I FOUND MY THRILL - BMG 82876 86676 2
1. Review by Oven Egeland |
Las Vegas, January 27, 1974 DS
1: Also Sprach Zarathustra
2: See See Rider
3: I Got A Woman/Amen
4: Love Me
5: Let Me Be There
6: You've Lost That Loving Feeling
7: Sweet Caroline
8: Love Me Tender
9: Rock Medley
10: Fever (*)
11: Polk Salad Annie
Killing Me Softly (Voice) [edited out]
12: Spanish Eyes
13: Suspicious Minds
14: Introductions
15: I Can't Stop Loving You
16: Help Me
17: American Trilogy
18: Let Me Be There
19: Can't Help Falling In Love/Closing Vamp (**)
20: My Baby Left Me (January 28 MS)
21: Trying To Get To You (January 28 MS)
22: The First Time Ever I Saw You Face (February 1 MS)
23: Blueberry Hill/I Can't Stop Loving You (splice)
(*) Spliced with opening bars of 01.02.74 DS
(**) Closing Vamp spliced with 30.01.74 MS |
1. "Comeback!"
(Review by Oven Egeland)
At last we finally get a soundboard recording from season number 10 in Las Vegas. This period has up till now only been covered by some more or less good sounding audience recordings. FTD has focused mainly on a dinner show from January 27, the second show in this Las Vegas engagement.
The sound quality leaves several things to be desired, the main problem being microphone overload. In general the sound reminds very much about those soundboard recordings from March 1975. Much more so than August/September 1974 soundboards. I also have the impression that the tape runs too fast!
The CD feature cuts from a total of 4 different soundboards, where perhaps the February 1 -both shows- seems to have better quality, although as for the dinner show from February 1 we only have the opening bars on 'Fever', thus making it hard to say anything for certain about the sound quality.
For this season Elvis went back to a lot of his 1970-1972 material. Back in the setlist are 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling', 'Sweet Caroline' and 'Polk Salad Annie' to mention three classic 70's numbers. In addition Elvis added three new songs, namely 'Let Me Be There', 'Help Me' and 'Spanish Eyes'. All fine additions!
The concert begins with an energetic version of 'See See Rider'. Due to the recording setup, Elvis is unfortunately too long back in the mix. This ruins some of the excitement! 'I Got A Woman/Amen' is short and eh.. to the point. Later these version would double in running time.
After 'Love Me', Elvis sings 'Let Me Be There'. This new Olivia Newton-John song soon became one of this favorites. Elvis even gives it a full reprise later in the show. It is always fun to listen to the first versions of new numbers, they are normally slower. So also with 'Let Me Be There'. However, Elvis goes up on the second verse, like he would do later, typically in 1975. Not on the second version, though!
'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' is a POWERHOUSE! Just as good as some years earlier and a real highlight on this show. On 'Sweet Caroline' Elvis forgets the lyrics however, and repeats the verse again and again.
'Love Me Tender' is performed seriously, always a plus. Late in 1973 Elvis perfectionized the rock medleys. This time it comes with six songs blended into one. A demonstration of how to make different songs sound almost like eachother. I never liked them!
'Fever' - this bass driven song - has Duke Bardwell in focus. The same goes for 'Polk Salad Annie'. That is never preferable, unfortunately!
After 'Polk Salad Annie' Elvis introduces "Voice" and has them to sing 'Killing Me Softly'. However, FTD has once again axed a non-Elvis number. This is the third time (two version of 'My Heavenly Father' by K. Westmoreland has suffered the same destiny). It is a great pity that these songs are not included. No matter what one might think of them, they were indeed a part of the show. They were so because of Elvis' own wish... But ok, the tape has been cut - in a decent manner I might add - and next follows a nice version of 'Spanish Eyes' - sung with S. Nielsen. Then another throwaway version of 'Suspicious Minds' is accomplished. It would soon go out of the setlist for good!
During the introductions, Elvis sings some lines of Charlie Rich's 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World'. Rich was in the audience. 'I Can't Stop Loving You' is a classic Elvis number. Always delivered with humor and energy, this time also. The second ever version of 'Help Me' is actually a bit faster than later versions would be. It works better in this tempo, in my point of view!
'American Trilogy' is still taken seriously, thank God!
Tagged on to the end are three version from other shows. First out is 'My Baby Left Me'. It has Elvis start in a mocking voice, trying to imitate himself some 16 years ago. It's a fun moment! The version is otherwise quite similar to the better known version from Memphis, March 20 later the same year. 'Trying To Get To You' is not a good delivery, however. Elvis forgets the lyrics and looses the timing at one point. 'Trying To Get To You' would be perfectionzed later and stay in Elvis' setlist all the way to his last tour in 1977. Rarely did he ever do a poor version of this song.
'The First Time Ever I Saw You Face' comes from the midnight show on February 1st. The mix on this tape is a lot better than the rest of this CD. It is a very nice version, this time dedicated to Sheila Ryan.
The producer has made a medley which they have called 'I Found My Thrill'-medley. It is taken from audience recordings of February shows, and contains Elvis singing "Well, Well, Well" (I Got A Woman intro)/Blue Moons Of Kentucky and some other one-liners. The rest is three different versions of 'Blueberry Hill' before launching into 'I Can't Stop Loving You'. It is a nice effort, but it seems a bit strange to release such a home-made medley on an official release, perhaps?
It is nice to finally get a soundboard recording from this period of Elvis career. The CD comes in decent sound quality, though far from perfect. It reminds much of the sound quality found on Big Boss Man, though not completely at the same level. The concert itself features some highlights, 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' certainly among them. However, the total impression is more in the lane "standard delivery" than outstanding. It fits in the CD shelf perfectly as a documentaion, but will probably not be played very often in my CD-player. At the end some words about wrapping. The artwork is rather good, actually. This time you will even find some liner notes.. Hey, there's a novelty!
©
, July 2006 |
Go Back to Follow That Dream
Go Back to BMG news
|