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St. Louis Blues

May 20, 2013 | Music

Recorded live in Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri, March 22nd, 1976

Expected soon is new CD entitled ”ST. LOUIS BLUES” (label E.P. Collector, EPC 2013-01) recorded from the audience at the St. Louis, March 22, 1976 tour closing show. It was last Elvis show during his lifetime, reviewed in ”ROLLING STONE” #213. Some of Elvis stable musicians were replaced and the result was surprisingly fresh sound with keyboards more prominent. Among the highlights are ”Let Me Be There” (performed for very last time), ”Steamroller Blues”, ”Polk Salad Annie”, ”Hurt” and ”America (The Beautiful)”. Since the show is rather short, producers decided to add 9 solid bonus tracks from Johnson City, March 19, 1976 show.

This previously unreleased recording was taken from a 1st generation copy of the original audience recorded tape and the sound - though not perfect - is far better than any other known version of this show. The CD is packaged in nicely designed digipak with collection of March 22, 1976 photos.

Tracks:

01. Also Sprach Zarathustra, 02. C. C. Rider, 03. I Got A Woman / Amen, 04. Love Me, 05. Let Me Be There (performed last time) 06. You Gave Me A Mountain, 07. Steamroller Blues 08. All Shook Up, 09. medley: Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel, 10. Heartbreak Hotel, 11. Love Me Tender, 12. Polk Salad Annie, 13. Band Introductions, 14. What'd I Say (James Burton), 15. Drum Solo (Larry Londin), 16. Bass Solo (Jerry Scheff), 17. Piano Solo (Shane Keister), 18. Electric Piano Solo (David Briggs), 19. School Day, 20. And I Love You So, 21. Hurt, 22. Hound Dog, 23. America (The Beautiful), 24. Funny How Time Slips Away, 25. Can't Help Falling In Love, 26. Closing Vamp.

Bonus (Johnson City, March 19, 1976):
27. Love Me, 28. You Gave Me A Mountain, 29. Let Me Be There (with false start), 30. Steamroller Blues, 31. All Shook Up, 32. medley: Teddy Bear / Don't Be Cruel, 33. Heartbreak Hotel, 34. Love Me Tender, 35. Polk Salad Annie (with false start).

Running time: 51:34 (main show) & 28:05 (bonus selections)

Source:For CD Collectors Only
Natha wrote on May 20, 2013
Previously unreleased ... far better than any other known version of this show. Seems a contradiction. Anyway, any intel on the actual content? CiscoKing .>? With these bootlegs one has to be fast in deciding, otherwise one misses out.
Ciscoking wrote on May 20, 2013
I think that I just copy what I wrote on FECC. An interesting release for collectors in any case....we have a CD-R titled A Rendez-Vous In St Louis..so far. A 2 CD-R set consisting of 2 different sources of this show. Source 1 on disc 1 has a running time of 33:58 with the following notes: 2001 Theme missing, C.C. Rider, Heartbreak Hotel, Love Me Tender, Polk Salad Annie and Band Introductions incomplete. Source 2 on disc 2 has a running time of 45:59 with the notes: Polk Salad Annie incomplete, Band Introductions missing. The sound on both isn`t world-shattering...with Elvis being too far away from the recorder, the crowd noise too disturbing and the sound being somehow too dull with some hiss..so this new release is most welcome to any collectors of audience recordings. I also think that the shows from the March tour of 1976 weren`t the worst of the year. If the sound is okay..nothing speaks against this release ..it`s a debut on silver disc and it appears complete from start to finish for the first time.
Ronaldv wrote on May 20, 2013
I don't have both shows. This very short tour was quite good, so I will buy this for sure.
sitdown revamped wrote on May 22, 2013
March 22d 1976. My twelfth Birthday...;-) Same with Elvis in Vegas March 1975. The night he sang You're The Reason I'm Living.
KidGREEDhead wrote on May 23, 2013
Would buy it also, but : Ciscooking warns us that several songs are "incomplete" which turns me off...Also, not that brilliant quality..;audience tape source...probably not that fantastic...? Can people that bought it & listened to it already give us their valuable opinion & comments, please ?? But nevfer mind, this label should not withdraw from bringing us even more shows or concerts that we haven't listened/bought ! Keep on rockin' boys. Wish you lots of success !
Ciscoking wrote on May 23, 2013
Don`t get me wrong..what we will get will be complete and better sounding than the old cdr. It is a newly discovered tape and the show is not bad like almost all of this tour.
You Dont Know Me wrote on May 25, 2013
I'll be getting this one for the more completeness and good sound quality, bonus Johnson City from 19th March is welcome too.