Eternal Flame

The CD 'Eternal Flame' is a release of the 'Lone Star' label and this time it contains a soundboard recording of the concert in South Bend, Indiana on October 20, 1976. It's almost the complete show, only the song 'Funny How Time Slips Away' was edited.

Design

The front cover is a little common. A big picture of Elvis' back, wearing the Flame Suit, with three little pictures of Elvis in action. On the back cover we see Elvis in action during the show again, with the track listing clearly on a white back ground. The 2 page booklet contains other two b/w pictures of Elvis. All pictures are photographed by Len Leech and Bob Heis.

Content

The 12.000 fans that attended the show saw a totally 'new' Elvis. History tells us that Elvis looked far healthier and physically stronger than he had done in his previous tour(s).

Elvis and Linda Thompson's relationship had not been particularly good during the last couple of months. Elvis was always having short relationships with other women. Now that their relationship was about to crack, this was yet another upheaval in Elvis' life. Elvis himself continually created problems of an economic kind through giving away jewelry and cars. And though this wasn't enough - his father had had a new heart attack, and Elvis' problematic colon had stopped functioning properly.

Tour 22 (14th - 27th October 1976) showed that positive things had started happening to Elvis. His colon had suddenly started working again, and his father was better. These ingredients made it possible for Elvis to put down a good tour, also this concert. It is a average set list, but Elvis sounds good although a bit flat. We don't feel the energy and volume in tracks as "You Gave Me A Mountain" and "Steamroller Blues" as we're used to with the exception of "Hurt" on which he tries. Twice actually because he does a reprise. We don't hear real highlights during this show, but we heard many worse shows of Elvis from 1976.

Conclusion

It's a nice show for 1976, which shows us Elvis in a good mood. The sound quality is very good, which makes it worthwhile to have this CD in your collection.