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The 1972 New York Experience

By ElvisNews.com/ Lex, November 10, 2008 | Video

The Phoenix XP Production label released a DVD with “everything regarding Madison Square Garden” on it.

Design

To each his taste, but the cover isn’t my taste for sure. Somehow they managed to ruin a great shot. I prefer the way BMG used it for An Afternoon In The Garden way above this unclear usage. Next to it… the colour purple never was my favourite colour, but after sitting through this release I hate it.

The producers love themselves so much they felt the need to present their logo (indeed a huge ugly thing in purple) every few seconds, at least it felt that way. As if that logo wasn’t enough they display their name through every piece of footage, and on the multi screen material even several times…

The navigation of the DVD itself is okay, but it has the feel of the popular “make your own photo slide show DVD”-software. And the background monologue doesn’t make much sense… overall the background music/sound is strange… sometime fragments of the shows and then someone playing on his electric piano, synthesizer or whatever….

Content

The DVD starts with an uninteresting self promo (how surprising!), a more interesting time frame of 1972 and then something that should have been an extra (before and after restoration). The press conference part starts with the pre conference footage, something we got not so long ago on a Tunzi release too. Then we get the press conference itself twice, once plain and once in multi screen. Well, it is a way to fill a DVD… but I can’t sit out the thing twice…

The opening show with the “wrong” music gives a strange feeling, I understand why they did it, but somehow it doesn’t feel right. I have only two words for the explanation about the footage with the opening riff repeated over and over again: EXTREMELY IRRITATING.
The Saturday afternoon show is great – although the quality is far from good. I regard it as playing the CD with poor footage in the background…
The footage of the evening show is slightly better, but unfortunately that one isn’t complete.
The footage of the closing show is very fragmented, so it doesn’t give real listening pleasure. I would have preferred to watch it with one continuous song behind it, especially since it has not the music of the actual show anyway.
The extras are not really interesting, except the radio spot and the interviews . The slideshow shows some dedicated diligent homework, but I miss the value added.

Conclusion

Egotism spoils what could have been a great product. Watching this DVD gave me the feeling that it was more about Phoenix XP Production than about one Elvis Presley. A missed chance!

For those with a newsserver with a long retention: the DVD has been posted on alt.binaries.multimedia.elvispresley a couple of weeks ago.

