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San Francisco Bay Blues

November 27, 2011 | Music

14 years after the first release of this show, Audionics delivers a slightly more complete version of Elvis Presley's San Francisco November 28th, 1976 show, as taken from the mixing desk. Elvis first played San Francisco on October 26th, 1957, two shows on one day, near the very end of his final fifties tour. He would not return to the legendary "City by the Bay" until almost exactly 13 years later, on November 13th, 1970, at the legendary Cow Palace. 

Presley made his final two appearances in the same building on November 28 and 29, 1976. Unlike most tour shows earlier in the year, Elvis was in fine form, and the shows were well received by the San Francisco crowd.

For the SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES reissue, Audionics worked directly with a first generation, DAT copy of the original soundboard tape and made some improvements to the audio. It was a painstaking process of repairing and enhancing the original binaural recording, and then the sound was mixed down to genuine stereo.

Originally, the left channel consisted of all vocals and nearly all the instruments, while the right channel featured only piano (Tony Brown) and rhythm guitar (John Wilkinson). To give the listener an idea of how this sounded, four digitally-restored, binaural bonus tracks are included. Unfortunately, the original tape ends during "Hound Dog" (previously unreleased), missing the show's closing tracks "Hawaiian Wedding Song", "Blue Christmas", "That's All Right" and "Can't Help Falling In Love".

SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES is presented in a neat-looking digipack filled with photographs taken during the November 28th Cow Palace concert. Here's your chance to listen to SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES - for the first time as complete as originally recorded.

Tracks:

01. Introduction: Also Sprach Zarathustra - 02. C.C. Rider - 03. I Got A Woman / Amen - 04. Love Me - 05. If You Love Me (Let Me Know) - 06. You Gave Me A Mountain - 07. Jailhouse Rock - 08. It's Now Or Never - 09. All Shook Up - 10. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel - 11. And I Love You So - 12. Fever - 13. America The Beautiful - 14. Polk Salad Annie - 15. Introductions by Elvis of vocalists, band - 16. Early Morning Rain (John Wilkinson) - 17. What I'd Say? (James Burton) - 18. Johnny B. Goode (James Burton) - 19. Drum solo (Ronnie Tutt) - 20. Bass solo (Jerry Scheff) - 21. Piano solo (Tony Brown) - 22. Electric piano solo (David Briggs) - 23. Love Letters - 24. School Day (Joe Guercio Orchestra) - 25. Hurt - 26. Hound Dog (incomplete).
Bonus (binaural):
27. America The Beautiful - 28. Polk Salad Annie - 29. Early Morning Rain (John Wilkinson) - 30. Hurt.

Approx. running time: 72:30  

Source:For CD Collectors Only
ernst blofeld wrote on November 27, 2011
meh...
marco31768 wrote on November 27, 2011
It's a good show!
Tony C wrote on November 27, 2011
A binaural recording cannot be mixed down to "genuine stereo", it can only be mixed to mono or left as it is. A binuaral recording is a two-track recording, as is stereo and one cannot mix down two tracks to two tracks. Something cannot be "slightly more complete", it is either complete or incomplete. What they mean by that statement is that the part of "Hound Dog" captured on tape before it cut out is included this time around, although we do not actually know much is included. I see nothing wrong with bottleggers bottlegging other bootlegs, but I would prefer that they did it without wild claims and major announcements.
You Dont Know Me wrote on November 27, 2011
Sure..if the sound is "GOOD/IMPROVED" and an extra track released ...then Yes i will be getting this release as i am a completist!~
Orion wrote on November 27, 2011
Audionics "tried" the same claim on the CD "High Voltage" and is sounded like sh**. I'm gonna pass on this one. Sorry guys, but I agree with TonyC 100 % "a binaural recording cannot be mixed down to "genuine stereo", it can only be mixed to mono or left as it is."
You Dont Know Me wrote on November 28, 2011
Interesting comments 'Tony C 'and 'Orion'.....time will tell just how good or 'bad' this latest Audionics CD is!! !~
Ciscoking wrote on November 28, 2011
these shows from late fall 1976 all were of high level..this one is no exception. Elvis was in high spirits..and the sparkle was back again....if you have the original you dont need it again..if you missed it, grab it now. if you are intested in a modern upgrade, well, its up nto you. other great shows from this time Eugene Nov 25 and Anaheim tour closing Nov 30 i am sure, we also get a FTD release from Eugene or Anaheim
Orion wrote on November 28, 2011
I agree with Cisco as well. This is quite an enjoyable show. Ginger must have been keeping Elvis a happy fellow at this time. The show is worth having, I'm just disappointed that Audionics is trying the same thing they tried on their release of the fine Birmingham show from the following month. Listening to that one on headphones made my head spin - it was to unbalanced and out of whack. I do appreciate the choice of shows and updated graphics (don't know why, but I really dig the cover art), but I'm not going to take a chance on another re-mixed mess. Hope I'm wrong, but I was VERY dissatisfied with the last show they tried to re-tool as stereo.
Lefty wrote on November 30, 2011
Wild claims about the sound not withstanding, this looks like a pretty good release. The pic on the front cover is a good choice. I really got on the band wagon when FTD claimed that 48 Hours To Memphis was a 16 track stereo mix, only to find out later that, well.....it's not any better than the bootlegged soundboard from years ago! Once in a great while, sound improvements are noticeable, but that seems to be the exception, not the rule. It will be nice to get real opinions once this thing is out there for us to hear.
Jerome wrote on November 30, 2011
As the show is incomplete (Hound Dog) I won't be buying this of course...
Tony C wrote on December 01, 2011
Any release of this material will be incomplete as the original tape cut out during "Hound Dog", the producers of such CDs cannot wave a magic wand and suddenly have the missing parts return. I would rather have the shows presented exactly as they were, even if incomplete. I prefer that to having segments from other shows edited in.
myway wrote on December 20, 2011
I was skeptic to buy this and replace my old titel.I had the dallas 76 show in my mind that audionics released, but I did it and I think that I did a good decision. To me the sound is richer and not as flat as the old titel.Maybe it is abit dull now, but this soundboard do not stand soundwise like as A new kind of rhythm madison for example. But I think that audionics didn't screw it up this time.That's good :-)