AMERICA - BMG 88697 34475 2
1. Review by Oven Egeland |
Omaha, April 22 1976
Also Sprach Zarathustra (*)
See See Rider (*)
I Got A Woman/Amen
Love Me
If You Love Me
You Gave Me A Mountain
Trying To Get To You
All Shook Up
Teddy Bear/Don't Be Cruel
Heartbreak Hotel
America
Polk Salad Annie
Introductions
Hurt
Hound Dog [incomplete]
Help Me
How Great Thou Art
Little Darlin'
It's Now Or Never
Funny How Time Slips Away
Can't Help Falling In Love
Burning Love (*)
My Way (*)
(*) Spokane April 27 1976 |
1. ...not so beautiful
(Review by Oven Egeland)
The first ever soundboard from Elvis' tour number 17 was featured on FTD's "America". A nice achievement to release a concert not even close to be already covered by bootleggers. Kudos for that!
There are some audience recordings available from this tour. I have heard two and they are both quite good. My general impression is that Elvis is focused while singing and adequate when he talks to the audience. In Seattle, April 26, he tells a story about an incident that took place during his New Years Eve concert some months earlier. Unlike many other times, Elvis manage to complete the full history without any goofing around or slurring in the words. A relief!
'Also Sprach Zarathustra' and 'See See Rider' comes from Spokane, April 27, while the rest of the CD features the April 22 concert in Omaha. Elvis sings a good version of 'See See Rider' and the soundboard quality of the Spokane tape is quite good. When shifting to Omaha during the opening lines of 'I Got A Woman/Amen' the sound quality regretfully gets less "sparkling". The sonic quality is only average, but even worse; the mix is close to awful. A song like 'If You Love Me' is butchered by over-representation of "The Sweets". Never heard a concert with so much focus on the backup singers...and it is not a good thing. For large parts of the song Elvis' is barely audible.
The overall impression of the show gets colored by this fact. However, keeping the tongue in the right place and focusing hard, it is possible to detect a vocally somewhat good Elvis. 'Trying To Get To You' is delivered with energy, while the quick run-through numbers also gets what they deserve. Elvis' gives a little extra during 'Heartbreak Hotel' A nice delivery!
On 'America' Elvis tries to time lyrics a little bit different than what we are used to. In general he recites more than sings; however it does not work very well.
'Help Me' is often sung to slow for my taste, even so this day. It is close to off-key all the song through. 'Even in 'How Great Thou Art' Elvis has a hang for the recite modus, which gets a little bit messy in my opinion. It is, however, sung with the extreme powerful ending that somehow was first perferctioned during the Las Vegas season in December.
The version of 'It's Now Or Never' is really good, one of the best ever!
All in all the show in Omaha was ok. It would have been nice to have it in a better sound.
Tagged onto the end are even two other tracks from Spokane. 'Burning Love' is a classic spring 1976 version. Not bad at all. Elvis sang 'My Way' best in 1977 in my view. This early 1976 version is ok, nothing more. The sound quality of these tracks and the overall feel based from the Spokane tracks gives the impression that it perhaps would be a wiser choice to release this concert in full?
Since this represents a totally new soundboard from a previously uncovered tour, FTD delivers again.
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, November 2009 |
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