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FJE wrote on November 11, 2008
Thanks Lex. You just saved me some hard-earned cash!
Natha wrote on November 11, 2008
Thank you for this review. I appreciate the content and style very much. It gives the impression of the quality of the product to expect. Yes, indeed, you saved me some money too.
Ton Bruins wrote on November 11, 2008
Hot damn I did buy it...and Lex is right...could have saved the money..it's rubbish !
Jesse Garon Presley wrote on November 11, 2008
lex just gives his opinion. it doesn't have to be your opinion. i have read many more reviews about his dvd, and they are not negative. i have this dvd and it's not rubbish at all. i'm glad to have this dvd, another review told me that the footage was great and the other stuff. this review was correct..
Steve V wrote on November 11, 2008
Thanks Lex - this would be irritating to say the least. I can watch my old VHS tapes for the same thing. Once again another blunder by Parker. Elvis' first appearance in NYC and it is not filmed for Elvis On Tour except for the press conference! Luckily I attended these shows.
mature_elvis_fan75 wrote on November 11, 2008
Not filming The new york shows is just one more example of the most misguided misused careers!
Lex wrote on November 12, 2008
Very funny, Jesse Garon P (how original!)... you qualify my review as just my opinion, and somebody elses as being correct... Not that I care about brainless comments like these... but it amuses me that if somebody agrees with you, it is correct... ;-)
benny scott wrote on November 12, 2008
This is indeed a good written review, and not an opinion! I won't buy this. Thanks for letting me save money ! Alaways El.
mature_elvis_fan75 wrote on November 12, 2008
How is a review not someones opinion?
Ciscoking wrote on November 12, 2008
I think this review nails it.....
benny scott wrote on November 12, 2008
I think there is a difference between an opinion and a review.An opinion is rather a very personal matter, a review is meant to be an as much as possible objective reflection and meant for a large amount of interested readers. That's how I see it anyway, but no one has to agree with this statement.Always El.
Jerome-the-third wrote on November 13, 2008
I almost, almost bought this thing but right on time I saw the light and a little voice in my head said: "when having this dvd, how many times will you actually watch some blurry footage?'..
Mark S. wrote on November 13, 2008
Well, I got my copy yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. Lex is right about the logo showing up a LOT though. However this DVD does present all there is of these legendary concerts. Yeah the visual is grainy and blurry, but what more can you expect from 36 years old amateur footage? It does capture some of the excitement. And since it’s very unlikely that 31 years after Elvis’ passing some pro-shot footage will miraculously appear, I am thankful that someone took the time and made effort to put together this presentation. It clearly shows this has been a labour of love, as the producers of this product put a lot of work into restoring and enhancing these old sources. So my advice to all of you would be: don’t expect “Aloha From Hawaii”-quality visually, but if you sit back, relax (have a beer) I am sure most of you will enjoy this DVD.
Ronaldv wrote on November 13, 2008
I got my copy this week, but I'm not disappointed at all! Look at the opening show, june 9 th 1972. Amazing footage, I've never saw this before. The sound is great and the picture quality is not so bad at all. The producers did their very best. I don't think better footage turns up in the future of these legendary shows. Elvis did one of the best shows of his life in the garden. I enjoyed watching this dvd.
Sirbalkan wrote on November 17, 2008
I loved it. Thanks for all effort to make such a nice unique dvd. Elvis deserves every professional thing needed I think. Especially for the lost, unrecorded footages and etc. I don't agree with the review above. It is enjoying, yesss too much logo but who cares? TCB
BBManTwo wrote on November 21, 2008
Too bad that the quality is not good. A truly missed opportunity of the Colonel, not having taped/filmed 2 of those great shows with E in super mood and fine crowd cheering all the time. Also great new jumpsuits in those days. They should have filmed EP while in and arriving in the Big Apple...great footage that would have been man ah man. Does anyone know how much this DVD is priced for and where it is available ??
lray wrote on November 27, 2008
I have had mine now for a few days. I am inbetween. It is not great but it is not terrible either. Worth having? Well sort of. The offical CD sound makes it possible. If I was watching silent or with an audience recording I would say no. But the great sound makes it watchable. And I agree with Ronaldv, the opening show looks the best and pretty clear.
BBManTwo wrote on December 01, 2008
Sure thing: this might be the test to bring out a E on Tour 72 Box with 6 CDs and DVDs....Will it sell well ? Stupid Q as we have been waiting for it for years... but at the same time am wondering where those OVERDUE outtakes are ofDown i/Alley, Charlie's Blues, CWMay, BBMan (my favorite), BLove, Prom Land, Don't think2x (long 8 minutes FANTASTIC version). If they don't want us to buy more boots, then we expect FTD to come out soon with the good stuff. That is a far better approach than forbidding people to buy it from other labels.As I already have this show on other labels I still will buy this Box FTD...great stuff but more stuff should have been added to it, as bonus songs. I could think of Matter of time, MempTN, More, I walk the line, Folsom Blues, Loving you; songs that were sung by our King in those days only once and available on private tapes all over...great renderings of those versions and in good quality, although audience tapes which could be easily restored to make them sound great. Will buy Nevada Nights and look forward to many more FTDs of all those missing studio and movie session outtakes. Can we buy them in 2009 Mr Jorgensen? Do you read those comments of ours? Why not give an interview with lots of your planned released or ideas? And where are the GUITAR MAN and Monkey Buzz OUTTAKES ?? If you lost them...well, why not buy them back from bootleglabels