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Vegas Variety, Volume 2

By ElvisNews.com/ Lex, March 03, 2008 | Music
 

To be honest I would never have taken the time to listen to this CD. I knew the shows from this engagement from various sources and in my opinion they are all poor, if not bad.

Design

The design is not bad at all, regarding the subject it has to cover. You can't get much honour with pictures of Elvis in this shape. Gladly most of the pictures are not too sharp. In other words: the booklet is as good as can be with nice additions of memorabilia. The well written liner notes are taking the booklet to an even higher level, although I thought the pointing to other labels was unnecessary.

Content

Well, obviously the Elvis from 1976 (and 1977) is generally not my piece of cake. I have to admit this is by far not the worst show from these years, but I still don't really like it. There's way too much "singing saw" (a.k.a. Sherill Nielsen) in it and Elvis himself is not very concerned, although he is in pretty good humour this show. I think it's a waste of money if the only good songs in a show are Tryin' To Get To You, My Way and Hurt. Okay, the verse of Until Then is fun to have, since it is a rarity and Reconsider Baby is pretty rare too (although it gets screwed).

The first part of the second CD was skipped instantly, since I don't like Katie Westmoreland's rehearsal for Elvis' funeral (sorry, I am not into female voices in general) and I said my thing about the singing saw before.

The bonus tracks - highlights of the engagement - are okay, but nothing more than that. Still to me it is the best part of the 2CD set.

This audience recording doesn't sound bad at all for this kind of recording. Actually you can hear it is Elvis singing and most of the instruments sound okay too.

Conclusion

I was able to sit through this 2CD set (neglecting the first 3 tracks of the 2nd CD) and that is more than I expected.

Tracklisting

Disc 1

01) 01:12 Also Sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss)
02) 03:31 See See Rider (traditional)
03) 08:52 I Got A Woman / Amen (Ray Charles) / (traditional)
04) 03:15 Love Me (Leiber / Stoller)
05) 02:51 Trying To Get To You (Singleton / McCoy)
06) 04:10 O Sole Mio / It's Now Or Never (Schroeder / Gold)
07) 01:51 Jailhouse Rock (Leiber / Stoller)
08) 02:51 Until Then (Stuart Hamblen)
09) 03:15 Blue Christmas (Hayes / Johnson)
10) 04:15 Softly As I Leave You (deVita / Shaper)
11) 02:38 Are You Lonesome Tonight ? (Turk / Handman)
12) 00:49 Introduction of the Presley Family (traditional)
13) 04:02 My Way (Anka / Francois / Revaux)
14) 02:44 Band Introductions (traditional)
15) 01:53 Early Morning Rain (Gordon Lightfoot)
16) 00:50 What'd I Say (Ray Charles)
17) 07:19 Johnny B. Goode & Band Soli (Berry)
18) 03:08 Love Letters (Heyman / Young)
19) 00:55 School Days (Chuck Berry)
20) 01:21 Introductions of Celebrities (traditional)
21) 02:08 Hurt (Crane / Jacobs)

Disc 2

01) 04:34 My Heavenly Father (traditional)
02) 02:44 Danny Boy (Weatherly)
03) 03:10 Walk With Me (traditional)
04) 00:23 Reconsider Baby -false start (Fulsom)
05) 02:44 Reconsider Baby (Fulsom)
06) 01:45 Can't Help Falling In Love (Weiss / Peretti / Creatore)
07) 00:41 Closing Vamp (Traditional)
08) 05:44 I Just Can't Help Believin' (B.j. thomas)
09) 02:48 Fairytale (Anita & Bonnie Pointer)
10) 10:27 Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond)
11) 03:08 You Better Run / Rock My Sould (traditional / traditional)
12) 04:16 How Great Thou Art (Stuart Hine)
13) 03:18 Steamroller Blues (James Taylor)
14) 02:06 Little Sister (Pomus / Shuman)
15) 04:42 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Paul Simon)

Dorulet wrote on March 03, 2008
Am i crazy, or do i see a Sweet Caroline which lasts over 10 minutes ?!?!?! LOL... i must be crazy.
Steve V wrote on March 04, 2008
These shows are torture for me perosnally to listen to.
EspenK wrote on March 04, 2008
"Katie Westmoreland's rehearsal for Elvis' funeral" - haha, wonderful :) And I agree, gospel without Elvis is just... Tacky!
Marten wrote on March 04, 2008
"(sorry, I am not into female voices in general)". That's your loss, but a really weird statement/ opinion.
Lex wrote on March 04, 2008
Why is that weird? Of course there are some exceptions (Aretha Franklin, Shirley Bassey to name a few)... but I guess it's the high pitched stuff that doesn't attrack me (hence my feelings for the singing saw). And for your information: I don't regard it as a loss at all.
Marten wrote on March 04, 2008
Maybe I missunderstood you Lex, but it sounded as if you didn't listen to female artists only because they are female. But you obviously do.
You Dont Know Me wrote on March 11, 2008
Sweet Caroline track last for so long because ALL the lengthy pre-song dialogue is included as well.The CD is a worthy addition but the bonus tracks vary CONSIDERABLY in their sound quality. the main show actually isn't to bad at all to listen too. Best feature of the whole CD was the fantastic booklet crammed with Elvis 1976 memerobelia and photos from the show. The booklet simply couldn't have been done any better!
Greg Nolan wrote on March 21, 2008
I agree: the quality of the booklet is undeniable and on par with the big boys of the import world. I got this recently via a swap and haven't had time to spend enough time with it but gave it one listen and did enjoy it. I had to listen at low volume but thought it was a decent audience recording. It's hardly "essential" but for hard core fans, the booklet alone puts it over the top. With all due respect to Steve V, since you're pretty much on record against anything after "Aloha" (and that Long Island show you saw in '75), it's hard to take your criticism too seriously.