Just before the weekend this CD arrived. It brings an extended version of a classic vinyl bootleg with the dinner show of August 23, 1970. Is it a treat as hoped for?
Design
The fold out sleeve is done in a very tasteful way. It’s very well to read and decorated with memorabilia and live pics of Elvis in his prime. The only minor is that I folded the sleeve open, started to read and found out that I read the second part of the comments of the producer of the original first. In the wallpaper section you can get a good impression of the artwork.
Content
With so many soundboards from this engagement one might say “who needs an audience recording of yet another show”. I for one can answer that question positively. I don’t listen to audience recordings very often anymore, but if I do it’s either the Asheville show or one of the shows from this engagement. Of course jokes and talking is often more or less the same, but at least Elvis did take his music still seriously.
The sound quality is as good as I hoped for. I had a copy of the original album on tape back in the 80s of the previous century and that was already one of the best audience recordings I had during those days. I would certainly put this in a row with Gyrating Asheville and Double Dynamite sound wise, so very good for an audience recording.
Great rockin’versions of Tiger Man, Polk Salad and beautiful versions of I Just Can’t Help Believin’ and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ are amongst my favourite tracks on this silver disc.
Conclusion
A must for die-hard fans, give me an audience recording like this instead of 99% of the 1976/77 soundboard recordings!
Tracks
01. That's All Right 02. I Got A Woman / Ave Maria (excerpt) 03. Tiger Man 04. Monologue 05. Love Me Tender (with false start) 06. I've Lost You 07. I Just Can't Help Believing 08. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 09. Polk Salad Annie 10. Band Introductions 11. Johnny B. Goode 12. Band Introductions 13. The Wonder Of You 14. Heartbreak Hotel (with 2 false starts) 15. One Night (with 2 false starts) 16. All Shook Up (false start only) / Blue Suede Shoes (with false start) / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On / Blue Suede Shoes 17. All Shook Up (false start only) / Hound Dog 18. Bridge Over Troubled Water 19. Suspicious Minds 20. Can't Help Falling In Love.
I second this review 100 %...nothing more to add..
Simply sit back and enjoy the ride!..........if only more AR were like this.??.......thanks for the excellent reveiw Lex and of course you said it all.
The sound has really been improved. I am very pleased with it..the show itself is just pure fun. I justlove these shows from August 1970 and 1975 lol can`t get enough of them..
Great show and good sound!!!
JeanMarie - Approx 100 or so FTDs is too slow? Thats more albums that came out in Elvis' lieftime and its too slow? You are the most comical fan I have ever seen on this forum. Rarely do u make sense and how many times are we going to hear about those 'missing outtakes" that they are holding back on us. Gosh I cant wait to hear take 7 of 'Song Of The Shrimp'. What would you like Ernst to do, make things up so he can get a product out? I think there are TOO MANY FTDs!. Yiu cant have quality when you have so much quantity.
Spot on, Steve, I am in complete agreement. As for the clamour for this 1970 audience recording, I do remember our favourite marketing expert saying that FTD were wrong to release "The Wonder of You" CD because too many 1970 live recordings had already been released. Which is it, too many or too few? It can't be both. It's just about a stupid hatred of Ernst, FTD, Sony, EPE, or anything official. I noticed that whenever there is a delay on release of an FTD CD, we get ranting about bad marketing and how they are letting the fans down, yet the recently announced delay on the MRS Hawaii CD goes with comment!
One hundred FTD's, that's more than one hundred hours of music, yet people complain about FTD not releasing enough cd's. When albums came out in the seventies, I listened to teach one dozens of times. I doubt people who buy every FTD-release listen to them dozens of times - who has the time to listen dozens of times to a hundred cd's?
Martin DJ, ever since the very early sixties I listen to Elvis LPs like you, dozens of time. Every time I enjoyed about each and every one of them. Admitting that some were more thrilling than the other. Now there are so many cds (original, FTD and bootlegs) that I just don't have the time to listen to them all. I have to select, sometimes just checking the day and see if I have a CD of that day (whatever the year). There is absolutely nothing to complain about for me as I vividly recall the days that the search for bootlegs was an adventure on its own (not to forget it was a costly one too). But how thrilled I was - and still am. FTD has given me more insight in the creativity behind the masters and that is fun too.
