NEON CITY NIGHTS (MAC RY 58.519) (Released 1992)
1. Review by Ken Jensen
2. Review by Mike Sanders |
Las Vegas, December 10 1975
Also Sprach Zarathustra
See See Rider
Can't Help Falling In Love
When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again
I Got A Woman/Amen
Fairytale
And I Love You So
Trying To Get To You
Polk Salad Annie
Just Pretend
How Great Thou Art
America
Mystery Train/Tiger Man
My Way
Blue Christmas
Can't Help Falling In Love
Closing Vamp
American Trilogy (Lake Tahoe, May 2 1976)
Reconsider Baby (Lake Tahoe, May 7 1976)
I Just Can't Help Believin' (Las Vegas, December 2 1976)
You Better Run/Rock My Soul (Las Vegas, December 7 1976)
That's All Right (Las Vegas, December 11 1976)
Snowbird (Las Vegas, Feb. 19 1971 MS)
Content: 3+ Sound: 1+ Artwork: 2 |
1. Review by Ken Jensen
This CD can be summed up in two words: Pure shit!
The assholes responsible for this remarkably impotent excuse of a compact disc should be beaten to death with the idiotic four-page pamphlet. What is a picture from 1970 doing on the cover of a 1975 concert recording? The sound is terrible, which is to be expected from such a rotten audience recording. Worse is the fact that several songs are merged into one track. The first five tracks have not been separated, so track one is really a medley of ”2001 Theme”, 'See See Rider / Can't Help Falling in Love', 'When my Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again' and 'I Got a Woman / Amen'. Nice going, fuckers! The next track gives us 'Fairytale', 'And I Love You So', and 'Trying to Get to You'. 'Just Pretend' and 'How Great Thou Art' should be two tracks but are not. The show ends with 'America the Beautiful', 'Mystery Train / Tiger Man', 'My Way', 'Blue Christmas', and 'Can’t Help Falling in Love' all jammed into one track.
The bonus tracks can be found elsewhere. There really is no reason to squander money on this CD.
Content, sound, and artwork deserve no more than a 1 on a scale from 1 to 5. And that’s a 1 shared among them, not a 1 for each of them.
© Ken Jensen, Norway, July 2005
 Other reviews by Ken Jensen |
2. Review by Mike Sanders
This CD contains the midnight show at the Las Vegas Hilton on the 10th December 1975. Unfortunately it is not complete, missing 'Love Me', 'Softly As I Leave You', the group introductions and the usual run through of his 50’s hit records. It is from an audience recorded source and in my opinion the sound quality is good, as most of the dialogue can be easily heard and the songs come over very well. The sound captures the echo of the showroom, giving a warm and intimate feel to the occasion.
Elvis is in a good mood this evening and totally committed to his singing. This is in contrast to many occasions where he was in an excellent mood but the songs almost came second to his humorous interaction with his audience.
After the opening 'See See Rider', he immediately starts singing a heartfelt 'Can’t Help Falling in Love', seemingly to test his band, as he starts singing the line "Like a river flows, surely find a key", in a different key adding "Watch them get lost". However the band effortlessly follows him, with his backing singers accompanying him on the final chorus. This turns out to be a wonderfully sincere version at the tempo of the original recording, reminding us of how good this song was and could be when not rushed as the standard concert closer. The band then continue with the joke playing the closing riff until Elvis stops them, to much laughter, saying "I don’t know what happened - it seemed like a good idea at the time". The "Well Well" routine follows but Elvis is not through testing them yet, as he then sings two verses of 'When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again' before announcing "That was just a joke, these people never listen to my records on stage". 'I Got a Woman' then follows without further ado and the show proceeds in a more predictable fashion.
There is an edit before the next song, at a time when 'Love Me' and the 50’s hits would normally be performed. 'Fairytale' then follows and it is a great version. 'And I Love You So' is also very good, with Sherril Neilson being introduced for singing the harmonies, "Really nice Sherril" he says. 'Trying to Get to You' is another good committed version and 'Polk Salad Annie' is a powerhouse performance. After Polk Salad there is another edit where the band intro’s would normally take place. A rarely performed 'Just Pretend' follows, with two false starts, until Elvis is happy with the organ accompaniment. It is yet another wonderful performance and the false starts only serve to emphasise how committed Elvis was to putting on a good performance this evening. 'How Great Thou Art' is performed as a dedication and is a good powerful version. There then follows an edit, where it is quite clear that 'Softly As I Leave You' has been sung, as we hear Elvis introducing Sherril Neilsen for doing the singing during the applause. A sincere version of 'America' is sung next, followed by a spirited 'Mystery Train'.
Then when Elvis would normally close the show, he takes a request for 'My Way', which he informs us he hasn’t done for a while which then involves an interlude as the band struggle to try to find the charts. Elvis even tells the audience "My time is up, but…". He was clearly in the mood for singing. 'My Way' is then attempted after a false start. Unfortunately, later in the song he forgets the lyrics for a few lines relying on Sherril to help him out. However, he still performs a great ending before taking another request for 'Blue Christmas'. A good sincere full version of this is performed, followed by a short speech, during which he informs his audience he is pleased to be back after a 3 month break and thanks the band for their wonderful playing and everybody for their great reception. 'Can’t Help Falling in Love' is then performed for the second time that evening with the lyric change "Wise Men Know When It’s Time To Go…".
This concludes a really good interesting show.
As for the bonus tracks , they are all interesting and presented in varying audience recording sound quality. For me, the most interesting one is 'I Just Can’t Help Believing', which is very clear and performed as a request. Elvis had trouble remembering this song during the concerts recorded for That’s The Way It Is, which he refers to, but he goes on to attempt a full version, even including the instrumental break! It’s ragged, but still fascinating to hear him attempt this song from memory after a seven year break. The other bonus tracks are all worthwhile, with the possible exception of 'Snowbird', where the sound quality really is poor.
A final mention must also be made of the poor editing on this CD. All fifteen tracks (for the show) are only allocated 5 tracks on the CD making it difficult to access an individual song (I think this is what led to Ken Jensen’s comments earlier.) Granted it’s annoying, but at least it doesn’t affect the bonus tracks which all have an individual track listing. It is also a great shame that this concert is incomplete, but even so, don’t let this deter you from seeking this one out. Remember, it’s the content included that counts and this is one of my favourites.
RECOMMENDED
Show rating: 5
Sound quality: 2
Artwork: 4
© Mike Sanders (UK), September 2005
Other reviews by Mike Sanders |
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