The show itself is a standard 1974 show with a standard set, although ‘Big Boss man’ is almost at the end of the show this time. Elvis seems to be in a good mood and makes some jokes about the Peacock suit he’s wearing pretending he’s the NBC Mascot. He’s probably very busy on stage since he has to get his breath back several times. Especially during ‘Polk Salad Annie’ you can hear this since the second half of the song is almost an instrumental version in which Elvis and The Sweet Inspiration both do some background voices. Or it was because he was going wild on the stage, after the song he claims to have pulled his right hamstring. During the end of ‘Suspicious Minds’ it seems like hard working Ronnie Tutt is giving it a go, he drums Elvis to the background. He probably thought the band introductions, which came up next, had already started.

You can hear Elvis enjoyed the more dramatic songs since he sound stronger on ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ and ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’. Although on ‘An America Trilogy’ he hasn't got all the power of a few years back.

We’re not sure if the last three songs and the closing vamp are from the same recording / show since the sound quality of these last four tracks is better than the of the previous tracks. Even Elvis' voice sound stronger.

Conclusion

This CD contains a standard show you can enjoy as much as the next show. The sound quality is good and the cover great.