Rock Legends CD1006
Las Vegas September 4th 1972 dinner show
Track listing
Opening Theme / See See Rider / Johnny B. Goode / Until It's Time For
You To Go / You Don't Have To Say You Love Me / Polk Salad Annie / Elvis Walk And Talks /
What Now My Love / Fever / Love Me / Blue Suede Shoes / Heartbreak Hotel / All Shook Up /
Love Me Tender / Teddy Bear - Don't Be Cruel / Little Sister - Get Back / Hound Dog / I'll
Remember You / Walk That Lonesome Road (By J.D. Summer & The Stamps) / Suspicious
Minds / Band Introductions / For The Good Times / A Big Hunk O' Love / You Gave Me A
Mountain / Can't Help Falling In Love / Closing Vamp. Bonus track: Bosom Of Abraham / You
Better Run from Alexandria March 29th 1977.
Review
This CD is Rock Legends fourth release that contains a very typical show from Elvis' seventh Las Vegas season, may I add that 'typical' doesn't necessarily mean that it's not a good concert .The date on the front cover claims that it was recorded on August 15th 1972 midnight show, which is completely wrong as Elvis acknowledged the British Fan Club that were present in the showroom, some British fans wrote about that show several years ago and mentioned that they've attended concerts from September 1st to the closing night of the 4th, after the midnight show Colonel Parker threw a party for the British fans and some lucky ones were invited upstairs to meet with Elvis.
Some professional footage does exist from that dinner show, last year GoodTimes released a video titled " Elvis - King Of Entertainment " that featured a short footage filmed by KNBC in Las Vegas, that latter footage was aired back then on KNBC and just surprisingly re-appeared on that video, these sequences on the video are from the dinner show of September 4th 1972, for those who can watch it, you'll notice that Elvis is wearing the same attire as featured on the front cover shown above.
This CD contains a soundboard recording and overall the sound quality is quite good but far from the best ones released during the last couple of years, this is also a bit hissy and Rock Legends certainly didn't get a first generation copy from the master tape. From a technical point of view, a better job could had been done as that tape run too fast and I noticed right away when listening to it for the first time that Elvis' voice is on the high pitch side, my CD player has the capability to adjust the speed and that CD needs a three percent pitch reduction before it sounds just right. This is still pretty listenable but should had deserved a bit more work into the studio before releasing it. Now enough technical blah..blah.. and on to the man performance from that night.
Somewhere around August 15th Elvis stopped doing " I Got A Woman " as the second song and replaced it by " Johnny B. Goode ", this was certainly a good idea and the version featured on this CD is rather excellent with some great guitar break by James Burton. As usual " Until It's Time For You To Go " is an excellent rendition, Elvis was in a good mood and it shows as some lyrics were changed, " Her daddy was a lame brain " in " Polk Salad Annie ", " I'll be so sweaty " in " Heartbreak Hotel ", " Time enough for madness " in " For The Good Times ", etc...
The song " What Now My Love " was new for that season and the version here is excellent, which isn't really surprising as I have never heard a bad performance by Elvis of this song, " Little Sister / Get Back " really rocks and that medley has always been a favorite of mine along with the live version of " Big Hunk O' Love ", that latter being also energetic and certainly one of the highlight of his shows while performed in 1972 - 1973.
Overall Elvis gave an excellent show that night and the British fans among others were certainly happy when they left the showroom. This CD is also recommend for all the fans enjoying Elvis ' live performances.
(note: The top quality would be five gold CD's and average three gold CD's)