However, as Steve V rightly observed too much also waters down. These days I am more selective. Every period has it charme and attractiveness and I am grateful to FTD for releasing material life span wise. It is a pity that people seem to enjoy the complaining more than to enjoy the vast legacy. This performance has that early seventies spunk and in good sound, especially sitting in the car! We should appreciate that people took the trouble of taping it and later on releasing this material, though one have to realise that a live show was meant for the thrill of the show itself. And that is fantastic.
Give me the Hillbilly Cat Live over the Adele cd any day, any time.
Just one minor correction with the review. The many shows we have are not soundboards. they are outstanding offical muti-tracked recordings made at the same time the movie, Elvis-That's The Way It Is, was being made.
If I know the oldscudder like I think I do, I think his comment was in jest.
Whatever his intention, dgirl, what IS stated I fully agree with.
I think oldscudder's comment was in jest indeed and I'm a little surprised about that !? In 1970 our man was still performing well, giving good shows, great voice, etc.. Can hardly believe oldscudder turns 1970 down ? Always El.
Benny, I dont think his intent was to put down 1970, rather a poke at about listening to another concert bootleg (when in fact we've had several fine sounding legit releases from this season) as opposed to one of the best selling female albums of all time and winner of 6 grammy awards. An album that is on its way to one of the all time classics by anyone, and an amazing feat for a 21 year old. It may be a fine show but how necessary is it? Its basically the same show we've all heard before in an audience recording! I have the Adele album and I thinks its amazing, the songs so melodic and well written. I can totally see the irony in his post.
dgirl, you're probably right about oldscudder, and the Adele album truly cannot be overlooked of course.Six grammy awards is indeed (very) impressive and deserved I guess. Anyhow, I'll stick to.... Always El.
Benny, To set the record straight 1970 was a good year for The King. My jest was angled toward dgirl who I know for a fact adores Adele & of course me.
Benny On a serious note Adele has one good album to her credit. I feel safe in saying she will never surpass The King. Nobody will. With all my criticizing the 70's he's the # 1 Singer in the Rock era. However not the #1 Rocker. I give that to Gene Vincent because his % singing R&R was greater than Elvis %. Elvis did a lot of movie songs that were light years away from R&R. Having said that had Elvis stuck to R&R then yes I'd consider the #1 R&R singer. I do not consider his 70's concerts R&R but a parody of it. Sorry to say that, but rushed half hearted 1 minute renditions of his hits is not R&R to me.
Hi oldscudder. Absolutely agreed about the R 'n' R part. As for the 70s in general : we all know what happened, so some ( a lot ?)good concerts and some (a lot ?) , let's say "less good". As far as I'm concerned : Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, etc...etc... are all on top of my R'n'R list, but as you wrote : he's still the #1 in that era to me too ! Always El.
Snowplow Floater, a very good analysis. Elvis being the King of Rock 'n' Roll is undisputed for me, yet we have to accept that time changes and he also had to explore other strands. Also it is awkward for a man, let's say of his fifties or sixties to still sing songs as if he is a youngster.
Snowfloater, hence I call Elvis the King of Music for decades now. Even in his days of Rock 'n' Roll he showed how beautiful his voice was, the voice he just developed more and more. Appreciatingly yours
Yes I agree with you both but that develped voice arguably at its best in the 60's recorded some of the worst pap on earth. Thats the shame of it all. To be honest I only like about 50% of Elvis' recordings and maybe even less. I dont care what you call me but its tragic he didnt take a firmer hand in his craft. I also think as good as he was, he was just as lazy.
Steve V, for a start I won't call you anything but a true and loyal fan! Moreover, I agree with you that Elvis should have taken more an active lead. We can only vaguely imagine what would have happened if he had done so. His potential was much more than he used. James Burton was asked about Elvis and he replied that Elvis would definitely still actively sing (had he lived on). Only thing he said which I did not like is that he would most likely focus on gospel. That would be a tough one for me as a fan!
Yeah Natha, I heard that quote before and I sort of agree with you. Still, if it was an album like Tom Jones put out in 2010, it would have been great. Sort of a mix of folk, gospel, & blues. Would have been an Elvis album for the ages.
